"At Least I'll Have a Choice."

Welcome back guys. So.. I'm making a slight modification to what I said at the end of last weeks' blog. I had forgotten how little Rogue is involved in #177, so I'm going to focus exclusively on her role in #178. With that adjustment out of the way, let's get back to Rogue in Uncanny X-Men #178.

So just for background, Kitty and Peter have been attacked by the Brotherhood, so Xavier sends Ororo and Logan out as he doesn't know how Rogue will react after leaving the Brotherhood so soon.

Ororo does question if he did contact Rogue, but he explains why and she agrees at the moment. This makes sense for Ororo as while she has made some progress with her closure with Rogue, she is still the one who has had the biggest issue. Not entirely on her character alone as she has explained her reasons from her introduction to the team , but she is also is the leader of the group and needs to be cautious to a greater degree than the rest of the team.

For Charles though, it does show that while he is Rogue's greatest supporter in the beginning(and still may be at this point, with Logan being a close second for their kindred spirit), he still has his limits of trust in this situation. He does have good reason for doing this as she was a part of the Brotherhood much longer than the X-Men at this point; given the choice between her adoptive mother and a team where there is still a great hesitation of most of them on her acceptance, it may be too great a test of loyalty.

Shortly after he communicates all of this to Ororo, he gets hit by a psychic force but knows that it wasn't an attack. Given his gestures, Rogue asks if he needs an Aspirin and he tells her that would be great.

After the scuffle between the Brotherhood and X-Men, Charles tries to communicate with the team, but the force is even stronger. He knows he's felt this kind of jamming sense before, but doesn't know where when Rogue comes in with some tea. He doesn't realize when he's felt this before he gets shot, but soon enough to avoid a fatal shot.

This is of course Mystique who is about to finish the job when Rogue walks in and she tells her she came for her and wants her to come home.

Mystique makes a decently compelling argument for why she thinks Xavier kidnapped her or at least brainwashed her to join the team and leave the team. A legitimate point if someone didn't know his personality(even if you did it's somewhat up for debate) as he does have the potential to make people puppets if he desired; proven that he does do that with Magneto later in the run. Rogue doesn't buy it and tries to stop her from killing him before she tells her to stand aside.

For a final desperate plea, Rogue argues that Raven has never listened to her and is insulted that she thinks it's easier to believe that she was brainwashed instead of her coming of her own free will. This tells something about the fact about the X-Men team in general, even though most of them still don't like her very much; they accept that this is her decision. Yet the person that has potentially had the most influence on her doesn't believe she is capable of making decisions of her own accord.

Raven is just frustrated at this point and asks if she came freely, why would she leave her, pulling that old card that every parent says to their children to get them to make a decision they want; don't you love me anymore? Rogue says she does and truly does appreciate the love she gave her, but asks a simple question, can you help me?

Rogue goes into the torment her powers bring her every day and Raven just has a look of realization of how much pain her daughter must be in, after that Rogue says that Xavier is her last resort. In the end she just begs Raven to stay so that she at least gives him some time to help her see if she can control her powers.

Raven asks what will happen when she eventually will have to choose between the two and she responds with the fact that she will not be pressured and have more of choice than she does at the moment.

Rogue does reminisce for a moment and remembers that Raven used to comfort her from nightmares before her powers manifested, and she can't protect her anymore. This is what every parent has to reconcile with their children at every point before there growth can truly begin, and this is the proof that while Raven definitely used her as a weapon and knew what she could turn into, she did genuinely love her.

This all leads up to Raven loving her enough to leave with the caveat that the other X-Men let her team go.

Overall I would say this is the issue that is essential to understand the relationship with the two even if we don't get the entire backstory; it's not needed for what they are telling. It's also important for the reason why Rogue left and why she continues to stay on the team for the rest of her history; even to this day in comics. All this told in a few pages. Again showing how much character development they could throw into a small side-story of a twenty page comic.

Thanks for reading guys and I'll be back to discuss Uncanny X-Men #179.