Gambit Appreciation 2020

[remydat]

Since the end of Asmus' solo till KT's R&G his character was just as badly treated as it was during the Milligan/Carey/Gage era, except this time Rogue wasn't that much around for people to put the blame on her.

In X-Factor he was a horndog whose solution to every problem was shoving his tongue in it, he was reduced to a shallow individual with good looks whose personality seem to only revolve around him being handsome, to the point of putting him naked on a cover. PAD's Gambit was all looks but no substance.

Deadpool vs Gambit was a trash fire that made no sense, heck a Z-list character like Scrambler had almost as much panel time as him.

In Soule's Astonishing he was pathetic once again, and the only time he did something cool was when he was being mind controlled by the Shadow King. Jeez! The SK used his power better than him -.-

X-men Gold depicted him as an incompetent buffoon whose ineptitude was responsible for the death of a lot of innocent people.

In X-men Red he was wallpaper for the vast majority of the series, I remember the jokes of Gambit developing a secondary mutation of being great at silently standing around in the background. He only did something cool or relevant in the last issue.

Granted, at least he wasn't focused or worried about Rogue all the time.

I'm not gonna put all the blame on Rogue nor pretend that if he wasn't married things would be going great for him, like a divorce would magically solve all his problems. That small recap shows that even when she is barely around, Gambit can still be treated like crap.

I put the blame in the the writers and editors at Marvel. IMO the fact that he is married should not be any hindrance for a competent writer. Sadly for one reason or another there has been a shortage of good capable writers that are also interested in the character, and there in my opinion is where lays the biggest problem.

X-Factor - Gambit was a single man doing what a lot of single men do. Especially ones with a reputation as a ladies man. In the end he was actually a useful member of the team and we got to see him develop relationships with characters he hadn't previously. So good or bad, it was something different.

DvG - Again while it was not good, it was still something new in the sense he got to interact with Deadpool and Scrambler. Two guys with a shared or limited history.

Soule's ASM - Agreed, this was terrible and really the start of Gambit's entire character being focused on Rogue.

X-men Gold - Agreed pretty terrible showing.

X-men Read - Not a lot of focus but he was actually shown as a competent and powerful character that guys like Thor respected. I would think this one showing over 50 issues of Thompson's or Howard's Gambit. It is probably his best showing in like the last 5 years.

Of course it is always the writers faults because these are fictional characters. But in the end that is like saying it is not Mr. Sinister's fault he is an evil villain. It is meaningless. We love or hate characters based on how the writers write them and the problem with Romy is the writers far too often one or both of them are written horribly. That is what people like Neko and I have been saying from the start and that has come to pass.

Howard's Gambit is the logical and inevitable evolution of Thompson's Gambit because in both his story was less about him and more about Rogue. He is written simply as Rogue's preferred penis at the moment and all his characterization flows from that. Like Thompson, at some point right before the book is canceled, she may get around to telling a decent Gambit story but neither of these writers cares about Gambit outside of his relationship to Rogue. He is basically a woman's fantasy husband whose entire being is wrapped up in serving his wife.