Gambit #3 (vol 1)

Gambit #3

Writing: Howard Mackie

Art: Lee Weeks

What Went Down:  Gambit enters an exclusive Paris club without paying mind to the dress code.  After making a scene with a woman, the security guards escort him to a parking garage.  When the guards, who are working for Candra, go to kill him, Gambit subdues them all.  After changing into his uniform, Gambit is knocked out by the Tithe Collector.

Back in New Orleans, Rogue and Gambit’s Tante Mattie, a voodoo practitioner and healer, are watching over Bella Donna.  When Mattie leaves, Rogue debates using her powers to absorb Belle’s memories of Gambit.  In Paris, Gambit wakes up in a nicely furnished room.  He fights the Tithe Collector again and blows a hole in the room.  Candra breaks up the fight, announcing that she has need of Gambit and revealing their romantic past together.  Over in the Big Easy, Rogue stops herself from touching Belle, but Belle’s hand reaches out to grab the mutant anyway.  This forces Rogue to relive the entire Gambit/Belle romance.

Candra reveals her elixir and offers to give it to Gambit if he will kill his father.  She explains that she created the guilds centuries ago to keep each other in check and do her bidding.  Now she wants to create a new organization.  The Assassins and Julien burst into the room to steal the elixir for themselves.  Julien is powerful enough now to take Candra, one of the Externals, but Gambit distracts him.  In the middle of the fight, Jean-Luc Lebeau takes one of Julien’s claw swipes to save his son.  Enraged, Gambit subdues everyone while Candra knocks Julien out the window with a psionic bolt.  Gambit kisses Candra good-bye, but uses the opportunity to steal the elixir from her cleavage.  We end on Candra telling the Tithe Collector to order both guilds to hunt down Gambit, Rogue, and Belle.

How It Was:  Now this is more like it.  Gambit with a leather jacket, torn jeans, and a cigarette, tearing into a high society club, flirting with ladies and beating the crap out of jerks.  This is the stuff I want to see, even if it slumps a little once we get to…sigh, Candra. 

So the entire plot still centers on this elixir, the plot device that the guilds exist to compete for.  We learn that Candra created them for some vague purposes—something about reaping benefits.  But it’s hard to see what she needs them for because we don’t really know anything about Candra, other than she sleeps with Gideon and had a fling with Gambit.  I have no idea why a super powerful mutant would need an army of thieves and assassins, and how giving them powers to rival her own or having them kill each other is remotely a good idea.  It’s story logic that makes no sense whatsoever.  And the problem is, all these issues are what drive the primary sources of Gambit’s origin.

The tension and mystique of the Tithe Man have been completely shattered now that he has been beaten twice.  And there is this plot convenience of Julien being able to almost kill these uber-powerful beings, but Gambit can smack him in the head and hold his ground against him.  Gambit might be a little too powerful in this series, which harms the story when we don’t think there’s any chance Gambit could fail. 

Well we’ve got Gambit back in character, but now Rogue is acting out of sorts.  I don’t know why Rogue would want to absorb Belle’s memories since they could only hurt her emotionally.

Still, it’s Lee Weeks’ art that continues to carry this book.  His layouts here are especially memorable.  There’s a nice sequence where Gambit drops a card at the top of the page and it lands by a panel of Belle grabbing Rogue.  Or the composition of Belle’s memory montage which looks great.  Even the explosion panel where Julien and his men enter the hotel is fantastic. 

So we’ve got some great scenes for Gambit mixed with some dreadful Candra gibberish.  While I feel this issue does some harm to Gambit’s back story, the stuff in the present is rather fun.  I just wish Gambit had something better to do than assemble a magic elixir from some fantasy novel that somehow got stuck here.

X-Fans Only

X-Men #61

X-Men #61
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Cedric Nocon

What Went Down: Archangel starts off the issue pounding on the door of his penthouse because Psylocke is inside a battling a group of undercloaks-the magic shadow ninjas from back in Uncanny #329. Unable to enter (I guess he forgot his keys?), Warren runs up the stairs to the roof, flies around, and busts through a window to find Betsy calmly sitting by herself. When Warren asks what is going on, Gomurr the Ancient shows up and hints at the cost of resurrecting Psylocke with the Crimson Dawn. This is all set up for a Crimson Dawn mini-series for the couple to star in, so don’t worry too much about it.

