This week, I thought I'd take a look at an X-Men who isn't one of my favorites, but who has a pretty big and dedicated following, one that has ensured that he's never been far from publication during his thirty years of existance. I'm talking about the X-Men's very own Cajun Crook, Remy Lebeau, also known as Gambit. Gambit was the first of a new wave of characters introduced in the Nineties, and was one of Chris Claremont's last contributions to the pantheon. Rumour had it that he was intended to be a third, long-lost Summers brother, but instead he became a unique part of the X-Men universe. So, what do we think about Gambit?

• Gambit's best known power is of course his ability to charge things (often playing cards) with kinetic energy, turning them into little bombs under his precise control. However, the strength of his powers has varied wildly over the years, and when he's going all out and he's in a high-power phase, he can do some pretty enormous damage. Actually, his powers used to be so extreme and uncontrollable that he ended up getting brain surgery to get them under control, which is how he got into business with Mr. Sinister in the first place. He's got superhuman reflexes and physical skill, which makes him a demon on the basketball court. Gambit also has a lesser-known power, one that I frequently forget about. He has the ability to use low-level telepathic hypnosis to charm people. It's super low-powered, and Rogue has said that if you're aware of it, it doesn't affect you, but it kind of explains why he's such a ladykiller. After all, if not for his mind-altering power, what else would a member of the opposite sex see in him, aside from his shredded body, his physical virtuosity, his suave attitude, his willingness to dote on a lover, his sultry accent and his handsome face? One thing you can say about Gambit is that despite his life of deception and crime, he's generally handled himself pretty decently in his personal life.

• When it comes to fisticuffs, Gambit is probably one of the most accomplished X-Men. His style is heavily inspired by the martial arts, and his powers dovetail perfectly into that. When he can throw a throwing star or a card and have it explode, that's a pretty hefty advantage. There's also his bo staff, which is both a weapon and a tool for some of his more acrobatic moves. I wouldn't consider him to be quite as capable a fighter as Wolverine, who is kind of the 'top guy' in that department, and Psylocke was probably better, but after that I'd put Gambit right at the top of the list. The early Nineties was a period when ninja was a big deal, and so his acrobatic and distracting style is just the sort of thing you'd expect.

• Our first meeting with Gambit is when he's trying to break into a place and steal some stuff, where he happens to encounter Storm (who has been transformed into a little girl) battling the Shadow King and his hounds. Remy's early appearances lean hard on his criminal history and skills, but he's still fundamentally a good person who can't help but be intrigued by this little girl's top-flight skill as a thief, and who isn't going to let some strange woman (the Shadow King was possessing a female body) kill her. We discover that Gambit is a master thief from New Orleans, and that he was an orphan adopted by the Lebeaus. Both of those points would come back to have full-on stories around them at various points, as Gambit had a very full life before he joined up with the X-Men, exceeded only by Wolverine. He was raised by Jean-Luc Lebeau, who taught him how to steal, how to fight and how to dress. He climbed the ranks of the Thieves Guild, and married and divorced Belladonna Boudreaux, who is practically royalty in the world of thieves.

• Probably the biggest single trait about Gambit that anybody who has seen him in a comic book or cartoon will remember is that he's madly in love with Rogue. Rogue and Remy began their courtship early in the Jim Lee era of the X-Men, and to one degree or another it's been central to his character ever since. At least in my opinion, he was a much better match for her than her previous love interest, Magneto. Generally speaking, Gambit has had to be the aggressive one in the relationship, as otherwise Rogue will just turn in on herself and sulk, but despite coming on with the hard sell, he's actually been pretty respectful of Rogue's immaturity in matters of the heart. That said, she's had a pretty positive effect on him too. During the Nineties, Remy became a respected and responsible member of the X-Men, helping out with the students and even having a squadron of Academy X students, the Chevaliers, that look to him for guidance. Of course, their relationship has serious ups and downs. Rogue's mistrust of others and the unpredictability of her powers, as well as Gambit's troubled past have caused a lot of trouble in their romance, and Remy will always be who he is, which is to say that he's going to be dashing and adventurous. Their recent marriage was one of the few good things to come out of X-Men Gold, and having adventures on their own really helped them seem like more of a unit. X-Men drama (and Mystique) always seem to want to get in the way, so just getting them out of the way was a good and healthy thing. There was even a time when they both lost their powers together and decided to retire from the X-Men together, but as with Scott and Jean before them, that didn't go well.

