About Gambit
| Name: | Remy LeBeau. |
| Age: | He is believed to be in his early 30s. |
| Height | 6’2″ / 1,88m. |
| Weight: | 180 lbs / 81,5kg. |
| Eye colour: | Red irises on black sclera. |
| Hair colour: | Auburn. |
| Ethnicity: | Cajun. |
| Place of birth: | New Orleans, Louisiana |
Remy LeBeau was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was kidnapped from the hospital where he was raised by the LeBeau Clan Thieves’ Guild, and given to the Antiquary as a tribute.
They referred to the child as “Le Diable Blanc” (“the white devil”) and believed he was prophesied to unite the warring Thieves and Assassins Guilds. Soon after, Remy was placed in the care of Fagan’s Mob, a gang of street thieves who raised the child and taught him the ways of thievery. After living as an orphan on the streets, a 10 year-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 into his own family.
Remy’s bio-kinetic charging abilities manifested early in his teens, although he kept his powers secret from his family and friends, practicing his powers away from prying eyes. When he was 15, he accompanied his cousin Etienne Marceaux on his “Tithing”, the ritual initiation test of the Thieves Guild. However, it went awry as they were assigned to steal from the powerful immortal mutant Candra, who quickly captured them. Candra recognized Remy from an encounter that had taken place in her past but in his future (due to a time travel mission to the 19th Century Remy would take as an adult) and sold them to the deformed, mutant gangster and child slave trader known as the Pig, who planned to sell them and others their age to HYDRA as boy soldiers.
Remy used his powers to escape their holding pen, but the physically enhanced Pig quickly caught up to them. Remy discovered his signature attack when he picked up a playing card that Etienne had dropped, charged it and threw it in the Pig’s face, taking out his eye. Finally escaping his cliff top headquarters by diving into the sea, Remy was ultimately rescued by the Guild; Etienne drowned.
In an attempt to reconcile the Thieves and Assassins Guilds, Remy married Bella Donna Boudreaux, granddaughter of the head Assassin, whom he met at age 8. Unfortunately, he was challenged by her brother Julien to a duel after the wedding. In the duel, Gambit killed Julien, and he was exiled from the city, ending his relationship with Bella Donna.
After his exile from New Orleans, he wandered the world and became a master professional thief, making many contacts (and quite a few enemies). During this period, Gambit found he had an uncontrollable amount of energy flowing through him, to the point that he could not withstand it. Desperate, Gambit went to Mister Sinister for help. Sinister modified Gambit’s power, making him significantly less powerful, but able to control the still considerably large amount of power in him.
However, Sinister wanted the favor returned, so Gambit carried out various missions for him. For the last of these operations, Gambit gathered together a group of mercenaries which Sinister named the Marauders. The group included the mutant Sabretooth as one of its members. Gambit was then ordered to lead the Marauders into the tunnels under New York City. He led Sabretooth, Blockbuster, Prism, and Riptide there while – unknown to Gambit – Scalphunter, Arclight, Harpoon, Malice, Scrambler, and Vertigo followed the Morlock Tommy into the tunnels. Their goal was to wipe out the Morlocks. Gambit was unable to prevent the Marauders from killing a considerable number of Morlocks, but he was able to save one, a child. Her name was Sarah, and she would grow up to be Marrow, the leader of the mutant terrorist group Gene Nation. Gambit long kept his involvement in the mission a secret from his fellow X-Men, much to their eventual displeasure.
After wandering around the world, he encountered a de-aged and powerless Storm, and helped her escape from the Shadow King. He then rescued her from Nanny and the Orphan-Maker, helping her battle them. Afterwards, the young amnesiac Storm, who had reverted to thieving to stay alive, joined Gambit, and she eventually brought him back to the X-Men.
Soon after, Gambit helped the X-Men, X-Factor, and New Mutants battle the Genoshans. Only Wolverine expressed his doubts about the Cajun, which led to a Danger Room duel between the two. Gambit was able to triumph by using a robotic doppelganger of Lady Deathstrike to distract Wolverine, while taking advantage of Wolverine’s injuries, inflicted by the Reavers. Gambit and the X-Men were then taken to the Shi’ar galaxy by Lila Cheney. Alongside the X-Men and Starjammers, Gambit battled Deathbird, the Imperial Guard, and a band of Warskrulls. Upon their return to Earth, Gambit assisted the X-Men and X-Factor in battling the Shadow King, though he was temporarily controlled by the Shadow King.
