The King of Thieves - Gambit Appreciation 2022

[Romy134]

any updates on when will Gambit series will release? Is it true that no.1-3 will release in July?

Gambit #1 comes out July 27, which is crazyyy since books like Jessica Jones' The Variants #2 and Iron Cat #2 comes out the same day, yet both books were announced 1-2 months after the Gambit mini was.

[Mutant101]

Gambit #1 comes out July 27, which is crazyyy since books like Jessica Jones' The Variants #2 and Iron Cat #2 comes out the same day, yet both books were announced 1-2 months after the Gambit mini was.

but Gambit #4 is announce on August? so #2, #3 is also in August?

[Romy134]

I think most of the comic books at marvel will eventually get pushed back a month.

[Sandmans_Raven]

So, to my surprise, it sounds like Gambit actually does something in KoX today? Anybody read it?

[Gripstir]

So, to my surprise, it sounds like Gambit actually does something in KoX today? Anybody read it?

I did read it. Betsy was mostly absent and a lot of the plot was around either Merlyn or the Knights getting into the Crooked Market. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite read but Gambit does do some actual combat and does bring out the magic cards again. I know you guys were wondering about that before if they would be used again . He used the “Justice” card but all it did was explode like a regular card which I thought was kinda underwhelming but the moment itself was decent seeing them all fighting together

99EC9030-4670-4E1C-8285-340A7F04F185.jpg

Gambit does take charge and try to help Mad Jim Jaspers against the Furies as a performance. Gambit wants to let the townspeople know that the Knights will protect the “witchbreed”. Gambit knows the power of public optics .

Overall i think Merlyn is a boring villain and Betsy is a boring hero, but I didn’t realize til this issue how the team itself is pretty good. I don’t even know why but I kinda started to like Kylun a bit in this issue even though he’s always been kind of a meh character to me

[Malachi]

I did read it. Betsy was mostly absent and a lot of the plot was around either Merlyn or the Knights getting into the Crooked Market. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite read but Gambit does do some actual combat and does bring out the magic cards again. I know you guys were wondering about that before if they would be used again . He used the “Justice” card but all it did was explode like a regular card which I thought was kinda underwhelming but the moment itself was decent seeing them all fighting together

99EC9030-4670-4E1C-8285-340A7F04F185.jpg

Gambit does take charge and try to help Mad Jim Jaspers against the Furies as a performance. Gambit wants to let the townspeople know that the Knights will protect the “witchbreed”. Gambit knows the power of public optics .

Overall i think Merlyn is a boring villain and Betsy is a boring hero, but I didn’t realize til this issue how the team itself is pretty good. I don’t even know why but I kinda started to like Kylun a bit in this issue even though he’s always been kind of a meh character to me

The problem with Excalibur in that regard was that the plot and interactions mostly where filtered through Betsy. So you never got a team with its interactions developing. Rachel is a total bore under Tini. The contrast is especially unflattering when you compare her to her Excalibur self.

I double checked the justice card and it was very underwhelming. Death card and all that for next issue. Perhaps he actually manages to take down one Fury and the other one kills him. That would be my bet so far.

[Sandmans_Raven]

I did read it. Betsy was mostly absent and a lot of the plot was around either Merlyn or the Knights getting into the Crooked Market. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite read but Gambit does do some actual combat and does bring out the magic cards again. I know you guys were wondering about that before if they would be used again . He used the “Justice” card but all it did was explode like a regular card which I thought was kinda underwhelming but the moment itself was decent seeing them all fighting together

99EC9030-4670-4E1C-8285-340A7F04F185.jpg

Gambit does take charge and try to help Mad Jim Jaspers against the Furies as a performance. Gambit wants to let the townspeople know that the Knights will protect the “witchbreed”. Gambit knows the power of public optics .

Overall i think Merlyn is a boring villain and Betsy is a boring hero, but I didn’t realize til this issue how the team itself is pretty good. I don’t even know why but I kinda started to like Kylun a bit in this issue even though he’s always been kind of a meh character to me

Hmm, interesting. That does sound fairly underwhelming. Thanks for the info.

Just another three long weeks until we see what happens to our boy, I guess.

[Romy134]

He seems to be using mainly tarot cards, here he is using the "Death card" I'm assuming. But they do not seem to be doing anything special.



Also Betsy mentions something to Rachel about facing death. I dunno, call me deluded but the closer we get to #3, the sightlier the less I feel Gambits going to die. Will see.

Also Quinn's art work is looking better each issue.

[NicoPony]

it does look like he pulled the four of swords and it turns into four charged blades...?

[Gripstir]

He seems to be using mainly tarot cards, here he is using the "Death card" I'm assuming. But they do not seem to be doing anything special.



Also Betsy mentions something to Rachel about facing death. I dunno, call me deluded but the closer we get to #3, the sightlier the less I feel Gambits going to die. Will see.

Also Quinn's art work is looking better each issue.

What it could also be is Betsy is gonna die and get ressurected and Gambit is being positioned to be the defacto leader until her return

[Romy134]

What it could also be is Betsy is gonna die and get ressurected and Gambit is being positioned to be the defacto leader until her return

It seems to be a toss up to me. Although Betsy did “die” in Excalibur would it be worth going down that path again. I k ow death is meaningless now a days. To bad these delays have happened we would have known a lot more by now.

[Romy134]

Same, it's light and enjoyable snack food. I enjoyed some of the characters that were brought in, Dan and Brother Voodoo. I'm forgetting the woman's name right now, the one who has all the monitoring equipment. The part where Gambit talks to the kids is cute. It's also funny that Gambit has Wolverine in his phone as an emergency contact.

We don't talk about the Gambit mini with the nun though, no no no.

Ok so I read the series and I have to say it really got a bump for me on my rankings of Gambit comics. It’s pretty solid. Now the 1997 mini is that the nun series were not talking about?

[thjan]

The problem with Excalibur in that regard was that the plot and interactions mostly where filtered through Betsy. So you never got a team with its interactions developing. Rachel is a total bore under Tini. The contrast is especially unflattering when you compare her to her Excalibur self.

Yeah, the problem has never been the team in Excalibur or in KoX. Both teams have excellent characters with potential for great character interactions and dynamic action scenes. Howard just can't get the characters right and is no good at writing action scenes. And is boring to boot.

[AppleJ]

He seems to be using mainly tarot cards, here he is using the "Death card" I'm assuming. But they do not seem to be doing anything special.



Also Betsy mentions something to Rachel about facing death. I dunno, call me deluded but the closer we get to #3, the sightlier the less I feel Gambits going to die. Will see.

Also Quinn's art work is looking better each issue.

I'm honestly digging what Bob Quinn is doing here art-wise. He seems to have a better sense of action? And at least Gambit is showing competency and has his own agenda/motivation. And the tarot cards are at least fun and inventive. Seems like it could be a bit cooler with more imagination, but it's a solid idea.

Still can't say I'm even remotely invested in the plot and it definitely feels like Remy is being set up for a fall ... or at least that's what they want us to think and it's a total red herring.

At any rate, I'm still 100% ready to see him move on from this book and hope that's the case.

[BobbysWorld]

WARNING, WARNING! LONG MULTI-POST WORD DUMPAGE INCOMING. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. THANK YOU AND HAVE A NICE DAY.

Like, I'd apologize for this but I'm not actually sorry, soooo.....*shrugs* What?! I just have a lot to say, okay! I have THEORIES, guys, and they could probably come out of my head shorter than I manage here but like, brevity's fucking HARD when you're a wordy bitch like me, it just doesn't come naturally. I have to go and get my editing machete and hack away at word choices and its this whole thing and like, I'm just not gonna do it. I am EXCITED about my theory so buckle in or just skip it, either works!

Disclaimers are done, and away we go!

Okay, so, thing is, despite being fully on board with the 'Yeah I'm kinda assuming Remy's going to die and Howard intends to use Otherworld resurrection to tweak his character to be more tailored to her interests upon his return' theory up until this point.... *pause for dramatic inhalation*

So, turns out....I've kinda changed my mind as of this last issue of Knights of X. And by kinda I mean I have definitely, fully had a complete change of heart and 'kinda' was a lie. I have done a total 180. Me and that theory have irrevocably parted ways, the divorce proceedings cited irreconcilable differences that definitely weren't me getting caught making eyes at a younger, hotter theory that tells me my biceps are huge. I gave it full custody of the kids but I'm keeping the beach house.

Like, not to be dramatic on main or anything. Just wanted to be clear. Also its like three in the morning and I always get punchy this late at night. Other people have the Witching Hour, I have the WTF Hour.

ANYWAY. POINT BEING:

I am no longer convinced Remy's slated for death, because this issue made me think Howard knows her Tarot a lot better than I gave her credit for. X of Swords didn't actually delve all that deep into Tarot, (I'm not 'into it' myself, I've just read up on it a lot because of my general interest in studying mysticism, folklore, mythologies, etc) - but this issue, Gambit's use of particular cards made me sit up.

To go back to something I've said before, although Howard hasn't done much with her oft-referenced topic of mutant magic, the most consistent thing she's done is with Remy's use of Saturnyne's deck.....its hard to tell if this is just something he can do with that deck specifically, because of some inherent magic it has, or if its fully his own abilities just manifesting in different more magical ways in Otherworld and he can do it with any deck.

Either way, its pretty clear now that as long as he's using this particular deck at least, Remy seems to not just charge the cards with potential energy like usual, with that kinetic energy turned into actualized, explosive energy upon impact...but he can also charge them up with potential MAGIC, (again, either vestiges of Saturnyne's own, or inherent magic stemming from the symbology of the cards)...with this magic being actualized and released upon impact.

Basically, the cards are ready made, pre-packaged one-use spells that only he can use that way, because of his own powers.

Now again, several of us talked about this previously, based on his using the Wheel of Fortune card to 'luckily' get past one of Saturnyne's magical locks in Excalibur....but now I'm more convinced than ever that it wasn't a generic 'oh the fortune card is lucky' kinda thing, but an almost evocational use of that particular card as a kind of spell with a specific usage. I think potentially, every single card in both the Major Arcana AND the Minor Arcana is now primed to be a specific 'spell' when charged by Gambit's powers...and he's figured this out and has already done his homework and figured out how to use this to his advantage. This ups his versatility in a HUGE way, while having a built-in limitation due to the fact that he can at worst only get one usage of each 'spell' out of this deck (if its something he can only do with THIS deck)....or at best, still only get one use of each 'spell' PER deck. And even he can only carry around so many card decks at once.

Now Gambit's always been a versatile character as is, but this added angle to his power - even if it only works in Otherworld - opens up tons of new possibilities for his character, while very much being things Howard IS interested in exploring. I think most of us are in agreement that his lack of use so far has been because she's not that interested in writing Gambit as he is already - and this is a fair criticism - BUT I think she's at least been building towards giving him a HOOK that she can sink into and get invested in exploring with him, without necessitating that she change him in too dramatic a way.

Like I just mean....we've been assuming he's slated for death so that Howard can use Otherworld as a blank slate and reset him to whatever character she wants him to be. I think we might have overshot a bit there....because that presumes that she's counting on being REALLY invested in writing whatever comes from his death and inevitable resurrection....and I don't think that necessarily tracks. Logistically, if a major character does die and get resurrected in a new form/characterization in this arc.....that character is going to be then thrust into the spotlight in a big way. There's no way for Howard NOT to bring that character center stage in order to capitalize on the gimmick of death/resurrection. It basically demands follow-up and exploration of all the changes that ensue.....and does that really track for Gambit, with how she's handled him so far?

I'm having trouble putting into words why it feels off all of a sudden. Before, the theory made sense because I couldn't see anything else she was really doing with the character or seemed to want to do with the character, and it just makes sense that if you for whatever reason have been saddled with a character you don't care that much about for almost three years, you're gonna want to find SOME reason to get interested in writing that character.

But now I'm thinking....she kinda already has that, enough that I can see how she's given herself a hook or gimmick for Remy that piques her imagination and creativity....WITHOUT demanding that she suddenly pour all this time and attention into his character with a death/resurrection plot. Its the line between thinking 'yeah, I don't feel like she cares all that much about Gambit and that's why he's relatively under-utilized while she finds something TO do with him' and 'its that almost apathy towards his character that makes me feel like she may not LIKE him enough for him to get a ton of her focus, but I don't think she DISLIKES him enough to make reinventing him a major story priority.'

Like the opposite of love isn't hate, its apathy, lol. I've never gotten the sense that she feels all that strongly about Gambit PERIOD, either positively or negatively....and I just think the death/resurrection plot would still require she eventually sink more narrative focus and pagetime into him than she's actually interested in delving out....for a character she may not particularly LIKE, but that she doesn't particularly DISLIKE either.

Otherworld unlocking a new facet of Remy's mutant powers though, enabling him to not just turn a deck of playing cards into a personal arsenal, but now also a deck of Tarot cards into a kind of personal spellbook.....

That threads the needle in a way that feels more Howard's style. It gives her more of a reason to focus her imagination/creativity on Remy and something new she can do with him and his powers, establish as 'her mark' on his character.....without demanding that he be radically reprioritized and bump characters who are ALREADY faves of hers further down the narrative-attention-ladder. With the way she's applied herself to building up Otherworld's lore and giving each province its own unique identity and hook or gimmick....nudging Remy along from occupying JUST the thief role in her D&D party/quest to a kind of dual thief/MAGICIAN role.....that feels like something she'd be into, especially if in the process, she gets to write out or invent that 'personal spellbook' that Remy now has access to.

And that's the other thing that has me rethinking that he's slated for death.....there's a LOT to play with, once you've turned both the Major AND Minor Arcana into specific spells that broaden the ways Remy can be utilized or affect the plot. And what's the point of introducing all that potential....if you're only going to give yourself a couple of issues to play with that concept RIGHT BEFORE hitting the reset button on his character and reinventing him from the ground-up?

Like if you really want to FULLY reinvent him that bad....why waste time giving his pre-reset character a whole new gimmick to play with, when it may or may not even fit into whatever you have planned for him longterm? Why not save that addition to his character to the 'new version' you're building towards, and make sure its DEFINITIVELY associated with the post-resurrection version of the character, rather than the version that existed BEFORE that death/resurrection reset? And if you're not actually even intending for that new hook/gimmick to be part of the new version of the character, or associated with what you do with him post-resurrection....why WASTE a concept that has this much creative potential and opportunity built into it....when you're intending on throwing the whole thing out later in that same arc?