Rogue possesses the superhuman ability to absorb the memories, knowledge, talents, personality, and physical abilities of another human being and members of some sentient alien races through physical contact of her skin with the skin of the other person. The victim's abilities and memories are absorbed for a time sixty times longer than the amount of time Rogue was in physical contact with that person, but can last indefinitely with prolonged contact. The victim loses his or her abilities and memories for exactly the length of time that Rogue possesses them. Due to unknown factors, Rogue has permanently absorbed certain superhuman powers from Polaris which has given her the ability to manipulate the magnetic spectrum, allowing her to fly and augmenting her strength.

Little is known of Rogue's past before being delivered to Magneto and the X-Men by Mystique. She was found wandering the countryside in Alabama where she had apparently gotten into a fight with a fellow mutant named Polaris and absorbed her memories and powers. How or why this happened is unknown but the absorption of Polaris' memories left Rogue with no knowledge of her own past. Through one of his spies in, Magneto discovered that Apocalypse coveted the young girl's extremely powerful abilities and had already tried to abduct Rogue. As such, he requested that Mystique bring her to the X-Men.

It was also Mystique that convinced her to join the X-Men. Her first day as an X-Man, the Horsemen attacked Cape Citadel in hopes of taking control of the United States' Nuclear Defense Arsenal. While the rest of the X-Men went to stop Apocalypse's minions, Rogue was left behind with the Scarlet Witch who stayed to take care of the other students and the school in case the X-Men failed in their mission. Unknown to Magneto, Apocalypse was using the attack by his Horsemen as a distraction. With their base in Wundagore now undefended, Apocalypse unleashed his newest weapon, his son Nemesis, to destroy the X-Men's headquarters. Wanda fought to save the young mutants, including Rogue, and though she succeeded in fending off Nemesis, it ultimately cost the Scarlet Witch her life. Wanda's last request was that Rogue be a friend to her father Magneto who had a great burden and needed to feel love.

Rogue moved her way up the ranks of Magneto's team and became one of his most trusted X-Men. During this time Rogue would become involved with the X-Man named Gambit, but that relationship would go sour although the two of them were an unofficial item for quite some time. Meanwhile, Rogue was also spending a great deal of time with Magneto. She was initially only keeping her promise to the Scarlet Witch, but Rogue's feelings began to grow stronger. Though Gambit was ready for a commitment, Rogue was confused, torn by her emotions for Magneto. Gambit had spoken with Magneto on several occasions discussing the possibility of working around her powers and, after much contemplation, Magneto was able to find a means that would allow Rogue to touch another person. However, the method was reliant on their magnetic powers and, as such, only allowed Rogue to come into contact with Magneto. When Magneto showed her that this was possible, Gambit witnessed their shared touch and became hurt and angry, lashing out at both of them.

Soon after this, the X-Men's new base in New Mexico was attacked by the Wolverine who cornered the two men and, acting on instinct alone, Rogue chose to save Magneto and not Gambit, though Gambit would defeat the Wolverine. In the end, the rapport between Rogue and Gambit ended when she decided to stay at Magneto's side and Gambit chose to leave the X-Men. Rogue and Magneto would later marry and have a son together.

Shortly after the discovery of Bishop and an alternate reality where Charles Xavier lived to lead the X-Men, Blink and Sunfire returned to the X-Men's latest base in Westchester with reports of a cullings in Chicago. Rather than let them return by themselves, Rogue assembled a group of X-Men to stop the cullings. While there, Rogue was unable to prevent Sabretooth from going on a suicide mission against Holocaust, the Horseman responsible for the cullings.

When the X-Men finally caught up to Sabretooth, he had already been taken out of commission by Holocaust. Siphoning some of Morph's mutant power, Rogue was able to get close enough to Holocaust to try and absorb his power, but was nearly killed in that failed attempt. Again, with the aid of Morph, she was reable to regain consciousness and this time unleashed a barrage of attacks that cracked Holocaust's armor. The coward teleported himself away as soon as he began to lose the fight and Rogue would have joined him had Iceman not shown up to stop her.

Back at the X-Men's Westchester base, Rogue would discover her husband and son Charles had been taken by Apocalypse and his forces. Rogue led a squad of X-Men to Apocalypse's capital in New York and saved her son by killing his kidnapper, the X-Ternal traitor, Guido Carosella. After the X-Men defeated Apocalypse, Rogue was re-united with her husband and the three of them embraced as they stood at ground zero of the Human High Council's pre-emptive nuclear strike on North America and waited for the end, but it never came.