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Apr 21, 2024 · The guards at the prison called him Gambit because he kept taking all their money at poker. - X-Men: Origins - Wolverine. "Gambit" sounds cool and works with LeBeau's risk-taking roguish character and background in thievery. His signature playing cards are a nod to gambling and magic.
- Overview
- History Thieves Guild
- Attributes
- Paraphernalia
- Notes
- Trivia
- See Also
- Links and References
The gentleman assumes the pot is his to win... but I have a literal ace up my sleeve.
—Gambit
Remy LeBeau, better known as the charming thief Gambit, is a mutant with the ability to charge inanimate objects and cause them to explode. Raised by the Thieves Guild, Gambit's dark path led him to become a secret agent for the vile Mister Sinister. After befriending fellow mutant thief Storm, he was invited to join the X-Men, and had the opportunity to redeem himself.
Although the roguish and secretive Gambit often disagreed with the X-Men's sense of morality, his soft spot for abandoned kids caused him to integrate well into the team while getting close to many of its members, especially Rogue whom he developed a romance with. Upon learning of his past association with Sinister, the X-Men rejected his membership, though he eventually made it back to the team. Ever restless, Gambit has come and gone many times since, most notably leaving the X-Men for a time after becoming a Horseman of Apocalypse.
Thieves Guild
Abandoned at birth due to his burning red eyes, the mutant child who would one day become Remy LeBeau was kidnapped from his hospital ward by members of the New Orleans Thieves Guild who referred to the child as "le diable blanc" - the white devil. They believed he was the child that had been prophesied to unite the warring Guilds of New Orleans. Soon after, Remy was placed in the care of a gang of street thieves who raised the child and taught him the ways of thievery. Later, when he was around ten years old, Remy attempted to pick the pocket of Jean-Luc LeBeau, then-patriarch of the Thieves' Guild. Jean-Luc took the boy off the streets and adopted him as his own son. As a child, Remy encountered Bella Donna Boudreaux, the granddaughter of the head of the Assassins Guild, ancient enemies of the Thieves' Guild. The two children became close, and Remy fell in love with Belladonna at first sight. The young Gambit was commissioned to recover the diary of Nathaniel Essex from a Weapon X Facility in Canada. He was discovered by guards but got away with the diary in the confusion caused by Weapon X's escape. Appalled by the experiments he had seen at the Facility; he burned the diary. Back in New Orleans, Essex accepted Remy's claim that the diary could not be found but predicted that they would have a bright future together. As part of a peace pact between the Thieves' Guild and their rivals, the Assassins Guild, a marriage was arranged between Remy and Bella Donna Boudreaux. However, Bella Donna's brother Julien objected to the marriage and challenged Gambit to a duel. Remy killed Julien in self-defense but was excommunicated and banished from New Orleans in an attempt to maintain the fragile peace between the two guilds. Believing Belladonna would never be happy in exile with him, he ended their relationship.
Mutant Massacre
Remy wandered the world as he plied his skills as a master thief, aided by his mutant power to charge objects with explosive energy. He employed playing cards he charged with kinetic energy as his trademark weapon. In time, Remy's powers began to slip out of his control. He sought out the master geneticist Mr. Sinister for help in controlling his powers. Sinister removed some of Remy's brain tissue to reduce his power to manageable levels. As a result, Remy was now in the geneticist's debt, and Sinister subsequently charged the thief with assembling the team of mercenaries called the Marauders. With the team assembled, Sinister charged Remy with leading them down into the Morlock tunnels. Remy was unaware that Sinister's intentions were to massacre the Morlocks. When this came to light, Remy attempted to stop them, but a Marauder named Sabretooth grievously injured him and left him for dead, as they began to massacre the helpless Morlocks. All Remy could do was to save one young Morlock girl who would one day grow up to become the X-Man Marrow.
