One of my Favorite Marvel Relationships

[sigmund_droid]

Ah Rogue and Mystique, two of my favorite marvel characters for each their own reasons. True to form their relationship is both one of the most complex that exist in comics and also one of the most entertaining to read. So without further ado we look at a rough time in Rogue's adolescence.



Got your nose!



I think we all know what Mystique was thinking about...Destiny, some old rock and half a bottle of whiskey!



I love Rogue's characterization here, she's lived her life bottled up and an experience like this never comes around often so she takes advantage of it.



Insert joke about the difference between this Pyro and the god-awful ultimate one here



Gotta love shape-shifters

Rogue flirts with the guard a bit more but he asks to see Mystique's (Dr. Forbes) I.D, which of course she doesn't have. Rogue kisses the guards and drains him.



Oh I should explain this a bit for those unfamiliar with Rogue or X-men in general. Rogue can drain people and mutants of their powers through means of touch but this also absorbs their memories. It's never a fluid transfer like how Prof X and Jean Grey might read a mind so it often hits rogue with feedback. Draining dark or painful memories can assault Rogue's mental state temporarily.



Turns out this guard is not a nice man and Rogue starts to lose herself. They come across the mutant they set out to rescue.



Poor Rogue, the first panel is a sad look at how she viewed herself at the time

Of note, I don't recognize the mutant here. Any takers? Is he an actual character or a one-shot?

Rogue takes off her glove and attempts to touch the mutants face but he stands up and grabs her arm.





Again, love to know if that man is an actual character. I dig these panels though.



There you have it folks. A learning experience for both Mystique and Rogue.

So what do you guys think? Does Mystique actually care about Rogue? Or does she only care about Destiny's prophecies and Rogue's powers?

Comments

[icon_uk]

I think she lost any claim to being NOT twisted from the moment we found out how she'd treated the newborn Kurt to her own advantage, and that it was she in human disguise who'd thrown him off a gorge.

And I'd say that when you love someone as property, you're not really loving them at all, you're thinking of their value as a commodity. Perhaps the closest is when she let Rogue stay with the X-Men in the first place, but that might as much have been to do with an out of control weapon being a useless weapon to her.

I viewed the setting up with Pulse was purely to get Rogue away from the X-Men and thus back under HER influence.

[cainofdreaming]

Still, later when she found out that Kurt had survived she couldn't bring herself to pull the trigger even on a Kurt-bot during a training exercise in one of Arcade's Murderworlds. And when Rogue was put into a situation where she only could save her or Kurt, over a long drop into a river by a coincidence, she let herself drop to force Rogue's choice.

That last part might have been a calculated risk for maximum gain, true, but I dunno. She's shown at least some human emotions when it comes to these two.

[auggie18]

One of the defining moments for them for me was when Rogue and the other X-men are about to go up against the Adversary. Mystique and Rogue hug and Rogue has a thought bubble that says "Momma!" and Mystique has one that says "Baby!". Mystique looks genuinely scared for Rogue and that one little thought bubble indicates it's not because of her usefulness as a weapon. (Did we see her react to finding out Rogue was alive?) Of course, there's a big difference between that Mystique and the one we ended up with later.

Property isn't the term I should've used there. It's more like she's a little kid and they're her favorite toys. Her love for them is selfish and immature, but it is real.