When the original five X-Men rejoined and the team was divided into two squads, Gambit became part of the Blue team under Cyclops’ leadership. Alongside the X-Men, he battled Magneto and his newly-formed Acolytes,[9] Fenris, the Hand, Omega Red, and Sabretooth, and then Mojo. Gambit then fought Bishop and was attacked by his estranged wife Bella Donna. Gambit recounted how he had fled from New Orleans after killing his brother-in-law in self-defense.[12] Alongside the X-Men, Gambit first encountered the second Ghost Rider. Gambit battled the Brood Queen and the Brood-possessed Ghost Rider, and witnessed the apparent death of his now ex-wife, Bella Donna.
Gambit became interested in one of his teammates, Rogue, and started flirting with her. Despite her off-putting manner and the obstacle of her uncontrollable power that prevented anyone from touching her, he began a romance with Rogue. It should be noted that their relationship was originally written as a one time, flirtatious moment; ironically, their relationship is listed as one of the longest and most popular on-going relationships in the X-Men series; probably only second to Jean Grey and Cyclops. Although their early “courtship” portrayed him as very “devil may care” in his flirtation with her, later issues revealed that, beneath his bravado and swagger, he truly had genuine romantic feelings for her. Similarly, despite her initial aggressive rejection of his advances, Rogue found that she was not only flattered by his attention, but that she felt equally attracted to him.
Many publishing years later, it had become apparent Remy had a dark secret. Sabretooth had hinted to it on numerous occasions during his “residency” at the X-Mansion, prompting Rogue to ask him to reveal whatever he knew about Gambit’s past. Remy was captured and brought before a mock trial held by Magneto, the mutant Master of Magnetism, then disguised as Erik the Red. Rogue was forced to kiss him again, revealing that he had assembled the team of Marauders for Mr. Sinister that later killed most of the Morlocks. However it was also revealed that Gambit saved a single girl from the Marauders during the massacre. This apparent revelation and absorbing Gambit’s own guilty memories caused Rogue to reject him. Gambit was similarly cast out of the X-Men and was abandoned in the frozen wastes of Antarctica.
Starving, and haunted by the betrayal of his love (Rogue), Gambit made his way back into Magneto’s citadel, where he encountered 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 Son. In exchange for passage back to America, Gambit agreed to run errands for the New Son with the help of friend Jacob Gavin Jr.
When Gambit’s psyche absorption had worn off, Rogue spent months searching for him, to no avail. Gambit 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 Rogue. At one point, he became the field leader of a branch of X-Men. His love for Rogue was still intact, but her inability to control her powers made her break it off out of fear of hurting him.
Meanwhile, the New Son revealed his true identity after organizing an assassination game for a cadre of superpowered mercenaries with Remy as the target. The attempt failed, and Remy learned that the New Son was an alternate reality version of himself. In his reality, the New Son’s kinetic charging powers had flared out of control, burning the world and killing everyone but himself. This incredible power was the reason for his true name, New Sun — not “son” as Remy previously thought.
In Bishop’s future timeline, Bishop stumbles upon a video from the past with Jean Grey making a frantic call to any X-Men she can find. She says that the X-Men have been betrayed by “one of their own” and it appears in the video that she is the last one left and is killed in the video. Disturbed by this, Bishop seeks “The Witness”, a man who is said to be the last person who has ever seen the X-Men of the past alive. He enters a citadel of sorts where he confronts an old and withered but plucky man with long gray hair sitting on a throne, with two blonde women to either side of him. When Bishop confronts him as to who killed the X-Men the Witness acts as though he knows, but refuses to tell and Bishop is thrown out of the citadel.
When Bishop comes to the X-Men in their original timeline, he meets Gambit and is sure that he is the same old man in Bishop’s future and that it was Gambit who was the “Traitor” that killed the X-Men. For some time, he continues to watch Gambit’s every step until he is finally convinced some time later that Gambit was not the Traitor (with Onslaught being revealed to be the traitor). The reason behind Gambit being called the Witness in Bishop’s timeline has not been revealed. In the Messiah Complex, it was revealed that the Witness was killed by the Marauders in their efforts to destroy anyone with knowledge of the future.