X-Men
Eventually, Remy encountered Storm, a member of the outlaw team of mutant adventurers known as the X-Men. Storm had been transformed into an amnesiac child who had turned to theft as a means to survive. Remy helped her escape her enemy, the malevolent psionic entity known as the Shadow King, and they became partners. Later, when the X-Men's founder Professor Charles Xavier returned from a long period of traveling in outer space, Storm, now restored to her true adult state, sponsored Remy's admission into the X-Men. Remy soon fell in love with his fellow X-Man, Rogue, blessed and cursed with the ability to absorb other mutants' thoughts and abilities through skin-on-skin contact. The feeling was mutual, but the two were condemned never to touch. In an alternate future over 70 years from the present day, in which the X-Man Bishop was born, Remy had seemingly become an aged figure named the Witness, so-called because he had apparently witnessed the betrayal of the X-Men by one of their own members. He was also thought to be the last surviving member of the X-Men. Upon joining the X-Men himself, Bishop suspected Remy to be the traitor who had doomed the X-Men in his future, until it was discovered that the merging of Xavier and Magneto's minds had spawned the corrupt psionic entity known as Onslaught, the true traitor. At one point, Rogue left the X-Men after kissing Remy, confused and scared by the memories that she absorbed from him. Remy was subsequently captured and brought before a mock trial held by Magneto, the mutant master of magnetism, then disguised as Erik the Red. During the course of the trial, Remy's past with Sinister and his role in the Mutant Massacre was brought to light. He was summarily cast out of the X-Men and was abandoned in the frozen wastes of Antarctica by Rogue. Nearly starving to death, Remy made his way back into Magneto's citadel where he came upon the psionic essence of a dead mutant named Mary Purcell. The wraith-like Mary bonded with him, allowing him to survive until he reached the Savage Land, a hidden jungle nestled in the icy wasteland. There, Remy struck a deal with the enigmatic being known as the New Sun. In exchange for passage back to America, Remy agreed to run errands for the New Sun. Remy returned home and encountered the X-Men again when he attempted to steal the fabled Crimson Gem of Cyttorak for his new employer. He agreed to return to the team, mainly for his self-respect and for his love for Rogue; however, Mary began to threaten Remy and his friends if he didn't agree to stay with her forever. When the X-Men finally found out about Mary, the wraith fled with Remy to her old hometown, where she tried to force him to merge with her and become a new hybrid life form. While Remy wrestled with her, Rogue charged in with a containment unit, which ultimately dispersed Mary. During a trip back in time, Remy's powers were restored to their maximum potential by Sinister and he was able to utilize them to return to the present. Soon after his return, Remy served for a time as patriarch of the Thieves' Guild in his father's stead, as well as leading one of two teams of X-Men. Remy was also responsible for the unification of the Thieves' and Assassins' Guilds into the Unified Guild, of which he also served briefly as patriarch. Meanwhile, the New Sun revealed his true nature after organizing an assassination game for a cadre of super-powered mercenaries with Remy as the target. When Remy took the fight back to the New Sun, he was shocked to learn that the New Sun was actually an alternate reality version of himself. In his own reality, the New Sun's kinetic charging powers had flared out of control, burning the world and killing everyone. As a result, the New Sun hunted down and killed versions of himself in other realities to ensure that they would not repeat his mistakes. During their final battle, Remy burned out his enhanced powers to defeat the New Sun, ending his threat and returning his powers to their normal level.
