Gambit (Marvel)
Gambit is a male comic superhero who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Remy Etienne LeBeau
Abandoned at birth due to his burning red eyes, the mutant child who would one day become Remy LeBeau was kidnapped from his hospital ward by members of the New Orleans Thieves Guild who referred to the child as le diable blanc - the white devil. They believed he was the child that had been prophesied to unite the warring Guilds of New Orleans. Soon after, Remy was placed in the care of a gang of street thieves who raised the child and taught him the ways of thievery. Later, when he was around ten years old, Remy attempted to pick the pocket of Jean-Luc LeBeau, then-patriarch of the Thieves' Guild. Jean-Luc took the boy off the streets and adopted him as his own son. (Gambit v3 #1)
The New Orleans Thieves Guild was later visited by a man named Mr. Essex who wanted to hire the young Remy LeBeau for an assignment. This involved recovering his diary containing his research notes that had been confiscated and held in a facility in Canada. Essex insisted that he wanted Remy for the job despite he boy being a bit too young with Jean-Luc LeBea agreeing to the paid assignment. This saw Remy going to the Weapon X facility where he managed to sneak in and recover the Diary of Nathaniel Essex. Whilst there, he was shocked to find in the government installation people being subjected to illegal experiments with him accidentally alerting the guards to his presence. They looked to detain him but then Weapon X manage to escape from containment allowing Remy to escape in the chaos. Whilst outside, he decided to examine the diary and was horrified at the experiments contained within it. Convinced at the evil of this work, Remy decided to destroy the diary and returned home claiming that he found no such book in the installation in Canada. Mr. Essex decided to take the boy at his word and paid the Thieves Guild for their service whilst taking an interest in the skill of the young Remy LeBeau. (Weapon X: First Class v1 #3)
As part of a peace pact between the Thieves' Guild and their rivals, the Assassins Guild, a marriage was arranged between Remy and Bella Donna Boudreaux, the granddaughter of the head of the Assassins Guild; however, Bella Donna's brother Julien objected to the marriage and challenged Gambit to a duel. Remy killed Julien in self-defense but was excommunicated and banished from New Orleans in an attempt to maintain the fragile peace between the two guilds. (X-Men v2 #8)
Remy wandered the world as he plied his skills as a master thief, aided by his mutant power to charge objects with explosive energy. He employed playing cards he charged with kinetic energy as his trademark weapon. In time, Remy's powers began to slip out of his control. He sought out the master geneticist Mr. Sinister for help in controlling his powers. Sinister removed some of Remy's brain tissue to reduce his power to manageable levels. As a result, Remy was now in the geneticist's debt, and Sinister subsequently charged the thief with assembling the team of mercenaries called the Marauders. With the team assembled, Sinister charged Remy with leading them down into the Morlock tunnels. Remy was unaware that Sinister's true intentions were to massacre the Morlocks. When this came to light, Remy attempted to stop them, but a Marauder named Sabretooth grievously injured him and left him for dead, as they began to massacre the helpless Morlocks. All Remy could do was to save one young Morlock girl who would one day grow up to become the X-Man named Marrow. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #350)
X-Men
Months later, he was attempting to steal the wealth from an art owner in a mansion in Cairo, Illinois when he ran into Storm. The X-Men’s leader had, at that point, been reduced to the age of a pre-teen by the mad villain, Nanny. Storm barely had any memories of her life as an X-Man and had returned to her thieving ways. Worse, she was being chased by the Shadow King and his Hounds. Gambit, who had his suspicions about the girl, intervened on Storm’s behalf, making her fight his own. Together, they escaped the Shadow King’s minions. Storm settled in with Gambit in New Orleans and they teamed up as thieves, playing Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #267) Eventually, they were found again by Nanny. The confrontation enabled Storm to regain her repressed memories and she left to find the scattered X-Men with an intrigued Gambit in tow. Upon reaching the Xavier estate in Westchester, Storm explained to Gambit why the mansion was in ruins; it had been blown up by one of the X-Men’s foes – Mr. Sinister. The pair were then met by Banshee and Forge, who had been searching for the missing X-Men, and soon the entire team was reunited during a crisis in Genosha. (Uncanny X-Men Annual v1 #14)
Later, when the X-Men's founder Professor Charles Xavier returned from a long period of traveling in outer space, Storm, now restored to her true adult state, sponsored Remy's admission into the X-Men. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #273)
Remy soon fell in love with his fellow X-Man, Rogue, blessed and cursed with the ability to absorb other mutants' thoughts and abilities through skin-on-skin contact. The feeling was mutual, but the two were condemned never to touch. (X-Men v2 #4)