When Storm led a team of X-Men in search of Destiny’s diaries, the thirteen-volume Books of Truth, Gambit volunteered to join them, but Rogue – afraid that her increasingly uncontrolled powers would bring him harm – flatly refused to allow him along. He returned to thievery instead, and was soon after framed by mutant businessman Sebastian Shaw for the death of the Australian crime lord named Viceroy. With the assistance of Rogue, Storm’s team of X-Treme X-Men, and former Triad member Red Lotus, Gambit was able to clear his name. Soon after, Remy became embroiled in the X-Men’s fight against an alien invasion of Earth led by the interdimensional warlord Khan, after trying to assemble the “Madripoor Set,” a group of seven gems. The X-Treme team’s enemy, the enhanced human named Vargas, used the invasion as a chance to attempt to kill more of Storm’s team, going after Rogue and Gambit. Rogue tried to shield Remy against Vargas’ sword, but he impaled them both as a reward for her fidelity. Both Rogue and Gambit survived, but lost their mutant abilities (for a time). As a result, the couple sought to live a normal life and sort out their relationship, retiring from the X-Men temporarily.
Gambit and Rogue rejoined the X-Men soon after Sage jump-started his powers, and they were placed on Havok’s team. In their first mission back, Gambit was temporarily blinded by one of his energized cards that went off by his face. Rogue tried to console Gambit during his recovery, but their relationship became strained once more as he became more and more frustrated with his blindness and their lack of touch after Rogue’s powers returned. He started lashing out at Rogue, most of the time verbally. As a result, Rogue took some time away from Gambit. While he lost his vision, Gambit developed an ability to read his playing cards like they were tarot cards and he was able to predict the attack by the Brotherhood. A little while later, during Christmas celebrations, Rogue asked Sage to once again jump start Gambit’s powers, in the process, healing his vision.
During the story arc with Golgotha, Gambit revealed some deep insecurities he had about his relationship with Rogue; not only did he say that “Maybe dis no-touching thing is getting to me… more den I thought”, but he also told Rogue that she should just get together with Logan, thinking that there was a hidden attraction between the two. As a result of the accusation, Logan (Wolverine) kissed Rogue, but she broke it off before it caused any major damage. Gambit then began to realize what he was saying, questioning his love for Rogue, but soon after began to suffer from hallucinations that he was fighting Mister Sinister. However, Rogue and Gambit soon realized that Golgotha made them say things they did not mean and before the final battle, they ‘kissed’ through their space suit helmets.
Once back at the mansion, Gambit and Rogue moved into the same room to try and build some intimacy and began telepathic therapy with Emma Frost. They soon found out that with all the emotional baggage going on in their minds, they were still unable to make physical contact mentally. This would cause even more strain when the new student, Foxx, joins Gambit’s team and attempts to seduce him.
Rogue’s foster mother Mystique was displeased with Rogue’s choice of lovers and infiltrated Xavier’s Institute by shapeshifting into a student called Foxx. She joined Gambit’s squad in an attempt to ruin his relationship with Rogue. After Gambit resisted her charms, Mystique reverted to her true form and then offered Gambit something significantly more difficult to refuse: she transformed into Rogue and offered Gambit a Rogue with whom he could have a physical relationship, claiming that she was only trying to help relieve the increasing frustrations between the two lovers; “… if one of you could have some physical release…”. Rogue eventually discovered her mother’s presence in the school and that Gambit knew she was there. To date, Gambit denies that he slept with Mystique, but there is yet to be a verification of his account.
Upon the return of Apocalypse, Gambit submitted himself to the villain and was transformed into one of Apocalypse’s Horsemen, Death. Gambit intended to infiltrate himself into Apocalypse’s ranks in order to protect the X-Men from the Dark Lord’s eventual betrayal, but he miscalculated, as the transformation process warped his mind as well as his body. After becoming Death, Gambit’s hair turned white and his skin turned deep black. Despite having his mind and body twisted, Gambit retained a large portion of his former self, stating to Apocalypse, “I’m both Death and Gambit”, and he also remembered his love for Rogue as he could not bring himself to kill her. Gambit and Sunfire then returned to the Xavier Institute to claim Polaris. Gambit, in an attempt to free all ties with his old self, tried to kill Rogue and would have been successful had it not been for Pulse neutralizing Gambit’s powers.
After the X-Men defeated Apocalypse, Sunfire left with Gambit to help him clear Apocalypse’s brainwashing and live as entirely new beings, only to then be approached by Mister Sinister.