Powers
Gambit is a mutant: Molecular Acceleration: Remy has the power to take the potential energy stored in an object and convert it to kinetic energy, thus “charging” that item with explosive results. He prefers to charge smaller objects, such as his ever-present playing cards, as the time required to charge them is greatly reduced and they are much easier for him to throw. The only real limitation to this ability is the time required to charge the object. The larger it is, the more time it takes. Most charging takes place through direct skin contact. The power of his explosions is dependent on the mass of the object he is charging, for example, a charged playing card explodes with the force of a grenade. He typically cannot utilize his powers on living matter or organic molecules, although he has demonstrated the ability to do so on occasion. These powers have been altered on various occasions; sometimes bolstered while other times weakened. They were most notably augmented once by Sage to enable him to accelerate his own regeneration process and better control his kinetic shifting, and again by Faiza when he was shot through the head by a crime lord and spat a bullet back at him that eviscerated the latter. •Dissolution: Gambit can also cause objects to pull themselves apart instead of exploding violently making them harmlessly melt down to nothing. Once having focused charging on dissolving shrapnel in a victim's stomach and at times when jump-started able to overcharge falling debris from crumbling buildings. His control over this has increased to the point he can shatter ice he was encased in without blowing up. •Disruption: Gambit can take his explosive acceleration to temporarily scramble the sensory awareness of a person, knocking them out cold. •Enhanced Conditioning: Gambit's ability to tap energy also grants him increased speed, strength, reflexes and reactions, flexibility, dexterity, coordination, balance, and endurance as a side effect, bestowing him an added edge he has used to his advantage by developing a unique acrobatic fighting style. Under normal circumstances, the physical "charge" he receives makes his abilities exceptional, but not quite superhuman. •Accelerating Regeneration: Gambit can enhance his own recovery rate by stimulating his own cellular activity. Through this process he once healed after removing a bone slag lodged in his chest. Another time, when his eyes were damaged by a charged card exploding in his face, Sage augmented his powers and enabled him to restore his sight, indicating his regenerative powers are innate yet sparsely used. •Speed Augmentation: LeBeau can use his kinetic abilities to vastly increase his reflexes and locomotion to incredible extremes. Shown by dodging bullets, lasers, catching a bullet and throwing it back, blocking bullets with his staff, able to dodge missiles, spotting a magical bullet and knocking it out of the air scant moments before it struck him in the eye.[100] •Enhancement: Can supercharge the energy both converted and accelerated to get more of a bang out of even the smallest objects as well as giving them greater concussive or stopping power. •Static Interference: Creates natural static, because of the charged potential energy always in his body, that shields his mind from intrusion by telepaths. Can increase the effect by holding a charged object near his head. Although reportedly uncomfortable for the parties involved, this shield does not totally prevent telepathic invasion. •Vibration Emission: Gambit, through kinetic acceleration instead of conversion, can emit a shockwave accompanying a bright flashbang which leaves a sizable crater in the ground He can also charge items and not have them explode, such as his bo staff and even Captain America's shield. Rather than exploding, the energy is released upon impact.. •Remote Charging: At the height of his power, Mr. LeBeau could activate the potential/kinetic conversion process of matter from a distance with nothing but direct eye contact.[101] He seems to possess a similar skill to focus his accelerating abilities with a gesture while out in the field with Excalibur.[102] •Shearing/Cutting: By charging his cards, Remy can use them to slice through objects as dense as solid steel without worry of them exploding. •Acceleration Bestowal: Gambit can take the energy locked within a charged slug and use it in order to continue pushing it forwards and onward in a given direction with enough concentration, even though a solid energy field while withholding its explosive reaction.[103][104] •Delayed Charge: With some effort, Gambit can prolong the detonation time of his activated discharge,[105] causing a slight lag when he's preparing his potential/kinetic conversion of matter into a volatile state.[106] Hypnotic Charm: Subliminal psionic talent channeled through his voice that allows a subtle influence over any sentient mind. This power allows Gambit to compel others to believe what he says and agree with anything he suggests. More powerful minds have proven immune to Gambit's charm, and people who are consciously aware of what he's doing can shake off the effects.[107] Mutant Energy Control: Taking a new perspective on how Remy's kinetic abilities work, Julio Richter enlisted his aid in using the shared energy which mutants' harness in order to utilize their superpowers. Using his own abilities in conjunction with those on the Excalibur team, he was able to facilitate a summoning spell to retrieve fallen comrade.