The incident had quite an effect on Rogue. Not only did she have to face the possibility of Gambit still caring for his wife, despite her not recognizing him anymore, but also, thanks to the memories she had absorbed from Bella Donna, she now knew what it was to be like to kiss Gambit and be intimate with him. At the same time, she knew she could never have it for herself. Back in Westchester, Gambit noticed that Rogue was acting peculiar, sometimes repeating things Bella Donna had said to him in the past. Gambit was so disturbed by it that he even confided in Professor Xavier about it, despite them not knowing each other very well. (X-Men v2 #32)
When the acts of Xavier’s mad son, Legion, led to what seemed to be the end of the world, a reality-altering crystal wave swept over the entire universe. Faced with the ends of their lives as they knew it, Gambit and Rogue tossed all caution to the wind and kissed for the first - and what they believed to be the last - time. (X-Men v2 #41)
Gambit joined up with Iceman in a Seattle bar, moments after Rogue had angrily stormed out and they followed Rogue to an abandoned theatre – the place where Gambit had made his deal with Sinister. Rogue demanded to know what the secret was that terrified him so. Gambit stepped around answering her, reminding her of what they had been through and that she should not throw their relationship away. Finally, he offered that she could absorb him again so she would share his memory. Rogue refused, leaving both him and the X-Men, feeling that, in the final analysis, whatever they had was not enough. Left alone, Remy was joined by Sinister, who reminded him of who he was and that he could no more pretend to be a follower of Xavier than Sinister could. Gambit realized that he still was not free of his past. (X-Men v2 #45)
With Rogue gone and the shadows of his past looming, Remy became extremely moody. He turned his anger on Sabretooth, who, at that point thanks to a battle with Wolverine, seemed to be amnesiac and was deemed harmless. Using the Danger Room holograms, Gambit cruelly reminded Creed of all his victims before Storm put a stop to the show. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #326)
A short while later, Creed returned to his true nature and almost eviscerated Psyocke. While she was hovering between life and death, Gambit wondered how much she had seen in his mind while he was comatose. He realized that his secret would be safer if she died but, when Betsy’s condition worsened, he did the right thing and kept her alive until help arrived. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #330)
Remy was subsequently captured and brought before a mock trial held by Magneto, the mutant master of magnetism, then disguised as Erik the Red. During the course of the trial, Remy's past with Sinister and his role in the Mutant Massacre was brought to light. He was summarily cast out of the X-Men and was abandoned in the frozen wastes of Antarctica by Rogue. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #350)
Remy returned home and encountered the X-Men again when he attempted to steal the fabled Crimson Gem of Cyttorak for his new employer. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #361)
He agreed to return to the team, mainly for his self-respect and for his love for Rogue; however, Mary began to threaten Remy and his friends if he didn't agree to stay with her forever. When the X-Men finally found out about Mary, the wraith fled with Remy to her old hometown, where she tried to force him to merge with her and become a new hybrid life form. While Remy wrestled with her, Rogue charged in with a containment unit, which ultimately dispersed Mary. (Gambit Annual v1 #1999)
Meanwhile, the New Sun revealed his true nature after organizing an assassination game for a cadre of super-powered mercenaries with Remy as the target. When Remy took the fight back to the New Sun, he was shocked to learn that the New Sun was actually an alternate reality version of himself. (Gambit v3 #23)
X-Treme X-Men
Gambit was then knocked unconscious and taken away by Sunfire who despite being the Horseman Famine had overcome his programming with the help of Emma Frost. Remy later awoke in a temple in Japan, where Sunfire encouraged him to abandon his master Apocalypse, the X-Men, and his past. To do this they launched an attack on the X-Mansion to recover their fellow Horseman Polaris. Remy showed his willingness to abandon his past as he tried to murder Rogue; however, the attack failed and they retreated to the Buddhist Temple in Japan, where they were greeted by Mr. Sinister, who offered to help them overcome Apocalypse's control. (X-Men v2 #187)
Mr and Mrs X
He and Rogue later attended the marriage of Kitty Pryde and Colossus only to see Kitty decide to not go forward with the wedding on the day. During a discussion amongst the X-Men, Remy decided that he could not live a life parted from Rogue and proposed to her at that moment. Thus, it was decided to use the venue and set up for the marriage between Remy and Anna Marie leading to them becoming a formally married couple. (X-Men: Gold v2 #30) After the wedding was held, the pair went into space for their honeymoon when Kitty Pryde informed them of an urgent mission and requested their aid leading to the married couple going on the assignment. (Mr. and Mrs. X v1 #1)
