Top Twelve X-men-Number 8 Gambit



Gambit

Here is one of the first shots we have of Remy in his first apperance in the X-men. Not quite as handsome as they make him later.



I might get some flack for this one, but it's my list and I have my reasons for putting Remy LeBeau a little further down the list than some people might appreciate. Before we get into all the reasons, let's talk about the the man himself.

Gambit officially hit the pages of the X-men in the 90s during a period of great upheaval for the team. The Mutant Massacre had mixed things up and sent Shadowcat and Nightcrawler to England to be a part of Excalibur a book set in England and put together by the legendary team of Chris Claremont and Alan Davis. Then Storm and Wolverine had followed up on a plan to 'kill' the team and allow them to work behind the scenes without endangering their friends and family. Later on, the whole team either died (well it looked like Storm died) or walked into the Siege Perilous with some not-so-gentle persuasion from Psylocke. (The Siege Perilous was a fine McGuffin that sent the X-men off in different directions and placed them in different lives for a while.)

OK, sorry that took such a tangent, but it needed to be said in order to get to the next part. You see, Storm didn't actually die, she ended up being turned into a child again and she went back to the only life she knew from that time of her life-being a thief. That's how she met Gambit. They were both in the process of stealing paintings from the same not-so-nice guy and ended up having some adventures together. Eventually all of the X-family gets back together and the entire mutant community gets turned on its head. Gambit ends up becoming a part of it all even with his unclear back ground.



Remy's first cover shot.



Let's talk about powers and abilities now for a little bit. Gambit is a mutant who was born with the ability to transform potential energy into kinetic energy. Not sure what that means? Don't think about it too hard because the idea doesn't completely hold up to scrutiny, but let's just put it this way, Gambit can take an object and fill it with the potential to explode. He usually uses playing cards because the charge quickly, but with enough time, he can use his power on any object. He even blew up his motorcycle in an attempt to defeat a bad guy.



Like any worthwhile anti-hero, Remy has a dark past beyond his life as a thief. He was the man that led the Marauders to the Morlock tunnels for the Mutant Massacre. It turns out that he's also been closely connected to the history of Mr. Sinister (albeit through time travel) helping this menace to the X-men become the threat that he is. (I guess was is a better term since I think Mr. Sinister is dead at the moment. Maybe next week he'll be back.)

Remy also suffers from the typical comic book character syndrome- too many writers.  Everyone wants to work with this kind of character, and everyone seems to want to either add to his back story or just rewrite it. (Wolverine has the same problem.) Some of the changes have been for the better. I'm sure the original plan for Gambit was not for him to be responsible for the Mutant Massacre, but it definitely works for the character and the story. Hopefully no one will decide that Remy's blood can cure cancer or something ridiculous like that.