X-Men: Gambit: The Complete Collection, Vol. 1 by Fabian Nicieza

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects the first 11 issues, the Annual, a half Issue, and an Issue of X-Men unlimited featuring Gambit. The story is set in the aftermath of the Trial of Gambit when the X-Men abandoned him in Antartica after they found he led a band of mercenary mutants to the Morlocks (sewer-dwelling mutant,) and the Marauded slaughtered the Morlocks, even though Gambit tried to stop them.

Gambit was rescued by the New Sun who expects him to steal stuff, which Gambit does in his time away from the team:
ng else.
This book features several strong points and several weaknesses. The good:

-Emotional fall out from the Trial. This is explored throughout the book as Gambit copes with it as does his team. Gambit has been abandonned as a child, kicked out of the thieves as an adult, and now this, plus there's guilt over what happened to the Morlocks. Probably one of my favorite stories in here was the X-Men unlimited which showed him speaking to specters of the X-Men in deciding how to deal with Hydroman.
-Gambit is possessed by a female entity who enhances his powers, but maybe doing something else, more insidious. She's introduced in Issue 1/2 and makes her presence known in various issues until everything's sorted in the Annual.
-Gambit spends time in New Orleans and we get insights on his past and how the Thieves Guild works.
-Two tie in issues to the crossover story the Shattering that felt relatively self-contained rather than you were getting two disjointed parts of a 14-part story. This is how participation in a cross-over be done if it it has to be.
-Team ups with Blade the Vampire Slayer and especially Daredevil. Both were well done, but the Daredevil one was particularly good, creating a good conflict and a sense of mystery.
-The art is not great but avoids the excesses from earlier in the 1990s.

The bad:

---A theme about New Sun and it's true intents is tossed around, and a mysterious lady visits people in their dreams to get information about Gabmit. These take several pages out of each issue. While I appreciate the series eventually answered these issues, it doesn't even feel like the plot moved on these two points.

---Issue 10 has a fantastic set up with work my Gambit's stepfather who teamed up with the Howling Commandos, Gambit in a tuxedo, and the story has a very conclusion.

---The X-Cutioner talks A LOT and was not a fun character to read.

---The art has some inconsistent moments. While this is nowhere close to early to mid 1990s excesses, this book does have some art issues that reflect its times.

Overall, an okay book, that's not a bad read, even better if you're a Gambit fan.



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