Madame Rouge

Madame Rouge is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, first appearing in ''Doom Patrol'' #86 (March 1964). The character was created by Arnold Drake.

Michelle Gomez portrays the live-action version of the character starting 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. 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.

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'' (vol. 3) #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. Madame Rouge's corpse is revived as a Black Lantern during the event.

Powers and abilities

Originally, Madame Rouge was a master of disguise. 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.

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 ''Teen Titans'', voiced by Hynden Walch. Her accent in the series is not French, but Russian, and her costume is red instead of blue, which is consistent with her name ("rouge" is French for "red"). As with other 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. Rouge personally takes pleasure in physically and emotionally tormenting anyone she seems to view as "children". Along with the rest of the Brotherhood, she was flash-frozen into an ice sculpture at the end of "Titans Together".

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 the ''Teen Titans Go!'' episode "Beast Girl", voiced again by Hynden Walch.

Live-action

Madame Rouge makes her live-action debut in the third season of ''Doom Patrol'', portrayed by Michelle Gomez. In the series, she 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.

Miscellaneous

* Madame Rouge appears in ''Justice League Unlimited'' #31 and ''Justice League Adventures'' #6.
* Madame Rouge first appeared in a flashback in issue #28 of ''Teen Titans Go!'' and in full in issue #46.

References

External links

Comics 101 article regarding the Doom Patrol

{{Teen Titans

Comics characters introduced in 1964
Doom Patrol
DC Comics female supervillains
Fictional actors
Fictional characters who can stretch themselves
DC Comics characters who are shapeshifters
DC Comics metahumans
DC Comics titles
Characters created by Arnold Drake
Fictional French people
Fictional female assassins
Fictional Russian people
Fictional characters with dissociative identity disorder