Rogue being pregnant is not inherently a problem. That feels important to establish immediately, because it would be easy to reduce the conversation surrounding Uncanny X-Men right now to whether Rogue should or should not have a child. She has previously expressed that motherhood isn’t something she wanted, but characters change, as they should. A character expressing one desire at one point in her life does not mean every writer who follows is obligated to preserve it forever. The problem is whether Uncanny X-Men is allowing Rogue to make that change herself.
That question has become considerably more complicated now that Rogue’s unborn child can communicate with her. Something that could have been an exploration of what Rogue wants from an unexpected pregnancy suddenly has another voice involved in the conversation. For any character, making a fetus an independent participant in its mother’s pregnancy would be a loaded creative decision. For Rogue, whose history is tied to bodily autonomy, unwanted voices inside her head, and the fight to determine where other people end and she begins, it becomes impossible to separate from everything that came before.
The Talking Fetus Makes Rogue’s Pregnancy Much More Complicated
There is no way to give a fetus thoughts, a voice, and the ability to communicate with its mother without introducing implications beyond mutant superhero weirdness. That doesn’t mean Uncanny X-Men is secretly pro-life propaganda, nor should we assume Gail Simone’s personal politics based on a plot point. Authorial intent isn’t particularly useful to this criticism anyway. What matters is what the story puts on the page. By giving Rogue’s unborn child a voice, Uncanny X-Men has established it as an independent character. It can now participate in Rogue’s relationship with her pregnancy and potentially influence how she feels about becoming a mother. That is incredibly loaded framing when conversations about reproductive choice so often hinge on whose voice matters when determining what happens to a pregnancy.
Then there is Rogue herself. Another voice existing inside Rogue is not remotely neutral territory for this character. Rogue has spent enormous portions of her history dealing with other people’s thoughts and personalities invading her own sense of self. Her encounter with Carol Danvers in Avengers Annual #10 permanently altered both women. Rogue absorbed Carol’s powers and memories, and Carol’s psyche remained inside her afterward. Another person was literally occupying space in Rogue’s mind, contributing to an identity crisis that eventually drove her to seek Charles Xavier’s help. The basic horror is built directly into Rogue’s mutation. Absorbing someone means taking part of them into herself, and for years she couldn’t even touch another person without risking absorbing their powers, memories, and personality. Now she is experiencing an unexpected pregnancy, and there is quite literally another voice coming from inside her.
That parallel could be intentional, and if it is, there is a fantastic Rogue story waiting to happen. What does pregnancy mean for someone who fought so hard for control over her own body? Can she want her child while still resenting that loss of control? Does hearing another voice inside herself frighten her because she knows exactly what it feels like to have her sense of self crowded by somebody else? Those are messy questions, and Rogue is uniquely suited to answer them. The concern is what happens if the fetus itself becomes part of the answer. If Rogue’s unborn child reassures her about the pregnancy or influences her toward embracing motherhood, then the story will have created a mechanism through which the pregnancy changes Rogue’s mind for her.
Rogue Has Spent Decades Fighting To Choose for Herself
Rogue eventually gaining control over her powers meant more than finally being able to kiss Gambit without potentially putting him in a coma. She could decide when and how she touched someone and establish the boundaries of her own body without having those boundaries established for her. That history doesn’t prohibit Rogue from having a pregnancy storyline. If anything, it makes her an incredibly interesting character to explore one through. Pregnancy changes a person’s relationship with their body, and for Rogue, that opens up enormous amounts of material surrounding control, intimacy, fear, and identity.
There is a reason X-Men: Legacy remains such an important run for Rogue, and it isn’t because Mike Carey’s interpretation should become an immovable template for every writer who follows him. Rogue has spent much of her history being defined in relation to other people. Mystique and Destiny raised her, Carol Danvers permanently changed her, Charles Xavier gave her a home, and her relationship with Gambit intertwined her personal struggles with whether she could safely be with the person she loved. Legacy gave Rogue room to choose herself. She became a mentor and leader, developed greater control over her abilities, and made choices that weren’t dictated by her romantic life. Kelly Thompson’s Rogue & Gambit and Mr. & Mrs. X continued that idea differently. Marriage could have become another way to define Rogue primarily through romance, but instead choosing Remy became another decision Rogue actively made. Rogue choosing Gambit did not mean she stopped choosing herself. That distinction matters now because Uncanny X-Men has increasingly surrounded Rogue with motherhood before fully examining what motherhood means to her.
Rogue has not maintained one unwavering position on having children through every comic she’s appeared in. Different creative teams have approached the possibility of Rogue and Gambit starting a family differently, and at various points, that future has seemed possible. More recently, however, Rogue has been considerably more direct. During the Krakoa era, Rogue expressed that she did not want children, even as mutant society placed enormous importance on reproduction. One of Krakoa’s three laws was literally “Make More Mutants,” turning something ordinarily private into something of cultural significance for mutantkind. That does not mean Uncanny X-Men is violating continuity by making Rogue pregnant. Someone changing their mind about having children is entirely believable. But changing your mind is itself a story. There is a potentially fascinating distance between the Rogue who didn’t envision children in her future, and the Rogue who might decide she wants to become a mother.
The Outliers complicate that further. Rogue and Gambit taking responsibility for younger mutants makes perfect sense. Rogue has been a mentor before, and protecting mutant kids who need someone in their corner fits her naturally. But mentorship is not motherhood, and when that storyline is followed by an unexpected pregnancy, the two begin to feel like parts of a deliberate trajectory positioning Rogue as a maternal figure. Again, that trajectory isn’t inherently bad. The problem is that Rogue needs to have some say in it. Otherwise, motherhood risks becoming another circumstance she finds herself adapting to instead of a future she actually chooses.
Rogue Needs To Be the Protagonist of Her Own Evolution
None of this requires believing that Simone “doesn’t get Rogue.” Comic characters have endured for decades because writers reinterpret them, and Rogue should be allowed that same evolution. She can become a mother. In fact, motherhood could be one of the richest stories Marvel has told with Rogue in years. Mystique and Destiny loved Rogue, but their relationships with their daughter have also been filled with manipulation, secrecy, abandonment, and decisions made because they believed they knew what was best for her. Rogue becoming responsible for a child of her own could force her to confront what she wants to carry forward from her mothers and what she wants to leave behind. Her powers add another layer. Her marriage to Gambit adds another. Even her previous reluctance toward children makes this story more interesting, not less. The question is whether Rogue gets to be the protagonist of her own evolution.
If Uncanny X-Men wants to tell a story about a woman discovering she wants something she once rejected, show us that discovery. Let Rogue be scared and angry. Let her admit this isn’t the future she pictured for herself. She should be allowed to love Gambit without automatically wanting everything he wants, and she should be allowed to feel attached to the life growing inside her while still struggling with what that means for her own body. Then let Rogue decide what those feelings mean. Rogue doesn’t have to remain the woman she once was, because growth would become meaningless if characters were never allowed to surprise us. But Rogue has spent decades fighting for the ability to determine who she is beneath everyone else’s expectations and influence, and if motherhood is going to be the next chapter in her life, then Marvel can absolutely take her there, but she needs to be the one driving.
- Writer
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Stan Lee, Chris Claremont, Len Wein, John Byrne, Scott Lobdell, Steven T. Seagle, Matt Fraction, Kieron Gillen, Gail Simone
- Penciler
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Jack Kirby, Barry Windsor-Smith, Dave Cockrum, John Romita Jr., Marc Silvestri, Jim Lee, Rick Leonardi, Greg Land, David Marquez
- Publisher(s)
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Marvel Comics
