My little brother was an avid comic-books collector. His favorite thing was the Uncanny X-Men, and he was devoted to trying to acquire a continuous collection dating back to before he was even born.
I occasionally leafed through his comic books, mostly out of curiosity, but the Uncanny X-Men changed all of that. In particular one story arc involving a recurring villain.
The character "Rogue" had been around for a few years... a recurring antagonist in several Marvel titles. Her "super-power" is that with skin-to-skin contact with another person, she would knock them unconscious, as well as temporarily absorb their memories, skills, and if applicable, their super-powers as well. In a particularly pivotal storyline, Rogue attacked Ms Marvel and in the ensuing battle the transfer of memory and super-powers became permanent, with devastating consequences for both women.
X-Men writer Chris Claremont had the idea that Rogue wasn't a villain, so much as a young woman who desperately needed help. He had the idea that the only person who could actually help her was Professor Xavier, and had her literally knock on the X-Men's front door and beg for him to help her.
For Carol Danvers/Ms Marvel, her collision with Rogue was essentially the end of her former life. She had none of her memories left, or the emotional attachments that came with them. With therapy, she regained her memory of her previous life, but her former boyfriend was ... just some guy who she is aware that she used to have a romantic connection with. The emotions were simply not there. As if it were some other person. As for Rogue, it was the opposite... she was flooded with memories and emotions that weren't her own. Due to the nature of her gift/curse, she herself had been unable to experience intimacy of any sort, and for her to be exposed to the full depth of Carol's experiences and memories was a special kind of torture, because she could never experience any of it for herself.
This was simply wonderful writing. The stories were always full of super-punch-outs and alien invasions and all of that stuff, but when Claremont found a few panels to devote to Rogue and her pain, the writing was just superb. A particularly powerful issue had Rogue, separated from the rest of the team, discover that Carol's former lover Col. Rossi had been captured by bad-guys. Instinct takes over, and she uses all of Carol's skills to rescue Rossi. Later, when Rossi has recovered, he has no idea who she is. She tells him she's Carol, and he tells her she isn't, and that he'd kill her for what she did to Carol if he could. She's utterly crushed. I literally wept when I read this issue. It was so good. A few years ago I was wondering if these stories were as good as I remembered them, or if it was just that I was just young at the time. I found some digital copies on Bit Torrent, and decided that yes, these really were very well written.
During Claremont's time as writer, there was always a subtlety to the way he handled Rogue. Was she suicidal? Was she determined to prove herself to her new allies? Was she extremely determined to make amends for all the terrible things she did in her misguided past? At times it seemed like it was any or all of those things.
For all of these reasons, Rogue is the best comic-book character ever. Claremont wrote so much subtext into her character. Guilt and shame at having to interact with all of these people she wronged in the past... Isolation and loneliness at not being able to experience physical, or even emotional, intimacy. Her struggles with mental health. Her longing for a life she could never actually live, her craving for respect and love. All of these things.
As for Carol Danvers... she disappeared from comics for a while. I never followed titles that she was associated with, but I do know that she eventually returned. Her super-powers eventually returned, but emotionally she never really recovered. She never forgave Rogue. She battled alcoholism. She was a broken person. And for 20 years or more they never put Carol Danvers and Rogue on the same page without Carol wanting to kill Rogue.
Later this month the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Carol Danvers will appear for the first time. And none of the history of these two deeply intertwined characters will have anything to do with that. Because in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Rogue doesn't exist and Ms Marvel never met her.
-k
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