Did X-Men ’97 Ruin Rogue?

I need a filler today, so while I haven’t watched X-Men ’97 due to lacking Disney Plus, I can break out this video by JesterBell on it and can at least comment on things she said if not the actual series.

This is an attempt to revive the beloved Fox Kids X-Men cartoon, originally produced by Saban Entertainment and revived by Marvel Studios for Disney+. Personally I was more into X-Men: Evolution because it wasn’t like the usual X-fare, which I’m not a fan of. I’m not sure what fans of the comics would think about that show, but there are enough changes that they would have a right to be upset. I don’t need “my” X-Men but I’ll still enjoy the show while acknowledging they didn’t get the source material correct. Though I think there’s enough of the base concept in there to not be as bad as some other adaptations I could mention. JesterBell’s favorite character from that series is Rogue, a former villain turned hero, whose power to absorb memories, energies, and even superpowers was used to put the original Ms. Marvel into a coma for awhile, and Rogue still kept her flight and strength. She’s also had a long, complicated romance with Gambit due to her inability to turn her absorbing power off and thus not be touchable.

From what Jester Belle says in the video, Beau DeMayo’s attempt to push one of his favorite characters led to a shipping on part with Bruce Wayne/Barbara Gordon, except even more creepy. I’ll let the woman who knows the series make the case.

Clearly someone didn’t do their homework, or they would have known Rogue should be too young at the time she met Magneto in the cartoon continuity to be a consort. I haven’t seen the show to confirm that Magneto was indeed a beneficial “victim” of Pet Character Syndrome, though JesterBell does make that case. From her review it does sound like Rogue was taken out of character to make this ship happen. As for Rogue jumping on anybody that would be able to make physical contact, anyone remember this?

For the uninitiated or the forgetful, the person they’re talking about is the Sentry during his controversial funeral in the Sentry: Fallen Son special, who was married at the time and yet according to this story he and Rogue slept together (no telling how often) because they could touch. That’s on top of all the other things Sentry did according to that story, but let’s stay on topic. It’s not the first time a misunderstanding of how Rogue deals with her core wound of not being able to touch many people occurred and it probably won’t be the last. Too many writers see an overview of the character and assume things that runs counter to their character arc. JesterBell would post this follow-up in a community tab post:

Darn it! I wish I had explained this in the video but sometimes the right words don’t come until afterwards:

I can relate. I’ve done that in articles. I had to add stuff to this before post time after I initially wrote it.

The fundamental difference between how Rogue is generally portrayed vs. X-men 97 is Rogue is portrayed as someone who’s trauma over her powers has led her to be more closed off, distrustful, and fearful about relationships in general rather than “ah’ll jump at the first person I could make physical contact with”

It’s why I think someone trying to manipulate her with it would only make her more angry.

In fact the entire reason Rogue didn’t have control over her powers in comics was explained as a kind of trauma response (Cody Robbins straight up died because of her powers in the comics version)

Funny how they always choose the wrong things to take from the comics, isn’t it? What if this season’s arc for Rogue had been overcoming the trauma of hospitalizing Cody (how the cartoon handled it) and Carol Danvers, and finally controlling her powers so she and Gambit could be together? That would get in the way of the love triangle/Magneto shipping–which would be a good thing.

I mentioned how Bruce Timm like to put Bruce and Barbara together because both are “Bat” people or something, and that doesn’t work as well. They had to work to make Dick and Barbara the same age in the comics to get them together, which they also did in the DCAU, and any attempt to put Bruce and Babs together, like Batman Beyond or the unnecessary extra scene in the adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns to explain Barbara ditching Batgirl (in the comics she left to pursue a political solution to Gotham’s problems). Having the showrunner or movie director push their personal fanship is just weird.

So did any of you watch the revival and disagree with JesterBell’s perspective on events, or even confirm them? I’m curious as I probably wouldn’t watch the show even if I had the access. I’m just not into the first series in general (there were specific stories I think I enjoyed back when it came out, like Nightcrawler’s first appearance), but I know what it’s like to have a favorite superhero’s character torn apart by people who don’t understand the characters. Did Magneto come off as DeMayo’s “pet character” and that Rogue was the one to use? Is this another example of not understanding “it was in the comics” doesn’t mean it’s a good idea? Let me know, and go to Jester Belle’s channel (linked to in the article intro) and let her know what you think. Maybe his replacement, if the series continues, will fix some of this.