Some Nerd Girl

‘Going Rogue’ is part of a multi-post series where the writers of Some Nerd Girl share their Origin Stories – in other words, when and how did the nerdening happen?!

This is where I tell you how I became a Nerd Girl.

Some people are born great and some have greatness thrust upon them. But I truly believe becoming a nerd was my destiny. It was unavoidable.

I was fossil hunting with my father since I was old enough to walk, learning about crystals, sediment layers, and geology. I also learned to love plants and nature from my father’s gardening obsessions. And I have always loved space, dinosaurs, time travel, robots and diseases. Even as a very young child.

I learned to read before I ever even started kindergarten. Do you know what kindergarten is like when you can read a novel and the rest of the class is still learning letters? It is boring as f*ck.

Thankfully, I liked to read and spent my class time occupying myself with books. I quickly found that as long as I completed the work, answered when called upon, and didn’t disrupt the class, nobody really cared what I did. So I read. All day. Everyday. For 13 years of school.

It was only a matter of time until I read every book in the children’s section of our public library and moved up to the adult books. I was 10 when that happened. It was a glorious day.

Maybe I would have just been your average book worm had I not discovered comics. Maybe I would not have become the nerd I am now. But, I did discover them. I did a post about getting into comics here. But after consulting with my brother, I’ve gotten the deeper story.

Once upon a time in 1992, there was a kick ass cartoon called X-Men. I was never a kid that liked TV. I always preferred reading. TV was loud and obnoxious. Books were quiet and imaginative.

I watched a few shows. Fraggle Rock. Chip and Dale. Pinwheel. That kind of thing. But my brother T and sister J were all about TV. They watched almost every kids’ show that we could get on our antennae. One day I walked in on them watching X Men. It was another loud cartoon that had people fighting in skin tight outfits.

But for some reason it captured my attention and I sat down to watch it. What I remember most about that episode was Rogue. And I loved her.

She had amazing hair, a strong southern accent, and a sarcastic attitude. I immediately wanted to know more about her. I mean, she was super strong, and pretty, and could freaking fly!

The more I watched the show, the more I learned about her. She came from a broken home and had shitty parents. I could relate. She didn’t like being touched, which I could relate to even more. Never mind that her touching people caused them pain or death. I could relate!

We happened to live a few blocks from a comic book store at that time and one block from the library. I began spending nearly all my free time at one of those two places.

My love of Rogue quickly turned into an obsession with the X-Men. I started collecting their trading cards. And then bought the aforementioned hat. I already loved to read and comics were an easy transition.

But one thing that hasn’t changed is my love for Rogue. She was a fantastic character. She was interesting in a way that so few female characters are allowed to be, even nowadays.

I mean, she started out bad. She puts the first boy she kisses into a coma then runs away from her abusive father and joins the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. During that time she kills Ms. Marvel and absorbs all her power. Horrified by her actions (and battling Ms. Marvel’s personality) she runs away from the second abusive home in her life and finds Professor X and the X-Men.

She still can’t touch anyone. She still feels guilt at the things she has done. She spends the rest of her life using Ms. Marvel’s powers to do good in the world. And she tries very hard to avoid using her own natural powers.

People like to talk about how Jean Grey has so little control over her powers. And that is true. But Rogue? She cannot utilize her original powers at all. She keeps herself fully covered. She cannot even kiss someone for fear of permanently hurting them. Jean Grey has poor control. Rogue has zero control.

Now I haven’t read her comics in many years and I am sure a lot has happened since then. But I am talking about the original character that I loved all those years ago.

She is complex and interesting and sometimes her good intentions go awry. She messes up, she hurts people. She has an attitude that is not all sugar and spice. She has a love interest in Gambit that she can never be with. How can I not love a character like that?

I outgrew my love for X-Men and Marvel in general. Don’t get me wrong; I watch the movies. But I have issues with Marvel and Stan Lee specifically. I moved on to other things in the comic book world. And I am sure I will be sharing those loves with you all soon enough.That is one of the overarching wonderful things about being a nerd – there is so much out there to love!

Maurnas is the barely anonymous alias of a reclusive Floridian fangirl. She has an alleged humor blog at cursitivity.WordPress.com and can also be found at maurnas@cursitivity on Twitter. She writes almost as much as she reads but has done nothing with her debatable talents thus far other than all the blogging and tweeting and writing.