Ragin' Cajun - The Gambit Appreciation 2019

[Ricochet Rita]

Yeah I forgot all the history as to why Longshot wasn't available to Claremont but I just recall he wasn't and so Claremont decided to create a character that could fill the role he had intended for Longshot. I think there may have been a scene early on where Wolverine during a danger room session compared Gambit to Longshot and I think that is why all the talk of it being Longshot from Siege Perilous stemmed from. People took it as Claremont dropping hints that Gambit was in fact Longshot.

Edit - I found the reference I was talking about. From Uncanny 273. I forgot about the fact that at one point Gambit's eyes glowed like Longshot as well. His original power signature used to be his charging up throwing spikes (not cards) with his eyes and Longshot used to throw throwing spikes. And the Lady Deathstrike image coming on was presumed to have been Gambits (ie Longshot's) luck powers kicking into effect in that famous Bang You're Dead scene.

http://notblogx.blogspot.com/2013/07...uary-1991.html

- Gambit “officially” joins the X-Men this issue, in the sense that Storm refuses to leave with him, so he decides to stick around. At the end of the story, he’s wearing an X-uniform with the rest of the team. Gambit’s casual decision to stay probably ties in to Claremont’s rumored original plan to reveal Gambit's a spy for Mr. Sinister.

- This is the issue that ignited the long-running fan speculation that Gambit was a reincarnated Longshot. While Wolverine and Gambit are sparring in the Danger Room, Wolverine remarks that his moves are similar to Longshot’s. On the next panel, a hologram of Lady Deathstrike emerges and attacks Wolverine. In an altered word balloon, Jubilee questions who turned that sequence on. The scene then cuts to Gambit smiling with his left eye glowing, much like Longshot’s.

Wow, splendid explanation. Here's the scan for a better illustration:



I had too forgotten that Wolverine literally commented about their resemblance --I guess I believed it was all in my mind because bias.

Nevertheless, I never thought that Gambit was a transformed Longshot, no way. How could that be? For starters, Longshot never crossed the Siege Perilous --he simply said he must go out to find himself and his exit was off panel (he probably went back to his own dimension with Gateway's help).

When I first saw Gambit my exact thought was 'Why, it was about time. It was not so difficult to create a character like this!'. Regarding the similarities (spikes, glowing eye), well, I'm afraid I simply thought that it was a matter of lack of originality. Traditionally, sneaky characters have been portrayed this way: 'glow in the eye' is a graphic conventionalism for slyness and malice --I never took this as a sign of 'luck power'. As for the spikes, they're equally a quite treacherous weapon of choice. These two traits, though, work in a very very very different way for Longshot.

Fortunately, Gambit gained soon a personality of his own. Cards were certainly a touch of genius.

Here the former Gambit as Mike Collins first depicted him, based in Jim Lee's concept.

[remydat]

Yeah I think it was mainly just Claremont messing with fans by teasing similarities to Longshot so they could wonder if Longshot had gone through the Siege Perilous off panel. Then when fans thought for sure it was Longshot, he was going to reveal that Gambit was in fact a villain that had infiltrated the X-men at the behest of his creator ie the 11 year old boy in the Orphanage. Mr. Sinister was going to be that kid's idea of a villain and Gambit was going to be his idea of a Rogueish hero. When you think about it, their personality and look does strike one as something an 11 year old boy would come up with.

Although technically the kid wasn't really 11 but just a slow aging mutant who was trapped in the body of a kid and thus needed Sinister and Gambit to have physical experiences of an adult since he was an adult trapped in a kid's body. Gambit just became too popular and Claremont left so those plans never came to fruition.

[Mateo3000]

Here are my thoughts on Mr. & Mrs. X #8 from the review thread:

I liked it and I think it was probably the best issue so far in the series in my opinion. The action bits with Gambit and Longshot, and with Spiral, were great. It's great to see Remy be both effective and ingenious in a battle. Both brawn and smarts were present in Remy. The dialogue read very well to me too and was believable, both from Rogue and Gambit. I liked the art, it wasn't great but I think it's solid enough, and the coloring is A-level. As a Gambit this is the most fun I've had reading Gambit in this entire series. I'm interested to see what exactly he's going to be stealing in the Mojoworld and I love the Blade Runner aesthetics of it all. The main gripe I have, and pretty much the main gripe I've had this whole series, is that I wish Remy's love for Rogue wasn't the only thing that defined his character. Thompson seems to be driving the point across, according to the last page, that Remy's love for Rogue is seemingly the only point of development he's had worth noting. While this love is important, I think that there's more to Remy than just his love for Rogue and this isn't the only thing that has driven his development. This is true for Rogue as well, however maybe Thompson disagrees with me and that's why she really hasn't given Remy any actual character development outside of being supportive towards Rogue (which he's been since at least Legacy in 2011). Overall though Issue 8 was solid and I think the pay off is gonna make or break this series.

This issue really was the most fun to read as a Gambit fan, and the best he's looked while being written by Kelly Thompson. Both his dialogue and fight scenes were a blast. Hopefully the future issues hold up and hopefully he gets more development as well.

[Mateo3000]

Wow, splendid explanation. Here's the scan for a better illustration:



I had too forgotten that Wolverine literally commented about their resemblance --I guess I believed it was all in my mind because bias.

Nevertheless, I never thought that Gambit was a transformed Longshot, no way. How could that be? For starters, Longshot never crossed the Siege Perilous --he simply said he must go out to find himself and his exit was off panel (he probably went back to his own dimension with Gateway's help).

