Rogue&Gambit #5: Spoilers and Review

[Malachi]

So here we go one final time.

We start with the images from the preview. First out is a page that intersects earlier moments from R&G’s history. It’s been done before, to better effect in KT’s R&G mini. Seriously comparing mini’s does this one no favors so I would have advised them to keep that to a minimum but they probably thought that a page like this was easy money. Which it is of course, lets not kid ourselves. Carlos Gomes is not really hitting all the faces here, especially Remy’s different haircuts.

Back to the fight between “out of control” Rogue and Gambit. Gambit tries to reason with Rogue but she keeps on punching him yet not killing him, well not really doing any damage at all to him but doing some splashy punching the dirt stunts.We get a joke about how Remy is bad at making the bed. Rogue references New York but they where in New Orleans…
All in all Remy keeps pushing on and Rogue keeps attacking him with flashy visuals that do nothing. He then gets too close and she puts him in a chokehold. He touches her skin and the memories of them together breaks her “out of control” and Power Brokers control mode. Very handy, 2 for the price of 1.
I must comment on Absorbing man's chain and ball. Rogue is seen holding it after she absorbs his power but she never does anything with it or his powers either. It’s just there for the visual. A fitting critique of this whole mini.

We get a scene where Rogue tumbles over and Remy is concerned, then she headbutts him and we get the scene where the teaser image is from where Remy is on the ground and Rogue is on top of him. The headbut is supposed to be funny I would guess. It just feels tonally out of place and borderline passive aggressive from Rogue. It’s not sweet but rather an a-hole move.



The Powerbroker is tired from watching this shitshow and decides to take matters into his own hands. He doses himself in a tech that hulks him out and fills him with something that is like adamantium and mimics Deathstrikes powers. Deathstrike is there but she isn’t doing anything.

Romy fights with the Powerbroker in 3 pages. 3 pages for that epic throwdown. The fight between Rogue and Gambit lasted 3,5 pages. This is the big conclusion of the mini. This is what it was all building up to. The powerbroker is defeated because Remy picks up a remote that he drops and switches his control of Deathstrike. But first we get another attempt of humour with Remy doing his schtick with the remote while Rogue is fighting in the background. Does people think this is funny?

Deathstrike removes the tech that gave him powers and the rest of the villains now appears again to pummel him while Remy wants to go for Gumbo back in New Orleans.

We then go to the day after in the treehouse where Rogue does her horrible thing that the solicits warned us about. Witch is to control Manifold with the remote and give him to Destiny who puts him in a cryogenic pod in a lake.
It’s odd because Rogue treats Destiny with so much warmth here. After all the **** she has been through, stuff she references in her speech to Destiny. I just think that the writer likes them together, or more importantly she likes Destiny, so Destiny gets a free pass. It’s odd and feels out of character for Rogue. But then again when are Rogue in character in this damn mini? Those spots would probably make a shorter and a more easy to manage list.


Rogue says she is sorry to Eden but that is undercut by her whole exchange with Destiny. If she is sorry it’s not high on her priority’s. She has probably forgotten all about him over the flight home to their Manhattan apartment.

We get a scene of Remy running shirtless up to the building, having completed what appears to be a jog. Probably to give Carlos a shirtless scene to draw and to show us that he has now turned a leaf and is living healthy. Back at the apartment the fire alarm is on…

Because Rogue has failed at making gumbo. Rogue is a mess because she wants to do something nice and she still has the chip inside of her. Remy goades her a bit by saying that they will have pizza tonight. Rogue then expodumps about an unseen Forge visit(he still wants to meet with them after the last time? Is Forge one of those geniuses in fiction that keeps having horrible judgement?)


So Remy charges the chip after a speech from Rogue where she uses this as a metaphor that she bets on Remy and goes “all in”. it’s clunky and not earned but what else is new.

So chip gets charged, chips falls off and all is well. Remy makes a joke about the remote that at least I want to interpret that he suspects her for taking it. She stops him by using her lips. We end with a kissing scene.

The last 2 pages are data pages. It’s a gumbo recipe. I swear, I am not making this up. We get 2 pages of a gumbo recipe. Were they burning out on a deadline? Do they think people want to pay 4 dollars and get 2 pages of food recipes? I am just… comeone marvel!

The End(finally!)


So we end this trainwreck with what is probably the best issue. The best issue in the sense that it didn’t go out of it’s way to trash Remy. Rogue on the other hand has her whole Destiny scene. Witch would work if not for Destiny being a real piece of work and we just have had 5 issues of Rogue and Gambit suffering because of it.

