Comics Is Gambit underrated?

[Langoth]

People grow up.

When I grew up, I realized "God damn, this gambit guy is a boring guy."

He is boring now, I'm sorry, the "one dimensional 90's badass" seems to be a pretty good description.

"Oh look, you might not be able to trust me, oh look, I speak French. BLAH! Beware my throwing cards!"

The only thing I currently even remotely like about the stupid twit, is the fact that he uses the throwing cards still, but in general? Jeeze, put this guy in the ground already.

 

[LadyVader]

Riiight, and this attitude is so much more mature.

"Who care if he has plenty of fans. Who cares that he has had a succesful solo series where he grew as a character and even had some cool adventures which I will never read just because. I say he sucks, therefore he must suck! I have spoken, my minions."

And just the suggestion to grow up is pretty out of place on a forum about superheroes. In general. Superman was created by two teenagers in case you didn't know.

 

[Langoth]

Hey, now I didn't say that he should be canned, I was only kidding on the last part of him going into the ground.

 

[LadyVader]

I didn't get like it was a joke, it went very well with the general "Hate Gambit" tone of your reply.

 

[Langoth]

So I don't like the character and think his potential has been spent through years of bad writing. I still know he sells books sometimes though. So yea, keep him around, killing him would just make 15,000-40,000 readers really mad.

 

[LadyVader]

Oh, we are already really mad with the way he has been treated. In all honesty I don't know how I would react if they killed him. They've already pretty much destroyed his character. Killing him would probably be the merciful thing to do. I'd prefer it over getting him stuck in limbo. And I don't even care how it happens. though I'd love it if it was some heroic self sacrifice.

Marvel and their crappy writing have made me apathetic to his fate, but I will never ever ever stop defending him or hesitate to raise my voice when I see people putting him down.

 

[Langoth]

Well you can blame the Gambit/Rogue fans through the 90's who would buy any book, regardless of how bad it was, with Gambit and Rogue in it. It stunted their character development because Marvel didn't need to change to milk those two of their potential.

When the characters I care about, no longer act like them, I stop buying books. I'll Bryne it sure, but I don't buy it if I don't like how they are being handled. That way, I feel as though even if things don't change, I at least tried

But Zombies in Marvel keep a lot of the bad stuff going on, especially with X-men. (Milligan's run still sells... books? WTF?)

 

[LadyVader]

The Rogue Gambit romance could've worked perfectly well if for instance the characters were DC property but Marvel has this notion that if a couple isn't Reed and Sue Richards it cannot survive. There was nothing inherently wrong with the characters or their relationship. You get a good writer, one that knows how to write proper human interaction within a set of parameters, and he or she could make it work!

But I agree that the fans didn't exactly help by so blinly professing their love for the couple. So Marvel took advantage of that and Gambit and Rogue became synonimous with eachother.

 

[rjb182]

Here's the thing about Gambit, to me:

The X-Men have like a hundred characters. Within those 100, they've covered just about every character archetype under the sun, and Gambit's one of them.

He's the Charming Rogue (um, no pun intended-- Rogue-Rogue is something else ). He's the Lando Calrissian to Scott's Luke Skywalker and Logan's Han Solo. And that's not a bad place to start a character. But overrated or underrated... well, it all depends on what you mean by those.

He's an important part of the X-Men, I think, because they don't really have the Charming rogue (see, small R that time) covered by anyone else, and I think they'd be missing something without that. He's significant enough that he probably should have been in the movie at some point, and his fans have every right to be irritated if he's not.

He's not someone the X-Men couldn't live without, anymore than they couldn't do without Nightcrawler or Psylocke or Iceman for a while, if for some reason those characters disappeared. He's not a flagship like Spidey (or even Wolvie). He should probably only be in one book. And yes, you can argue that he's not even all that "deep."

But he's no shallower than dozens of other characters who are important to the X-Men. When he's written well, he's fun. And I think he does deserve better writing and somewhat more exposure than he has gotten lately.

 

[Abaddon]

I do agree that Marvel played up the Rogue/Gambit on-again/off-again thing too much.

 

[MajinShenron]

"Who care if he has plenty of fans. Who cares that he has had a succesful solo series where he grew as a character and even had some cool adventures which I will never read just because. I say he sucks, therefore he must suck! I have spoken, my minions."

I like how you assume things right off the bat of people. Must be one of those things they teach in debating huh?

I for one when was little watched the X-Men animated series. I watched that before I read comics. I loved a lot of the X-Men and I didn't like Gambit to much. I didn't hate him, but he certainly was not one of my favorites. I started reading comics, Spiderman, Batman, X-Men, Superman, etc. Along those lines until now I don't have many Gambit comics (I am referring to ones in his own series). But I do have some, and I don't like the character. But mind you, I have quite a few comics of X-Men which he's in. To me he seems more of a kind of character kids like. He has one of the attitudes kids used to like in the 90s, bad-ass, brutal to an extent, and he blows things up. I for one hate his powers. Throwing cards thats on fire? Thats really lame. Whats next? Throwing paper airplanes with bombs attached?

As for the underrated thing, yeah right. I see so many Gambit fans saying that. A lot of people complained he wasn't in X-men 3, etc. He's overrated to an extent.

 

[danielisthor]

Is he important to the X-Men. I would say yes. His degree of importance however is debatable. Is he as important as any of the original 5. NO. Is he as important as the All-New team. Most of them, no. Probably only as important as the dearly departed Thunderbird and Banshee. Not as important as say Kitty or Rogue, Havok or Polaris. I would take him over Cecila Reyes and Maggot. Maybe Forge. I would take both Dazzler and Longshot over him. Sage and Bishop, probably not. i would take him over Emma and Husk.

