Due to the nature of her unique mutant powers, Rogue has had several different abilities over the years:
Mutant powers
Rogue possesses the
mutant ability to
absorb psyches and abilities of individuals or several beings at once, though the experience can be confusing and disorienting for her. Rogue
can absorb the memories, knowledge, talents, personality, and physical abilities (whether superhuman or not) of another human being (or members of some sentient alien races) through physical contact of her skin with the skin of that person (sometimes she also duplicates in herself physical characteristics of her victim). The victim's abilities and memories are absorbed for a one second to 60 second ratio of contact.
The victim loses those abilities and memories for exactly the amount of time that Rogue possesses them. In the case of superpowered individuals,
she also absorbs any extra abilities they might possess. This absorption usually
leaves its victim weakened, and sometimes unconscious. Their
powers may also be temporarily weakened or removed. Rogue cannot touch another human being without absorbing their memories, abilities, and superhuman powers (if any) and rendering them unconscious. However, evidence suggests that
Rogue's inability to control her powers is psychological in nature. During the times when the Ms. Marvel personality would overtake her psyche, she was able to touch people without any absorption occurring. This fact has not been reconciled since.
This transfer is usually temporary, lasting for a period of time relative to how long contact is maintained, but
if Rogue holds on to her victim for too long, the transfer may become permanent, leaving the victim nearly dead. Most often this process happens instantly when Rogue touches someone, but certain extraordinarily powerful beings have proven resistant to Rogue's power, and she may only share part of their memories and power.
As Rogue is absorbing the total psyche of a person, there is a risk of a personality overwhelming her and taking control of her body. It has also been shown that even though Rogue forgets the memories she has absorbed when a psyche returns to its body, remnants, or 'echoes', of the personalities of victims whose memories she has absorbed remain buried in her subconscious indefinitely, and while there is little to no risk of those personalities overwhelming her like the Ms. Marvel personality could, they can occasionally make their presences known.
Ms. Marvel powers
As a young woman, Rogue permanently absorbed certain superhuman powers and the psyche of the original
Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers). This provided her with
superhuman strength, stamina, durability, and the ability of flight. Rogue also
gained a psychic "seventh sense" that enables her to anticipate an enemy's move subconsciously during battle. When she possessed Carol Danvers' psyche, her "double" consciousness made her
highly resistant to telepathic probes, which was said to have been a byproduct of two minds existing in one body and/or Carol Danvers' Kree physiology. Rogue could also draw upon the
combat and espionage training of Carol Danvers by allowing her alternate personality, a duplicate of Danvers', to dominate her conscious mind. She could also survive unprotected in outer space, due to the Kree physiology.
'X-Treme' powers
During the
Maximum Security miniseries, Rogue absorbed an injured
Cadre K girl named Z'Cann. The girl held on longer than necessary, using her telepathy to boost the process and because of this (perhaps because she had absorbed a fluid Skrull physiology) Rogue mutated further,
gaining the ability to 'recall' the powers of anyone she had ever absorbed before, though she could not control when or which of these powers surfaced. For a short time Rogue also had a Skrull appearance, scanned as though she had Skrull DNA and had their
shapeshifting powers, but these soon faded and she returned to her normal appearance.
Through meditation, Rogue learned how to suppress the random manifestations of most of these abilities, but found herself with
Wolverine's claws and healing factor, and
Cyclops' optic blasts for a time (she had to wear ruby quartz glasses), while also still retaining her mutant and Ms. Marvel powers.
Later, Sage used her own mutant abilities to 'jumpstart' Rogue's power, giving her the control to manifest any ability she had ever absorbed, whenever she wished to. Though Z'Cann was a telepath, Rogue never displayed this power (she did manifest
telepathy, but it was with the
Phoenix energy form, so it was most likely an echo of Jean Grey's powers).