X-Men: The (fan fic) Series

I was looking up the release date of the new novel Rogue Touch which is a Marvel issued, Hyperon published, full length novel centered around Rogue (comes out June 18th in the USA btw), and I came across some more information regarding the book.

Here is what Amazon has listed in its description:

“An interesting take on Rogue, as her powers take her down a path I never would have imagined.” –Chris Claremont, author of Dragon Moon and writer for seventeen years of Uncanny X-Men

Twenty-year-old Anna Marie was just fired for the third time–this time from a bakery. Why can’t she hold a job? Well, for starters, she dresses . . . differently. She looks like a Goth girl to the extreme, her shock of white hair contrasting with her head-to-toe black garb, her face the only skin she chooses to reveal. But Anna Marie doesn’t have a choice. Her skin, her touch, is a deadly weapon that must be concealed. She accidentally put her first boyfriend, Cody, in a coma when they kissed. Horrified, she ran away to Jackson, Mississippi, where she’s been living alone in a cramped apartment and scraping by on food stamps.

Then she meets otherworldly James and everything changes. He’s just like her–completely alone and also on the run. To elude James’s mysterious and dangerous family, the pair takes to the highway. As they cross the country, their simmering attraction intensifies and they both open up about their secretive pasts. James reveals that his true name is Touch and he christens Anna Marie Rogue. But with danger at their heels, they know they can’t run forever. Rogue must decide if she’ll unleash her devastating powers once again, which she swore never to do, in order to save the only person who seems truly to understand and accept her.

“A lost chapter from Rogue’s past, told with elegance and conviction and attention to detail. Really entertaining.” –Mike Carey, author of the Felix Castor novels and writer of X-Men: Legacy

Let’s start with the quote from Chris Claremont, Rogue’s creator. I’m not sure if he’s being genuine that this new take on Rogue is something fresh, or if that’s just thinly veiled sarcasm. I’m going with sarcasm.

Then we get to the first part of the blurb which is basically what we’ve already seen before but a few more details. We now know Rogue is 20 years old in the book, working at a bakery (which, I guess, is like a step up from a diner which is canon?), she has the style of Evo-Rogue and she’s living in a small apartment (which Chellerbelle did in her Thieves Guild fan fiction series).

The second part of the blurb just kinda pisses me off. I had hoped James was just Gambit using a pseudonym but apparently it’s some mutant who is PRETTY MUCH GAMBIT minus the red eyes, and apparently he’s called Touch. Seriously? Why is he called Touch? Does he touch things and they, dunno, explode (like Gambit, if I hadn’t made that any more obvious)? I could accept James being some other love interest as long as he was his own character, but to make him so blatantly like Gambit and not be Gambit? That’s just… I haven’t got the words.

Lastly, we get a quote from Mike Carey, who is one of Rogue’s better writers, and he seems to have a lot nicer things to say about the book, though it seems a little stiff to me. Especially as the publishers are quoting two names Rogue fans are going to instantly know and respect, as if they are trying really hard to sell the book.

Oh well, I’m still going to buy it anyway, I just hope I don’t end up breaking something when I throw it.