Maybe the Other Danvers Was The Shadow

I had a post last week about the Carol Danvers psyche inside Rogue's head. Over the weekend, I came across a discussion of A + X, which apparently had a story where Carol willingly let Rogue borrow her powers. This being the Internet, a long discussion ensued about whether Carol would agree to such a thing, and what was the actual status of their whole relationship.

The key point is one of the comments had a link to a page on Uncanny X-Men dot net, and the way they describe the situation made me want to revisit the idea.

They way it's described there, the Carol within Rogue's mind is the real deal, her 'true essence' as they put it. I'm not sure what this means for the memories in Carol's physical body. Are they just a copy Xavier made from what was in Rogue's head, or were they stored somewhere within Carol's mind, a backup of sorts?

I vaguely remember reading somewhere (I think it was an Avengers comic), that while Carol got some of her memories back, she didn't feel any emotional connection to them. They might as well have happened to another person. Which is in stark contrast to the Carol in Rogue's mind, who quite clearly still felt things with regards to her past. We see it in the mourning of her brother, her concern for Logan during their time in Genosha. Those past events still mean something to her.

It's interesting, because it suggests Rogue took more than just Carol's memories and powers. She took some vital emotional aspect that couldn't be restored along with the memories. Carol lost more than just the raw data of her experiences, she lost the personal aspects that color that data. The flavor, if you will. Maybe it was the writer's use of the word "essence", but it makes me think she took Carol's soul as well. That would raise the question of whether Carol Danvers herself is running around without a soul, which doesn't seem to be the case.

I guess if we were going to discuss souls, we'd have to try and define the term, and I don't know really how to get into that. Fortunately, we're discussing it a comic book sense, so we can fudge things a little, maybe. It's something separate from life force. Layla Miller was able to resurrect Strong Guy, but he's minus a soul. I believe he's shown a somewhat concerning lack of empathy for people outside their group, but other than that, seems to be getting along just fine. There's also the fact that when Rogue went through the Siege Perilous, she and Carol were separated. Which meant there were two Carol Danvers out there for awhile. But Rogue and the Carol inside her found they were still sharing a life force, one which was insufficient for two bodies. Magneto ended up stepping in and saving Rogue, and I guess that means that Carol "died", for whatever that means.

So I think we can differentiate between souls and life force in Marvel comics, at least. You can still be up and moving around without the former, but not the latter. I don't what it means for the Carol Danvers who was Binary. Her situation wasn't precisely the same as Guido's. She could still feel things (like anger at Rogue, or the X-Men for protecting Rogue), but didn't necessarily feel any connection to her restored memories. It could be a case where the absence of a soul affects everyone differently, or it could be a matter of the circumstances. Guido died and was brought back. I'd guess his soul is in the afterlife somewhere, not unlike what happened with Oliver Queen when Parallax Hal brought him back to life. If we go with the idea Carol's soul was in Rogue, then hers was ripped out of her, while she was still alive.

There's also a question of what happened when Magneto killed the life-force sharing Carol. Did her psyche/essence/whatever, find it's way back to her original body. It doesn't seem to have gone back inside Rogue's mind. Whatever remnant of Carol is in there was depicted as being no stronger than any of the other shadows left behind. Of course, Carol was still talking about lacking a connection her past long after that (the Avengers comic I mentioned was post-Heroes Return, Mags killed Carol a year or so after Acts of Vengeance). If her soul made it's way back to her, it took its sweet time.