Nightcrawler is just as charming as Gambit, but i guess because he looks like a demon that just gets lost in his character developement. Wolverine is a rogue. So does the team really need a charming rogue? The team didn't need two mutants with enhanced speed, strength and senses, tracking abilities, and attitude problems, so they offed Thunderbird. Does the team really need a charming (Nightcrawler), rogue(Wolverine) with red eyes (Cyclops), a southern accent (Rogue) with bad hair (Rogue and Wolverine), who's agile and athletic (Nightcrawler, Longshot and Beast), with big skeletons in his closet (Wolverine and Professor X), who tends to hit on any woman around (Angel). And lets not forget about his good aim (Longshot) with those cards.

I can see where his many attributes and personalities are so important to the team and only he can contribute.....................

 

[Abaddon]

I like Rogue's hair.

 

[gambitarchangel]

I wouldn't say he is underrated. Gambit is still seems to be popular.

 

[Cho Chang]

I personaly feel as though Gambit is a terribly over-rated character if anything. He's a pretty cool character for sure but he's often treated by many fans as the be all, end all of x-men. Banshee, however, is a seriously under-rated x-men character.

 

[Mistopurr83]

Just b/c he's been snubbed in those unfaithful movies and written so poorly in the latest comic's doesn't make his fans like him any less. It only makes them hate the writers.

In the 90's it seemed like Marvel's writers had a lot of respect for Gambit. Heck the makers of the 90's cartoon thought he was good enough to be a regular even though he had just joined the x-men when that show first got made. I think the respect and attention he got in the cartoon ended up being influenced on the comics. Now he may not have been a regular in Evolution but he still appeared in a lot episodes (12 out of 52 I think) even for a guest character and they even gave him an origin episode. So it still seemed like the makers of Evolution had respect for him. Now for the films. I have to say even if there had been a Gambit. He would've been poorly written, sidelined, screwed up and miscasted. That too would've ended up being influenced on the comics. Just like the way they handled certain characters who were written badly in the films got influenced on the comics. So I'm afraid the way Gambit would've been written in the current comics could've been worse.

Now do I think Gambit is overrated? NO!!! Gambit is not overrated, he is respected. Wolverine is the one who's become too overrated to me! Gambit can't be underrated either since he's still alive and written well in X-Men: The End. Just b/c he's dead in Ultimate X-Men doesn't mean he won't come back someday. Don't forget how big his fanbase remains too. That fanlisting "Cajun Charm" currently hold 1134 members on it. What other x-men characters have that many members on their fanlistings? You also must not forget Gambit did become one of the 4 most marketable X-Men characters. It was him along with Storm, Rogue and Wolverine.

 

[Exploding Boy]

Matter of opinion there.

This entire thread is a matter of opinion

 

[Darthphere]

The thread's title makes for a great joke.

Underrated?Are you kidding me?He's a product of the 90s,of course he's overrated.

This statement is flawed.

 

[f4faith]

Is he important to the X-Men. I would say yes. His degree of importance however is debatable. Is he as important as any of the original 5. NO.

Why? I still have no idea why the original 5 are important. The X-Men have survived without every one of them. As a matter of fact some of my favorite stories don't have one of them in them. With the exception of Wolverine, there is no X-Man that the team as a whole cannot survive without and even Wolverine is iffy as he does not have to be in every x-book. Storm took over just fine for Cyclops and frankly right now Cyke is one of the worst leaders I've ever seen given what has happened with the 198 so no the originals are not that important either. Mainly any of the x-men are beloved but not important. As a group you need some of the beloved characters around and Gambit is one of them but with the right writers any of those characters can make the X-Men work. Frankly I could live without ever seeing Cyclops in a book ever againl. He has never interested me and really doesn't now but he has his role but it is not irreplaceable as we have seen. I mean I love Beast but he is not irreplacable or more important than most of the main characters people know about.

Is he as important as the All-New team. Most of them, no. Probably only as important as the dearly departed Thunderbird and Banshee. Not as important as say Kitty or Rogue, Havok or Polaris. I would take him over Cecila Reyes and Maggot. Maybe Forge. I would take both Dazzler and Longshot over him. Sage and Bishop, probably not. i would take him over Emma and Husk.

And I wouldn't take hardly but one or two of those characters listed over him. He's got as many or more fans than Havok or Polaris or Dazzler or Longshot - that's all opinion not what makes them important. He fulfills his role as much as Dazzler does hers.

with red eyes (Cyclops),

Cyke does not have red eyes - his power is red - his eyes are brown.

I think all characters are overrated and underrated at times in their history with the exceptions of the true favored overrated few - ala the Spideys, Wolverines and Batmans - who are all overrated in their way.

 

[GNR]

This statement is flawed.

You're flawed.

 

[gambitarchangel]

You know it's interesting...whenever I mention something about X-Men to people who don't know anything about it, many of them seem to know Wolverine and Gambit and that's it, or no character at all. You can't be underrated if you have so many fans. I'm pretty sure Gambit has a pretty large fan base still. Like another poster said Banshee would be a good example of an underrated character.

 

[clintrussell]

Gambit would be cool to see, but not a big role like Wolverine. Maybe only on the side. Like Iceman for example.

 

[gambitarchangel]

Gambit would be cool to see, but not a big role like Wolverine. Maybe only on the side. Like Iceman for example.

Since so many people have been asking about Gambit in the films, I think they would have no choice but to give him a large role. I don't know about anyone else but on message boards etc. I've heard more people ask about Gambit, more than any other character since the first movie.

 

[gambitfire]

Gambit would be cool to see, but not a big role like Wolverine. Maybe only on the side. Like Iceman for example.

Wolverine is overrated i don't think he deserves to be in the same category as Superman, Batman, or Spider-man but that's My Opinion

 

[LongDong]

Gambit is overrated, and in my opinion, isn't even that interesting.

Agreed