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History

Early Years[]

As a baby, Gambit was adopted by the Thieves Guild of New Orleans who raised him to become a thief. The Thieves Guild leader, Candra, joined forces with Apocalypse and became one of his Horsemen, but she was later killed by Holocaust during the Horsemen's War of Succession.[1] During those recovering days, Gambit fled the Thieves Clan and hid in the ruins of New Orleans, that got destroyed during the war.

Gambit first met the X-Men while they were fighting some of Apocalypse' Infinite soldiers. Gambit saw the Infinite's leader, Havok, attempting to kill Magneto but intercepted the blast.[2] Magneto invited Gambit to join the X-Men and the two became close friends.

Gambit became romantically involved with his teammate Rogue and even wanted to marry her. However, on the night he planned to propose, he saw Rogue kissing Magneto who had found a way to shut down her absorbing powers. Moments later, an agent of Apocalypse called Wolverine attacked the X-Men and badly injured both Gambit and Magneto. Rogue saved Magneto first and then Gambit second. His feelings crushed, Gambit left the team knowing Rogue had made her choice.[3]

X-Ternals[]

Gambit formed his own group of mutant thieves: the X-Ternals. They stole from mutants in order to help common humans in need. During this time, Gambit found a new girlfriend: Lila Cheney.[1]

Magneto sought out Gambit and asked him to return to the X-Men. Gambit, not aware of where Magneto was located, went to the bar called Heaven to get the location of Magneto's base from it's owner Angel, unaware that they were being watched by Sebastian Shaw.

Gambit arrived at the ruins of the Xavier estate just as Rogue and Magneto were being bombarded with temporal feedback when Rogue had used her powers to attempt to absorb the memories of the time displaced mutant Bishop.[4] This revealed Magneto to the existence of a another reality where Apocalypse was not its ruler, and he wanted to make that reality happen. In order to do that, he asked Gambit to steal the M'kraan Crystal, the Nexus of All Realities. Deciding to take on the mission, Gambit said goodbye to Rogue, almost kissing her had he not been interrupted by Blink.[5]

Gambit recruited his X-Ternals to help out on this mission, gathering them after yet another clash with Madri Rictor who was constantly attempting to capture the X-Ternals to win Apocalypse's favor. Accompanying Magneto, Gambit and his X-Ternals broke into the facility where Apocalypse kept detailed star charts so that they could learn the location of the Shi'ar galaxy. While Gambit and his fellow thieves kept Rictor and his forces at bay, Magneto and Peter Corbeau found the Shi'ar galaxy and used a device to activate Lila's latent teleportation abilities. Lila teleported Gambit, the X-Ternals and (accidentally) Madri Rictor to the far off world.[1]

There, Gambit and his friends clashed with the Imperial Guard, a team of super-guardians loyal to the mad Emperor D'Ken, who sought to take the M'kraan Crystal himself and take over all reality. Gambit and the others fled and were taken to safety by the Shi'ar/Mephastaphoid hybrid known as Jonath who explained the history of the crystal. They were attacked by the Imperial Guard again (joined by Rictor), however the unstable crystal began its crystallization wave of the planet. Gambit and the X-Ternals were rescued by the Starjammers who teleported them aboard their ship before the wave could hit them.[6]

The Starjammers' leader Deathbird led Gambit and the X-Ternals to the world where the M'kraan Crystal was located. There Gambit, Lila and Deathbird were led into the crystal by its guardian Jahf who told Gambit that the universe was doomed due to the death of Charles Xavier years ago. Inside the crystal they found that D'Ken had been immobilized by it. Jahf told Gambit that one could not just take from the crystal, one would have to give it an offering. Gambit gave up his lasting love of Rogue in order to obtain a shard. Succeeding, Gambit, the X-Ternals and Rictor teleported back to Earth, however not without their teammate Sunspot sacrificing his life.[7]

