The Curious Case Of The Shadow Danvers

I was rereading some Australia era X-Men comics over the weekend. The team's first encounter with Genosha also raised some issues for Rogue. With all her powers nullified, Rogue feels completely helpless, to the point she's besieged by the shadows of the minds of the people she's touched over the years. Until Carol Danvers steps in and drives them off. She's stronger, more solid since Rogue took everything of her, and she makes Rogue a deal: She'll get Rogue out of this, but she gets to run the show. Rogue is understandably concerned about the chance Danvers will decide to keep control afterward, but doesn't see another option and agrees.

Turns out Rogue was right to be worried, as Danvers starts taking over on a more regular basis after that*. Danvers even decides to redecorate Rogue's place in the headquarters to suit herself, much to Rogue's consternation. And when she complains, Storm essentially tells her she brought it on herself. Which is true enough, but not at all a helpful thing to say. It's the sort of stupidly blunt comment I'd expect from Logan. Rogue gets all set to leave in a huff, and Danvers takes control again, stating she wants to give Rogue time to cool off. I think it would have been better to let Rogue fly off and calm down, rather than essentially jamming her in trunk of her own mind. That seems likely to only increase the resentment. But hey, I'm not espionage expert Carol Danvers, so what do I know?

The thing that only just occurred to me this weekend was that Carol Danvers was already up and moving around. I don't know why, since I knew about Binary, but I had been assuming that if Carol's mind was manifesting in Rogue's head, then Carol herself was still in a coma. I guess I figured if she was up and about, they would have gotten those memories back to her, and the Carol in Rogue's head would be the same sort of shadow as all the rest. Wikipedia says Xavier got her the memories back, but whatever he did didn't clear her presence from Rogue's mind.

But the whole thing raises a question with me of what are that Carol's rights. She has all the memories, up to a point, of Carol Danvers. She is Carol up to that point. But at the same time, there's a Carol Danvers out walking around that also has all those memories. This isn't a case like Ben Reilly/Peter Parker, where Ben has all of Peter's memories up to a point, but he has his own body (even if it is an exact copy of Peter's, it's a separate entity).

Memory Carol is in someone else's body. Not willingly, but that's how it is. Given that her body is moving around, and it has all the parts of her as well, would that make her no more than a copy at this point. Does she have any right to assert control over Rogue? It isn't as though Carol Danvers ceases to exist when she isn't running Rogue's body. Carol Danvers has her life, so does this one have a right to one taken at the expense of someone else? Kind of makes Memory Carol into a more benevolent version of the Shadow King.

* Something to do with Inferno, which followed on the Genosha arc's heels. I don't know, I skipped those issues. I'm not interested in the crossover that, near as I can tell, demonizes Maddy Pryor so that Cyclops and Jean can have the baby. No thank you.