ROGUE

ALTERNATE VERSIONS - Page 1

At one point, Loki offered the X-Men and the New Mutants to stay in called Asgard, though he forced to all make the same decision and the ones willing to stay felt that they couldn’t demand from their teammates to abandon Earth. In the alternate reality depicted in What if? (2nd series) #12, Loki allowed them each to chose individually and Rogue accepted, because, for some strange reason, her absorption worked differently in the magical realm and she could touch the Asgardians without any problems. In time, she fell in love with Fandrall of the Warriors Three, and even married him. Having turned her back on Earth, this version of Rogue found true happiness.


 

Another certain Asgardian had a large impact on Rogue’s life in the timeline shown in What if? (2nd series) #66. Back when Mystique and Rogue attempted to bust the rest of the Brotherhood out of prison, only to encounter the Avengers, Rogue was intoxicated by Thor’s power and touched him a bit too long, thus permanently absorbing him. Strangely, although she killed a few Avengers in the battle, she was also able to lift Thor’s hammer, despite the enchantment that allows only someone worthy to do so. Unfamiliar with her new powers, Rogue accidentally killed the rest of the Brotherhood and, in her confused state, she was approached by Loki. He manipulated Rogue into trusting him and started a war in Asgard, in which he wanted her to kill Odin. However, when Rogue came face to face with the Asgardian leader, she saw only grief and loss in his eyes and felt Thor’s personality inside her head reaching out to her. Thor explained to Rogue that he wasn’t just a person, but an example to life by, and that her being able to lift his hammer proved that she too had the responsibility and nobility needed to carry on as Thor’s successor. Rogue listened to the wise words and, after rejecting Loki’s influence, she killed him. She then moved on to become one of the greatest heroes known in this reality: Thor.


In the Age of Apocalypse, the conflicts between humans and mutants started several years earlier than they were supposed to, and soon all North America resembled a huge battleground. Once her mutant powers manifested, Rogue went on the run and for some unknown reason she came into conflict with Polaris, during which she absorbed half of the green-haired mutant’s magnetic abilities. Later on, Mystique brought her to Magneto and she became one of his X-Men. Rogue was present when the Scarlet Witch died and promised to take care of her father, Magneto. Over the years, they grew closer, fell in love and married after Magneto found a way to use his magnetic field to bypass Rogue’s absorption talent. The pair even had a child whom they named Charles, after Magneto’s long dead friend, Charles Xavier. Rogue co-led the X-Men even after the mutants had finally overcome Apocalypse’s rule, and she helped her husband to make the world a better place. She even stood by his side after learning that Magneto had made a deal with the devil, or actually Mr. Sinister, and understood his need to atone for his crime by going to prison.

Things did not go well for Rogue and her family after that. When a Celestial ship arrived on Earth, Weapon X, the reality’s version of Wolverine, went to confront it. He was subsequently imbued with Celestial power and given the task of ensuring evolution continued forward. Weapon Omega, as he was now known, devastated the already fragile world and Rogue’s son Charles was just one of the many innocents personally killed by Omega. The remaining X-Men banded together to oppose him but many of them that stood in his way died. When the X-Force team from the main reality came to the Age of Apocalypse looking for a life seed, they encountered the rag-tag group of X-Men. Rogue aided them in their quest for the seed the team left the reality. By now, only small pockets of humanity remained and when the X-Men learned that they were soon to be wiped out they moved forward a secret plan. Learning that the Scarlet Witch had depowered the world’s mutants in other realities, she was secretly cloned and re-grown in a lab. Rogue and Magneto were furious at discovering this but they eventually saw the logic behind it all. Unfortunately, Weapon Omega found the lab and he killed Rogue when she stood up to him. Magneto briefly mourned the death of his wife before he too was killed by the tyrannical mutant.


The Rogue of the timeline depicted in What if? (2nd series) #98 had a rather similar childhood to the main reality version — she too was taken in by Mystique and Destiny. However, Mystique’s other child, Nightcrawler (real name Michael), also lived in their house, hidden in the attic, for Mystique feared that he would be hunted down for his demonic appearance. While Mystique honestly thought she was protecting him and forbade any interaction between her children, Rogue was furious at Mystique for letting her son grow up in fear. After she absorbed Mystique’s memories and learned how she had almost killed the boy in order to save herself shortly after his birth, Rogue grabbed Nightcrawler and convinced him to escape together. However, Mystique’s just-formed Brotherhood had never seen Michael before and thought him to be an X-Man, trying to infiltrate their mansion and kidnap Rogue. During the battle, Nightcrawler was mortally injured by Pyro’s flames. Right before he died in Rogue’s arms, she kissed him and absorbed the last of his powers in order to escape. However, the absorption became permanent, and not only did Rogue keep the demonic appearance but also the personality of her adoptive brother.


