GAMBIT
MARVEL UNIVERSE
Yesterday I reviewed the MOTU Vikor figure who is clearly intended to be Conan the barbarian. I would’ve got to him eventually but I picked him out specifically to review for my friend Matt. Matt is a die hard Conan fan, the biggest I’ve ever met. I ran into him at his place of work this past weekend and he told me that he’s been keeping up with my blog and enjoying it so I decided to tackle his favorite character as a small token of my appreciation. Matt has since called me out for saying that Conan lives in Hyboria which is not really true. He lived during the Hyborian Age. Apologies to Matt and any other Conan nerds.
Today I’ve picked out another “special request” for my new facebook friend April. My facebook (and real) friend Rob decided that we needed to meet because we are both big comic nerds and so he orchestrated our virtual friending. In our initial getting to know you facebook wall chat April told me that her favorite Marvel character is Gambit. Her friend Richard chimed in that he likes Cable. Both X-Men characters of which I have figures of. I decided to tackle Gambit today and I’ll get to Cable soon enough.
I must be honest, although I am a HUGE Marvel fan, the X-Men corner of the Marvel universe is not one that I visit often. I read them regularly as a kid because my brother Doug collected the X titles and we shared a bedroom. Doug and I have been in separate rooms and separate residences for many years now so I’m pretty out of the X-Men loop. I pick up bits and pieces here and there as I need to in order to understand cross over story lines but overall the X-Men corner has become a frightening and mysterious place. There are at least a half dozen X-Men books plus solo books and mini series and it’s all really confusing to the uninitiated. For example, Cyclops who’s 30ish is the father of Cable who’s 50ish. That’s possible through the miracle of time travel. What gets more confusing is there is another guy named X-Man who is the same character as Cable but he’s like 20ish and he comes from another timeline or something. Oi. I’ll refresh my memory on the whole thing before I tackle my Cable post.
So onto Gambit. He’s the Cajun card throwing thief able to create kinetic energy. I remember when he first appeared in Uncanny X-Men issue 266 back in 1990, Doug and I still shared a room back then. He quickly became a fan favorite character to many but to be honest he never really did it for me. I just never “got” him. His power is kinda whatever and not easy to explain, his outfit seems lazy and I’ve always found him kinda boring. Lately he’s been playing the role of sidekick in the only X related book that I do read, X-23, and he’s pretty useless in there too.
Regardless, I snagged this figure when I saw it. No Marvel character is really a bad character; I like something about all of them. Even if for no other reason to pad my Marvel Universe display case I had to have this figure. It didn’t hurt that he came with another must-have figure of an X-men character who I am equally indifferent about, Mister Sinister. How could I pass up a 2-pack of confusing outdated looking X-Men? The answer to that is I couldn’t because they are both great figures. Even if the character Gambit doesn’t really interest me this is a great representation of him. The head sculpt is great, the flowing jacket is great, the bow staff accessory is great, even his separately sculpted lil neckerchief is great. I still have a long way to go before I have a respectable X-Men toy collection but having Gambit here is a pretty good start. 6 out of 10.
Posted on August 9, 2012, in Marvel. Bookmark the permalink. 10 Comments.
mike's collection 
Gambit is pretty cool. I’m a fan of him, but I feel like he is the Boba Fett of Xmen. Meaning that he has become a bit of a fan favourite for people who aren’t really all that into it. Seems just about everyone mentions Boba Fett as their favourite Star Wars character, even though he doesn’t do that much. Gambit felt the same way for a while.
Still though, I think he’s pretty cool. I wish this figure came with glowing pink cards.
I don’t hate the character but maybe I just haven’t read enough to really judge him. Apparently they’re planning on mashing up the X-Men and Avengers books in the coming months. Maybe he’ll end up in one of the many Avengers books I buy.
Boba Fett. Meh. Walrus Man all the way.
Say did you ever do that cable review?
No, I don’t think I did. Soon.
Crom’s teeth! You should have followed-up the pseudo-Conan review with Wolverine, not this guy! Though I appreciate the shout out. I clearly am the biggest and most knowledgeable Conan fan in Nova Scotia and all who challenge my decree shall have their guts burst by my heel!
Ha. You are indeed the biggest Conan fan I know Matt. Sorry to have followed him up with that wanker Gambit but that was to appease another friend.
Gambit’s my all time favourite character from X-Men but if you don’t care for him then it’s your loss. I’m not complaining though. Not everyone has the same favourite character. Some people don’t like Rogue, Cyclops, Wolverine or even Storm. All popular characters will have their haters as well. And you said you don’t hate him. yet you call him a wanker in your last comment! lol contradiction much?
Each to their own. I like him not just because he’s “cool”. He’s a really well developed character that has had his own share of bad times. He’s just misunderstood. I can’t understand how anyone can not like him in the animated series. He’s extremely likeable in that. Not once does he do something horrible or undeserving. I remember when The Last Stand came out, everyone was bitterly disappointed, angry and upset that he didn’t show up in it. I mean, we were all promised he would and he just gets left to one side. Obviously there’s something good about him if that many people were upset by his absence but he’s not for absolutely everyone.
Hey Rosie. Thanks for checking out my blog. I apologize for the late reply but I’m taking a little break from blogging at the moment. I’m glad to hear you like Gambit but he just never did it for me. Mind you I haven’t read X-Men books since the 90s and i never got into the cartoon.
Gambit’s awesome! He was even considered going to be in The Last Stand film with Josh Holloway, but got cut because Josh was filming Lost.
If you don’t know much about Gambit and found him boring then you definitely need to read about him in X Factor or X-Men Legacy. His 2012 series is really good too. Much better than that garbage series he had in 2005. His best solo was in 1993-1995. The rest were just okay. But then again, none of the X-Men solos, apart from Wolverine, have been that successful. I think it’s time Wolverine got a break. He’s one of my favourite characters, but let’s face it. He’s become way too overexposed and he’s ending up in some really terrible stories. Gambit’s getting his own film as well, but with Channing Tatum. He won’t cut it
I’m skeptical about Channing too. I was rally annoyed when he got cast as Duke in the G.I. Joe movie too but over time I warmed to the idea. Perhaps he’ll surprise us.