When I was around 10 or 11, I decorated the door of my room with two individual Gambit and Rogue posters. In retrospect, I feel it’s kinda unique that I had a female super-heroin protecting the entrance to my room. Most young boys don’t have female characters idolized on their wall until their teens, when they have gratuitous bikini calendars they ogle (thankfully, I never fell into this lecherousness). Rogue was never an object. She simply wouldn’t allow that. That’s why I think she is one of the coolest female super-heroes of all time.
The original Rogue mini-series from 1995 was the first female stand-alone comic series I ever read (Hey, like the cover states, we demanded it!). The story explores Rogue’s torturous past growing up in Mississippi when her mutant power first manifested, and the ominous kiss that put her boyfriend Cody in a lifelong coma. After getting in an argument with her on again/ off again boyfriend Gambit, Rouge makes her annual trip to visit Cody in the hospital, where she confronted by the Assassins Guild. Gambit’s ex-wife Belladonna had already kidnapped Cody to take revenge on Rogue. Talk about soap opera drama! The art and writing is very 90s, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for the mini series.
The Rogue poster also still hangs on the wall in my old room at my mom’s apartment. I’m a big fan of the character to this day, especially with Mike Carey’s run where he made her X-Men team leader in the collection titled Supernovas. In fact, Rogue recently gained control over her mutant absorption powers and she has become twice the bad girl. The Shakespearian romance with Gambit doesn’t hurt her appeal for me either.
-Jon
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One of my favorite bookstores in St. Louis. Star Clipper offers not only the best selection of comic books and graphic novels in the city, but also a cornucopia of art, design and pop-culture related books and magazines. 
Who are you, Jon?! Rogue? Worst southern accent in the biz, overplayed the “no touching” thing in every issue, that ginormous hair? She looked like a Waffle House waitress on her way home from Jazzercize class.
That said, it’s not like the X-Men at the time had a true paragon of womanhood (after Storm, of course, whom Jim already covered). Jean Grey? Always dying, or a clone, or a dying clone. Rachel Summers? Psycho haunted by her future past. Kitty Pryde? Changed her name to Shadowcat, left the team, pioneered Madonna’s fake-English accent and became a quasi-ninja with a dragon, a.k.a., the X-Men’s resident poetryslam expert.
I can’t think of a female Marvel hero who wasn’t a man’s idea of “interestingly flawed” at the time. Wasp? Validated herself by the men in her life. Moondragon? Daddy issues galore. Tigra? Russ Myers’ idea of a superhero (cat woman who only wears a bikini). Scarlett Witch? A non-entity for years. Somebody help me out with this, please. Hellcat, maybe? Jocasta? I will not consider female Captain Marvel as a serious contender.
Black Widow, in certain creative teams’ hands, was actually believable, likable and strong. Same for Valkyrie (DeMatteis always seemed to do her justice in the Defenders). Oh, and later-period She-Hulk, when she doesn’t have all the answers but she’s comfortable with who she is, was one of the best storylines Marvel ever did with any hero. Oh, and Misty Knight in the 70s — she showed Iron Fist what was what all the time, save him and Luke Cage, and she still calls the shots in that relationship. And she had her own non-fashion model career, a .357 magnum and a bionic arm. Misty Knight wins this with her flesh hand tied behind her strong back.
And then there’s Aunt May. Completely loving role model for Peter, still a sexual being (almost married J. Jonah at age 114, and that wasn’t her last beau), more unkillable than Ultimates Wolverine (she needed a serious operation due to her age in the first year of Spiderman, but she’s still here), a constant source of good and inspiration — she may be the best hero in the Marvel Universe.