Why Starfish? Part 1

I'm going to use a series of these posts to talk about how the character of Starfish came about, probably more for my own posterity, but it may be interesting trivia for those who want to know how ideas are often formed. It all pretty much started when I wanted to make a pitch to Marvel's now defunct Epic line for a Rogue solo series a few years back. I was getting a little frustrated at how her portrayal was shaping up ever since she and Gambit became an item over in X-Men. She went from being this southern rebel baddie fighting on a good guy team to this simpering lovestruck belle always bemoaning to touch her beau. I wanted to get her back to her namesake. WHY is she called Rogue? I constructed a story where she rescues a terminally ill child from a hospital fire. The girl turns out to be a mutant too, a once powerful mutant with Carol Danvers-like powers. The girl's last act is to touch Rogue before she dies, in a hope she will in some way live on. Because Rogue totally absorbs her powers and personality, it restores her flight, superstrength, etc... It also restores her sense of youth and she goes on a spree to right the wrongs she sees in the world around her. This is, after all, how a child sees the world, black and white, good and bad. It's why we like the idea of superheroes in the first place. The conflict comes in that it's not a black and white world. If there was someone flying around, and you know, stopping wars and such, you'd have a problem with The Powers That Be, those interested in keeping the status quo. A superhero would be besieged by governments, they might even be labelled a terrorist.
Alas, the pitch never came to be. But the idea of a rebellious teenager flying around upsetting "the way things are" kept buzzing around my head like the sound of a jet engine.