Rogue has been on a whirlwind journey in Rogue by Erica Schultz, searching for lost memories brought on by nightmares from her time as a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. In Rogue’s dream from Rogue #1, we see Sabretooth attacking and nearly killing someone, but Rogue does not know who the man is or whose memory she is seeing in her dream. Over the course of the miniseries, Rogue will learn that she absorbed Sabretooth’s powers and nearly murdered a man named John Stelton. Once Rogue discovered the truth about what she did, she decided to seek out Stelton in an attempt to atone for the near-fatal attack on Stelton’s life.
SPOILERS AHEAD for Rogue #5!
Rogue #5 opens with our hero continuing her search for John Stelton. Rogue places a phone call to her husband, Remy Lebeau aka Gambit, and asks for his help in tracking down Stelton. Rogue is racked with guilt over nearly killing Stelton and is determined to do whatever she can to find Stelton and make amends with him. She asks Gambit to use the Eye of Power he acquired from the Asgardian dragon Sadurang in Uncanny X-Men #1 to help locate Stelton. Using the medallion, Gambit is able to determine that Stelton is somewhere in New Jersey.
Gambit uses the Eye of Power to locate John Stelton. (Credit: Marvel Comics)
With the knowledge of Stelton’s location in possession, Rogue flies off to find Stelton. As Rogue departs, we see scales growing on Gambit’s back after using the Eye of Power. Throughout Uncanny X-Men, we have seen the negative effects that continued possession of the medallion has had on Gambit. Most recently, we saw Gambit bite Rogue in his sleep in Uncanny X-Men #23. Gambit’s changing behavior influenced by the Eye of Power has been of ongoing concern in Uncanny X-Men, and something we will likely be revisiting in upcoming issues of Gail Simone’s run on Uncanny X-Men.
On her way to New Jersey, Rogue ruminates on her past with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and all the harm she caused while under the care of her adoptive parents, the mutant terrorist Raven Darkhölme, also known as Mystique, and the mutant precog Irene Adler, also known as Destiny. During her time as a villain, Rogue attempted to kill Alison Blaire, also known as Dazzler, and fought the Avengers. She also permanently stole the powers and memories of Carol Danvers, who was then going by the codename Ms. Marvel, which led to Carol being left in a coma after her encounter with Rogue. When Rogue was much younger, before she gained control of her abilities, Rogue kissed a boy named Cody Robbins, resulting in the boy being put into a coma, as depicted in Classic X-Men #44, leaving Rogue greatly traumatized.
Rogue’s sordid past and the long-lasting damage she caused Carol Danvers is like a dark shadow hanging over her head that she cannot shake, and could explain why is so desperate to earn John Stelton’s forgiveness. The guilt she carries is unbearable, knowing that she cannot reverse or undo the permanent harm she caused Stelton, which nearly cost him his life and left him wheelchair bound, missing both of his legs. Rogue hopes she can find some way to set things right between her and Stelton, and that he will find it in his heart to forgive her, even though she may not earn, or even deserve, his forgiveness.
The meeting with Stelton goes about as well as one would expect. He is not happy to see Rogue and aims a shotgun at her. Rather than try to talk Stelton down, she allows him to fire a shotgun blast directly at her stomach. The gunshot does no damage to Rogue due to her invulnerability, but it does attract the attention of John’s wife, Lucy, who launches a verbal assault at Rogue. When Rogue offers to have John healed by one of the X-Men’s healers, Lucy rejects the offer, saying that John doesn’t “need” fixing. During the conversation between Rogue and John, we learn that John is also a mutant, and his X-gene was activated following Rogue attacking John. Both John and Lucy are upset with John’s newly mutant status, and blame Rogue for “making” John into a mutant. Rogue leaves Lucy and John’s home, knowing that John may never forgive her for what she did to him, and wonders whether she wants to help John because she cares about his well-being, or whether she just wants to make herself feel better.
In this series, we saw Rogue tormented by a painful memory of her past, one that she could not remember, and was forced to revisit over and over again as she sought out the truth behind a dark secret long buried. What began as a mystery to uncover Rogue’s lost memories soon became a personal quest to make amends and atone for wrongful actions that nearly destroyed an innocent man’s life, Rather than a clean resolution in which all is forgiven and Rogue is free to resume living knowing she made things right with the man she wronged, our hero is left to carry the weight of her past sins with the knowledge that John Stelton may very well hold resentment over her for the rest of his life. The discomfort of knowing she was denied the forgiveness she so desperately sought is something that Rogue will have to find a way to make peace with.
Rogue by Erica Schultz and Luigi Zagaria sees the complexities of atoning for one’s mistakes, and the very real and human difficulties of making amends with someone who is not interested in forgiveness. Overall, this series presented a compelling narrative with enough interesting developments that kept the narrative engaging enough to continue reading, with satisfactory artwork that kept the story visually stimulating as well as in service to the emotional core of the plot.
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