Gambit (Marvel Comics)
Gambit is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, usually those featuring the X-Men, a group of which Gambit is typically depicted as a member. The character was created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Jim Lee. Drawn by artist Mike Collins, Gambit made his first appearances in The Uncanny X-Men Annual #14 and The Uncanny X-Men #266. Belonging to a subspecies of humans called mutants, Gambit can mentally create, control, and manipulate pure kinetic energy. He is also incredibly knowledgeable and skilled in card throwing, hand-to-hand combat, and the use of a bō. Gambit is known to charge playing cards and other objects with kinetic energy, using them as explosive projectiles.
The character is depicted as Cajun from New Orleans and was part of the Thieves' Guild before becoming a member of the X-Men. Given his history, few X-Men trusted Gambit when he joined the group. There was consistently a source of stress between him and his on-again, off-again love interest and eventual wife Rogue. This was exacerbated when Gambit's connections to villain Mister Sinister were revealed, although some of his team members accept that Gambit honestly seeks redemption. His solo series of the same name consist of X-Men: Gambit, Astonishing X-Men: Gambit, Gambit: King of Thieves, and Gambit: Thick as Thieves, while his team series consist of Gambit & Bishop, Wolverine/Gambit, Deadpool v. Gambit, Rogue & Gambit, and Mr. & Mrs. X.
The character was adopted into various media throughout the years, including X-Men: The Animated Series, voiced by Chris Potter and Tony Daniels for its last season. The character later appears in the revival X-Men '97, voiced by A.J. LoCascio. The character also appeared in live-action films, first debuting in the 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, portrayed by Taylor Kitsch. Channing Tatum was attached to star in a solo Gambit film, which remained in development hell for five years and was cancelled upon the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney. Tatum ultimately portrayed the character in the 2024 Marvel Cinematic Universe film Deadpool & Wolverine and is set to reprise the role in Avengers: Doomsday.
Publication history
Gambit was created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Jim Lee. The character was introduced in-story in The Uncanny X-Men #266, which was written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Mike Collins. His next in-story appearance was intended to be in The Uncanny X-Men Annual #14, but that book was published three weeks early by mistake, before issue #266 was published. Because the story in the annual is set after the story in #266, there is some debate about which issue is the "true" first appearance of the character. Gambit joined the X-Men and appeared in almost every issue until The Uncanny X-Men #281 before moving to the X-Men title for a number of years. When Storm created a splinter group to hunt for Destiny's diaries in the pages of X-Treme X-Men, Gambit joined her in issue #5 and co-starred for the remainder of the series.Gambit has starred or co-starred in four mini-series:
File:UncannyX-Men266.jpg|thumb|right|170px|The Uncanny X-Men #266 is the first in-story appearance of Gambit, even though another book featuring him was published prior to it by mistake. Cover art by Andy Kubert and Pat Brosseau.
- Gambit volume one and Gambit volume two explored the character's mysterious past and his ties to the New Orleans Thieves' Guild. Both were written by Ghost Rider writer Howard Mackie, and followed up on characters and plot threads introduced in a 1992 crossover in Ghost Rider #26-27 and X-Men #8-9. A sequel to volume one, Rogue, also prominently featured Gambit.
- Wolverine/Gambit: Victims teamed Wolverine and Gambit on a mystery involving what appears to be a modern-day Jack the Ripper.
- Gambit & Bishop: Sons of the Atom was advertised as a sequel to the character's first series and involves the two X-Men in Stryfe's return.
Additionally, Gambit & the X-Ternals, published in 1995, featured a group of renegade mutants led by Gambit who has been living on the edge of law during the "Age of Apocalypse" storyline. In 2009, Gambit's past was explored in the one-shot X-Men Origins: Gambit. In 2010, the one-shot Curse of the Mutants: Storm & Gambit was released. In June 2011, he began co-starring in X-Men: Legacy.
It was announced at the C2E2 convention by Marvel Comics that in August 2012 Gambit gets his own solo series that takes him back to his roots as a charismatic, cool, mutant master thief, written by James Asmus and drawn by Clay Mann. When asked about the upcoming series Asmus was quoted saying "This book focuses on the two most important aspects of Gambit: #1 that he's sexy, and #2 that he's the preeminent bad-ass thief of the Marvel Universe." Marvel canceled the series at issue #17.
Gambit was one of the principal characters in the 2013 series All-New X-Factor written by Peter David and drawn by Carmine Di Giandomenico. The series was cancelled after issue #20, with David suggesting it would be some time before Marvel would consider featuring Gambit in a leading role again due to a persistently low sales record in this and previous titles.
In October 2017, Gambit co-starred in his own comic with his love interest Rogue titled Rogue and Gambit, which was released in 2018.
Fictional character biography
Early life
Remy Étienne LeBeau was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was kidnapped from the hospital where he was born, then raised by the LeBeau Clan Thieves Guild led by Jean-Luc LeBeau and given to the Antiquary as a tribute.They referred to the child as "Le Diable Blanc" and believed he was prophesied to unite the warring Thieves Guild and Assassins Guild. Soon after, Remy was placed in the care of Fagan's Mob, a gang of street thieves who raised the child and taught him the ways of thievery. After living as an orphan on the streets, a 10-year-old Remy attempted to pick the pocket of Jean-Luc LeBeau, then patriarch of the Thieves' Guild. Jean-Luc took the boy off the streets and adopted him into his own family.
Remy's bio-kinetic charging abilities manifested early in his teens, although he kept his powers secret from his family and friends, practicing his powers away from prying eyes. When he was 15, he accompanied his cousin Étienne Marceaux on his "Tithing", the ritual initiation test of the Thieves' Guild. However, it went awry as they were assigned to steal from the powerful immortal mutant Candra, who quickly captured them. Candra recognized Remy from an encounter that had taken place in her past but in his future and sold them to the deformed mutant gangster and child slave trader known as the Pig, who planned to sell them and others their age to Hydra as boy soldiers. Remy used his powers to escape their holding pen, but the physically enhanced Pig quickly caught up to them. Remy discovered his signature attack when he picked up a playing card that Étienne had dropped, charged it, and threw it in the Pig's face, taking out his eye. Finally escaping his clifftop headquarters by diving into the sea, Remy was ultimately rescued by the Guild; Étienne drowned.
Later during his teen years, Remy was first hired by Mister Sinister, then in the disguise of Dr. Nathaniel Essex. Essex wanted his stolen diaries back from the Weapon X program. Remy and the Thieves' Guild accepted the mission and sent out Remy to retrieve said diaries. Standing in the cold, scouting the Weapon X facility, Remy could not bear the cold and swore he would steal a long, stylish jacket in New Orleans after the mission, which he did. Upon entering the facility, Remy witnessed Wolverine escaping from his adamantium procedure and found the diaries. However, deeming them to be too dangerous for Essex to have, as Remy did not fully trust him, Remy burned the diaries. He headed back home, only to find a disappointed Thieves' Guild and Essex.
In an attempt to reconcile the Thieves' and Assassins' Guilds, Remy married Bella Donna Boudreaux, granddaughter of the head Assassin, whom he met at the age of eight. Unfortunately, he was challenged by her brother Julien to a duel after the wedding. In the duel, Gambit killed Julien, and he was exiled from the city, ending his romantic relationship with Bella Donna.
The Mutant Massacre
After his exile from New Orleans, he wandered the world and became a master professional thief, making many contacts. During this period, Gambit found he had an uncontrollable amount of energy flowing through him, to the point that he could not withstand it. Desperate, Gambit went to Mister Sinister for help. Sinister modified Gambit's power by removing a portion of Gambit's brain stem, making him significantly less powerful, but able to control the still considerably large amount of power in him. Years later, a much younger version of Mister Sinister surgically returned it, upon Gambit's request, when Gambit time-traveled to the 19th century.However, Sinister wanted the favor returned, so Gambit carried out various missions for him. For the last of these operations, Gambit gathered together a group of mercenaries which Sinister named the Marauders. Mister Sinister then ordered Gambit to lead Sabretooth, Blockbuster, Prism, and Riptide into the tunnels under New York City — while unknown to Gambit however — Mister Sinister had also ordered Scalphunter, Arclight, Harpoon, Malice, Scrambler and Vertigo into the tunnels. The group of Scalphunter followed the Morlock Tommy and their goal was to wipe out the Morlocks. Gambit was unable to prevent the Marauders from killing a considerable number of Morlocks, but he was able to save a single child named Sarah, who would grow up to be Marrow, the leader of the mutant terrorist group Gene Nation. Gambit long kept his involvement with Mister Sinister and his mission in the massacre a secret from his fellow X-Men, much to their eventual displeasure.