I'm a huge X-Men fan & and huge Gambit fan. After over a decade of reading Marvel (specifically X-Men) comics, it seems like Gambit's abilities has diminished..or rather writers don't write him the way they used to. Now i'm not talking about "Death" Gambit or "New Son" Gambit--I'm talking about regular ol' inanimate object charging Gambit. I remember 90s Gambit being able doge bullets from Forge and taking down villains far more powerful than himself. I'd personally like to see Gambit able to tap in to his true New Son abilities here and there (not so much to where he looks like Dr. Manhattan or kills everyone on Earth), but at least enough to have the ability to charge living/animate objects, or perhaps charge things in line of sight. I might be asking a lot due to me being a Gambit fan boy, so I'll ask one simple question: Has Gambit gotten de-powered over the years or am I just a complaining fan boy?

*Note*: i'm aware of the thread: http://www.comicvine.com/gambit/29-1499/gambit-can-level-a-house-with-his-kinetic-energyso-why/92-616794/ discussing Gambit's battles on Comic Vine, & I feel this topic is different.

Considering he has been charging organic matter for a few years now I don't see why he would be considered weaker?

He hasn't been depowered he just hasn't displayed anything really of note that I personally have seen.

Thy really have not touched much on his powers and given him some boosts or showings of interesting feats like they have with Colossus, Iceman, Nightcrawler, Storm, Rogue, Magneto, Beast, Emma,,,,,

come to think of it..he is one of the few original characters that has not shown any growth in powers as of late. I know many fans like him as the simple explosive card swinging, superhuman agility thief...but he needs a tiny something in my opinion.

He's still a great character though.

depends on who is writing him.

@god_spawn said:

Considering he has been charging organic matter for a few years now I don't see why he would be considered weaker?

interesting. I haven't seen him do that as of late.

Then again I wasn't too big on X-Men Legacy but I have acquired a large collection of it recently. I haven't seen him charge organic materials there though.

@Kallarkz: He's charged Sebastian Shaw, his own fist, Daken's arm and when he was turned into a lizard like creature in X-Men Volume 3 he grabbed a smaller lizard with his tail, charged it and threw it.

The latter 2 have happened in a little over a year ago.

@god_spawn:

That is true, but i would like to see his powers being develope more, like the others, but it is dealing with writers, and i hope Asmus will do a good job on that department too.

@god_spawn said:

@Kallarkz: He's charged Sebastian Shaw, his own fist, Daken's arm and when he was turned into a lizard like creature in X-Men Volume 3 he grabbed a smaller lizard with his tail, charged it and threw it.

The latter 2 have happened in a little over a year ago.

Maybe this is a case of different writers writing different crap. If Gambit can charge organic matter, he couldn't when he just fought Captain America in the latest AVX: VS. Cap blatantly boasts how he knows Gambit can't charge him, (Gambit was attempting to charge Cap's clothes), and Gambit didn't correct him or prove him wrong. So can he charge organic matter? AVX:VS takes place after his fight with Daken in X-23 & after him charging Sebastian---which many have explained was possible due to Shaw's ability to absorb kinetic energy.

@god_spawn said:

@Kallarkz: He's charged Sebastian Shaw, his own fist, Daken's arm and when he was turned into a lizard like creature in X-Men Volume 3 he grabbed a smaller lizard with his tail, charged it and threw it.

The latter 2 have happened in a little over a year ago.

Maybe this is a case of different writers writing different crap. If Gambit can charge organic matter, he couldn't when he just fought Captain America in the latest AVX: VS. Cap blatantly boasts how he knows Gambit can't charge him, (Gambit was attempting to charge Cap's clothes), and Gambit didn't correct him or prove him wrong. So can he charge organic matter? AVX:VS takes place after his fight with Daken in X-23 & after him charging Sebastian---which many have explained was possible due to Shaw's ability to absorb kinetic energy.

@Hus: I read the fight in AvX. Nothing in AvX should really be taken seriously in the first place. Either McNiven didn't do his research or he just purposely chose to ignore it. I have 4 instances on record vs your one and one in a crappy fight and in a crappy book at that.

@Hus: Dealing with who writes it, not all writers study about the character or see which advancement had been made. That's what i believe.

@god_spawn: Touche

And I would very much like to NOT take AvsX seriously!

@Kallarkz:

I'm not quite sure how well that could be used since the writers of AVX: Versus have stated that those books are not part of continuity.

I'm not taking much of this event seriously to begin so whether or not it's canon doesn't really bug me. I wish they could at least be correct in the use of their powers though if I had to say something about it since they were hinting towards Gambit not being able to charge organic matter.

@god_spawn said:

@Kallarkz: He's charged Sebastian Shaw, his own fist, Daken's arm and when he was turned into a lizard like creature in X-Men Volume 3 he grabbed a smaller lizard with his tail, charged it and threw it.

...Man I missed that all, and that all sounds awesome.

@RoboShark: I have 3 out of 4 so you can catch up.

Gallery

@god_spawn said:

@RoboShark: I have 3 out of 4 so you can catch up.

Gallery

Ha thanks, now I gotta find that lizard business.

@RoboShark: It's X-Men Volume 3 issue # 10. I don't have the scans for it.

@god_spawn said:

@Kallarkz:

I'm not quite sure how well that could be used since the writers of AVX: Versus have stated that those books are not part of continuity.

I'm not taking much of this event seriously to begin so whether or not it's canon doesn't really bug me. I wish they could at least be correct in the use of their powers though if I had to say something about it since they were hinting towards Gambit not being able to charge organic matter.

These fights aren't part of continuity?

@jrock85: I'm guessing the AvX Versus books.