[108] Former Powers Total Kinetic Control: Gambit's classic power set is a reduction of his true power levels. Unable to control his growing powers as a youth, Remy LeBeau turned to Mister Sinister for help. Sinister surgically extracted a portion of Gambit's brain, dampening and regulating his powers to a more manageable level. The surgically removed grey matter was preserved by Gambit and Sinister in case he ever wanted his powers restored. The occasion did arise, and Gambit's powers and brain were surgically restored to their original levels.[109] Gambit eventually burned out these excess powers in conflict with the New Sun. During this period, Gambit's enhanced powers included: •Superhuman Physical Prowess: Normally operating at peak human levels, Gambit now possessed genuinely superhuman levels of physical activity, especially endurance. This was dependent on active use of his abilities, however -- Remy would be full of energy and stamina so long as he continued employing his powers. If he stopped using his powers for a few minutes, though, he risked crashing as his excess endurance faded.[110] •No Limitations: Gambit could now use his powers to affect organic molecules, including living beings, and could exert his kinetic powers over a distance. Initially, this resulted in an unstable kinetic field that accidentally charged objects in his vicinity. Over time, however, Gambit essentially learned to use his powers to charge anything in his line of sight.[111] •Variable Charge: Gambit could manipulate the intensity of his kinetic charges far more than before. At the low end, he could charge a human being so they experienced physical discomfort[112] or a burning sensation from the charge, even Colossus' metal skin. A tiny charge could even be benignly placed on a target, allowing Gambit to sense that person through the charge and track them over a distance.[113] At the far end, Gambit could utterly destroy targets, causing them to incinerate without violently exploding, or explode far more violently than normal.[114] •Time-delayed Explosions: While Gambit's charge normally has a bit of a delay before the chain reaction goes critical, at one point his powers could delay explosions by minutes and potentially hours.[105] Precognition: Gambit was temporarily blinded due to a card in his hand being hit and exploding. During this period, he was able to 'see' images in his cards.[115] Cosmic Ray Mutation: After exposure to cosmic rays, Gambit developed powers similar to the Human Torch's. He lost these powers after the cosmic radiation was removed:[116] •Pyrogenesis[117] •Flaming Body[117] •Fire Generation[117] Death Seed Powers: As the Horseman of Death, Remy received new abilities and a new appearance.[118] Sinister allegedly removed Apocalypse's influence from Gambit, but the Death personality and look resurfaced intermittently for several months. It has been some time since Gambit's last reversion into Death, but the second power set was never explicitly removed again. •Toxic Transmutation: As Death, he has the ability to convert breathable air into poisonous gases. He could either create clouds out of the surrounding air or transmute the oxygen already inside someone's lungs.[119] •Death Charge: As Death, Gambit could charge objects in a manner differently than his regular kinetic charge. This "death charge" caused his cards to break down living matter on contact, totally disintegrating a victim. •Trajectory Manipulation: Gambit's Death persona also seemed capable of guiding these charged cards to their target mentally. •Enhanced Psychic Resistance: As Death, Gambit was unaffected by psionic manipulations that would affect him normally. When his Death personality surfaced, Remy was no longer fooled or distracted by Input's telepathic distortions. •Corruption: When reverting to Death in Limbo, Gambit displayed the ability to corrupt other creatures and subvert them to his will. When used on Northstar and Dazzler they began to resemble him, gaining pitch-black skin and white hair.[120]
Abilities
•Multilingual: He is fluent in English and Cajun French. He also knows some Japanese though he is not very fluent.[citation needed] •Master Marksman: He is extremely skilled in throwing small objects such as cards, bolas, knives, and balls with great accuracy. •Master Martial Artist: A profound fighter, often employing martial arts, street fighting, and acrobatics. He is well adept in the martial arts Savate (French kickboxing), and Bojutsu, the art of using a Bo staff. •Master Stick Fighter: Remy's extreme skills in Bojutsu makes him dangerously skilled in the use of his bo staff.[121] •Master Thief •Gifted Intellect: Gambit is a born strategist, and without studying, he managed to prove himself to be one of the greatest strategists of the X-Men. It is possible that he is as good a strategist as Wolverine or Beast.[citation needed]
Weaknesses
Generally, Gambit's powers require physical contact to function and were nearly, if not totally, incapable of affecting organic matter. His abilities have occasionally been augmented so that these limitations are no longer applicable.[citation needed] Indeed, these limits were artificially imposed on him by Mister Sinister's surgery when his true power levels proved too much for Remy to master.
