PART 4 OF 4: THE TWO CAROL STORIES, THROUGH MUIR ISLAND

PART 4 OF 4: THE TWO CAROL STORIES, THROUGH MUIR ISLAND After Carol leaves Earth, there are two related strands to keep separate: Carol herself, living as Binary, and the Carol personality within Rogue. Confusing them turns later X-Men scenes into a completely different story. Uncanny X-Men #182 makes the imprint's continuing emotional life especially clear. A call from Michael Rossi brings Carol's memories and responses to the surface in Rogue. Rossi belongs to Carol's past as an intelligence partner and lover. Rogue rescues him while slipping into Carol's identity, and the encounter forces her to confront the personal life she has taken. This is not Binary returning from space. The distinction becomes more complicated in the Australia period. By #244, the Carol persona and Rogue are struggling over their shared body and living space. Carol has redecorated their room; Rogue wants Psylocke to remove her. The discussion also returns to Rogue's abuse in Genosha and the persona's efforts to help her cope. Neither the conflict nor the help erases the violent circumstances that joined them. There is room here to take Rogue's distress seriously without turning Carol's surviving personality into an inconvenience the story ought to delete. The X-Men are dealing with two claims to a life in one body, and they cannot make that problem fair simply by choosing the person they know best. The Siege Perilous finally separates Rogue from the Carol manifestation. In #269, the separated persona ends up on Muir Island, is taken over by the Shadow King and attacks Rogue in the Savage Land. Their survival is tied to a shared supply of life energy. Rogue refuses to kill her; Magneto intervenes and chooses to save Rogue, destroying the Carol manifestation. That is the end of this manifestation, not the death of Carol Danvers/Binary. It also is not a scene in which Carol herself forgives Rogue, receives her old feelings back or has her life restored. None of those conclusions follows from what happens to the imprint. Meanwhile, Binary's own life continues with the Starjammers. Xavier eventually joins their life in space, and New Mutants #50 brings Carol into the rescue of his students and the battle against the Magus. Leaving Earth has not ended her willingness to help people connected to it. The 1990 X-Men: Spotlight on Starjammers miniseries also belongs before this cutoff. It is written by Terry Kavanagh with Dave Cockrum's art. Carol is part of the struggle involving Deathbird and the Phalkon, and her conduct is not always reassuring. In #1, her impatience and willingness to use force against the insectoid inhabitants bring her into conflict with Raza's judgment. In #2, Zenith attempts to absorb her power. She increases the energy beyond what he can withstand and kills him. Carol does not know that Zenith is Raza's brother. Raza had claimed the right to kill Zenith himself; his people's blood rites now demand vengeance against Carol. This is a specific conflict of loyalty and obligation, not simply a bereaved brother mourning an innocent. Cosmic freedom does not exempt Carol from responsibility for the force she uses. A full account has to include this alongside the stories in which other people wrong her. At the end of the Muir Island Saga, Carol remains Binary. The loss of the Carol manifestation in Rogue has happened; a neat resolution of Carol's own damaged relationship with her past has not. Her story at this point contains professional pride, ambition, friendship, coercion, anger, emotional disconnection, extraordinary power and consequential choices. All of that belongs in the picture. The woman who wanted to reach the stars is still there, and so is the question of how she will live once she gets there.