Why I hate Gambit or where the X-men went wrong.

WARNING: The following bit of written entertainment and thought is about comic books. If you are NOT in to comic books then this will probably be boring. You were warned. Don’t be like the friend of a friend of mine who went to Comic con to see her favorite British actor (on a Dr. Who panel) and then was amazed by all the comic geeks acting like comic geeks.

I started reading comics when I started reading. However really reading comics, becoming a fan of the on going story line didn’t happen until I was 11. I read a comic that made me want to read and collect and follow the stories. Until then comics had been just something fun, but I rarely got two consecutive issues of the same comic book. I liked the heroes the way a lot of kids do and it was a diversion but all of that changed with a single issue. It wasn’t mine, it was about two months old or so when I read it, and it changed my life. You may think that is an exaggeration but I am a comic geek because of it. The issue in question is X-men 138, written as the epilog of the “Dark Phoenix Saga” and packaged as the first story in “Days of future past”. I now own both collections and in reading them as an adult I must say I was lucky to be reading some of the best comic stories ever written.

Back to that particular issue. X-men 138 was set at the funeral for Jean Grey (the first one) and in it via flash back her fiancé, Scott (Cyclops) Summers, tells the entire history of the team from issue one through the death of his lover. As jumping on points go I scored BIG time. The thing that impressed me most that made want to know what would happen was that the X-men could change. The current team except for Cyclops was NOT the original team. One of the originals had rejoined and died. One of the current members showed no problem with the idea of killing someone if it was needed. This was like nothing I thought superheroes should be but it made sense to me. Then at the end this guy Cyclops quits to go morn his love, the one guy (according to what I had just read) who had been there the whole time was leaving. I was amazed, shocked and hooked for life. Well hooked on comics any way. My love of comics and Marvel came (as it did for many) via the X-Men; I was a huge Night Crawler fan. I even had a crush on Kitty, who was at the time older then me.

Over the years I became more and more bored with the X-men. I stayed loyal to them well past the point I found them entertaining. Recently I was explaining the importance to comics in general of the above mentioned Dark Phoenix Saga; I was asked when I stopped liking the X-men as much. It took some thinking but I figured it out. There are two character events that I can point too which best show the problem. They are the return of Jean Grey and the introduction of Gambit. (The sad part is that in both cases there are things about both characters that I like.)

The first fatal blow was the Return of Jean Grey. Her return to life was done so Marvel could launch a new title called “X-Factor” staring the original five X-men. It was not the first X-men spin off (New Mutants has that honor), but it was the one turned the X-men in to the “X-books” as now there were four (Wolverine had his own comic by this point). So with Fantastic Four # 286 and X-factor # 1 we get the first mortal wound to what had made the X- folk cool. Permanent change was GONE. The team that had left to go on to other things was all back, The beast was no longer fuzzy and Jean was back from the dead. At that moment Marvel reversed everything that had made the X-men special, but it would get worse.

The second fatal blow is shown in the introduction of Gambit in X-men #266. Yes I know he has a cool look and accent. There is a lot about the character that is great. I am picking on Mr. LeBeau because he is the most visible of the “fake changes”. He is presented as a “new idea” which he ultimately isn’t. He is a mysterious Mutant with a dark past who prefers to go it alone but sticks with the team any way, in other words Wolverine II. Now I like odd variants on old themes and Gambit IS that. It’s why I like him. That said he is not real change any more then having a third Robin hang out with Batman is. After he joined how many “mutant with a dark past loner” characters popped up in the X-books? I can’t even name them all.

See, the problem with both of these characters and what they caused is that together they made a great comic book in to a group of average comics. Jean returned and proved change was not real in the X-books. Gambit (and those like him) was then bought out and presented as change when he (and they) was not. I am not saying this destroyed the X-men. I am saying they represent where those comics went from being “cutting edge” to being just superhero stories no different from any other team book. None of this would bother me if fans of Marvel in general and the X-men in particular didn’t constantly talk about how “edgy” their books are. They are Ok team stories but out side of Grant Morison’s run nothing “new” has graced those pages since Jean’s return.

Well that’s my take any way

Peace, Love and Squids
Bradleyman