• Gambit has always been big on committing crimes, which you would think would make us poorly-disposed towards him. However, he always seems to be robbing not only from the rich, but from rich people who we're also supposed to hate, like people involved in anti-mutant activities, supervillains or white-collar criminals. That said, with all his daring thefts, we don't see him living very large. Trenchcoats and bo staffs aren't very expensive, so what does he do with all that money? I wonder if some of it goes back to supporting his old family in the New Orleans world of crime? I don't know about that, Jean-Luc seems to have some pretty solid thieving skills of his own. Maybe alimony to his ex-wife? Although Belladonna seems to be quite able to support herself. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he's got some sort of foundation for helping mutant children or something. He gets a kick out of being perplexing and defying expectations.

• One of the most interesting eras of Gambit stories was early on in his membership with the team, when Bishop showed up from the future. A future version of Gambit called 'Witness' had told Bishop about an X-Traitor who had brought the team down and helped to bring about the dystopia that Bishop lived in. Bishop was sure that Gambit was the traitor, and there was a lot of tension between them. Remember, at this point we didn't know Remy very well, but we did know that he was a smooth operator who had done some bad things in the past. When it was revealed that he had been working with Mr. Sinister during the Mutant Massacre, you were sure that he was guilty. Ultimately though, they ended up resolving the traitor storyline by pinning it on Onslaught, and in later years it turned out that Bishop himself was the crazy Xavier-killer. Still, Gambit's working with Sinister out of obligation for helping him control his powers was a big black mark on the character, who had come off previously as a bit of a 'rob from the rich' sort. I remember really being unsure what I thought about Gambit. Even when he was very much a solid part of the team, I remember getting the feeling that this wildcard might just pick up and take off at any time, and that's a kind of feeling that he's had over the years. That kind of feeling, like he doesn't really need the X-Men to live his life (even though I think that being an X-Man has helped him grow as a person) is the sort of thing that appeals to many.

• Around M-Day, Gambit made some bad choices that took him down a dark path for a while. He teamed up with Apocalypse, who was promising that he could restore mutantkind. The result of that was that Apocalypse turned Gambit into his Horseman of Death, teaming up with Polaris, Sunfire and Gazer. During this period his powers were altered so that rather than charging things with kinetic energy, he could just disintegrate things with a 'death charge'. He also had the power to create poison gas. He tried to hold out against Apocalypse and retain his own will, but as we've seen so many times, Apocalypse's power to corrupt is nearly impossible to resist. Still, he was rescued, and after Apocalypse's defeat he ended up having to work for Sinister again to get his body rebuilt, and ended up working with Sinister's Marauders during the Messiah Complex event. However, it was there that he turned on Sinister and went his own way for a time, seeking out Charles Xavier to fix all the damage that Apocalypse and Sinister had done to his mind.

• Here's an interesting piece of information for you: Gambit is the fifth-most successful X-Men in terms of solo runs. Obviously, Wolverine is way out ahead, with a solo book that has been in near-continuous publication for over thirty years. Then you have Deadpool, followed closely by Cable, then X-Man and then comes Remy. He's had two four-issue miniseries and monthlies of twenty-five, twelve and seventeen issues, for a total of sixty-two issues over five volumes. Even when he's not being heavily used in an X-Men story, there's been consistent demand for more Gambit adventures.

So, what do you guys think about Gambit? Personally, he's not one of my favorites. He's a little too roguish of a character for my tastes, but I know he's got some pretty committed fans out there. So what makes Gambit the best? Conversely, why do some people love seeing bad things happen to Remy?

For those of you looking for a little more info, here's a writeup by Zachary Jenkins at the Xavier Files.

Archived Discussion Threads

In the SNES game Spider-Man & X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge, Gambit’s bio screen lists his name as Remy Beaudreaux. I was a big Gambit fan growing up and always knew him as Remy Lebeau. I could never find any information on Beaudreaux as his last name. Any superfans have an idea why the game used this name?

"You know how long I been waiting for this? Whoo, I'm aboutta make a name for myself here."

Remy Etienne LeBeau is a mutant with the ability to manipulate kinetic energy, displaying a talent for card throwing and using a bō staff. Having eventually taken the name Gambit, he was banished to the Void by the Time Variance Authority, where he joined the Resistance to battle Cassandra Nova and her forces. He and his team forged an alliance with Deadpool and Wolverine to defeat Cassandra and escape the Void.

Energy Charging

Cards

• Throws a card through a bottle.

• Hits multiple people with multiple cards and then makes them explode.

• One of his cards creates an explosion.

• Makes a man explode by throwing a card at him.

Staff

• Jabs his staff into The Russian, causing him to explode shortly afterwards.

• Makes a man's ankle explode by hitting it with his staff.

Durability/Endurance

• Is sent flying, but seems unaffected after The Russian hit him with a large weapon.

Speed/Agility

• Showcases good Agility while quickly hitting people with his cards.

Skill

• Throws a card through a bottle.