Rogue&Gambit #5: Spoilers and Review

[Krakoa]

I feel like the plot & the art worked for this mini, but the relationship drama was way too forced. I think this could have really shined if instead of having them fighting over random stuff to create conflict, Phillips had them working as a unit the whole time but kept the stronger thread of disagreement over Destiny. Instead of portraying them as a bickering couple, portray them as a couple who always support each other and always love each other but still disagree on how to approach some issues. I think that would have made Rogue's decision at the end with Manifold work much better (because it was interesting).

[Sparta]

My view of this series is a reflection of my expectations. I wanted some good character work, some sexy fun chemistry between Romy. The plot or the bigger FoX picture was not the big draw for me. So when I felt that marvel really messed up the characters my enjoyment of this mini went down the sewer.

For me it was more of a relief, I was concerned that we'd end up with another "Antarctica" situation with those solicits. No real damage done to either character going forward.
The marriage issues were not necessary, I get that there needs to be some angst in storytelling, but Phillips wanted to write them at their "lowest point" which was out of nowhere considering their relationship status has been very healthy in the last 5 and a half years.
The story overall would've worked better as a stand alone X-Men issue. Though I understand that they wanted to market it as an R&G mini, which sold okay in the early months.
The gumbo scene was cute, even though Rogue is a pretty good cook herself.

[Malachi]

I feel like the plot & the art worked for this mini, but the relationship drama was way too forced. I think this could have really shined if instead of having them fighting over random stuff to create conflict, Phillips had them working as a unit the whole time but kept the stronger thread of disagreement over Destiny. Instead of portraying them as a bickering couple, portray them as a couple who always support each other and always love each other but still disagree on how to approach some issues. I think that would have made Rogue's decision at the end with Manifold work much better (because it was interesting).

Yeah if the realtionship drama was better balanced and nuanced the mini would have gained from it. I find the central conflict that Gambit would be ok with doing something more shady then Rogue but has a severe distrust towards Destiny versus her trust in Destiny but more rigid morale to have potential. Overall Rogue going against her husband and trusting Destiny to do something she really doesnt' want to, somethign that very well might blow up in her face, is interesting and might not break Romy up but offer a new way to add some tension. To bad we didnt' really explore that. Instead we got Rogue being bitter and gambit being a clown with alcohol problems.

[Dum Dum Dugan]

Did Mystique ever show up in the mini besides in that chat page with Destiny?

[Master of Sound]

Overall: Don’t buy it. Forget it ever happened.

So, you loved it, I guess

[Malachi]

So, you loved it, I guess

Haha yes hyperbole as it is. For me this mini fails to deliver on its selling points: Rogue and Gambit. It might even be one of the worst portraits of them so far. So I stand in my recommendation of not buying this mini

[Malachi]

Did Mystique ever show up in the mini besides in that chat page with Destiny?

Issue 3, or 2, where she talked with Destiny on a…. Balcony? That is all I remember. Think it was in the preview pages for that issue.

[Sisterhood Of Mutants]

Did Mystique ever show up in the mini besides in that chat page with Destiny?

She still hasn’t shared a single panel with Rogue all Krakoa.

[anyajenkins]

Maybe because it would be weird to see her being so trusting of mystique, even weirder than seeing her being so trusting of destiny? Why is she trusting destiny so much again? Trusting even to point of basically ‘enslaving’ manifold? Seriously?

Edit: Not to be overly ‘PC’ or anything, but did no one think of the ‘optics’ involved here?

[pkingdom]

I can't believe this series literally ends with our white hero literally enslaving a black man. It made me think of those weird conservatives on Twitter who try to get AI's to say the N-word. "What if the only way to stop a nuclear bomb was to say the N-word?!" kind of thing. The only way to save mutantkind is to enslave a black man, Rogue!

So freaking tired of Destiny. God she sucks.

[Purplevit]

Bad ending for a really bad series.
The worst thing is that editors liked Phillips writing so much that gave her another X book after R&G mini.
I will never buy any book from her and hope that she will never write Gambit again.
Carlos Gomez was wasted here.
Rogue is a soulless robot and Gambit is a punching bag clown. Such a waste.

Malachi, thank you for fun reviews. They saved us.

Steve Foxe told that Gambit in Dark X-Men is self-sufficient, competent, and hardened from a life that’s thrown a lot his way, including some stuff readers won’t know about until this summer.
So Gambit will have a bad day at Galla or ending of this mini was changed last minute.

[Sisterhood Of Mutants]

Bad ending for a really bad series.
The worst thing is that editors liked Phillips writing so much that gave her another X book after R&G mini.
I will never buy any book from her and hope that she will never write Gambit again.
Carlos Gomez was wasted here.
Rogue is a soulless robot and Gambit is a punching bag clown. Such a waste.

No, I think it’s more that Thompson, Ayala, Leah Williams, and Howard were all either driven away to DC and/or blacklisted, and current editorial needed their new token woman/NB writer to “prove” to their bosses that the X-Office is “diverse” (lol). She’s gonna be told what to do and get all the fan ire while editorial laughs and sits comfy - aka the new Howard. When I heard they they approached her and then saw the results… I knew that paint by numbers already-plotted mini was just her first assignment



(Although, to quote one of the Tweet comments… you can tell that picture is fake because there’s too many women in it. )

[AppleJ]

Ok, finally read this.

Of the 5 issues, this one was the best/least objectionable.

Overall very pleased with Carlos Gomez's art for the entire series. Not making Antarctica Gambit shirtless and giving him a bowtie on his wedding day were kinda odd misses, but I can chalk it up to creative licence. While I still don't fully buy Gambit as a runner, I'll take it for the shirtless panels and pink shorts. No notes!

I at least recognized shades of the characters I love this issue. Gambit showed the same presence of mind and emotional intelligence he did in the previous mini, which is consistently the way he most saves Rogue and generally his strong suit in helping others on the team (Laura, Storm, Cecelia) outside of physical feats. Unfortunately his physical feats were a bit limited the whole series. We did get a brief moment that showcased their ability to fight as a pair seamlessly. Rogue as typical got to be the muscle with the feats. We got at least a little warmth and appreciation out of Rogue towards her husband and a major extension of her trust with removing the control device. I liked that part and seeing Rogue botch the gumbo. Even the bit of arguing about making the bed had some charm to it. And seeing her initiate actual affection (without the weird control drama about her powers) was long overdue. Great way to end things!

I did not like the head butt from Rogue nor the fact that we never got any actual discussion and real repair regarding the issues raised in earlier issues between them. Rogue never asks about why Gambit has been drinking and upset, never apologizes for not communicating about being late or for her hurtful words towards him (verbal abuse) in front of Destiny or Forge. Gambit never apologizes or explains his extreme behavior in regards to his drinking, endangering that innocent woman or blowing up her bar just to avoid an uncomfortable conversation with Black Panther. It doesn't feel like they learned anything or grew from this experience and that is VERY annoying after dragging us through so much pointless crap and character assasination.

Powerbroker was really just a villain of the week that provided an avenue to control Eden and serve the greater plot piece that was needed for FoX.

I'm a bit torn on Rogue's reasoning for not telling Remy what she did. On the one hand, I agree Remy doesn't trust Destiny and might act on that behind Rogue's back. However I do think he would stand by Rogue if she fully explained her reasoning, even if he disagreed. I can only assume she is ashamed, but the art/language didn't fully sell her hesitation/reticence. I agree though, the optics are pretty gross of white ladies enslaving a person of color. From a purely practical perspective I get why Eden was chosen, but ... yeaahhhh. It's still gross if it was say, Illiana or Lila Cheney. This just makes it extra gross. The added pressure from Destiny of including Gambit in the list of people being saved at least helped slightly with believability for Rogue agreeing to this. I presume Eden will be the fail safe whenever things go down at the Gala. Rogue and Gambit will get separated probably with Gambit left in New York somehow at "ground zero". Maybe he's late to the Gala ... or finds out about Eden. Who knows.

