No, not that Sinister. He might be one of Gambit's arch-enemies, but he's not in this story.
Gambit is a 1997 limited series from Marvel Comics, the second solo series starring the eponymous Gambit. It's written by Howard Mackie and Terry Kavanagh, with art by Klaus Janson and color art by Christie Scheele. The series is part of the wider X-Men franchise and is set in the shared Marvel Universe.
Gambit's a mutant, a superhero and a world-class thief, but some things still leave him feeling out of his depth - such as magic. When an angelic woman falls from the sky and a demonic gangster starts hunting her, Gambit finds himself facing enemies very different to his usual foes. Even with help from the Vatican's secret order of demon-hunters, this could get... complicated.
The first issue was released January, 1997. The series ended with issue #4, released April, 1997.
Gambit (1997) contains examples of the following tropes:
- Astral Projection: Tante Mattie's astral form manifests to Gambit at the very start of the story, while he's trying to steal the 'Cross of the Redemption' from Santana. It distracts him enough that he blunders into a security Laser Grid and ends up surrounded by Santana's goons - as they can't see or hear Mattie, they have no idea who Gambit's arguing with, and assume the intruder's just pretending to be crazy.
- Big Bad: Demonic gangster Olivier Stoker is behind almost all of Gambit's problems, as he's determined to capture the angel Anielle and will kill or corrupt anyone who gets in his way.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: When Anielle finally gets involved in battle against her pursuers, she defeats - and seemingly annihilates - Sybil and Cerberus with a single blast.
- Failure Gambit: Stoker eventually reaches the angel Anielle - and their confrontation promptly removes both of them from Earth. Father Miguel subsequently speculates that Anielle wasn't quite what she appeared to be - and was specifically created to entrap Stoker.
- Godiva Hair: When Anielle first appears on a beach she's naked, with her long blond hair preserving her modesty, at least from the reader's perspective.
- Hellhound: Stoker's dog Cerberus is a demonic hound. As it turns out, there's also more than one Cerberus.
- High-Speed Train Reroute: When fighting Gambit atop a moving passenger train in the alps, Sybil alters the track's switch-box so that it'll crash into an unfinished tunnel, killing everyone. Her intention is to give Gambit a Sadistic Choice - he and Anielle can die, or he can leave the passengers to die. Gambit takes a third option and uses his power to reset the switch.
- Laser Hallway: At the very start of the series, Gambit's in Miami Beach to steal the 'Cross of the Redemption' from local gangster Santana. It's protected by a vertical laser grid, which Gambit easily bypasses - until he's distracted by Tante Mattie's Astral Projection and blunders into it.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Stoker does manage to confront Anielle, and the two of them vanish from the world. Father Miguel later suggests that Anielle was created purely for that purpose, probably with a very short lifespan - and that by focusing on her, Stoker also ignored other targets.
- Speech Bubbles:
- The demonic enforcer Sybil has speech bubbles with heavy, ragged black borders and a different font to the other characters.
- Anielle telepathically 'speaks' in solid blue speech bubbles containing white text, which switch to black text when she's about to unleash some righteous wrath.
- Traintop Battle: Gambit and Sybil end up fighting atop a moving train in the alps. Sybil also raises the stakes by altering the track's switch-box, so that the train will crash into an unfinished tunnel.
- Uncertain Doom: Stoker is gone after his confrontation with Anielle, but exactly what happened is unclear. Is he destroyed? Exiled? Or possibly even somehow redeemed?
- Winged Humanoid: Sybil can grow demonic bat wings whenever she wishes to fly. There's a disturbing ripping sound as they sprout from her back.
