Gambit: The Wild Card Superhero

This article is about one of my favorite superheroes, (currently). Although he has been around since 1990, which I guess by comic book standards does make him pretty current. If you’re into comics and you are a fan of the comic book series X-MEN, then you are no doubt already familiar with the character of GAMBIT.

Actually, his real name is REMY LEBEAU, but he has had various names throughout his inauguration into the series—The King of Thieves, The Ragin’ Cajun, Thief of Hearts.

In this article, I intend to divulge my knowledge of this character and in doing so hopefully give you the reader an appreciation of the character, or at least pique some interest, and make a few recommendations as to story lines and books that will give you some insight to the character.

First, a little bit about the comic book series X-MEN. Even though by now, many are familiar with the movies and the premise of the series, I apologize if some of this article comes off as redundant. If not? Enjoy.

X-MEN is a comic book series it was created in the mid-60s by MARVEL COMICS and the late great STAN LEE, the innovator of many of the titles that encompass the MARVEL Comics Universe. The series revolves around a group of superheroes who unlike other characters in MARVEL Comics such as SPIDER-MAN, THE HULK, and THE FANTASTIC FOUR did not gain their superpowers by accident or some freak occurrence. Instead, the heroes, as well as villains in the series, are known as MUTANTS—a man, or woman who is born with superpowers; these powers usually manifest during puberty.

Primarily, the series deals with bigotry; just as with many superheroes in the MARVEL Comics the X-MEN are not the superhero archetypes where they are praised for their good deeds. Instead, they are feared, rejected and hunted by the people they vow to protect.

Gambit is a mutant, and as such he possesses superpowers. Specifically, his mutant power allows him to supercharge an inanimate object with explosive kinetic energy. Basically, converting said inanimate object into an explosive device—some examples? A rock, a hat, and I believe in one instance a wad of chewing gum. Despite Gambit’s versatility with using various inanimate objects, his most popular weapon of choice besides his Bo/Staff, is a deck of playing cards (Yes, that’s what I said). Not the most conventional weapon, but in Gambit’s hands (literally) they become an arsenal of portable explosives.

Not only is using a pack of playing cards the Ragin’ Cajun’s weapon of choice; it is his trademark, and one that fans of the character have come to expect, it is a reflection of his personality—which is risk taking, living on the edge, wild, over-confident, promiscuous. These qualities and traits often land him in trouble not only with enemies, but with his fellow X-Men teammates which sometimes cause them to question his loyalty; even the X-Men’s team leader and proprietor Prof. X (who has the ability to read minds). Despite keeping many of his motives to himself, aside from Gambit’s mutant abilities, he seems to have a strange sort of charisma, he often fancies himself a ladies man and uses this to charm many females in order to gain their trust. Priding himself on this ability it is another quality that he uses on his fellow X-MEN, especially on team member ROGUE. Like Gambit Rogue is a mutant, who has the ability to absorb attributes, energy, memories, and powers of mutants as well as humans. Ironically, despite Rogue’s inability to have physical contact with other people Gambit pursues her with vigor, and Rogue shares that attraction with him in return, even though it irritates her to no end knowing that if she gives into her urges as well as Gambit’s advances she could seriously injure him, and potentially kill him.

Well, now a little about Gambit’s origin. Gambit made his debut in UNCANNY X-MEN ANNUAL #14 in 1990, but his appearance was so minor only a cameo. Gambit’s big debut was in that same year in UNCANNY X-MEN Issue #266. He was created by writer CHRIS CLAREMONT and artist JIM LEE.

Gambit’s history: Gambit was born in New Orleans, LA into a family that gained power and prestige as a criminal syndicate known as The Guild of Thieves. For centuries his families rivalry and competition has been The Guild of Assassins. As fierce as the family rivalry was, none was more coveted than possession of The Tithe—an ancient ritual in which the head of each family would make an offering to a being known as The External which would grant them with supernatural powers.

Despite the family's fierce competition for approval of The External, The Guild of Thieves and The Assassins family rivalry escalation came to a halt when Gambit was in his teenage years. In addition to discovering his mutant powers, Remy Lebeau also discovered a girl named Bella Donna Boudreaux, who, in a Shakespearean twist just happened to be the daughter of the head of the Guild of Assassins.

Gambit and Bella Donna’s love for each other continued to grow and after centuries of rivalry, the two feuding families decided to put their differences and allow them to get married. However, not everyone was pleased with the idea of Gambit and Bella Donna going through with their impending nuptials. Bella Donna’s brother Julien was deposed with the idea and made no reservations about expressing his disdain publicly at Remy and Belle’s wedding. Furious about his sister marrying a member of his families bitter rivals, Julien challenged Remy to a duel.

During the duel, Gambit stabs Julien with his sword. Unintentionally, it was at this point Gambit discovered his latent mutant powers. During the duel, Gambit’s contact with the sword caused his kinetic energy to flow through, while the sword was still in Julien. An explosion ensued and killed Julien.

For this treason, in order to prevent another family feud between the Thieves and Assassins rather than making Gambit forfeit his life, however since Bella Donna still had feelings for him Remy/Gambit was banished from his family and home in New Orleans, LA.

After being forced out of the home he had known his entire life, Gambit traveled the world relying on his skills as a thief and mutant powers to survive. However, given his flamboyant nature, his presence was soon known and caught the attention of a long time foe of the X-Men Nathaniel Essex also known as Mr. Sinister—a geneticist, who specializes in control, manipulating and reproducing Mutant DNA for his own twisted purposes.

Mr. Sinister soon sent the word through the underground to reach Gambit, telling him that he could help him control his powers. Gambit, still remorseful for killing Julien was desperate to accept Mr. Sinister’s help.

Mr. Sinister told Gambit he will help him, but for a favor. The favor was to lead his evil mutant team THE MARAUDERS to the underground tunnels of Manhattan where a race of mutants called THE MORLOCKS lived. Gambit agreed, provided Mr. Sinister promised not to hurt or kill the Morlocks. Mr. Sinister agreed to Gambit’s terms.

Convinced, Gambit lead the Marauders to the Morlocks. Naturally Mr. Sinister lied and the Marauders killed The Morlocks, in a storyline that would be come to be known as THE MUTANT MASSACRE.

Gambit tried to save the Morlocks he could but found himself once again forced into a life of solitude and having to fall back on his instincts.

A year or so after the events that unfolded in The Mutant Massacre Gambit found himself applying his trade in Cairo, Illinois it was here he would begin his first X-MEN mission. While doing a heist for a client, Gambit ran into a fellow thief and mutant named Ororo Munroe also know as the X-MEN team member STORM.

Ororo/Storm herself had a history of being raised as a thief when she became an orphan, she too was manipulated by an X-MEN foe named THE SHADOW KING, who had somehow regressed her to child hood.

During both their involvements with the theft the two were being hunted by The Shadow King’s troops. The two formed an alliance and Storm who had been regressed to the form of a child was reverted back to her natural adult age. The two became friends Storm offered to thank Gambit by introducing him to Professor X, the leader of the X-Men. Gambit at first refused, having been a loner all his life, plus receiving a sense of distrust from the other X-Men not believing they could trust him with his checkered past. Storm and Prof. X tried to convince Gambit to stay, but refused, until another woman came into his life… the female X-Men member known as ROGUE.

Gambit was immediately taken in by her beauty and Rogue returned that infatuation in kind, even though both knew they could never truly have any form of physical contact due to Rogue’s mutant ability to absorb the thoughts, life forces, and mutant powers, possibly crippling even killing someone.

Knowing about Rogue’s powers has not stopped Gambit in his relentless pursuit of her due to his nature as a thief, or a man. Gambit accepted Prof. X and Storm’s proposal to join the X-Men and their fight to create equality between mutants and humans.

Suffice it to say, Gambit truly has a reputation for being a “Wild Card” the suspicions of his fellow X-Men team members both male and female are not unfounded, and they are sometimes unsure about whether or not he can be trusted, even Prof. X (who is a telepath and able to read minds) is sometimes leery of Gambit’s motives and methods, but despite his transgressions he proves to be loyal to cause, proving his devotion to Prof. X and his fellow X-Men.