House of X
Overview
Personality and attributes
It was said that he had an angel's smile and the red eyes of a devil. It was for this reason that he came to be known as Le Diable Blanc or the white devil. (Gambit v3 #1) He was once transformed into one of the Horsemen of Apocalypse where he took the identity of Death. (X-Men v2 #184)
He was able to use his charm to talk and make people listen to him with them being almost unable to help themselves as he bound them in a web of words. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #266)
It was said that he was Jean-Luc LeBeau's favourite son and the pride of the New Orleans Thieves Guild. His father had taught him that the first rule of being a thief was to be prepared for anything. (Weapon X: First Class v1 #3)
Remy was noted to have had three cats that were given to him by Mystique. (Astonishing X-Men v3 #62) All of them were named after cats from Disney films with these being Oliver, Lucifer, and Figaro. (All-New X-Factor v1 #3)
Powers and abilities
Such was his speed that he could flip out a throwing spike from his sleeves faster than the eye could follow and in the same motion throw it. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #266)
the power to take the potential energy stored in an object and convert it to kinetic energy, thus 'charging' that item with explosive results. He prefers to charge smaller objects, such as his ever-present playing cards, as the time required to charge them is greatly reduced and they are much easier for him to throw. The only real limitation to this ability is the time required to charge the object. The larger an object then the more time it took to charge it. He could charge a small hand-held spike with enough energy to explode with the force of a cannon-shell. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #266)
Normally, he was not able to utilize his powers on living matter or organic molecules. (Gambit v3 #16)
Gambit can also cause objects to pull themselves apart instead of exploding violently making them harmlessly melt down to nothing. Once having focused charging on dissolving shrapnel in a victim's stomach and at times when jumpstarted able to overcharge falling debris from crumbling buildings. His control over this has increased to the point he can shatter ice he was encased in without blowing up. (Gambit v5 #17)
At one point, Sage augmented his powers enabling Gambit to accelerate his own regeneration process and better control his kinetic shifting. (X-Men v2 #165)
After making a deal with Apocalypse, Gambit was transformed into the Horsemen of Apocalypse known as Death whereby he was given new powers. In this form, he was able to transmute substances from one form into another form such as poison. In one occasion, he threatened to turn all the air in the lung of a person into noxious gas. (X-Men v2 #185) As Death, Gambit could also charge objects in a manner differently than his regular kinetic charge. This 'death charge' caused his cards to break down living matter on contact, totally disintegrating a victim. The Death persona also seemed capable of guiding these charged cards to their target mentally. (X-Men: Legacy Annual v1 #1)
Later on, Gambit would re-join the Thieves Guild where he became appointed as the new King of Thieves and operated as their guildmaster. (Gambit v5 #17)
Notes
- Gambit was created by Chris Claremont, Mike Collins, and Jim Lee where he made a cameo appearance in Uncanny X-Men Annual v1 #1990 (July, 1990) before fully making his first debut in Uncanny X-Men v1 #266 (August, 1990).
Alternate Versions
- In Gambit v3 #7 (1999), an alternate version of Gambit was shown who became the New Sun that was native to Earth-9921.
In other media
Television
- In X-Men, Gambit appeared in the 1990s animated television series where he was initially voiced by actor Chris Potter with him later replaced by actor Tony Daniels.
- In X-Men: Evolution, Gambit appeared as a minor antagonist in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Alessandro Juliani.
- In Wolverine and the X-Men, Gambit appeared as a minor antagonist in the animated television series with his first appearance in the episode "Thieves Gambit" where he was voiced by actor Phil LaMarr.
Films
- In X2, Gambit was referenced in the setting of the live-action film. Gambit's name appeared on a list of known Mutants on William Stryker's computer.
- In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Remy LeBeau appeared in the live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Taylor Kitsch.
Video games
- In X-Men, Gambit appeared as a playable character in the setting of the 1993 console video game.
- In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, Gambit appeared as a playable character in the video game where he was voiced by actor Michael Dunn.
- In X-Men: Destiny, Gambit appeared in the setting of the video game where he was voiced by actor Phil LaMarr.
Appearances
- Uncanny X-Men v1: (1990)
- Gambit v1:
- X-Men v2:
- Gambit v2:
- Gambit v3:
- X-Men v2:
- X-Men: Legacy Annual v1:
- All-New X-Factor v1:
- Astonishing X-Men:
- X-Men: Red v1:
- Rogue and Gambit v1:
- Mr. and Mrs. X v1:
- Excalibur:
External Links
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