I actually really enjoyed the writing of this story. Not only did it delve into a forgotten part of Rogue’s past, but it showed the emotional depths of the characters involved, and I think it definitely adds more layers to Rogue’s character, even though she’s already one of the most iconic characters in Marvel Comics.

One of the things I actually find a little annoying with mainstream comics in general, is how freely the concept of forgiveness is used. Granted, I realize that when it comes to the mythology of superheroes, they’re meant to embody and display the most positive of all qualities, that comics are supposed to inspire people, but I feel like when they make forgiveness feel so easy, it lessens how important and even painful forgiveness is. Forgiveness if one of the hardest things a person can do, and it takes far more strength to give it than to ask for it.

And the fact that John couldn’t forgive Rogue demonstrates not only great writing in portraying human character but also demonstrates how forgiveness is such a difficult thing. Not everyone has the strength to do it. And I think Rogue was correct when she was wondering if she was truly there to help him or make herself feel better for what she did. Rogue did wrong, horribly wrong. She can say that she didn’t have control of her powers and all that, but none of that changes the fact that she chose to be there with Mystique for all the wrong reasons. Her powers didn’t make her a criminal back then; her own choices did.

And it was characters like John here that were a big part of my reasons for hating Krakoa. There was a boatload of mutants who had done some horrifically awful things and committed terrible crimes on a lot of people. Any crime and atrocity imaginable, if you threw a fistful of dimes in any direction in Krakoa, they’d hit someone who did one of those things. And while the mutants of Krakoa were busy celebrating their own supremacy, people like John here were kicked to the wayside and forgotten. Like the crimes of people like, say, Mr. Sinister, Mystique, Daken, Gorgon, Pyro, Magneto, Apocalypse, John Greycrow, Sebastian Shaw, and many others, they all got amnesty, while their victims got squat.

I think this was something that was needed as a reminder that while mutants are undeniably always feared and being persecuted, the sword swings both ways. There’s a reason why regular people, like John, fear not just mutants but superpowered people in general. Mutants don’t get a monopoly on being feared and wronged, especially when some of the worst supervillains happen to be mutants.