Gambit returned to his original appearance and powers (presumably with the aid of Mr. Sinister) and reemerged as a member of the Marauders. On a mission for Mr. Sinister (involving obtaining knowledge of the future) Gambit and Sunfire encountered Cable on the recently evacuated island of Providence. Before the fight Gambit said, “I dropped that whole new look, wit’ the help of a friend.” He then asked Cable for use of his super-computer to answer a question referring to the phrase “one minute before dawn”, which tied into the then upcoming Messiah Complex storyline. As a result, Gambit and Sunfire attacked him eventually forcing Cable to activate a self-destruct sequence destroying the entire island. Gambit and Sunfire escaped empty handed. During the fight, Cable noted that Gambit’s accent sounded ‘forced’ either for comic effect or perhaps to indicate that things may not be as ‘back to normal’ as they seem with Gambit. As Gambit returned to Mr. Sinister’s base to discuss the next step of the plan, he reprimanded Mystique for shooting Rogue when they abducted her, being placated only by Mr. Sinister’s assurance that Rogue was still needed and would survive. In a recent confrontation with Cannonball and Iceman, he seemed to sympathize with a beaten Cannonball. He interfered when Scalphunter was about to kill Cannonball by attacking Cannonball and by his actions he was able to save Cannonball from certain death. At the same time, he also destroyed Destiny’s diaries, preventing Sinister and the Marauders from getting them.
Gambit is personally targeted by Wolverine during the X-Men’s assault on Mister Sinister’s Antarctic base. After being tortured by the Canadian mutant, Gambit reveals that Cable has the baby before Sinister manages to regain the advantage and drive the X-Men off with Gambit later revealed not to be harmed. Later, as Bishop attempts to kill the baby (after immobilizing Cable), Gambit and several of the Marauders quickly stop him with Gambit bringing a section of the ceiling down on Bishop. Knowing the X-Men will arrive in moments, the Marauders depart with the baby, but not before Gambit ponders what could make Bishop turn on the X-Men.
Tracking Gambit using Cerebro, the X-Men find that the Marauders’ hideout was on Muir Island. However, what they didn’t know is that Gambit let them track him. It appears that Gambit, along with Mystique, have plans of their own for the newborn mutant as evidenced by his lack of surprise when he delivered the baby to Sinister, who then reveals himself to be Mystique as the real Sinister lies on the floor with shock etched into his face, and the fact that Mystique told Gambit that it is time for the next step.
A flashback sequence shows that Mystique used Rogue’s intensified powers to kill Sinister. In the present she explains that everything she and Gambit have done has led to this moment as foretold by Destiny. Mystique touches the baby’s face to Rogue’s in the hope of sacrificing the child to save her. After an energy burst Gambit snatches the baby, saying that Rogue would never want an innocent life used to save hers. However, the child was unharmed by Rogue’s touch. Gambit gives the baby to Xavier and says he wishes to stay with Rogue. Shortly after, Rogue awakens and tries to kill Mystique. However, somehow the baby cures her of her intensified powers, as well as any psyches she had ever absorbed; this leaves her with the psyche of only one other individual: Mystique. She tells Gambit she needs time alone and if he still cares for her, he would not follow.
In Divided We Stand, Gambit next appears in X-Men: Legacy. Having received news that the Assassins Guild of New Orleans was approached to kill Charles Xavier, he goes to track Xavier down and save him from possible danger. He manages to head off Xavier’s attackers, defeating them in short order before he is joined by Xavier himself. They determine who the Assassins were supposed to kill next from a list Gambit pulls from one of the goons, which includes Juggernaut, Sebastian Shaw, and Carter Ryking (also known as Hazard). Xavier makes the connection between himself, Ryking, and Juggernaut, but is at a loss with Shaw. They go to see Ryking, who was being held in a mental institution, only find out that he had just died of a brain hemorrhage the night before.
