Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the six hundred and twenty-ninth week where we examine comic book legends and whether they are true or false.

Just like the last few months, one legend today, one tomorrow and one Sunday.

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND:

Rogue was originally meant to be middle-aged.

STATUS:

False

Rogue made her debut in Avengers Annual #10, drawn by Michael Golden and Armando Gil. Here she is in action, taking down Captain America, Thor AND the Vision...

Now, you might notice that the way Michael Golden drew her made it seem as though she was possibly middle-aged. When she ended up joining the X-Men, however, in Uncanny X-Men #171 (by Walter Simonson and Bob Wiacek), she was now drawn like her "real" age...

So the legend is that she was originally middle-aged but then Chris Claremont decided to make her younger when she was no longer a villain and becoming a member of the X-Men (who were all fairly young at the time outside of Cyclops and Wolverine).

According to Golden and Chris Claremont (who wrote her first appearance and he created the character), that was not the case. She was always meant to be a teen. In an article with a Mississippi newspaper, they explained:

Claremont’s only advice to Golden was that the musician and actress Grace Jones should inspire Rogue and that she have white streaks in her hair. The only problem was that Golden had never heard of Jones — this was years before her appearance in the second "Conan the Barbarian" movie or the James Bond film “A View To Kill.”

“Michael came up with a really wicked visual. I took one look at her and thought, ‘Michael nailed it,'” Claremont said, adding that future artists would mistake the white streaks as a sign of age in the teenage character.

A lot of the confusion came from how she was drawn in other appearances outside the X-Men (she appeared in Uncanny X-Men #158 by Dave Cockrum, but that didn't make it clear either way), where artists drew her looking older, but even as they DREW her that way, the STORY was saying that she was young, like in Rom #32...

and Dazzler #22..

So no, Rogue was always meant to be young.


Check out some legends from Legends Revealed:

Did Star Trek: The Next Generation Use Sherlock Holmes Characters in an Episode Not Knowing That the Characters Were Not Yet in the Public Domain?

Did Walt Disney Keep the Actress Who Played Snow White From Taking Other Roles So As To Avoid Ruining the Illusion Behind Snow White?

Was Monopoly Invented as a Tool to Teach People the Evils of Capitalism?

Did the Rolling Stones Almost Not Release “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” Because Keith Richards Thought It Sounded Like Another Song?


Check back Saturday for part 2 of this week's legends!

And remember, if you have a legend that you're curious about, drop me a line at either brianc@cbr.com or cronb01@aol.com!