Back at the museum, Storm is trying to protect Karima, the orphan who was raised a thief by Storm’s mentor and is presently taped to a pillar. Storm confronts the Shadow King/Jamil and tries to stop him with a blizzard. Candra tries to get to the gem, but the Juggernaut appears, attacking her and Storm. Storm frees Karima and wonders if the appearances of the Shadow King and Juggernaut are somehow tied to Jamil’s powers. Candra and Storm get into a hand-to-hand fight, with Ororo throwing Candra in some rubble. While Storm tries to figure out what is happening, Cable appears and uses the gem to shoot a red ray at Candra. Storm figures out the cause of the manifestations, flies Karima out of the museum, and tells the girl that she has to stop this.

Elsewhere in the city, the X-Men are tracking Storm to help her. Jean uses her powers to hide their appearance from civilians, which causes a debate among the members. Jean turns a corner and everyone disappears, both X-Man and civilian. After three panels, everything returns to normal, with Wolverine asking Jean if there is anything wrong.

Back in the museum, Candra bursts out of the rubble and asks where Jamil has gone. Storm explains that Jamil never existed because Karima is actually a mutant whose power involves pulling desires from people’s minds and making them real; Jamil was actually a desire of Karima’s given form to keep her from being lonely. Candra’s own desire to get the gem was then projected onto Jamil by Karima. Storm throws Candra the gem, but at the last second Cyclops shows up and blasts it, killing Candra. The X-Men comment about how they are always there for each other, and Storm decides that she is going to take Karima home. In an epilogue in Hong Kong, Sebastian Shaw is revealed to be not dead. He makes a toast to his son Shinobi, and then says some cryptic mutterings about his next huge plan.

How It Was: Errr…I hate to be so negative all the time, but this really makes no sense and has no purpose. The cover teases an awesome fight with the Juggernaut, but what we get is a series of illusions that are only around for a page or two each. Candra’s “heart” has gone from her weakness to a typical ultimate power macguffin, and the resolution is super anti-climactic since Storm could have just destroyed the thing last issue and been done with all of it.

Now let’s talk about the M. Night Shyamalan style twist of Jamil not existing. Originally we’re told that Jamil is a mutant who can create illusions. Fair enough. Then we’re told that he might be possessed by the Shadow King, and the gem can enhance his powers. Still good. After that, a bunch of illusions from Storm’s history pop up and attack her. She somehow reasons that it is impossible for Jamil to be able to know these aspects of her history, so instead she figures that it makes more sense that Karima has the power to unconsciously read thoughts and desires from people and make them tangible. Also, Jamil isn’t real, as he was really an embodiment of Karima’s unconscious desire to not be alone. My question is, how is this the more likely scenario than a mutant who can create illusions screwing with a person with aspects of their past? Especially with an overpowered magic gem, shouldn’t this be well within the realm of possibilities in the X-Men’s lives?

Still, the twist might have been enough if we actually cared about any of the characters at all. Even Candra has little to no motivation; why did she put her heart in a jewel in the first place and what is she going to do if she gets it back under her control? On top of that, at the end Storm decides it is best to return Karima to her life as a struggling orphan thief in Africa by herself, as opposed to say taking her back to their mansion so she can learn how to use her insanely powerful mutant abilities. So there you have it, even Storm doesn’t care enough about Karima as a character to do the right thing by her.

As for the rest of the plotlines, the two-page spread of Psylocke fighting ghost ninjas looks pretty cool, but the stuff with the Crimson Dawn still isn’t interesting at all. And in what I assume is yet another forgotten plotline to add to the list, Jean Grey sees everybody in New York disappear for no reason. Sebastian Shaw is back, not that we really missed him all that much. While he is a much better character than his son Shinobi, Sebastian doesn’t really get any good plots in the modern age of comics that I can think of off the top of my head. But more on that in the coming issues of X-Men.