When I first saw Gambit my exact thought was 'Why, it was about time. It was not so difficult to create a character like this!'. Regarding the similarities (spikes, glowing eye), well, I'm afraid I simply thought that it was a matter of lack of originality. Traditionally, sneaky characters have been portrayed this way: 'glow in the eye' is a graphic conventionalism for slyness and malice --I never took this as a sign of 'luck power'. As for the spikes, they're equally a quite treacherous weapon of choice. These two traits, though, work in a very very very different way for Longshot.

Fortunately, Gambit gained soon a personality of his own. Cards were certainly a touch of genius.

Here the former Gambit as Mike Collins first depicted him, based in Jim Lee's concept.

Excellent job in finding the scans of the pages Rita. I too don't think that Gambit is a transformed Longshot nor that this was ever Claremont's intentions. There similarities with them and who knows what Claremont's intentions were by having other characters point them out in the comics. Maybe he did base certain aspects of Gambit off of Longshot's powers or maybe it's more of a coincidence than we think. Claremont could have liked certain aspects of Longshot's powers but didn't actually want to use (nor could he) Longshot as a character and was interested in a character with a completely different backstory and different personality traits. I think this is the case. We have to remember that Longshot wasn't created by Claremont. And Claremont definitely intended Gambit to originally be a villain with ties to Sinister.

In other Gambit news, Romeo from the Guild found some instagram posts from a comic shop in Denver with a really cool Gambit statue. Check these out:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrFy0J8g6Tv/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrAxtZwgsDg/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrAuwNrgQ1v/

The eyes lighting up in the statue is a really cool touch.

[From The Shadows]

Yeah I think it was mainly just Claremont messing with fans by teasing similarities to Longshot so they could wonder if Longshot had gone through the Siege Perilous off panel. Then when fans thought for sure it was Longshot, he was going to reveal that Gambit was in fact a villain that had infiltrated the X-men at the behest of his creator ie the 11 year old boy in the Orphanage. Mr. Sinister was going to be that kid's idea of a villain and Gambit was going to be his idea of a Rogueish hero. When you think about it, their personality and look does strike one as something an 11 year old boy would come up with.

Although technically the kid wasn't really 11 but just a slow aging mutant who was trapped in the body of a kid and thus needed Sinister and Gambit to have physical experiences of an adult since he was an adult trapped in a kid's body. Gambit just became too popular and Claremont left so those plans never came to fruition.

Yeah, a lot of things were going around. He was meant to be a villain, no, no he's really Longshot, No, no, he is the third Summers brother (that was actually a thing once).

[remydat]

Yeah, a lot of things were going around. He was meant to be a villain, no, no he's really Longshot, No, no, he is the third Summers brother (that was actually a thing once).

Well it is certain he was meant to be a villain as that came from Claremont himself. So it is clear that is what Claremont wanted initially and that he the Longshot stuff was to throw people off the scent.

The Summers brother thing came long after they gave up the villain thing and was the result of FabNic teasing that via Mr. Sinister. That gained steam when Claremont had Gambit being the result of Sinister mixing his genes with Cyke but FabNic seemed to dispel that notion when asked as he said that he screwed up so many of Claremont's stories that he had no problem with Claremont screwing up one of his.

The third Summers brother was suppose to be Adam X per Fab Nic who again came up with the idea. However, he left the comics and so that was ultimately dropped and Brubaker then revealed it was Vulcan. Although FabNic had Sinister says brothers (ie plural) so nothing stopping Vulcan and Adam X both being brothers of Cyke and Havoc.

[Purplevit]

MMX 9

1

[Mateo3000]

MMX 9

1

Thanks for posting this purplelevit, very cool pic. Look's like Gambit is gonna be hard at work next issue. I do wonder what Spiral wants Remy to steal for her and why she couldn't get it herself considering her own magical powers. Is there something specific about Gambit, aside from him being a great thief, like his powers?

[Mateo3000]

I found another full size pic of the Gambit statue at the Mile High Comics Store in Denver. It's definitely super cool, I would love to see it in person.

Capture.JPG

[Purplevit]

Thanks for posting this purplelevit, very cool pic. Look's like Gambit is gonna be hard at work next issue. I do wonder what Spiral wants Remy to steal for her and why she couldn't get it herself considering her own magical powers. Is there something specific about Gambit, aside from him being a great thief, like his powers?

I think best thief in the world skills is more then enough. Don`t need to have some more specific but will see

[belay]

Check out the podcast trailer for Marvel's Wolverine The Lost Trail featuring Gambit premieres exclusively on Stitcher Premium beginning Monday, March 25, 2019.
https://youtu.be/zfMjB_PXP4c

[Purplevit]

Check out the podcast trailer for Marvel's Wolverine The Lost Trail featuring Gambit premieres exclusively on Stitcher Premium beginning Monday, March 25, 2019.
https://youtu.be/zfMjB_PXP4c

Cool! Thanks.

[belay]

Cool! Thanks.

Gambit sounds like I how imagined he would which is so cool.

[Purplevit]

Gambit sounds like I how imagined he would which is so cool.

Agree. Gambit sounds great in it. I hope it will get a comic adaptation too.

[Purplevit]

"We couldn’t set a story in and around New Orleans without including everyone’s favorite scoundrel, Gambit, who is played brilliantly by Bill Heck. We had a lot of fun pairing the two up as frenemies. The banter between them—and the trouble they get into—on riverboat casinos and in underground gambling parlors is a treat for the ears.

https://www.marvel.com/articles/podc...inkId=63836783