A question about a Rogue

[Occhidiangela]

I just watched, finally, the first Xmen movie on DvD. I rather liked it, though I have not read an Xmen comic since about 1977 or so. Whoever directed this film seemed more concerned with character than some of the other comic book adaptations. The mood was just right, even though the dialogue was a bit sparse. I would like to see X Men 2 before it leaves theatres here, but I want to understand a thing or two first.

Not being an Xmen afficianado, I am a bit puzzled by:

Mystique and Rogue.

Mystique: Alright, she is a doppleganger, how is it that when Wolverine buries his claws into her innards, she does not die? Did she take on his rapid healing powers thanks to their fight while she was in his form? She was in Storm's form when he laid the blades into her later on. What is it about Mystique that made her mortal wound heal, and let her turn into the security guard? (And why did Wolverine not rip off her head to ensure she was dead? Oh, yeah, PG-13 and follow on plot reasons.) Does she, like a D & D druid, heal somewhat with each transformation? Confused.

Rogue:

There seem to be two things working at once here, and I am guessing that Rogue is a vampire. Firstly, she 'takes on the other's power' and secondly 'she sucks the life out of whoever touches her.' (Hmmm, how did her parents survive? Were they made of sterner mutant stuff, or was it that "it happens during puberty" concept that allowed her parents to live? Yeah, that's it, teenagers do turn into mutants during puberty, sure!)

Wolverine's rapid healing allows him to touch her and not go into a three week coma, per her puppy love boyfriend's fate. (Those two getting into the horizontal bop is ripe with some rather twisted S & M possibilities, methinks.) However, the movie leaves me a bit confused as to just what element of the power of the other mutant that she takes on. With magneto, she absorbs his . . . essence . . . and thus works as the engine for his "mutate the masses" machine. But shouldn't she have then been able to simply stop the blades from turning, having his magneto power in her for a time? Should she not have been able to touch Mystique and become a shape changer?

Does Xmen2 answer this, or is her feature well explained in the comic books? Explanation appreciated from any of you Xmen fanatics there.

I am looking forward to Xmen 2. I hope it has less kung fu and more character development.

[Zarathustra]

OT: Got pulled back into things a bit here at the Lounge with the announcement about the departures from Blizzard North. I've been lurking all this time. Hey everyone! :D

As for those two, here are my thoughts:

Mystique: Terribly wounded by being gored (ouch), she took on the form of that body guard and held it as best she could. The medical team arrived, treated here as if she were the guard, and at some point she probably busted out of the hospital (or just turned into a nurse and walked out calmly). I didn't see her "heal" at any point. I think it's just a matter of appearance.

Rogue: First off, her parents survived because her powers had not yet manifested. They described it something along the lines of how they appear around puberty, often during a traumatic experience, if I'm not mistaken. Well, perhaps not traumatic, but in those young days the situation would definitely get one's heart going. What we saw in the beginning of the first movie was the very first time she'd had that happen.
As for absorbing some powers, I don't think she can control them. She absorbed Magneto's... er... sure, his essence, and found her hands clamped down to the metal in the gyro. She couldn't do anything about it.

So most of the power, with almost none of the control.

[pakman]

you also have to remember when Logan was dreaming and Rogue comes into the room and Logan sticks his claws right through her after waking up. She absorbed his power to heal herself, but had no control of how to use it, she just did.

[Occhidiangela]

Mutant sponge. ;)

[wundergore]

Rogue:

There seem to be two things working at once here, and I am guessing that Rogue is a vampire.  Firstly, she 'takes on the other's power' and secondly 'she sucks the life out of whoever touches her.'  (Hmmm, how did her parents survive?  Were they made of sterner mutant stuff, or was it that "it happens during puberty" concept that allowed her parents to live?  Yeah, that's it, teenagers do turn into mutants during puberty, sure!)

With magneto, she absorbs his  . . . essence . . . and thus works as the engine for his "mutate the masses" machine.  But shouldn't she have then been able to simply stop the blades from turning, having his magneto power in her for a time?  Should she not have been able to touch Mystique and become a shape changer?  

Does Xmen2 answer this, or is her feature well explained in the comic books?  Explanation appreciated from any of you Xmen fanatics there.

I am looking forward to Xmen 2.  I hope it has less kung fu and more character development.

As previously mentioned, Rogues powers did not manifest until puberty. Likely triggered by hormones during the kiss with the boyfriend. So she ran away before she could do anything to her parental units. I don't think you are on track about the "sucking the life out of the person she touches". In the books, she absorbs their powers (if a mutant) and memories. So she is really not a vampire.

Yes, she should have been able to touch Mystique and become a shapeshifter. With Magneto's machine, I think it was a pretty much on/off thing. It was on when he placed his hands on the control panels and didn't turn off until he was exhausted.

Don't look to the books for an explanation of Rogue. She is a very different character in books. Not better, necessarily, but different. Personally, I prefer the print version; but that's just me.

W<

[Occhidiangela]

OK, if she touches a non mutant, like the old boyfriend, does she take something from him, or does she transfer something to him that puts him into shock and then a coma? I took it as a taking, similar to conductive heat transfer. She is a life force sink, or a heat sink in psionic form.