@god_spawn said:

@jrock85: I'm guessing the AvX Versus books.

Yeah, those are the fights I was asking about.

@jrock85: Idk. It's the first time I heard anything about it.

In regards to Mcniven's Captain America vs Gambit fight (Say what you want about him as a writer, but his art is amazing, imo). I view it like this, Why would Cap know about Gambit's organic charging ability? Has he been keeping tabs on him? I don't think so, and why would Gambit have the urge to admit it? So Cap, realizing the potential danger he's in, would finally focus on him and KO him quicker than he did? Joking aside though, I just view it as Cap didn't know and Gambit didn't want to tell him.

@tg1982 said:

In regards to Mcniven's Captain America vs Gambit fight (Say what you want about him as a writer, but his art is amazing, imo). I view it like this, Why would Cap know about Gambit's organic charging ability? Has he been keeping tabs on him? I don't think so, and why would Gambit have the urge to admit it? So Cap, realizing the potential danger he's in, would finally focus on him and KO him quicker than he did? Joking aside though, I just view it as Cap didn't know and Gambit didn't want to tell him.

I still get your point, but I still think the environment for the fight was meant to lean it in Cap's favor which it would if the organic matter thing was true. Of course that's my point of view on it, but of course you know your argument is still perfectly feasible.

Well, this is the same grouping of fights where Iron Man wasn't directly affected by Magneto's powers just because he wasn't wearing metal armor so.... yeah, I think they just don't have a good grasp of how characters' powers work.

@Soulstealer said:

@tg1982 said:

In regards to Mcniven's Captain America vs Gambit fight (Say what you want about him as a writer, but his art is amazing, imo). I view it like this, Why would Cap know about Gambit's organic charging ability? Has he been keeping tabs on him? I don't think so, and why would Gambit have the urge to admit it? So Cap, realizing the potential danger he's in, would finally focus on him and KO him quicker than he did? Joking aside though, I just view it as Cap didn't know and Gambit didn't want to tell him.

I still get your point, but I still think the environment for the fight was meant to lean it in Cap's favor which it would if the organic matter thing was true. Of course that's my point of view on it, but of course you know your argument is still perfectly feasible.

also Mcniven was the artist on Captain America, which would explain his knowledge of Captain America, but all in all that one gaff aside I still think Gambit had a pretty good showing against Cap. He EVADED and CAUGHT Cap's shield by the strap and charged it and threw it back, also he actually tagged Cap more than Cap tagged him, so I don't think it was completely onesided. One last point Mcniven only had about 10 pages to do a fight so he couldn't drag it out as much as we all would like. But I understand Gambit fan's side of it also, if the situation was reversed I would probably feel the same way.

@tg1982 said:

@Soulstealer said:

@tg1982 said:

In regards to Mcniven's Captain America vs Gambit fight (Say what you want about him as a writer, but his art is amazing, imo). I view it like this, Why would Cap know about Gambit's organic charging ability? Has he been keeping tabs on him? I don't think so, and why would Gambit have the urge to admit it? So Cap, realizing the potential danger he's in, would finally focus on him and KO him quicker than he did? Joking aside though, I just view it as Cap didn't know and Gambit didn't want to tell him.

I still get your point, but I still think the environment for the fight was meant to lean it in Cap's favor which it would if the organic matter thing was true. Of course that's my point of view on it, but of course you know your argument is still perfectly feasible.

also Mcniven was the artist on Captain America, which would explain his knowledge of Captain America, but all in all that one gaff aside I still think Gambit had a pretty good showing against Cap. He EVADED and CAUGHT Cap's shield by the strap and charged it and threw it back, also he actually tagged Cap more than Cap tagged him, so I don't think it was completely onesided. One last point Mcniven only had about 10 pages to do a fight so he couldn't drag it out as much as we all would like. But I understand Gambit fan's side of it also, if the situation was reversed I would probably feel the same way.

This i agree with.

@hus: I think all we need is a better writer......"garth ennis" would be my choice. I think anyone of us would love to see more of his power like in the 90s cartoon :)

I have a question about Gambit's story after he lost his enhanced powers after the fight with New Sun. Does he get them back later or was he permanently de-powered?

@ascended: Unfortunately, that's what know one seems to know currently. I hope he retains some remnants of his New Son abilities.

The writers have seriously made a joke of Gambit in the past twelve years to the point that no one really cares about him anymore except hardcore fans. It's hard to see your favorite character be jobbed time and time again. Here are some examples.

1.) Golgatha..the entire love triangle with Foxx (Mystique), an arc specifically written to undermine Gambit's character and fighting ability. Mystique pretty much stated "I don't want my Rogue to date a loser."

2.) Turning into Death -- Gambit was turned into death the following arc, and given laughable powers. He is arguebly the worst incarnation of Death in Marvel History. The next issue where he turned into Death, Sunfire was shown beating him to down in the first few panels,

3.) House of M -- Getting beat up in a humiliating fashion by Ms. Marvel

4.) X-men Apocaplyse - Cyclops: "Here Gabmit, hold this." Plopping his a head in his hand, in a deameaning way.

5.) In one of the marvel handbooks he was given stats that reflect 2 in all category with one three in fighting ability and agility.

6.) AvX -- Getting beat by Captain America, while Captain America was talking to Iron Man on the headset.

7.) In each of his solo arcs - He was given no one to fight, and pretty much lost to random thugs from time to time.

This is opposed to his few successes...

1.) X-men Messiah Complex: Him and two other Mauraders take down Bishop

2.) X-men the End: Gambit being a totally bad ass in an alternate universe.

3.) X-treme X-men.

Claremon and Niceza are the only writers who do him justice, every one else, including the x-men editors obviously hate the character.