15/12/06: News Update
Thanks to Avarice for finding this.
I saw an interview with Andy Schmidt, an editor recently moved over to the X-Men's editorial office. About halfway down the interview he's asked about some coming event involving Mr. Sinister. He doesn't say much, but he makes specific mention of Adjectiveless X-Men issue #200 (The one where Remy is supposed to make an appearance), and states that that issue will mark a significant turning point in the X-Universe. From the sound of the interviewer's question Mr. Sinister might be involved in this major event (Anyone who read the Yost/Kyle interview might recall that a major X-Event was alluded to for next year), and the last time we saw Remy he was with Sinister...so who knows, maybe something is in the works.
Here is a link to the interview: Marvel Interview
15/12/06: News Update
Thanks to Aceshigh for finding this.
Mike Carey has answered some more questions on his blog. Here's the ones that relate to Gambit:
Q: Mr. carey, I’m curious about something. Would you say that you have a deep respect for what has come before you? Like, if you disliked something about the characters you’re using, would you try to undo it, or just take the good with the bad? What i mean to ask is; Do you shape your creative vision to the characters, or do you shape the characters to your vision?
A: that’s actually a very difficult question to answer. I think my natural tendency is to start with continuity and to take care not to do anything that would gratuitously overturn or pull against it. I’ve sometimes been accused of taking that tendency to extremes and drawing too heavily on continuity - an accusation that maybe has some justice in the case of (say) the first issue of Wetworks I wrote.
But the roots of this go deep for me, and they relate mainly to my experiences as a reader. I hate it - really, really hate it - when a new team takes over a book I love and dismantles fundamental stuff because they’ve got cool new ideas that are incompatible with what we’ve already been told.
It’s elegant and cool to open new depths WITHIN existing continuity - see Deadly Genesis and Stephen Hunter’s Time to Hunt. But ditching important, structurally significant continuity even to tell a genuinely brilliant story is, I think, always wrong.
Q: Since the Sinister thing you spoke of in the “Agent M” interview roughly coincides with the Gambit appearance, do you plan to explore Gambit’s connection to Sinister(and why he’s still hanging out with the guy) and maybe confirm the hints that Sinister is Remy’s father?
A: Yes.
Q: Do you have any plans, or possible plans, to include Gambit on your team sometime down the line? i can think of only a few x-men better suited to the black ops/strike team thing you’ve got going on here.
A: I could see it happening, yes. But “plans” would be taking it too far. It’s one thing that has been raised recently, but in a context where it’s hard to make decisions until other decisions firm up first.
Q: We know you like Rogue. We like that you like Rogue. Even better, we like that you write Rogue well. Any favorite Rogue moments from other runs you’d like to share?
A: And one of the most heart-wrenching moments - Rogue telling Gambit “You ain’t got no home, sugah” and throwing his queen of hearts back at him in Uncanny#350.
Q: Anyway, I’m curious about something Mr. Carey. You’ve said your going to take his history into consideration and give it full weight during the appearance. The thing is; Gambit has been plagued by some pretty inconsistant characterization over the years. Some write him as reckless and hotheaded, while others write him as cool and collected, while others write him as carefree and yet others write him as angsty and deeply troubled. What “version” do you intend to draw inspiration from?
A: when I made that comment, I was really referring to the history of Gambit’s relationship with Rogue. At least I think I was. I see Gambit as a gambling man first and foremost - someone who makes a virtue out of moving sideways when attack and retreat seem to be the only options. I think one reason why he and Rogue were drawn to each other was because there’s a sense in which they both respond similarly to crisis, although there’s an almost self-destructive edge to Gambit at times that I don’t think Rogue has.
13/12/06: Site Updates:
Updated "Cartoons" in the Appearances section to include an image of each incarnation.
Updated "Alternate Reality" in the Appearances section to include 12 new versions.
Added another death to the "Many Deaths" section.
Updated the "Uniforms" section with new uniforms, and added an "Alternate Reality Uniforms" subsection.
Some of these pages are still under construction, please check back soon for more updates.
27/11/06: From Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed:
COMIC URBAN LEGEND: Gambit was originally intended to be a villain.
STATUS: True
Reader JD Moore wanted to know about this one, so here it is!
Gambit made his mysterious debut in Uncanny X-Men #266, and right off the bat, he was surrounded by mystery. Ultimately, though, he became one of the most popular X-Men.
That, though, was not always writer Chris Claremont’s intent. According to Claremont (on ComixFan a few years ago),
Gambit was created to be, among many other things, an adversary for the X-Men, working to subvert and destroy them from within. The connection with Sinister was part of his genesis from the get-go– *however* that connection related solely to *my* conception of Sinister and the plans I had for him and the team, post “X-Men” #3 (1991.)
This, of course, is separate from the “traitor” storyline in the X-Titles, as that storyline originated after Claremont was already off the book.
Pretty interesting, no? Imagine how things would be like if Claremont got his wish and Gambit was a villain!!!
26/11/06: Site Updates:
Updated the 'Many Deaths' section to include 2 new deaths, an image for one of the previous deaths and an unconfirmed death.
Added more to the 'Action Figures' section.
Added more to the 'Other Collectables' section.
Updated the 'Powers' section to include more on Gambit's Kinetic Energy Manipulation
Updated the 'Biography' section to include other interesting facts/misc information
21/11/06: Here's part of a recent interview with Laura Shuler Donner:
IESB: Rothman recently said though The Last Stand was the last of that group of X-Men, I asked him,
well we never saw Gambit, we never saw a lot of these great heroes, future ensemble films, young mutants or
anything, what's in the pipeline for this franchise?
