Warning: The first arc of Gambit follows the revelations of Uncanny X-Men #350 and Late Arrival Spoilers for that X-Men arc are unmarked on this page.
Gambit (1999) is a comic book series from Marvel Comics, the first ongoing series to star Remy LeBeau, the eponymous Gambit.
The series is part of the wider X-Men franchise and set in the shared Marvel Universe, with the first arc following on from events in Uncanny X-Men #350.
Cajun mutant Gambit was one of the X-Men, but was always cautious about revealing his past to them. They knew he was raised as a thief. They knew he'd done bad things. But he didn't tell them that he was the man who assembled a team of superhuman killers, the Marauders, for the X-Men's arch-enemy Mister Sinister.
The Marauders slaughtered a lot of innocent people — and almost killed the X-Men themselves. When Gambit's involvement was revealed, the X-Men abandoned him in Antarctica. Gambit survived somehow, made it back to the USA and tried to atone, tentatively rebuilding his links to the X-Men.
But his past's not done with him yet...
Why was Gambit working for Mister Sinister in the first place? And just how did he survive Antarctica? Some secrets just won't stay hidden.
Gambit (1999) contains examples of the following tropes:
- Accidental Misnaming: It's not until close to the end that the mysterious New Son sees his name written down by another character and corrects it. He's not New Son, as everyone's been calling him, he's New Sun — and his powers can convert matter to energy on a global scale.
- Alternative-Self Name-Change: Justified, as New Sun is an Alternate Universe version of Gambit who wasn't adopted by the Thieves' Guild. Gambit was named Remy LeBeau by his adoptive family in the guild, so New Sun never acquired that name.
- Apocalypse How:
- It's revealed that New Sun's initial power overload, when channeling the energies of the Old Kingdom's long-dead king, killed everyone on his Alternate Universe's Earth and caused massive worldwide destruction.
- At the end of Gambit and New Sun's final duel, which takes place on a dead Earth in an Alternate Universe, Gambit overloads New Sun by feeding him all of his own power as well. When New Sun's Impaled with Extreme Prejudice shortly afterwards, the energy released is enough to "evaporate" the planet.
- Arc Villain:
- The mutant-hunting X-Cutioner is the main villain of the first arc.
- The Pig, a human trafficker Gambit clashed with many years ago, is the villain behind the second arc.
- Big Bad: New Sun, a version of Gambit from an Alternate Universe, is the Well-Intentioned Extremist who's behind many events during the series. His vast powers, interacting with magic, killed everyone on his own Earth. He's now determined to stop his alternate versions from destroying their own worlds, even if it means killing them.
- Dream Walker: Fontanelle's mutant power lets her walk through the dreams of others. She uses it to gather information about her targets.
- First Law of Gender Bending: During a Time Travel mission in the 19th century, Gambit's shapeshifting ally Courier takes a female form to investigate the villain Mister Sinister. Sinister catches him and disrupts Courier's powers, reducing him to a blob. Gambit's intervention persuades Sinister to restore him, but as Sinister doesn't realize that Courier is male, he's restored to the female form he'd been using. Courier retains his shapeshifting powers, but his default form is physically female. Even after returning to modern times, none of their allies seem able to undo the effects of Sinister's relatively primitive machinery.
- Gender Bender: Courier has the power of complete control of his body's cells, allowing for shapeshifting as well as other abilities. While undercover as a woman, he was discovered by Mr. Sinister and injected with drugs that would cause his body to break down. Gambit made a deal with Sinister to have Courier stabilized, and Sinister kept up his end of the bargain — but didn't know Courier was originally male. The female form is now Courier's default form.
- Jumping the Gender Barrier: Jacob, a.k.a. Courier, is a male shapeshifter who ends up trapped in a female default form after one of his missions with Gambit goes awry. He doesn't seem very happy about this, and his attempts to reverse it are unsuccessful. None of which stops Gambit from suddenly kissing him at the very end of the long 'New Son' storyline. Jacob's expression is mostly shock, and it's not followed up on.
- Killing Your Alternate Self: New Sun is prepared to kill Gambit, and any of his other Alternate Universe selves, to save their worlds from the potential impact of their Power Incontinence. In the end, though, the situation is reversed — it's Gambit who kills New Sun.
- Master of Your Domain: Courier has the power of 'endopathy', which lets him communicate with his own body's cells. Among other things, he can change gender, tune his body to evade mutant-gene scans and regenerate from injuries (although he is subject to conservation of mass).
- The Reveal: Angel and Gambit have been working together, and Angel's alliance with New Sun isn't genuine. His attempt to kill Gambit on New Sun's behalf is staged.
- Series Fauxnale: The 'New Son' storyline that begins in the first issue ends in #24, Fabian Nicieza's last issue as writer, wrapping up many ongoing plot threads. The series has one more issue before it ends, though — and it's a completely unrelated standalone story, by a different creative team, with none of the usual supporting cast.
- Shapeshifter Default Form: Courier is an interesting twist on this. Courier's default form started off as a man, but after being melted (while impersonating a woman) and reconstituted by Mister Sinister, became a woman permanently.
- Super-Power Meltdown: New Sun overloads twice, each time with cataclysmic effects. The first time, he tries to absorb the energies of the Old Kingdom's ancient king (which are implied to be magical) — the resulting explosion kills everyone on the planet. The second time, Gambit deliberately overloads him with Remy's own supercharged powers — and New Sun immediately gets Impaled with Extreme Prejudice as well. The resulting explosion completely annihilates the planet.
- A Taste of Their Own Medicine: The Pig seeks to use mind-controlling spores, generated by Shirow's mutant power, for world domination. Gambit doses the Pig with some of the spores, then tells him to walk off a high ledge. The fall appears to be fatal.