Remys brush with trauma from dying? His problems with alcohol? Either over or not dealt with. In the end none of the problems between the couple gets a proper resolution. They just defeat the bad guy and we should feel that they have gotten that out of their system. But nothing gets resolved. At best it gets brought up in a heated argument and then not mentioned again.

My ratings for some relevant categories during this mini:

Rogue: I have never seen Rogue this horribly written before. She is closed off, passive aggressive, jerky, quick to anger and lacks empathy. Also she is narcissistic. Honestly I recommend reading some good Rogue stories between the issues to remind yourself that the character is not this petulant ass but normally a very fun and warm character.

Score: Have Stephanie Phillips read any Rogue stories before?/10

Gambit: Remy is the comic relief. He is dimwitted, clumsy and a spastic foil to Rogues straight woman routine. As most fools he speaks the truth but is not taken seriously. His explosions are fancy visual effects that have no impact on anything. He gets hit a lot. I think this mini has a new record for times that Remy has gotten hit. He has new problems in his life that are introduced in this mini but are just there for comedy and fuel to the tension between the couple.

Score: Less charming then a tombstone/10

Writing: The plot doesn't really hang together. This whole mini has just accomplished one goal and that is to move Manifold from his base to Destiny’s pod in a lake. Manifold himself was mostly missing due to mind control. It’s an unnecessary prelude to FoX that introduces drama to Romy and then slaps some bandaids and cosmetics on those wounds to sell it back as fixed.

Stephanie Phillips labours under the illusion that her jokes are funny and clever. That her dialogue bounces and has heart. It doesn’t and it’s a shame because so much of the appeal of this mini hangs on those factors. Now it’s never easy to write good dialogue and to be funny but someone really should have told her that she can’t pull this off. It might have given us a better mini if she had changed her approach to a plot that was probably given to her.

Score: Please don't ever write Romy again!/10

Art: Carlos Gomes draws some glossy and beautiful art but he lacks consistency. Perhaps the mini suffered from deadline drama? The fight scenes often feels lightweight, like nothing carries any real impact. Still the man can draw and with a better script I would probably sing a different tune.

Score: 8/10

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

[NicoPony]

Sounds like this Rogue & Gambit meeting could have been an email — or just one issue of Duggan’s X-Men, without Rogue being so godawful mean. Very X-Factor’s “Trial of Magneto” where they add filler and characters to stretch a 1 issue plot over 5. Much ado about nothing.

Glad Gomez got to draw Gambit shirtless. Thanks for sharing that panel, I’ll pass on reading the word bubbles.

[Malachi]

Sounds like this Rogue & Gambit meeting could have been an email — or just one issue of Duggan’s X-Men, without Rogue being so godawful mean. Very X-Factor’s “Trial of Magneto” where they add filler and characters to stretch a 1 issue plot over 5. Much ado about nothing.

Glad Gomez got to draw Gambit shirtless. Thanks for sharing that panel, I’ll pass on reading the word bubbles.

There are more panels =)



Just following the 3 images per post rule that CBR has.

[Ilargi]

Grateful that it's over, now let's get a restraining order from Philips to Romy.

And let's never mention this mini again.

By the way, this could have been solved with a couple of panels in one of Duggan's issues.

If it was important that Rogue did something questionable, just put her knocking out Manifold and another panel of her handing him to Destiny. And it would have done us all the favor of avoiding this disaster.

[Zoks]

Well at least Gambit's problems are over. Clearly they talked off panel. (Yes I'm being sarcastic but I'm afraid this might be the case.) There is one thing that might carry over. Gambit was clearly upset about Rogue hiding things, and she is doing it again by kidnapping Manifold. Maybe this is why they separate after the Gala, as Gambit will definitely be unhappy with her when he sees a mind-controlled Manifold. He's the one who had the controller and Rogue stole it from him. So yeah while it would be nice to forget about this mini ever happening if the Manifold thing comes up it might blow up into something huge.

[Diammandis]

It was a fine series at best, definitely could have been better, it's not the worst thing I've ever read nor is it the best, it's just something.

[thjan]

Yep, I'm glad it's over too. I will never read it again and will do my very best to forget as much of it as I can as well. And yeah, it was largely pointless except for the plot regarding Manifold, and I feel like that could have just been a side plot for Duggan's X-Men or something. Devote a couple of pages to it, it's not like it was interesting anyway. The fight scenes with Powerbroker and his controlled minions were lame and boring, and pretty much the only important page in this whole mini was the page with Rogue and Destiny at the end of this issue. Although even there I agree about not understanding why Rogue was so good with Destiny after she had her do this with no explanation and after the way Destiny has treated her in general this era(constantly trash talking her husband, being intentionally vague, and seemingly not interacting much with her). I truly don't get why this mini was even done. Phillips brought all these relationship conflicts and problems like them not communicating, their relationship being physical over emotional, and Gambit's PTSD and then doesn't bother to delve into or resolve any of them. Truly bizarre! It just culminated with a pretty generic, by the book, pep talk from Gambit telling Rogue how amazing and strong she is to help her break the control over her and then... that's it. I mean it's hilarious. Right back to pretending everything is fine until Rogue's secret comes out I guess. I mean how can they not have a conversation about all that happened and all the things they said to each other? Again, just pointless and I don't understand why it introduced and then just glossed over. Just a strange and out of character mini in general.

