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Madame Rouge

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Madame Rouge
Madame Rouge, Art by John Byrne
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearanceDoom Patrol #86
(March 1964)
Created byArnold Drake
In-story information
Alter egoLaura De Mille
Place of originFrance
Team affiliationsBrotherhood of Evil
Black Lantern Corps
Abilities

Madame Rouge is a fictional supervillain appearing in DC Comics, first appearing in Doom Patrol #86 (March 1964).[1] The character was created by Arnold Drake.[2]

Michelle Gomez portrays the live-action version of the character in the third season of the HBO Max series Doom Patrol.

Fictional character biography

Laura De Mille was originally a French stage actress. After an automobile accident, she developed a dual good/evil split personality. At this point, she attracted the notice of The Brain and his associate Monsieur Mallah. With Mallah's help, the Brain performed surgery on De Mille that was, from his perspective, successful, sublimating her good personality and allowing her evil personality to remain dominant. As Madame Rouge, De Mille became the only female member of the Brotherhood of Evil, and assisted the Brotherhood in its continuing conflicts against the Doom Patrol. At first, Madame Rouge was simply a master of disguise; subsequent surgery by the Brain eventually gave her the ability to alter her appearance and stretch her limbs.

Later, Rouge's split personality manifested again, with her good personality occasionally appearing. Rouge was romantically linked to the Doom Patrol's leader, Niles Caulder ("The Chief"), who was able to help Rouge overcome her evil side and ally with the Doom Patrol.

Ultimately, Rouge's mind reverted to its evil state, causing her to seek vengeance against both the Brotherhood of Evil and the Doom Patrol for their previous interference. She was apparently successful in murdering both groups.[3] Years later, Robotman and the Teen Titans tracked down Rouge and her ally, General Zahl. Beast Boy (then Changeling) killed Rouge, although at the moment of her death, her good side apparently manifested; she forgave Changeling and called to Niles, her apparent true love.

Madame Rouge's daughter, Gemini, also a shapeshifter, appeared years later to seek revenge against Beast Boy.[4]

In 2004, DC writer John Byrne restarted the Doom Patrol series and declared that the previous history had never happened. In spite of this, Madame Rouge was a zombie summoned by Brother Blood to keep the Titans from freeing Kid Eternity in Teen Titans #31 (2006). Since then, Byrne's reboot of the Doom Patrol franchise was overturned as a continuity glitch created by Superboy-Prime. As such, Madame Rouge is still dead and her history has been left intact. However, her daughter Gemini has taken up wearing her mother's costume and is a member of the new Brotherhood of Evil. In Blackest Night, Madame Rouge has been identified as one of the deceased entombed below the Hall of Justice.[5] Madame Rouge's corpse is revived as a Black Lantern during the event.[6]

Powers and abilities

Originally, Madame Rouge was a master of disguise.[7] Later, the Brain gave her ability to stretch any part of her body to incredible lengths, and could alter her facial features to disguise herself as any person.[8]

In the Teen Titans animated series, Rouge retains her abilities of disguise and stretching, but her powers appear to be greater. She can reform her body, repairing any damage yet seen, can "flow" through fences, alter her color, and has sufficient strength to throw people around like dolls or smash brick walls with her stretched limbs. She can mimic voices and use her body to surround and smother her opponents. She can be hurt by flame or frozen by cold, and has trouble maintaining a disguise in high temperatures, but appears to be able to repair damage simply by shapeshifting into an undamaged form.

In the animated series she could extend her limbs to great lengths for surprise attacks such as seizing an enemy in her arms, and at speeds that allowed her to strike Kid Flash.

In other media

Television

Animation

Madame Rouge appears as a major villainess in the Teen Titans animated series, voiced by Hynden Walch. Her accent in the series is not French, but sounds more Eastern European or Slavic, and her costume is red instead of blue, which is consistent with her name ("rouge" is French for "red"). As the most conventionally super-powered of the core Brotherhood of Evil members, the Brain views Rouge as one of his most valuable agents and sends her to take out Wildebeest, Hotspot, Kid Flash, and Robin, all of whom she personally defeats in some form or other, but is shown to be extremely vulnerable to Jinx's "bad-luck" powers, which led to her undoing. Personality-wise, Rouge has been shown to be a rather cold, brutal, and merciless fighter, and is also quite stern, arrogant, and somewhat sadistic, taking pleasure in physically and emotionally tormenting anyone she seems to view as "children". She does not think much of Jinx at first, as she patronizes and demeans Jinx, the other H.I.V.E. Five members, and their base, believing them to be "amateurs"; however, once Jinx attacks her, the ferocity of her powers impresses her, and claims that they'll "be in-touch". Along with the rest of the Brotherhood, she was flash-frozen into an ice sculpture at the end of "Titans Together" – by Jinx, Hot Spot and Wildebeest, all of whom she had personally antagonized.

The DC Nation animated short The Spy Within the Doom Patrol features Madame Rouge, voiced by Debra Wilson. She infiltrates the team by disguising herself as the Chief. Having been discovered by Negative Man, she attacks the team and succeeds in incapacitating them.

Madame Rouge appears in Teen Titans Go! episode "Beast Girl", voiced again by Hynden Walch. She plotted to replace the world's pizza supply with pierogies and borscht. Madame Rouge gave the Teen Titans a hard time with her abilities until she was defeated by Beast Girl and the rest of the Opposite Gender Teen Titans.

Live-action

Madame Rouge will make her live-action debut in the third season of Doom Patrol, portrayed by Michelle Gomez. In the series, Madame Rouge arrives in a time machine with a very specific mission that she cannot remember and warns the Doom Patrol about the Brotherhood of Evil and the Sisterhood of Dada.[9]

Miscellaneous

References

  1. ^ Rovin, Jeff (1987). The Encyclopedia of Supervillains. New York: Facts on File. pp. 197–198. ISBN 0-8160-1356-X.
  2. ^ Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 189. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
  3. ^ Beatty, Scott (2008). "Doom Patrol". In Dougall, Alastair (ed.). The DC Comics Encyclopedia. New York: Dorling Kindersley. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-7566-4119-1. OCLC 213309017.
  4. ^ Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Manning, Matthew K.; McAvennie, Michael; Wallace, Daniel (2019). DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle. DK Publishing. p. 278. ISBN 978-1-4654-8578-6.
  5. ^ Blackest Night #1
  6. ^ Blackest Night #3
  7. ^ Doom Patrol (vol. 1) #86
  8. ^ Doom Patrol (vol. 1) #90
  9. ^ Del Rosario, Alexandra (September 1, 2021). "'Doom Patrol': Michelle Gomez's Madame Rouge Makes Her Time Travel Grand Entrance In Season 3 Trailer". Deadline. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
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