Wolverine & Gambit: Victims is a 1995 limited series from Marvel Comics. It's written by Jeph Loeb, with art by Tim Sale. Color art is by Gregory Wright and Chameleon.
The series, starring the titular superheroes Gambit (Remy LeBeau) and Wolverine (Logan), is part of the wider X-Men franchise, set in the shared Marvel Universe. Neither hero is truly at home with the X-Men at this point, though.
During the Fatal Attractions storyline, the unbreakable adamantium that laced Wolverine's bones and claws was violently torn out of his body. His Healing Factor kept him alive, but the experience has left him on edge, constantly battling against his animalistic instincts.
For his part, Gambit's trying to adjust to the absence of his teammate Rogue - who he was pursuing a romantic relationship with - who abruptly left the X-Men for reasons of her own. When an old friend in London is the latest victim of a blade-wielding serial killer, Gambit flies to England to investigate alone - but finds that Wolverine is already there.
In fact, it looks like Wolverine himself might be the killer. Or, if not, someone may be working very hard to frame him...
The first issue was released September, 1995. The last issue (#4) was released December, 1995.
Wolverine & Gambit: Victims contains examples of the following tropes:
- Big Bad: An increasingly unhinged Arcade is behind the murders and the attempts to frame Wolverine. He's even lied to his own Dragon, Martinique, about Wolverine's role in events.
- The Dragon: Martinique Jason, daughter of X-Men villain Mastermind, telepath and Master of Illusion, is Arcade's new lieutenant. Martinique interacts with the heroes far more than her boss does, mostly using her powers to turn them against each other.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Once Arcade's real motives are revealed, Martinique quits in disgust. She also leaves him trapped in a mental loop after the police capture him - hallucinating that he's caught in a lift full of copies of his murdered assistant Miss Locke.
- Frame-Up: The murderer looks a lot like Wolverine, and used Wolverine Claws to kill his victims. It's a very deliberate attempt to frame Wolverine.
- Inspector Javert: Inspector Andrews is convinced that the heroes had something to do with Alexandra Davies's death, and is determined to bring them to justice. In his defence, it's a pretty convincing Frame-Up, as she was killed by a robot copy of Wolverine.
- Plot-Triggering Death:
- Miss Locke's murder sets the whole plot in motion, with an increasingly unstable Arcade recruiting Martinique and staging the 'serial killer' murders to frame Wolverine and deny his own actions.
- Alexandra Davies, victim #5, was an old acquaintance of Gambit's. He travels to London and becomes involved in the plot once he discovers her death.
- Posthumous Character: Gambit's friend Alexandra Davies dies in the first issue's prologue scene, before we see Wolverine or Gambit. A flashback in a later issue shows some of her history and explains how she met Gambit.
- Robot Me: The serial killer - or at least one of the killers - is a robot duplicate of Wolverine, constructed by Arcade. It's part of a deliberate Frame-Up.
- Serial Killings, Specific Target: One of the victims is actually Arcade's assistant Miss Locke. Arcade lost control and accidentally killed her, and the murders are partly intended to disguise what happened.
- Start to Corpse: The first issue starts with Alexandra Davies's murder - a glimpse of London, Wolverine's distinctive shadow, Alexandra's alarmed expression... and then it cuts to the discovery of her corpse.