This story was probably the biggest misfire yet. I like the idea of putting the spotlight on Storm, but a boring villain, uninteresting supporting characters, and unnecessary plot twists make this one pretty forgettable. This is the type of comic that shows how diehard an X-fan is if they owned it and stuck with the series after reading it.

F

X-Men #60

X-Men #60
Writing: Scott Lobdell and Ralph Macchio
Art: Cedric Nocon

What Went Down: Storm is enjoying some solitude in her attic/garden when Cyclops ambushes and attacks her. The External Candra has possessed Cyclops for some reason, but she lets him go after Storm drenches him. Storm explains to Cyclops that Candra is after the jewel from Storm’s costume.

In a flashback we see the young thief Storm breaking into a mansion to steal the gem. After young Ororo removed the jewel, the case exploded, killing all the guards and leveling the house. Storm’s master Achmed El-Gibar kept the jewel for her until she was older, and it turns out that the gem is really Candra’s heart, the only weakness the External has.

In Washington, Jean consoles Cannonball for failing to save Graydon Creed. Meanwhile Storm meets Candra in the Metropolitan Museum’s Egyptian collection. Storm is about to destroy the jewel so Candra cannot use its power, but Candra reveals that she has kidnapped a girl named Karima that Storm met way back in X-Men Unlimited #7, who was also trained as a thief by Achmed. Additionally, Candra has employed Karima’s friend Jamil, who can cast illusions. Jamil makes Ororo see the Black Panther, who kisses her. Storm breaks free and a fight erupts. The gem in Storm’s hand disappears because Jamil created an illusion to make her think she was still holding it. The issue ends with the Shadow King appearing and announcing that he has been in control of Jamil all along and now has the power of the Heart of Candra.

How It Was: The stress of writing two books continues to take its toll on Lobdell, as he scrapes the bottom of the X-bucket for this story. With clearly no direction for the X-Men books at this point, Lobdell was obviously getting desperate if he was using X-Men Unlimited stories for his inspiration. Putting the spotlight on Storm for two issues isn’t a bad idea by any stretch of the mind; after all, she hasn’t really had any development of her own since Forge left her. It’s just that this story is a long series of unnecessary retcons combined with an enmity between two characters that has never been mentioned before or since.

Ralph Macchio’s script for this issue is not particularly great, and it’s not helped by the sheer amount of exposition that is dumped into this issue. Storm’s origin is gone over twice, once by the narrator and again when Storm recounts a flashback, with a filler action scene between Cyclops and Storm smack in the middle. Tying Candra to Storm’s past doesn’t make a lot of sense since she has primarily been a Gambit and X-Force villain up to this point. Then there are just the numerous logical gaps: if Candra can possess Cyclops, why not just possess Storm instead? Why would Storm’s mentor give the jewel to her if it holds so much power, and why would she hold onto it if she saw it blow up a mansion full of people? If the jewel is Candra’s weakness, why doesn’t Storm just destroy it this issue instead of making us slog through another issue to destroy it? The macguffin is just too poorly defined, as is the reason Candra has waited so long to try to get it back.

Another baffling choice is the inclusion of minor bit players Karima and Jamil. Storm acts like they are super important to her, but really she’s only met them once and most readers probably had no idea at the time who they were; I know I didn’t. The script doesn’t do much to make us care about either of them at all, since Jamil acts like a brainwashed lackey and Karima has her mouth taped shut the whole issue. They’re never going to be in a comic again after next issue, so don’t worry too much about them.

Cedric Nocon’s art is actually really nice, except for the magically changing proportions and position of the Washington Monument in the Jean and Sam scene. Conversely, that’s probably my favorite part of the issue since it actually makes sense, deals with the characters, and gives Cannonball a little depth. I like that Sam is conflicted about Creed’s death, although it does bring up the question of why the writers set up this months long storyline for him when he contributed absolutely nothing to its resolution. The end is a bit of a red herring; it looks cool, but next issue devolves into a series of twists that don’t come off as interesting or clever as they should, namely because nobody cares about any of the characters other than Storm. This issue just continues the trend of aimlessness that the X-Men suffered pre- and post-Onslaught.

F