The series, set in the main Marvel Universe, is an Interquel set just after Gambit's first appearance (1990) in the Uncanny X-Men series, and co-stars Storm. At this point in time, Storm's been returned to childhood by a villain, which has also scrambled her memories and limited access to her mutant powers. The X-Men also believe that Storm's dead (Gambit hasn't yet joined — or even met — the X-Men), and the powerful mutant known as the Shadow King intends to take advantage of Storm's isolation and vulnerability to corrupt and control her.
Against this background, Storm and Gambit first meet, outwit the Shadow King's initial attack, and then spend some time as thieves in New Orleans and the gulf states (but only robbing those who deserve it), with Gambit becoming the teenage Storm's new mentor.
Most of this was summed up by just two pages in 1990's Uncanny X-Men #267, with the plot skipping to the end of that time, when Gambit's ambushed by Nanny, the villain who'd regressed Storm to childhood. The captions in the original comics suggested that little of note happened prior to that. The Gambit miniseries, however, takes a very different view.
The first issue was released 27 July 2022.
Gambit (2022) contains the following tropes:
- Art Shift: When Ororo's unconscious, her visions are largely monochrome and drawn in a different style.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Sabine, who appeared in two X-Men issues in 2004, makes her first appearance in almost 20 years. The Interquel nature of the story means that it's also chronologically set before her first appearance.
- Bounty, a character Chris Claremont created for his run on Fantastic Four (1998), also makes her first appearance in over 20 years. As with Sabine, the historical nature of the story makes it her first chronological appearance as well.
- Warhawk, a minor Iron Fist foe who also faced the X-Men, returns in the second issue - his first appearance in five years.
- Decapitation Presentation: Bounty's introductory scene sees her turn up to claim a reward, dangling her quarry's severed head by the hair as proof that the job is done.
- Fountain of Youth: Storm's been reverted to her early teenage years before the story starts. This limits her access to her powers (and has also scrambled her memories).
- Interquel: It's set midway through 1990's Uncanny X-Men #267, which established that Gambit and Storm spent some time working together as thieves before villains Nanny and the Orphan Maker found them, but didn't go into any detail.
- Just Like Robin Hood: Played straight. Gambit steals from the rich and distributes the wealth to the poor.
- Relationship Reveal: Gambit apparently has a romantic history with another mutant thief, the X-Men's ally Lila Cheney. This is something that hasn't been mentioned before, despite all of his time with the X-Men.