LSD: I can't say...[laughter]
IESB: Will we ever see Gambit?
LSD: Probably, you know, the reason we didn't use Gambit was because in a sense his persona is a bit like
Wolverine in that he's got attitude and his power is not quite as exciting as the others. That's why we went
to Nightcrawler on 2 because he looked different than everybody else and he had a great power. So yes, I
think we would weave Gambit within our story, it wouldn't be “The Gambit Movie.” I mean, I love him and
remember in “Lost” the guy, what's his name, there was a guy in there that was the perfect Gambit, the guy
with the straight hair, good-looking, the bad boy, Sawyer, Sawyer [Josh Holloway]. (A lot of Lost forums have
been buzzing about this casting rumor for some time).
19/11/06: Site Updates:
Updated "Books" with new items and there is now a link to the cover of each book.
Added a "Magazines" section, with links to the cover of each magazine.
Updated "Movies" with image evidence of Gambit.
Added more names to the "Allies/Enemies" list and I'm now working on adding info for them.
Added a new "Collectables" section, containing trading cards, busts, action figures, statues and other collectables. Almost all of the collectables have images that can be clicked upon to bring up a bigger image.
14/11/06: Stryker's site, The Gambit Gallery, is now up. It contains all of his Gambit artwork and is well worth checking out. See it at www.thegambitgallery.com
Gambit in December's What If
It's not much but he's on the splash page, behind wolverine.
http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/wizard/001776575.cfm
Mike Carey posted this on his site:
Robert - I can see this is something you feel deeply about, and I’ve got to admit that some of the things that have been done with Gambit in the past haven’t sat all that well with me, either. But let me address some of the comments in your post, without bull-****.
It’s true that I don’t love Gambit, but I do think he’s a very cool character and I do enjoy him a lot when he’s written well. In my experience, you write a character first and then love comes, or doesn’t come, in the fullness of time. It’s also true that the compelling logic of having a Gambit scene springs partly from the presence of Rogue in my core team. But it also springs from having such an important, pivotal character floating out there with his story unresolved after huge, traumatic recent events. I’d probably want to bring Gambit back in even if I wasn’t writing Rogue, because somebody should and this was the book he was most a part of.
So, arising out of that, I don’t think it’s true - and don’t want it to be true - that having Gambit appear won’t be doing him a favour. It’s not just going to be a way-station on the road to something else that I’ve got planned for Rogue: it will genuinely be a chapter, even if it’s only a short one, in his story, and it will put the spotlight on where he is and on where he might be going.
Ultimately I don’t have Gambit’s fate - or any X-Men’s fate - in my hands. Decisions about major character developments will always be made in discussion between creators and editors. But story beats are also character beats, and in this way I’m making Gambit’s story still be a part of current and ongoing continuity. It’s obvious you disapprove of how Gambit was portrayed in BoA, and that you feel it was inconsistent with the character as previously established, but it can’t ever make sense to take the “let’s pretend that was all a dream” road. You have to start your journey from where you are. Otherwise - no matter how good your intentions are - you end up taking a shower with Bobby Ewing.
I’m trying very hard here not to make you any tendentious promises, because I suspect that when I come to write this scene it will leave you feeling less than satisfied. Because it *will* build from the situation in BoA. But it won’t be using Gambit to move Rogue on, or making him a cipher in a plot where someone else would have done just as well. Take it as you find it.
03/11/06: It appears that one of the other incarnations of the Gambit Guild is back up, however it has not been updated yet. Check it out at http://www.gambitguild.com
04/10/06: Updated the Alternate Appearances page to include images. Updated the quotes page with more quotes.
29/9/06: Updates to the Allies and Enemies section, the Many Deaths of Gambit section and the Alternate Appearances section uploaded. Enjoy.
A friend is currently selling off some of their comic book collection. If you are interested check here: http://www.geocities.com/joel_c4/comiclist.html
This is Fabian Nicieza's comment about Gambit in UXM #350
X-RISING: In the past, you have handled things from Rogue and Gambit's whirlwind romance to Wolverine's adamantium loss to Cyclops and Phoenix's long-awaited wedding. Is there any other big event in comic-dom that you wish you had a hand in, or a greater hand in?
NICIEZA: Hmm… in hindsight, for purely selfish reasons, I might have liked to have been involved in Uncanny #350, just so that they wouldn't have screwed up Gambit's backstory so much by involving him in the Morlock Massacre! For the sheer thrill of being involved, I would have loved to have been part of the group responsible for the Superman/Doomsday and Superman Returns storylines. Currently, I'd love a crack at a NO MAN's LAND arc or story, since I have enjoyed that BATMAN storyline tremendously.
Here's the link to the full interview: http://westwood.fortunecity.com/karan/483/interview2.html
From Mike Carey's blog:
CHRISTIAN: Hello Mike. I love the treatment Rogue’s been getting from you. She’s my 2nd favorite X-man and I’m really happy she’s finally being written well. But what I’m curious to know is how you plan to handle my favorite: Gambit. Do you plan on at least giving him a bit of dignity during his appearance? He’s been treated really bad recently and yours is the only appearance he’s likely to get for a while. I need to know if I should be anxious for it or dreading it. Thanks for your time.
MIKE CAREY: Christian - I’ll certainly be aiming to give Gambit’s appearance full weight, and to revisit as sensitively as I can the catastrophic changes he’s undergone and what he’s lost as a result.