The X-Ternals materialized in the Morlock tunnels where they not only had to escape Rictor, but found that their teammate Guido was really a double agent working for Apocalypse. Guido stole a shard of the M'kraan Crystal, and also capture Magneto's son Charles and brought both to Apocalypse. Gambit and Lila were found by the X-Men Exodus and Dazzler.[8] Brought back to the surface, Gambit told Rogue that her son had been kidnapped. Rogue hit Gambit for letting Guido take her son. Despite this, Gambit and Lila joined a strike force of X-Men being gathered to storm Apocalypse's citadel to save Magneto, Charles and recover the M'kraan Crystal.[9]

Storming Apocalypse's citadel, Gambit came across the Dark Beast who had been beaten by his escaped slaves, and dragged him along with the X-Men so that he could not raise any alarms. Finding the crystal, the X-Men found that Apocalypse had left a trap for them. Gambit helped fight off the forces of Apocalypse. When his teammate Colossus went mad over the fact that his sister was sent with Bishop and Destiny into the M'kraan Crystal to stabilize reality, Gambit was forced to kill him to prevent him from injuring everyone. Ultimately, the X-Men succeeded in stabilizing reality and slaying Apocalypse, but not before the Human High Council sent nuclear bombs on Apocalypse's domain.[10] Nuclear Armageddon was avoided thanks to the secret intervention of Jean Grey, something for which everyone would be led to believe Magneto was responsible.[11]

Return to the X-Men[]

Gambit rejoined the X-Men, who began to rebuild America and restore its government. Magneto became the head of the Department of Mutant Affairs, and the X-Men were charged with rounding up all those who willingly aided Apocalypse. Primary among the hunted was Sinister, whom, unaware to Gambit and the other X-Men, had blackmailed Magneto into staying away by threatening to expose the truth as to how the Earth had been saved.

In this new capacity as bounty hunters, Gambit joined the X-Men in their premiere mission: capturing the Hellions which was a complete success.[12] When mutant activity was detected in Mexico, Gambit joined Magneto, Quicksilver and Sunfire to investigate. There they found the reality hopping Exiles (which included former X-Men Blink, Sabretooth and Apocalypse's son Holocaust) searching an abandoned lab owned by the Dark Beast for information on the M'kraan Crystal. Not understanding why their former comrades would side with one of their greatest enemies, a fight broke out. The Exiles easily defeated Gambit and the other X-Men and left the scene, leaving the X-Men to wonder what they had been up to.[13]

Gambit returned to the X-Men just as a revenge plot by abandoned X-Man Paige Guthrie was stopped. Before Paige's death, she revealed Magneto's deception to the group.[14] Telling his teammates the truth, Magneto led the X-Men to Liberty Island to apprehend Sinister.[15] A fight broke out between the X-Men and the Sinister Six. During the fight, Cloak swallowed up Gambit, Dazzler, and Nightcrawler in his Darkforce Dimension. Storm attempted to save them, but only Nightcrawler and Dazzler were found. They told Storm that Gambit had been lost in that realm, and he was presumed dead.[16]

The New Apocalypse[]

Gambit was revealed to have survived and re-joined the X-Men in their battle against the new Apocalypse, Weapon Omega. The X-Men came into contact with the X-Force of Earth-616 who had come to their world to secure a Celestial Life Seed in order to prevent the ascension of a new Apocalypse in their world. The X-Men initially believed them to be clones in service of Weapon Omega and destroyed their Life Seed. They learned their true identities however and aided them in finding a new Life Seed.

Gambit sacrificed himself when he volunteered to stay behind and distract the Celestial robots that were guarding the Life Seed while the X-Men and X-Force escaped with it. He used his powers to create a massive explosion which destroyed the robots and presumably killed him as well.[17]

Attributes

Powers

Bio-kinetically charges up inanimate objects with an explosive result. This is so powerful as to shred Colossus in his armored form and kill the nigh invincible Wolverine.

Weaknesses

Gambit's eyes are light-sensitive, which temporarily impairs his vision when exposed to bright light.

Paraphernalia

Weapons

Bo-staff, playing cards.

See Also

Links and References

References

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