Rogue from X-Men
When I hear the words “X-Men,” I think of Rogue. No, she wasn’t in the original line-up of Professor X’s student body/private militia, and she isn’t the most iconic character in the team (you know full-well who gets that honour, as it’s one so pronounced it coined its own TV Tropes page).
But for me, Rogue embodies what the X-Men are all about as a concept and a symbol better than any other carrier of the x-gene in that ever-growing array of mutants. Her powers and personality make her the quintessential X-Man (or Woman), exemplifying how a mutation can be both a blessing and a curse. She’s capable of absorbing the strength, memories, personality traits, or – in the case of mutants – abilities of others, with just a touch of her hand.
It has the potential to make her one of the most powerful mutants of all, though the downside is that her touch can be fatal to whoever’s on the receiving end. This means she’s entirely without the ability to enjoy physical relationships: no hand-holding, no kisses, no... you get the gist.
I’m not a comic book reader, so I can’t tell you much about her origins. I tried looking it up on Wikipedia, and to be honest, it read like complete gibberish. Apparently, her first appearance was in an Avengers comic? And then in something called Rom the Space Knight? I’ve never even heard of that. She was raised by Mystique, absorbed her flying and superstrength powers from Carol Danvers (yes, that Carol Danvers), spent some time as part of the Brotherhood of Mutants, and embarked on an extremely fraught romantic relationship with fellow team-member Gambit.
Since then, she’s become a permanent fixture of the X-Men franchise, appearing in nearly all of the cartoons and live-action films that have been adapted over the years. Though I have no clear memory of it, I would have been introduced to her through the 1992 – 1997 animated series that I watched as a kid. And though I can’t truthfully called her a “revelation,” since you take everything for granted at that age, she definitely imprinted herself on me.
She flew. She was superstrong. The skunk stripe in her hair? The bomber jacket? The accent? I wanted to be her so badly, I didn’t even care about the whole “you can’t touch people” thing. That moment in the opening credits in which she flips a sentient over her head is still one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen a female character do in a superhero show.
There’s another scene I recall in which the team is attempting to escape a ship through an automatic door. The combined strength of Beast and Wolverine can’t keep it open, but Rogue flies up and holds it above her head until everyone can get out safely. No fuss, no commentary, no embarrassed looks or self-deprecating comments from the menfolk – she just hauls it out of the way and they get on with the job at hand.
These days, half the audience would have an absolute conniption at such a scene.
Adaptations that followed demonstrated the versatility of Rogue as a character: in the Fox live-action movies she was depicted by Anna Paquin as a vulnerable teenage runaway. In X-Men Evolution, she’s reimagined as a Goth girl whose clothing and makeup project the physical barriers between herself and others. In the short-lived Wolverine and the X-Men, she’s (excuse the pun) gone rogue, and infiltrated the Brotherhood in order to get intel on their goings-on.
A southern belle, a moody Goth, a frightened teenager, a double-agent – Rogue could be any and all of these things, and it’s a testament to the strength of her character that each of them works on-screen.
Also notable is that for a long time, her real name went unmentioned in the comics; almost twenty years in fact, until the live-action film in 2000 called her “Marie,” and the comics followed suit by finally revealing her name as “Anna Marie” (though her surname remains a mystery). Then there’s her on-again, off-again romance with Gambit, which surely comprises the most iconic couple in the entire franchise, barring only the whole Jean/Scott/Logan love triangle fiasco.
According to my research, the two of them have finally gotten hitched in the comics and are enjoying married life together. I’ve no idea how they’ve gotten around the whole “I’m an energy vampire who can destroy people with a touch” thing, but given that I shipped them before I even knew what the term meant (heck, before the term had even been invented) this makes me very vicariously happy.
And seeing her again in X-Men ’97, complete with her original voice actress, is a complete mind-melt. For all my issues about reboots and remakes and legacyquels, I have no complaints when properties I enjoyed as a child are brought back and made better. And as ever, Rogue embodies my favourite kind of female character: completely badass exterior, soft and vulnerable on the inside.
From about the age of six, if you asked me who my favourite superhero of all time was, I would say Rogue all the way.
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