Gambit and Xavier then drive out to the Nuclear Research Facility at Alamogordo, the place where the fathers of Xavier, Juggernaut, and Ryking all worked at some point in their lives and is most likely where Mister Sinister was running his genetic operations on the X-gene. However, Xavier begins to suffer terrible headaches, and he and Gambit decide to wait it out in the desert for a few hours, where they are once again attacked by the Assassins Guild. Charles Xavier is abducted and taken to the Almagordo facility, where it is revealed that the employer of the assassins was Amanda Mueller, the head of the Black Womb Project, a former lover and protégé of Mister Sinister (as well as direct ancestress of the Summers’ line), who plans to use Charles to activate Sinister’s Cronus machine, so as to be able to revive herself with Essex’s own superpowered essence. Meanwhile, Gambit manages to defeat the rest of the assassins with the assistance of Sebastian Shaw, and they form a temporary alliance of convenience to destroy the Cronus machine, which threatens Shaw as well, and rescue Xavier. They ultimately manage to succeed with a desperate last-minute life-or-death gamble when Gambit directly charges Shaw with biokinetic energy, giving him enough power to utterly shatter the otherwise indestructible machine.
He is currently searching Australia for Rogue and is again in the company of Professor Xavier. Gambit, however, is unsure of this venture, mainly because of Rogue’s request that she be left alone. He and Xavier both agreed that if Rogue did not wish for their help or presence, they would do as she wished and leave her be.
When Gambit and Xavier make it over the plains, they find a completely mismatched landscape. Fearing it is Rogue’s doing, they go in and find various parts of Rogue’s past being projected around them, including her fight against Nimrod and being captured and beaten at Genosha. Gambit finds it hard to control his emotions seeing Rogue in so much pain, but Xavier reminds him that none of it is real. While in the Genosha prison cells, Gambit and Xavier find the Shi’ar parts hunters and they are told what is happening. They discover that Danger is the one causing the projections and is using Rogue’s input from Danger Room sessions. Xavier decides it is better to find Danger first, coming to the conclusion that Danger is trying to push Rogue to some sort of realization.
Powers & Abilities
Gambit is a mutant whose primary ability is the manipulation of potential or kinetic energy. This is manifested both internally and externally, energy charges his body giving him greater strength, stamina, and agility than any non-powered human, as well as being able to charge matter resulting in the violent and powerful explosion of said matter through touch. The objects that he charges explode with a force somewhat proportional to the size of the object, though a playing card is as powerful as a hand grenade in Gambit’s hands. Gambit has the ability to charge living as well as non living matter, though this ability is the source of much controversy in Gambit’s life as well as the continuity and nature of the character. He almost never charges organic matter. Gambit is skilled in card throwing with great accuracy, and all aspects of thievery. One of his trademark tricks is to hurl playing cards at an opponent, charging each card and turning it into a deadly projectile.
Gambit customarily wears a suit of highly articulated light body armor and his weapon of choice is a telescopic metal staff. He is extensively trained in martial arts, particularly French kick-boxing or savate, which coupled with his Thieves Guild training and natural mutant abilities, makes him a superhuman combatant. He is an excellent hand-to-hand combatant, utilizing street-fighting techniques and acrobatics.
In his youth, Gambit was able to control all forms of kinetic energy, allowing him to charge all matter within his line of sight by mere thought alone, but his failure to control it caused him to turn to Mister Sinister. Sinister excised the portion of his brain stem responsible for his full mutant powers. Later, he returned to Sinister while he was in Victorian England, and had his grey matter surgically reimplanted, restoring his abilities to their full potential (which enabled him to return to the present day by transforming himself into living energy which joined with the kinetic flow of the timestream itself) until he burnt them out while fighting the New Sun. However, Sage then jump started his powers twice, first, when the XSE rejoined the X-Men and second, when she helped him heal his blinded eyes. It was later revealed that he had regained his ability to charge even organic and animated matter when he directly powered the kinetic-absorbing Sebastian Shaw with biokinetic energies in order to be able to destroy the Cronus machine of Mister Sinister.
While blinded for a period of time, it was shown that Gambit had the ability to foresee future events using his playing cards through tarot reading.
After Sage helped restore his vision, possibly by unlocking the further stages of his own mutation so that he could heal himself (by biokinetically stimulating his own cellular activity) as he did once (when he was speared through the chest in the Assassination Game), he has yet to demonstrate this ability again.
As the Horseman Death, Gambit showed the ability to convert inert materials into toxic substances, such as transforming breathable air into poisonous gases and also potentially the ability to ingest diseases and plagues similar to one of Pestilence’s (Polaris’) powers. He did not show his Death/Gambit powers in his reappearance as a member of Sinister’s Marauders.
Gambit is fluent in various languages, primarily English and Cajun French, which he uses most often.
Source: Gambit Guild, Wikipedia