Gambit shows off the best and worst of Chris Claremont’s writing. It’s got some unforgettable characters but convenient plot choices may disappoint the reader.
Gambit #2-5
Chris Claremont (Writer); VC’s Clayton Cowles (Letters); Russell Dauterman & Matthew Wilson (Cover); Espen Grundetjern (Colors); Sid Kotian (Art); NetEase(Cover); Whilce Portacio and Alex Sinclair (Cover); Whilce Portacio and Alex Sinclair (Cover)
August 31 – November 16, 2022
Marvel Comics
Gambit is an odd little comic. It’s a skosh like Miami Vice in its action, with an A-Team-esque feeling for odd couple journeyman gamboling, but it is also unafraid to be metaphysical and mystical. The series is much better when dealing with the surrealistic and the intangible than when it’s trying to delve into matters of the human heart.
Gabriella—known as Gabby—and Marissa DeCastro wind up becoming a major part of Gambit and young ‘Ro’s journey south after the first issue. ‘Ro and Gambit were headed eastward up the Mississippi until a nasty car chase sideswipes them off the road. Deep-diving daughter Gabriella and her army field doc mother Marissa save ‘Ro from the bottom of the sea. Left in critical condition, she remains in a coma in their riverside home.
While an unconscious ‘Ro visits and spars with her ancestor Ashake on a spiritual plane, Remy becomes entangled in the DeCastro’s business with Solarz, a mobster who wants to buy their house out from under them so he can use the rich soil around it. ‘Ro recovers her health just in time to save Gabby from Dominic Solarz’s foot soldiers, and Gabby soon becomes tangled up in ‘Ro’s new powers and evolves into her training partner. Meanwhile, Solarz hires Remy’s old enemies, Warhawk and Bounty, to finish him off. Along the way, Remy and Marissa fall in love.
Naturally, there are complications. Over seemingly countless pages, Remy and Marissa cheat at cards on a riverboat while ‘Ro and Gabby look on, all in the name of feeding the poor. A reunion between Remy and his old friend Lila Cheney is sweet but awkward. And intergalactic matters lead to a wild, messy confrontation. Not everyone will survive the roundelay.
Gambit‘s biggest problem is that bugaboo that has haunted comic books since time immemorial. Since Marissa is a one-and-done character, Claremont must separate her from Gambit before moving the comic’s narrative to its conclusion. This happens awkwardly, in a way that almost-but-not-quite feels like fridging, if only because Marissa manages to maintain her agency.
She ends up coming off as a too-perfect person; a tough army woman who’s charitable, beautiful, romantic, and when she meets a fate that will require much recovery, self-sacrificing enough to let Remy…well, you’ll see. It’s disappointing. And Marissa is likable enough, but she is not interesting and doesn’t come to life. Remy, of course, is his sardonic, kind-hearted, smooth-talking self. Bounty and Lila also make solid impressions. Gabby, however, is my favorite character here – and her interactions with ‘Ro are the best part of the series. It’s fun watching two Black ladies, one of them elderly, learn from their ancestors how to kill awful, evil people, and the book gives us that in spades. Gabriella had always been a confident and smart woman, but touching magic adds an extra bounce of confidence to her step.
The series concentrates heavily on those karmic colors Boy George sang about: red, gold, and green. The gold of wheat fields, the green of swampy water, and the red of fire. If the plot feels kind of rote – a classic tale of innocent land owners versus greedy developers – then the art elevates the series with its sharply-honed choices, playing with water with plaid shades of blue and vivid golden sandblasted wheat tones.
I will add, however, that somehow time manages to be lost in odd ways throughout multiple issues. It’s understandable for ‘Ro, but when we leave Gabriella and Remy for the first time after they encounter Solarz in issue #2, Gabriella’s wearing an entirely different outfit in their next scene. Did she have that frilly yellow dress hidden in her trunk?
Ultimately, this is a miniseries that spends a little too much time spinning its wheels – Lila and Remy’s long diversion on the riverboat among them – before cutting to the proverbial chase. The result is a series that doesn’t show off either Ororo or Remy’s best sides but provides an amusing distraction for the reader. My only question: when am I going to get a series about Gabriella?