She touches a mutant to absorb "talent" and creates a two way transfer: the conducts talent, and with it she remains a life force sink, which is why Wolverine damn near buys the farm. His ability to heal saves both her, and then him, because time heals all wounds. ;)

Thanks for reminding me about the machine. When Magneto mutated the Senator, sure enough, his assistants needed to help him out when all was said and done. Once on, it sucks the life out of the operator. That of course why he was willing to sacrifice Rogue: she had no hope of a normal life, and she was uniquely situated to be just the right focus for being his machine.

I think I get it now, thanks to all of you nice folks for clearing up my misunderstanding of Xmen stuff.

[Mirajj]

...based on my experience with the books, that Rogue takes some "life energy" from whoever she touches, mutant or non. When she touches a mutant, the energy she takes is manifested as that persons mutant power. When she touches a normal human, she just takes energy. She can also (IIRC, here) absorb a normal humans memories.

While that's all conjecture, I think that your example of her being a life force sink is most apt. The only real thing that I can add is that in the book, it's always been that she's taken something from someone, not given or transferred it to them.

After all, she held on to Ms. Marvel for "too long", thus completely and permanently absorbing the powers and psyche of Ms.Marvel. Which is why the Rogue in the comic has powers beyond the "life sink" abilities.

[Rhydderch Hael]

Rogue can take away the physical strength of a person and leave quite paralyzed from the drain. That's what may have happened with the boy. In the comics, she's attained a lot of physcial strength and can pound the snot out of folks because of the strengths she's drained from others in the past.

[WarBlade]

Does Xmen2 answer this, or is her feature well explained in the comic books?&nbsp; Explanation appreciated from any of you Xmen fanatics there.

The comic books provide all the explalation. As noted by others Rogue's power manifests at puberty. This is true of most mutants in the comics although there are a number of early starters, so it's not a rule set in stone.

BTW, yes, these quoted paragraphs of yours are in a new order.

Mystique:&nbsp; Alright, she is a doppleganger, how is it that when Wolverine buries his claws into her innards, she does not die?&nbsp; Did she take on his rapid healing powers thanks to their fight while she was in his form?&nbsp; She was in Storm's form when he laid the blades into her later on.&nbsp; What is it about Mystique that made her mortal wound heal, and let her turn into the security guard?&nbsp; (And why did Wolverine not rip off her head to ensure she was dead?&nbsp; Oh, yeah, PG-13 and follow on plot reasons.)&nbsp; Does she, like a D & D druid, heal somewhat with each transformation?&nbsp; Confused.

As noted, she was badly hurt and carried from the scene by paramedics. Not mentioned, and seldom mentioned in the comics either, is the fact that mutants in the Marvel Universe are born naturally a little tougher than their human progenitors, which is apparently nature's way of giving them a little something to handle their mutations.

I am looking forward to Xmen 2.&nbsp; I hope it has less kung fu and more character development.

It has some brawling and a lot more story. You'll note that it also topped the entire gross box office intake of X-Men in something like three weeks. It's pretty good. B)

[Guest]

Mystic - its quite possible to survive an injury like that for any healthy person given proper medical care. Sure not everyone would live, but my guess is quite a few average people would survive.

Rogue - as with all things comics, such powers are never clear :) It is reasonable to say thay she did not have the practice or discipline to exploit his power that quickly, and the machine made use of the raw power.

In the comics she eventually games flight and super strength. She assumes Miss Marvals powers at the same time Miss Marvel dies. Its notable that it is a very tromatic event because she also have her emotions while dying imprinted on her.

So basically it comes down to she takes everything at once, but the degree is variable.

[LiquidDamage]

In the comics, she's attained a lot of physcial strength and can pound the snot out of folks because of the strengths she's drained from others in the past.

Actually, Rogue's strength and "partial invulnerability", as well as her flight powers, come from her absorption of Carol Danvers' Ms. Marvel powers (as Ghosttiger mentioned). She also absorbed Carol's personality as well (something I don't think anyone has said is that Rogue absorbs their personality and memories as well as their powers), but that very interesting part of her character (the Carol Danvers' personality bit) was removed during the horrible, horrible 90's around the time that Jim Lee took over as the artist, Psylocke was turned into a Wolverine clone, and Gambit and Jubilee were introduced.

Here is an amusing synopsis of the powers Rogue gained from Carol, starting with how Carol got them herself. It even has pictures!

http://rogue.scroguefanclub.org/Powers/intro.html

[WarBlade]

From the site . . .

Rogue's strength was measured during a workout on Muir Isle in uncanny X-Men #217. The readout (shown enlarged at bottom right) is 57 tons. However, since Muir is in Scotland the machine is probably reading British (long) tons: if so then Rogue is lifting over 63 US (short) tons here.

LMAO!!! :lol:

Americans. :P

If the machine was reading Tonnes, or "British (long) tons" as Einstein here calls it, one would expect the panel should have read "Tonnes". So the artist made the first blunder and the archivist person made another blunder with a dodgy assumption.

The best assumption, to get some some degree of actual logic happening at least, would be if the weight lifeting device was American made and just leave the explanation at 57 "Tons". :P

[Guest]

You are thinking way to much about this(so its the first guy who brought up the 'tonnes" issue) :0