When Earth’s heroes were taken to a distant planet by the Beyonder, to perform in the Secret Wars, it was only because of the scientific mind of Reed Richards that they could return home. However, in the reality shown in What if? (2nd series) #114, Reed died during some battle with the super-villains that had also been taken to the Beyonder’s planet, leaving both heroes and villains stuck there. Over time, they put their differences aside and settled down, realizing how futile their attempts to battle each other was in their isolated situation. In two decades that followed, some of the heroes fell in love with each other and even had offspring. Rogue became romantically involved with Captain America; only it wasn’t Rogue anymore who was in charge, but the Carol Danvers personality. Possibly, Rogue’s persona had destroyed in the earlier battles with the villains. Carol being able to control the absorption power, she even had a child together with Captain America, whom they named Sarah. Their daughter had inherited Ms. Marvel’s powers, but she also could pick up Thor’s hammer and her father shield. Taking the codename Crusader, Sarah joined several other super-powered teenagers to form a new group of Avengers - at first to stop the evil schemes of the son of Dr. Doom. Later on, a way back to Earth was uncovered, but in the meantime it had been overrun by Sentinels. The new Avengers decided to try to overthrow them.


One version of Rogue did not only absorb Ms. Marvel on a permanent basis, but also her teammate Colossus. During the X-Men’s conflict with the Hellfire Club, Rogue tried to save Colossus who was sinking into the ground thanks to Harry Leland’s control over gravity. Cruelly, Selene disintegrated Rogue’s glove, so that would have to choose between absorbing him or letting him suffocate under the ground. In the main reality, Rogue let go of him in time, whereas in the Mutant X universe, she hesitated too long. Having three personalities in her head rendered Rogue a bit unstable and she hardly spoke to anyone. She continued to fight alongside the X-Men, their line-up also including Nightcrawler and Mystique, but it was left unclear what, if any, relations she had to them. Rogue died alongside most other heroes of this Earth when they fought the combined threats of the Beyonder, Dracula and the Goblin Force.


There’s another version of Rogue whose offspring became a superhero, once more Magneto being the father. Their son was named Manus, apparently after Magneto, and he had inherited his father’s magnetic powers, only he could control these gifts even better than he. Unfortunately for the lad, he had also a power similar to Rogue’s - when Magnus touched another person’s bare flesh, they would immediately turn into steel. Magnus grew to be a distant, reclusive man, who would always carry the knowledge he could kill with a single touch. Therefore, Magnus created himself a red suit, which would cover up his entire body except for his face. At some point in his life, Magnus became unhinged from time and had to join the reality-hopping Exiles, traveling from one dimension to the next in order to fix some crucial events gone wrong. On their first mission the team screwed up, and Magnus could only save the day by sacrificing his own life in order to prevent an A-bomb from destroying the world they were on.


In the Ultimate universe, Rogue is a young girl named Marian, who was found and experimented on by the evil Weapon X organization. She was forced to fulfill many dangerous missions and, when the X-Men made a public appearance on a television show, Rogue sneaked up to them and absorbed some of Colossus’ knowledge about their mansion’s secrets. She reported said secrets to Weapon X, giving them the opportunity to kidnap the world’s most famous mutants. Luckily, Wolverine made a deal with the Brotherhood of Mutants, who later rescued all the captured mutants, including Rogue. After Weapon X was defeated, Rogue rather stayed with the Brotherhood rather than with the X-Men, however she later left when the Brotherhood changed leadership. When Magneto started his plan to kill all the humans, the president of the United States ordered the Ultimates to capture all Brotherhood affiliated mutants, including Rogue, but as she surrendered peacefully she was offered amnesty in exchange for her joining the X-Men and helping to bring down Magneto. As a member of the X-Men, she not only was reunited with her loving parents, but also had a brief relationship with Iceman. Later on, she was kidnapped by Gambit, whose employers, Fenris, wanted to use Rogue as an operative. In return for her services, they gave Rogue a special suit they developed, with which she could control her powers. However, when Fenris decided that Gambit was now useless and wanted him dead, he and Rogue fought them together. Afterwards, Rogue quit the X-Men, wanting to explore the new opportunities she saw and her relationship with Gambit.

Rogue eventually rejoined the team when Gambit was killed. She soon became addicted to a drug known as kick that gave her much more control over her mutant powers. During Magneto’s attack on New York, Rogue permanently absorbed the powers of Juggernaut, gaining his super strength. The attack killed many of the X-Men and in the wake of the devastation the surviving mutants went their separate ways. Rogue ended up crossing paths with Jason Stryker, an unstable mutant who was the son of an old adversary. Rogue ended up playing both Jason and her old teammates against each other as she believed she was told to do so by God himself. The X-Men reformed again but the country began to tear itself apart. Eventually, the mutant oppression was so extreme that many took the chance at a cure so they could live a life of relative peace. Rogue was one of the few who refused and so she, along with the other mutants, were given a small piece of land nicknamed Utopia, where they could live. To begin with the wasteland they were given was barren and virtually unworkable. But when a sentient seed was developed, it created a lush ecosystem off which to live. Rogue connected with the seed more than anyone else as she could feel its life force and touch it without fear. Rogue was left devastated when a rival faction led by Jean Grey destroyed the seed and the forest with it.