I agree with those noting Destiny/Mystique should have been the central plot point and the actual source of friction between our couple. Remy and Rogue both know not to trust Mystique. Rogue knows from experience that Destiny is usually right even if manipulative, but Remy doesn't have experience with her or a reason to trust her.

This will definitely come back to bite Rogue in the a$$ as the Avengers won't be cool with the "needs of the many" big picture argument for enslaving their friend.

I hate that Rogue is buying into exactly what Destiny wants so easily. It feels out of place since she hasn't interacted with Mystique or Irene at all prior and had no part in bringing Irene back. Her allegiance to them doesn't feel earned and if anything feels at odds with where they left off.

I'm (sadly) kind of glad to see Rogue not be so squeaky clean though for once in a long time. Queen of Thieves WHEN Marvel?! Talk about a missed opportunity.

Remy will be hurt and betrayed that she didn't trust him with this info, but he'll ultimately be able to forgive her if Destiny proves to be right. He's more pragmatic than idealistic. Moreso than Rogue for certain.

I agree with those noting this could have been a single issue without all the inorganic, overblown relationship drama added on the front end.

Glad it's over. Let's never do that again.

Edited to add: Those 2 pages dedicated to a gumbo recipe are MIGHTY fishy. I have a feeling some major edits happened that needed a cover-up or something.

[Thievery]

Well, that was a strange ending for this miniseries.

The story starts with Gambit suffering from some form of PTSD. It causes him to do stupid sh!t like act like a drunken idiot. I wouldn't count the first issue where Gambit leaves that innocent kitchen worker tied to a stove during a fire to cover his escape from Black Panther as suffering from PTSD. That's just plain psychotic and evil and I'm still surprised that the editors let that part of the story see print.

But here at the last issue whatever is causing Gambit's mental problems aren't really addressed. It isn't even touched on that I can recall. Gambit is playing the rational member of the couple compared to Rogue here. So one of the major driving points of this series is left unresolved in this comic. I know that it will likely be addressed somewhere else, but it just seems strange to me that a major plot point isn't dealt with in the series finale.

One idea that I do like is that Rogue is the one hiding the Dark Secret from Gambit. Usually it is the other way around, with Gambit looking like the bad guy. I still don't like the way that Rogue decides to side with Destiny. Destiny's reason for why Rogue has to kidnap Manifold and hide him is so vague that it is hard to understand why Rogue would go along with her plan. I also have a hard time believing that Gambit would do the same thing to Rouge if their positions were reversed. I could see Gambit hiding things from Rouge when their relationship first started, but as it has progressed you can see that Remy has changed his behavior with how he treats Rogue. You would think that Remy has earned Rouge's trust by now. If he hasn't than they really shouldn't have been married to each other in the story to begin with.

I'm going to guess that Rogues decision to help Destiny is why Rogue is so mean to Gambit in this series. You can read Rogue's behavior towards Gambit as her taking her frustration with helping Destiny out on Gambit. It's not great but people taking there problems out on other people that they care about it happens in real life. That's about the only thing that I can come up with to explain Rogue's behavior here.

Now I will say that I wasn't all that worried that Gambit and Rogue were going to split. I still hold to my belief that there are a lot of people in the X-Office who don't like Gambit and are jealous that Gambit/Rogue are more popular than Scott/Jean, but I can't see Marvel just ditching the couple so soon after they were married.

If I'm being completely honest I'm not as pro Gambit/Rogue being married as many of their other fans are. I think that they work just as well if not better when they are just an on again/ off again couple.

[Kingdom X]

Bad ending for a really bad series.
The worst thing is that editors liked Phillips writing so much that gave her another X book after R&G mini.
I will never buy any book from her and hope that she will never write Gambit again.
Carlos Gomez was wasted here.
Rogue is a soulless robot and Gambit is a punching bag clown. Such a waste.

Malachi, thank you for fun reviews. They saved us.

Steve Foxe told that Gambit in Dark X-Men is self-sufficient, competent, and hardened from a life that’s thrown a lot his way, including some stuff readers won’t know about until this summer.
So Gambit will have a bad day at Galla or ending of this mini was changed last minute.

Did they? What’s she writing next?