ALIAS: Rogue
TITLE/POSITION: Member of the X-Men (Blue Team)
REAL NAME: Unrevealed
FORMER ALIASES: Went by "Ms. Smith" while submitting herself for research testing at the Agee Institute. Once feigned the identity of a woman named "Dr. Kellogg."
OCCUPATION: Adventurer
LEGAL STATUS: U.S. Citizen, no criminal record, although was once framed for murder by the organization known as SHIELD (Uncanny X-Men #182). She may still be sought by them on that charge, but since she has encountered SHIELD agent, Nick Fury, (in the Savage Land) since that time without note of the incident it would seem that the charges most likely have been dropped.
Rogue's complete history begins here, but feel free to look around at whatever parts of Rogue's information are most interesting to you first. Links to various parts of her statistics and history are placed throughout both pages so you can enjoy reading about Rogue in whatever order you like.
PLACE OF BIRTH: Generally believed to be an unrevealed area of Caldecott, a fictional county in Mississippi. At least some of Rogue's early childhood was certainly spent there. In Marvel Fanfare #40, Mystique told Storm that Rogue was born there, but Rogue herself has never actually stated Caldecott was her actual birthplace.
Several arguments have been made to Caldecott County, Mississippi being Rogue's actual birth place.
Two notations have placed Rogue's birthplace as somewhere in Louisiana.
Marvel's own "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe" states that Rogue's official birth place is an "Unknown location in Georgia, United States."
Here is at least one theory made on this subject. It's a post to the Southern Comfort mailing list made by SC President, Bobbi Gorden.
Another argument has been made that Rogue was born and raised in her earliest years in a mansion-like setting elsewhere in the U.S. South.
Although this is possible, of course, it's really not probable. Rogue did once recall a mansion-like home as one that reminded her of her home somewhere "south of" West Virginia (ROM #31), but in Uncanny X-Men #185 her known childhood home of Caldecott County , Mississippi was described as an area of many "great estates" that had fallen into ruin long ago. Having played near the river as a child, she could easily found her way into an old, abandoned mansion at some point or even having known and visited one or more families who lived in such a mansion. This would explain Rogue relating a mansion-like home to her own childhood.
Rogue apparently spent some time in the Mississippi Bayou where she learned to speak French fluently (X-Men/Alpha Flight #1). Caldecott is definitely south of Natchez and located on the eastern banks of the Mississippi River (again noted in Uncanny X-Men #185). It's possible that this area is theoretically located near a bayou region in the Marvel Universe, but our own maps of this area show little chance of that.
Without more official substantiation, we are left with only theories of where Rogue might have actually been born, but we do know she connects most with her childhood memories of home in Caldecott County, Mississippi.
KNOWN RELATIVES: No blood relatives are known. Rogue's real mother appears to be deceased, although this is not canon, and Rogue believes her father "ran off" before she was born.
Rogue met Raven Darkholme (a.k.a. Mystique) when she was a young child and once called her "the best thing ah got to a real mom" (Uncanny #182). Sometime in Rogue's early teens or perhaps before, Mystique took her in and raised her as her own daughter. It seems unlikely that there was ever an official adoption and most sources refer to Rogue as being Mystique's "protege'" or her "foster" daughter, if anything, but nothing has been confirmed.
Irene Adler (aka Destiny, deceased) was Mystique's partner at the time and it seems Rogue saw her as something of a guidance figure as well.
Since Kurt Wagner (aka Nightcrawler) has been shown to probably be Mystique's natural born son, he might also be considered a relative of Rogue's in the way of a foster brother, although they didn't grow up together and didn't learn of their mutual connection to Mystique until after they'd known each other a while and worked together as fellow X-Men.
OTHER GROUP AFFILIATIONS: Rogue is a former member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Whether that group should be referred to as the second or third incarnation (II or III) seems to be in question. Rogue fought with them while under Mystique's guidance.
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Xavier Institute of Higher Learning, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York
FIRST APPEARANCE: Avengers Annual #10, July 1981
It should also be noted that Rogue's first appearance was originally intended to be in the Ms. Marvel series, two years earlier, but the cancellation of that series caused the two year delay to Rogue's eventual debut. For more detail on this, click here.
ORIGIN ISSUES: Uncanny X-Men #171, #182, #185, ROM, Ms. Marvel series, Rogue mini/limited series, and other issues noted throughout this page and her history.
KNOWN SUPERHUMAN POWERS: Rogue's only natural superpower is the ability to absorb the psyche, memories, strengths, abilities, and any superpowers of others upon skin-to-skin contact. Her use of this power has usually resulted in the victim falling unconscious. This ability has a ratio once officially set by Marvel of 1:60 (for instance, one second of contact gives her one minute of use of the victim's powers, strengths, psyche, etc.), but this ratio has not been strictly adhered to.
Because of her powers' requirement of "skin-to-skin contact", Rogue should logically be unable to absorb the powers of something that's not alive and this has even been stated in official stats given by Marvel in the past. She has, however, unfortunately been written as having absorbed machines in older plotlines. Energy beings should also, supposedly, be beyond her abilities to absorb. While aliens usually have skin, most forms of alien life and those with mystically-based powers have often given Rogue problems when she tried to absorb them. No upper limit has yet been determined as to the number of superhuman beings whose powers she can retain simultaneously, or for the amount of power that she can absorb, although the limit seems to be fairly high (at least over 25 at any given time).
Rogue has sometimes had problems when trying to absorb various individuals. For more info and a list of those who are completely or partially immune to her powers of absorption, check out our Immunity List.
During a battle with Carol Danvers (aka Ms. Marvel), Rogue permanently absorbed the powers of super-strength (ability to lift over 57 tons), flight (speed and maneuverability sufficient to keep up with and even out-maneuver high-performance jet fighters and, yes, to break the sound barrier), nigh-invulnerability and a passive, precognitive "seventh sense".
OTHER ABILITIES: A seemingly high resistance to poisons and toxins of a wide variety, ability to speak French, ability to survive in the vacuum of outer space for at least a brief period of time, good thrown weapon skills, and some underworld contacts.
OFFICIAL MARVEL STAT LEVELS (Scale of 1 to 10 - 10 being highest possible - 2 being average for a typical human in good physical condition):
HEIGHT: 5'8"
WEIGHT: 120 lbs.
EYES: Green
HAIR: Auburn/brown, with a white streak
AGE: Rogue's age has only been clearly given once, in the July 1984
issue of Uncanny X-Men #182. There, she gives her own age as 18 years old.
So how old is she now? Marvel has, in the past, given at least two methods
to calculate this. Once, they said their characters age at a ratio of about 2:5,
meaning they age about two(2) years for every five(5) years of real time. Later,
a similar ratio was given of 1:3, with the characters aging one(1) year
for every three(3) years of real time.
Before you bother to try to do the math on this one yourself, here
is a chart to
help you figure out Rogue's approximate age, based on Marvel's previous ratios.
Marvel has since danced around even these numbers, though, so please remember, this
is just a guideline.
