Summary
- Legendary artist Peach Momoko’s haunting, beautiful redesign of Rogue reveals the character’s negative views of her mutant abilities, portraying them as a curse rather than a blessing.
- The depiction of Rogue with fungi and veins protruding from her skin symbolizes her feeling of toxicity, causing her to distance herself from others in order to avoid hurting them with her relentless powers.
- Despite Rogue’s popularity and growth as a character, this redesign reminds readers that her fears and concerns about her abilities will always be a part of her, highlighting the ongoing internal struggle she faces.
A disturbing Rogue redesign gives fans a glimpse at how she actually sees her powers. When it comes to the X-Men, there’s a constant message of embracing their powers, yet some mutants view their abilities as a curse, since it can impact their individual experience. Rogue has constantly been on the fence about her abilities, and a new horror redesign brings just why she feels this way to the surface.
Legendary Marvel artist Peach Momoko recently took to Instagram to share her work on a line of variant covers for upcoming comics featuring heroes in enchanting nightmare scenarios. This haunting look at the legendary X-Men character features Rogue with a solemn look on her face, as fungi grow all around her. What’s even more disturbing are the veins protruding from her skin, as the mycelia erupt from beneath.
Momoko’s depiction of Rogue is hauntingly beautiful, but the message of toxicity is what really stands out, as it showcases Rogue’s negative views of her mutant abilities, which at times has impacted her ability to truly actualize as a top-tier Marvel hero.
Rogue Views Her Powers As A Curse, Not A Blessing
While Rogue undoubtedly has some of the coolest powers among the X-Men, with the ability to absorb other people’s abilities through mere touch, her disdain for them is what has made her an interesting character. She’s not like the other X-Men when it comes to being a mutant because, she’s been shown to be at odds with herself over her powers. These abilities, while useful, have made it difficult for her to experience things that her friends take for granted. The ability to hold hands with the person she loves, or other forms of contact, are completely hindered since she can’t experience simple touch without a piece of cloth.
Showing Rogue with fungi growing around her shows that she feels like she’s toxic, and can’t truly be near anyone. If she gets too close, she puts her friends or lovers at risk, because of just how relentless her abilities can be. Regardless of how she feels about her abilities though, Rogue remains one of the most popular X-Men. She’s overcome most of her fears throughout her years on the page, even going so far as to marry Gambit in one of comics’ most beloved romances. Still, this doesn’t mean that her concerns have disappeared, and this horrifying redesign of Rogue shows that her fears will never truly go away.
Rogue Echoes Poison Ivy (But The Message Couldn’t Be More Different)
Interestingly, this depiction of Rogue relates to one of DC’s most popular characters, especially when it comes to mycelial imagery. Poison Ivy has become a big name for DC over the past couple years, with her utilizing spores from a deadly fungus to great effect in her solo series, by G. Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara. However, despite the two sharing the use of fungi, the two couldn’t be more different. Ivy is a character that completely embraces her toxic powers to aide in her goal of spreading the Green. Rogue, on the other hand, is far more withdrawn. She doesn’t want anyone to come near her lest they risk hurting themselves.
Source: Peach Momoko
X-Men #29, feature Peach Momoko’s nightmare Rogue variant cover, will be available December 6, 2023 from Marvel Comics!