Gambit #1 (vol 1)

The first Gambit mini-series takes place (by my estimate) between X-Men #23 and Uncanny X-Men Annual #17, since Wolverine hasn't left the team after Fatal Attractions yet.
 
Gambit #1

Writing: Howard Mackie

Art: Lee Weeks

What Went Down:  An enigmatic figure known as the Tithe Collector scares some hoods away from a woman they are robbing.  As the thieves run away, they are killed by the monster from Ghost Rider #26.  In Salem, Storm and Wolverine observe Gambit flirting with Rogue in the Danger Room.  Outside the mansion, a man in black slips through the security.

Rogue saves Gambit from an explosion, and Gambit suddenly announces that they have an intruder (somehow?).  The intruder is Gambit’s adopted brother Henri, and he has come to recruit Gambit for the tithing.  Henri is shot with an arrow and dies, but not before revealing that Bella Donna and her brother Julien are still alive.  Gambit pursues the men who shot his brother by himself.  In New Orleans, Remy’s adopted father Jean-Luc Lebeau requests permission to give his son an elixir.  In Paris we see the Externals Gideon and Candra talking cryptically about exciting plans.

Gambit pursues his brother’s killers, members of the Assassins Guild, to an abandoned warehouse and fights them.  At the same time, Rogue reveals to Wolverine that she loves Gambit, and Logan suggests that Rogue not wait to tell him.  Gambit then encounters the killer from the X-Men/Ghost Rider crossover, who turns out to be Julien, his ex-brother-in-law that he accidentally killed years ago.  The two sword fight, and Julien impales himself on Gambit’s sword.  Not dying, Julien and the assassins teleport through a portal.  Gambit returns to the mansion, tells the X-Men that he has to follow up on this alone, and Rogue announces that she is going with him. 

How It Was:  So it’s the 90’s and anti-heroes are super in.  Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor are getting demolished in the sales charts by the likes of Ghost Rider, Punisher, and Wolverine.  Due to the success of the new X-Men title as well as the Saturday morning cartoon show, Gambit was quite the popular character.  A mini-series seemed like a sure bet (and it was), but of course the problem is taking Gambit from member of the team (one piece in a greater story) and making him the focus—giving him supporting characters and motivations outside of the X-Men. 

To Howard Mackie’s credit, he does start out with some serious stakes.  We’re introduced to Gambit’s brother, who is almost instantly killed.  A little cheap?  Maybe, but it is enough so you buy that Gambit is willing to up and leave the X-Men for a little bit; this part would be more effective if Gambit’s brother was mentioned at all during the rest of the series.  Gambit doesn’t even do anything with his brother’s body…he just leaves. 

The fight with the Assassins members is laid out rather nicely.  Weeks changes it up enough when depicting Gambit’s powers that it never gets old to see him pitching cards.  In fact Lee Weeks does a nice job with all the characters and poses.  The only weak spot is the Danger Room sequence—it’s a room that can literally create anything, so I don’t know why so many artists decide to fill it with empty white space.  We see some arms, pistons, and rockets coming at Gambit and Rogue, but most of it is off panel and just barely in view.  There are some robots, but they’re drawn too close up to get any sense of how they are attacking or what they might do as a threat.  I get that the scene is supposed to be easy for Gambit and Rogue so they can banter, but it would be more impressive if we could see the full threat in a couple of panels, not just have it creeping in off panel. 

And of course the real problem is the plot points that Mackie is stuck with.  We’re exploring the two guilds, which makes one think of ancient orders dedicated to a craft.  Mackie knows he needs a conflict for them to fight over, and the best he can come up with is this generic macguffin of the elixir of life.  Plus we meet Jean-Luc Lebeau, Gambit’s father, who is pretty much a generic swashbuckler/Robin Hood type.  Things get even more disappointing when we learn just how Candra is tied into all this.

The rest of the issue is serviceable, although there is one inconsistency that always bothered me.  I understand that all this is embroiled in Gambit’s past and family, and he wants to solve his own problems, but surely the same was true in the X-Men/Ghost Rider crossover that sets this series up.  If the X-Men didn’t let Gambit go off alone then, why now? 

It’s an intriguing start, and to its credit, Gambit #1 delivers everything a Gambit comic needs: Gambit + Rogue, an arch enemy for Gambit to fight, and the unraveling of Gambit’s history.  We get one really good and one okay/decent action sequence, and some scenes of Wolverine telling Rogue common sense.  Tonally it’s struggling a bit; Gambit is a light hearted rogue, but he’s confronted with a lot of serious tragedy that force him to be a little too serious.  Still, it catches your attention well enough.

For X-Men Fans