Equipment
Gambit's guild costume is armored, providing better protection than a normal X-Men uniform, according to Gambit himself, there may be a slight headache from being hit, but bullets and energy blasts will bounce off the armor.[122] On his recent adventures Remy LeBeau stole a magic deck of Tarot Cards from Lady Saturnyne's keep, each one having the magical ability represented by the mystical arcana based upon the various characters who represent them, such as Longshot's visage on the wheel of fate governing good fortune.[100]
Weapons
Gambit usually employs throwing spikes and playing cards. •Gambit's Staff: Gambit also often uses a telescoping bo-staff. •Gambit's Jennings Volition Repeating: At some point he commissioned himself a copy of the Rifle his Age of X counterpart had during his time in Fortress X.[123]
Transportation
Formerly X-Men Blackbird
•In X-Men (Vol. 2) #1, Gambit was called an Acadian, a reference to his status as a Cajun. It is through 18th-century Acadian migrants to Louisiana and their connections with African, Spanish, and Native American people of the area that the Cajun ethnic group formed. Modern Cajuns mostly speak English, but some -- like Gambit -- still speak Cajun French, a declining French dialect diversified in Louisiana, or the Louisiana Creole shared with their deeply intertwined sister culture.
•Gambit had a piece of his brain stem removed in the present time, but had it re-implanted in Victorian era England, which resulted in a predestination paradox for his surgeon, Mister Sinister -- while reattaching the brain matter in the 19th century, Essex recognized his own work and realized he would perform the surgery that originally removed the brain matter sometime in his future but Gambit's past.[109]
•Gambit carries Clint Barton's Avengers Identicard, which he stole from him.[124]
•Gambit has three cats, given to him by Mystique.[125] They are all named after cats from Disney films (Oliver, Lucifer, and Figaro).[126]
•Chris Claremont initially planned for Gambit to be an older clone of the character that was originally going to be behind Mister Sinister, a 60-year-old man in a 11-year-old body who used Sinister as a proxy. This character would've fallen in love with Rogue and would've created Gambit in order to approach her. Gambit falling in love with Rogue would've caused him to develop a human side and become at odds with his creator, eventually becoming a good guy.[127]
•Writer James Asmus pitched the idea to reveal Gambit as being bisexual during his Gambit series. Had the idea been greenlighted, at one point in the series, Remy would've been seen seducing a man on one of his missions, and later on meeting a male member of the Thieves Guild with whom he would've had had a relationship in the past.[128]
•806 appearance(s) of Remy LeBeau (Earth-616)
•21 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Remy LeBeau (Earth-616)
•63 minor appearance(s) of Remy LeBeau (Earth-616)
•69 mention(s) of Remy LeBeau (Earth-616)
•11 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Remy LeBeau (Earth-616)
•1190 image(s) of Remy LeBeau (Earth-616)
- Orphaned By His Own Family. A sad fate for many mutants is that their gifts make them outcasts from friends and even family. Remy LeBeau was born with blood-red eyes that gave him the appearance of being demonic.
- He Quit Smoking. There was a time when Remy was rarely seen without a cigarette at least once per comic but now, he's never seen smoking. It's a less-than-appealing habit but there actually isn't an in-canon reason for this.
- The Man Is A Natural Cook. Being a Creole born and raised in Louisiana, it's practically in Remy's blood that he can make a good meal. Though it is mainly shown in animated shows, Gambit has been seen in the kitchen in the comics.
- Remy Is A Big Nerd. Falling in the same vein as Blue Beetle from DC or even Spider-Man in Marvel, Remy is actually a proud nerd at heart. This was showcased when X-Men crossed over into the Star Trek universe which made Gambit turn into a little kid.
Gambit is one of the most popular X-Men, but where did this charismatic, card-throwing Cajun come from and what exactly are his powers?
Origin. Baby Remy. Remy LeBeau, the mutant who would later become Gambit, was abandoned at birth by his birth father due to his unusual red-on-black eyes (they believed their child was of satanic...
May 27, 2012 · Simply put, the detective story is too slight a structure to withstand the crushing weight of all Gavin Stevens' (and Faulkner's) rhetorical baggage. This narrative style prevents me from enjoying as much as I would like the Gavin Stevens novels and the Stevens novella Knight's Gambit.
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Gambit (Remy Étienne LeBeau) is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men. The character was created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Jim Lee. Drawn by artist Mike Collins, Gambit made his first appearances in The Uncanny X-Men Annual #14 (July 1990) and The Uncanny X ...