[Malachi]

It was a fine series at best, definitely could have been better, it's not the worst thing I've ever read nor is it the best, it's just something.

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 toilett.

[NicoPony]

There are more panels =).

Mal, doing the Lord’s work.

Grazie.

Also want to say thank you to the colorist for the pink exercise outfit.

[Malachi]

Yep, I'm glad it's over too. I will never read it again and will do my very best to forget as much of it as I can as well. And yeah, it was largely pointless except for the plot regarding Manifold, and I feel like that could have just been a side plot for Duggan's X-Men or something. Devote a couple of pages to it, it's not like it was interesting anyway. The fight scenes with Powerbroker and his controlled minions were lame and boring, and pretty much the only important page in this whole mini was the page with Rogue and Destiny at the end of this issue. Although even there I agree about not understanding why Rogue was so good with Destiny after she had her do this with no explanation and after the way Destiny has treated her in general this era(constantly trash talking her husband, being intentionally vague, and seemingly not interacting much with her). I truly don't get why this mini was even done. Phillips brought all these relationship conflicts and problems like them not communicating, their relationship being physical over emotional, and Gambit's PTSD and then doesn't bother to delve into or resolve any of them. Truly bizarre! It just culminated with a pretty generic, by the book, pep talk from Gambit telling Rogue how amazing and strong she is to help her break the control over her and then... that's it. I mean it's hilarious. Right back to pretending everything is fine until Rogue's secret comes out I guess. I mean how can they not have a conversation about all that happened and all the things they said to each other? Again, just pointless and I don't understand why it introduced and then just glossed over. Just a strange and out of character mini in general.

Yeah the lack of resolution really cheapens the value and impact for me. It's just odd to have all that tension and arguing and never tie it up. I know when I argue with a partner I don't leave it open like this. I want some sort of resolution, some breakthrough, something to hang my feelings on. Things must be talked about and aired, more often then not the words must be spoken. They cannot be implied, they must be stated so that no confussion lingers.

[remydat]

Yep, I'm glad it's over too. I will never read it again and will do my very best to forget as much of it as I can as well. And yeah, it was largely pointless except for the plot regarding Manifold, and I feel like that could have just been a side plot for Duggan's X-Men or something. Devote a couple of pages to it, it's not like it was interesting anyway. The fight scenes with Powerbroker and his controlled minions were lame and boring, and pretty much the only important page in this whole mini was the page with Rogue and Destiny at the end of this issue. Although even there I agree about not understanding why Rogue was so good with Destiny after she had her do this with no explanation and after the way Destiny has treated her in general this era(constantly trash talking her husband, being intentionally vague, and seemingly not interacting much with her). I truly don't get why this mini was even done. Phillips brought all these relationship conflicts and problems like them not communicating, their relationship being physical over emotional, and Gambit's PTSD and then doesn't bother to delve into or resolve any of them. Truly bizarre! It just culminated with a pretty generic, by the book, pep talk from Gambit telling Rogue how amazing and strong she is to help her break the control over her and then... that's it. I mean it's hilarious. Right back to pretending everything is fine until Rogue's secret comes out I guess. I mean how can they not have a conversation about all that happened and all the things they said to each other? Again, just pointless and I don't understand why it introduced and then just glossed over. Just a strange and out of character mini in general.

This is Rogue's MO. She always has low standards for everyone except Gambit. Whether it be Destiny, Mystique or Magneto.

[Zoks]

Oh I give this issue a 5/5 because cats.

[Malachi]

Mal, doing the Lord’s work.

Grazie.

Also want to say thank you to the colorist for the pink exercise outfit.

I think Carlos&Colorist really picked a "outfit" that feels Gambit.

[Master of Sound]

Think Destiny knows they are after all teleporters and Power Broker must be working for Orchis. They killed Vanisher off and this way Destiny is protecting Manifold. That would make quite a lot of sense.

[Sandmans_Raven]

As always, thanks for the review Malachi. I'm glad it didn't end as we feared, but dang, what a complete waste. The fact that Rogue is shown as being so warm to Destiny in this series but so cold to Gambit really irritates me.

So glad to be done with the apprehension I always felt the day before one of these issues was released.