28 Is Rogue's inability to control her powers psychological in nature?
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This article is from the X-Men Comic Books FAQ, by Kate the Short (racmx@yahoo.com) with numerous contributions by others.
28 Is Rogue's inability to control her powers psychological in nature?
Probably, although the real issue is what "psychological" problems she
might have had. The most popular theory is that Rogue suffered some form
of physical abuse in her youth, causing her to subconsciously keep her
powers on all the time to prevent it from happening again. Skids'
problem deactivating her force field was revealed in X-Factor #16 to be
a result of her father's physical abuse of herself and her mother, and
the same logic is typically applied to Rogue's problem.
However, the problem with Rogue's powers may just be a lack of practice.
Steven Seagle in UXM #354 had Rogue giving mouth-to-mouth resucitation
to Joseph, and she was able to partially control her absorption power in
the process. At the time she claimed that since she was never allowed to
use her powers except when needed in combat, she never had a chance to
learn control, a rather obvious and clever solution to this longtime
problem.
Rogue's unexpected control over her powers isn't actually new, either;
even prior to the Carol Danvers event Rogue could control her absorption
to some extent (see Dazzler, for example). There is one panel in UXM
#239 that is used to support this; Carol, having taken over Rogue's body
after the fight with Nimrod, touches Betsy on the shoulder. When asked,
Chris Claremont confirmed it was intended to indicate that Carol could
control Rogue's power, even though Rogue couldn't. In addition, the X-
Men '97 Annual portrays the Gamesmaster as able to "keep her power in
check" by using his own. Since the Gamesmaster's powers are solely
telepathic, this indicates Rogue's real problem is solely a matter of
mental control.
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