Returning to the nearly-cancelled books, we come to Rogue.  This is a low-selling book which is dying next issue.  Nonetheless, Marvel promised big developments in this arc, and perhaps surprisingly, they seem to be delivering.  Whether they're developments that anyone particularly wants to see is perhaps a little more debatable, but nobody can deny that the story seems to be trying to shake things up.

For one thing, after thirty-plus years of sterling service, Sunfire appears to be dead.  If he isn't, it still sucks to be him, because they sliced his legs off last issue.  Somebody on this book really doesn't like Sunfire.

Or then again... maybe they do, because this looks suspiciously like an arc designed to give Rogue permanent powers back.  However, rather than just reasserting the ones she had before, she gets to absorb Sunfire's powers (and, of course, his personality) just as he dies.  So, Rogue gets to do something more useful than just run around touching people, and we're back to the days of Rogue sharing her mind with somebody else.  But it isn't Carol Danvers, so at least they're not just hitting the reset button.  If this is really where they're going, then Sunfire's going to end up in a very important, if posthumous, role for months to come.

That's half of it.  The other half plays off the idea that was set up earlier in the arc, where Blindspot wiped the Silver Samurai's memories of the last few years and turned him back into a villain again (by wiping out his memory of all the events that made him reform).  Frankly, it's a slightly contrived idea - even if he no longer has the memories, wouldn't his personality just remain as it was, rather than snapping back to the attitudes he had years before?  Nonetheless, that's the idea we're working with, and having set that up... well, you can probably guess where this is heading.

Yes, Rogue gets her memory of the X-Men erased, and she's back to being a villain again.  Of course, this obviously isn't going to stick, but the interesting point is in how it doesn't stick.  The easy way out is for Blindspot simply to give her the memories back at the end of next issue.  The more complicated way out is that while Blindspot might have erased Rogue's memories, Sunfire's persona is still in there as well, and he remembers a lot of the stuff which Rogue doesn't.  So she gets to stay as an X-Man but with second-hand memories of everything.

I'm not entirely convinced about either approach, although the latter strikes me as the sort of thing Peter Milligan might make work.  Honestly, though, I'm inclined to hope that they run with it, if only because Rogue's been stuck in a rut for years and could well use a change of direction.

Judging it as a story, rather than as a catalyst for future plots... well, it's at least got the nerve to try things that are out of the box, and it's genuinely got me wondering where they're going with this.  On the other hand, the death and mutilation count is a bit too high for it to be truly fun, and Derec Donovan's art is a bit too caricatured and exaggerated for my tastes.  Still, it's undeniably interesting.

Rating: B

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