Gage brings his character study of Rogue to an end here, tying up some loose ends and providing us with a final report, if you will, on her state of mind.
I thought using Mimic as her companion for this issue was a great way to accomplish that goal. Gage has done great stuff with Mimic, both in developing him as a character in his own right but also in using him to show us how far Rogue has come. Here, Gage lets us know that Weapon Omega is soon to be fully healed, freeing Cal to leave the School if he wishes. He asks Rogue for her advice, given that she's traveled a similar road as he has, and her answer is delivered as they quell a prison riot in upstate New York. The problem with this issue is right in that sentence: Rogue is actually delivering the answer for the entire issue. I feel like she just talks constantly, almost to a comically absurd level, like she's reciting pi while attacking villains. Gage has been way too wordy in the last few issues, a problem compounded by the fact that Rogue has been saying the same thing over and over again. I really liked where Gage went with Rogue, but this whole journey of self-actualization stopped being fresh a while ago. He never really moved it to the next level and often had to go to some unbelievable lengths to make it seem like the challenge was still in front of Rogue instead of behind her. As such, I'm not really going to miss this title all that much, given that I think Rogue will be much more challenged as a member of the "Uncanny Avengers" team than she would be in anything that Gage had left to throw at her here. But, looking over Gage's tenure on this title, he's definitely put his mark on Rogue and his work earlier in his run was particularly insightful. It's just time to bring this story to an end.
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