Gambit: King of Thieves Appreciation 2024

[Nox Noctes]

Marquez draws an excellent Gambit.

[Purplevit]

Tom Breevoort:
Uncanny X-Men, I always use the same phrase, which is outlaw heroes, and the Uncanny X-Men are basically centered around Rogue. In a world where all of the typical, obvious, past natural leader figures of mutantkind and of the X-Men are not really on the playing field anymore, Rogue, through a set of circumstances, has the realization that somebody has to keep the metaphorical dream of Professor X alive, and so that's what the Uncanny X-Men are. They're the X-Men as superheroes. They're out there, doing the sort of thing that classically a Professor X's X-Men would do, which is if Doctor Octopus was robbing a bank two states away, they would go out and fight him as well. They're on the fringes. They're not appointed by anybody. They're feared and hated, and so they are outlaw heroes. But they go out, fight the good fight, try to put forward a good face on mutantdom, and show their worth by being heroes.

Tonally, probably the closest thing is the Australian Outback X-Men days, if you think of that. And they're situated down in New Orleans. They're living in a big old antediluvian house owned by this family that has history with Gambit. And I think of it as sort of the opposite of the X-Mansion because it's barely got running water. And they've built, like, a makeshift danger room out in the woods out back with logs and engine blocks and things. They'll also have, and we haven't talked about this too much, but there'll be an influx of new characters here. There'll be four new, totally new, never-before-seen X-characters showing up here who'll be important and who'll be a driver of the thing as well.

It's got the most, particularly in the umbra of '97, the most classic-looking X-Men team. You stand them up, and it's Rogue, Gambit, Jubilee, Nightcrawler, Wolverine. Yeah. What you think of as the most classic X-Men, which, again, I know some X-readers have felt like, oh, we're just going back and doing the same '80s or '90s stories again." And the answer to that is no. No, we're not, but we're certainly drawing a certain amount of inspiration from that. And if X-Men '97 has taught us anything, it's that people really like those characters and wanna see them doing stuff. So we're gonna do that.

[seccruz]

Marquez draws an excellent Gambit.

Marquez is a treat! And yeah, Remy looks cool as hell!

[CityofAngels]

Tom Breevoort:
Uncanny X-Men, I always use the same phrase, which is outlaw heroes, and the Uncanny X-Men are basically centered around Rogue. In a world where all of the typical, obvious, past natural leader figures of mutantkind and of the X-Men are not really on the playing field anymore, Rogue, through a set of circumstances, has the realization that somebody has to keep the metaphorical dream of Professor X alive, and so that's what the Uncanny X-Men are. They're the X-Men as superheroes. They're out there, doing the sort of thing that classically a Professor X's X-Men would do, which is if Doctor Octopus was robbing a bank two states away, they would go out and fight him as well. They're on the fringes. They're not appointed by anybody. They're feared and hated, and so they are outlaw heroes. But they go out, fight the good fight, try to put forward a good face on mutantdom, and show their worth by being heroes.

Oh god the way editors and websites describe it the book sounds like another Rogue stealth solo series

[DearMachine]

Oh god the way editors and websites describe it the book sounds like another Rogue stealth solo series

I have more faith in Gail Simone than that. All of her team books have been really well-balanced and given everyone a chance to shine.

Also, there is definitely a Gambit plot in there, since the summary talks about the mansion belonging to a family with whom he is connected. If they had wanted a Rogue stealth solo, they could have set it in her New Orleans house from X-Treme.

[Purplevit]

Oh god the way editors and websites describe it the book sounds like another Rogue stealth solo series

I hope not.
Gail's answer kinda tells that we shouldn't be afraid.

Originally Posted by CityofAngels View Post
Hi Gail,

Info so far sounds like the new Uncanny book is Rogue centric, is this the case or can we expect focus across the whole team?

For example - ‘ For Simone, Gambit’s retreat to the bayou gives Rogue a chance to rest after the complicated events during the Fall of X storyline. But her retreat gets interrupted, not only by some young mutants who need help, but also by a frightening new baddie.“

Gail:
There's no question that Rogue is the POV character for a lot of the first story. BUT, I swear, I love the whole team and each one is just begging to have their stories told. Gambit, man, I just love him. Wolverine, it just goes on and on. I don't think you'll feel she takes over the book

[NicoPony]

I hope not.
Gail's answer kinda tells that we shouldn't be afraid.

Originally Posted by CityofAngels View Post
Hi Gail,

Info so far sounds like the new Uncanny book is Rogue centric, is this the case or can we expect focus across the whole team?

For example - ‘ For Simone, Gambit’s retreat to the bayou gives Rogue a chance to rest after the complicated events during the Fall of X storyline. But her retreat gets interrupted, not only by some young mutants who need help, but also by a frightening new baddie.“

Gail:
There's no question that Rogue is the POV character for a lot of the first story. BUT, I swear, I love the whole team and each one is just begging to have their stories told. Gambit, man, I just love him. Wolverine, it just goes on and on. I don't think you'll feel she takes over the book

I have to keep this in mind too, because I don’t want to see the return of Racky LeBeau, Rogue’s trusty coat rack. Though the fanart of ole Racky back in the day had me rolling. XD

[Gripstir]

Tom Breevoort:

And they've built, like, a makeshift danger room out in the woods out back with logs and engine blocks and things. They'll also have, and we haven't talked about this too much, but there'll be an influx of new characters here. There'll be four new, totally new, never-before-seen X-characters showing up here who'll be important and who'll be a driver of the thing as well.

This is pretty much why I'm not gonna read it. This is the red flag I look for in any Marvel property. If they say something like this it means they are exploiting the popularity of the legacy character to make you read stories about other characters. If I see anything like that in a description it's an instant no read for me. I'm tired of mentor Gambit stories, its all they ever do with him.

[CamilleMoineau]

Yeah, at this point that's the thing that worries me, I really wish they would've just kept the team small with characters we know and love rather than forcing us to deal with four nobodies that'll take up attention.

[Malachi]

Yeah, at this point that's the thing that worries me, I really wish they would've just kept the team small with characters we know and love rather than forcing us to deal with four nobodies that'll take up attention.

I hope they are treated as *the case of the week*. Being leads into the stories and leading the main cast to new interactions. I have no real desire to invest in new characters atm, especially not when there is much to mine from the main 5.