May 24, 2009

The Gambit Question



It's a question that X-Men fans need to ask themselves, and is a question spurred on by a recent discussion with a co-worker.

And that is the Gambit question - Is the character of Gambit incredibly cool, or incredibly lame?

For some, Gambit's style of Cajun cool is a chief benefit to the character. In fact, Mike Sterling once provided a plethora of online resources about the "ragin' mutant Cajun". Alas, I cannot provide any pro-Gambit arguments...

...because he is, well, rather lame. I mean, let's face it - making playing cards glow and explode? Not much of a power, now, is it?

Secondly, Marvel, Justin Wilson called, and he'd like his accent back.

Oh, and the whole Gambit/Rogue thing? Liked it better when it involved Bruce Willis & Cybill Shepard.

But anyway, enough of the (hopefully, obviously phony) snark - in my view, the Gambit question separates the old school fan from the fans who began collecting in the 1990s. Let's face it - if someone said, "Oh, both Wolverine and Gambit are bad, you need to worship Mimic", you know they came of age during the "classic" X-Men run.

(Either that, or they're really reaching, since the character has made appearances since then).

If you dig Wolverine, that means you came of age during the new X-Men run, and Gambit? 90s X-Men.

Or, you've eaten too many Little Debbie's snack cakes, and the preservatives are starting to kick in.

I kid, honestly - but anyway, for you, dear reader, let me ask you - how would you answer...the Gambit question?

5 comments:

charlierambles said...

Incredibly lame. I've never been a Gambit fan.

Nik said...

Utterly lame, and yeah, the introduction of Gambit pretty much marks the point where I gave up reading X-Men on a regular basis at all.

Pj Perez said...

Much like other similar creations, Gambit was good for as long as he was mysterious and kept to the sidelines. Once he became the focus of stories (and eventually his own series), his charm wore off. Fast.

To be fair, I loved the movie version. Seemed to be a more fully realized take on the character and his powers.

Russ Burlingame said...

I don't inherently dislike the character but I do feel like he's one of those creations who's so self-consciously cool that about 90% of all of his stories end up just seeming lame.

Kenn Minter said...

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLame.