Jonathan Dobres

Air date: January 8, 1994

Happy 1994, everyone! X-Men rings in the new year with a Rogue spotlight. Rogue has been experiencing terrifying hallucinations of a sensibly dressed blonde woman who sometimes becomes a hideous lizard monster. The hallucinations are coming back, we’re told, because Professor Xavier isn’t around to give Rogue regular treatment. That’s one reason, anyway. The other is that Rogue’s adoptive mother, Mystique, has been surreptitiously planting herself in Rogue’s way, masquerading as the blonde woman to trigger her.

Things come to a head when the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants attack a carnival (real Saturday Morning Cartoon stuff here), the goal of which is to put Mystique-as-blonde woman right in front of Rogue and drive her insane. We don’t even see how the pointless carnival fight ends, as the story follows Rogue’s perspective and we wake up with her in the infirmary (an economical bit of plotting). But the damage is done, and Rogue keeps spiraling. Literally! In the episode’s sickest sequence, she flies in an arc around the room, then smashes upwards through four floors of the mansion, the camera moving with her for all of it.

Rogue’s hallucinations eventually lead her to the blonde woman’s hospital room, where Mystique has been waiting for her. We finally get Rogue’s backstory: Mystique taking her in after she ran away from her bigoted father, training her as a terrorist, and ultimately encouraging her—very strongly—to absorb Ms. Marvel’s powers. If you’re reading a blog about a thirty year-old Marvel cartoon, I assume you’ve heard of Ms. Marvel (aka Captain Marvel, aka Carol Danvers). Along with Ms. Marvel’s powers came a big chunk of Carol Danvers’s psyche, and she is understandably very mad about being imprisoned inside Rogue. Charles Xavier was the only person who could quiet Rogue’s mind and give her peace, which is how she came to be one of the X-Men.

Rogue gained Mystique’s unstable shapeshifting powers during the memory transfer, so there’s a real risk that Ms. Marvel is going to assert herself permanently and erase Rogue. With a clearer idea of who Carol is and an assist from Jean, Rogue is able to retake control of her own psyche by sealing Carol into a cement box in her mindscape. It’s a cruel ending, I’m sorry to say. Carol is as much a victim of Mystique’s scheming as Rogue is, but cartoon logic demands that she be treated like one of the bad guys so that Rogue can have her big self-affirming battle. Rogue at least begins paying the comatose Carol visits in the hospital, which seems to do both of them some good. Never mind the show’s greatest animation error to date, in which Rogue lovingly touches Carol’s forehead barehanded.

This episode is all about Rogue, and Lenore Zann makes a meal out of it, of course. Meanwhile, the two fights with the Brotherhood, such as they are, just fulfill the Saturday Morning Action Quota and distract you from the fact that you’re watching a story about trauma and abuse. Mystique’s scheme—a twisted attempt to coerce Rogue into obedience—only makes sense from the perspective of the abuser.

The story also focuses pretty much exclusively on women. Rogue, Jean, Storm, Mystique, and Ms. Marvel are the stars here. Had the episode followed the comics a little more closely, we probably would’ve also met Mystique’s wife, Destiny.¹ But the Saturday mornings of 1994 weren’t ready for that (the comics were still just hinting at it). It’ll probably have to wait for a future season of X-Men ‘97.

Stray observations:

• Jubilee and Beast are on the toilet for this one.

• Never try to mug Mystique. She’ll transform into a hideous bug monster and mentally scar you for life, if you’re lucky.

• Mister Sinister appears briefly to tell Mystique that Xavier isn’t with the X-Men, and that the time is nigh to reclaim her daughter. How, oh how, could he know that? Incidentally, no Savage Land interlude this week. Hmm!

• Mystique easily subdues Storm while masquerading as Rogue. I love little interactions like this. No one can take on Storm head-to-head, but subterfuge is another matter. That’s Mystique’s whole deal, and she gains the upper hand in seconds.

• Wolverine barely does anything in this episode but Cal Dodd still gets a few lines, maintaining his streak of appearances in every episode this season.