When it comes to the X-Men, romance is as much a part of their status quo as fighting to protect a world that fears and hates them. Over the years, there have been many iconic X-couples, including Cyclops and Jean Grey, Cyclops and Emma Frost, and Kitty Pryde and Colossus, but for those X-fans who discovered the team in the '90s, the quintessential X-Men romance involves Gambit and Rogue. The two were a close knit pair for a long time, but for the last several years they've walked separate paths, leaving many fans to wonder if they could ever rekindle their romance.

RELATED: Marvel Teases New Legion Comic

This January, writer Kelly Thompson and artist Pere Perez will answer that question and more when they kick off their five-issue Rogue & Gambitseries. CBR spoke with Thompson about her title characters, their relationship, the adventure she's sending them on, and the possibility for more Rogue and Gambit stories after the series wraps.

CBR: Kelly, I understand this is sort of a dream assignment for you in that you're a huge fan of both Rogue and Gambit. What is it about these characters that make them so fascinating to you?

Kelly Thompson: Like a lot of folks of a certain age, I actually discovered monthly comic books thanks to X-Men: The Animated Series. The very first scene I saw was Rogue punching that Sentinel in the mall and -- cheesy pun definitely intended -- she basically punched her way into my heart and mind. And then Gambit, moments later. SWOON. Shortly after, I discovered the comics and there were all these incredible stories about these characters and their tortured romance. It was heaven. It defined my entry into comics as both a reader and wannabe creator, so to say this is a dream come true gig is an understatement. But the pressure is certainly on to do it right.

What do you think it is about the Rogue and Gambit relationship that has made it so enduring over so many years? What do you think these two characters ultimately see in each other?

Well, they’re both obviously super hot and have an undeniable chemistry. But I think, for good or ill, in the beginning at least, the “will they/won’t they” really had fans dialed in. On a more character based level I think it was fascinating to see what they brought out in one another. Rogue was this beautiful, powerful, heroic woman that was largely stunted in her emotional growth – if only in her own mind – thanks to her inability to be in a “normal” physical relationship and her obvious fixation on changing that aspect of her life. And here comes this handsome, charismatic, “bad boy” ladies man that set his sights on her and it turned her whole world upside down.

Gambit was the first person that ever seemed totally unswayed by the challenge of Rogue. Some would say it’s what he liked about her -- the challenge -- but I think that was only true in the very early days. For Gambit’s part, I think he saw in Rogue someone worth a risk. Someone he could trust with his own vulnerabilities, someone that he could finally be real with, someone he could evolve with. I think all those things are still true for them today, which is interesting. All that said, they also have a whole lot of baggage to deal with.

Both Rogue and Gambit have been through a lot in recent years -- Rogue, especially, given her role leading a high profile Avengers team. So what's your sense of where your title characters are emotionally when you pick up with them?

I think separately they’re in pretty good places. I mean, being a superhero is complete chaos all the time, but that aside, they’re good, they’re doing what they do. Their relationship with one another is a different story. While they’re still people who care deeply about one another - there’s a lot of hurt still there, a lot of jealousy and weird trauma. They have some serious crap to work through if they ever want to be together again, and maybe even if they just hope to continue being friends.

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='Rogue%20%26%20Gambit%27s%20Mission%2C%20and%20An%20All%20New%20Villain']



Rogue and Gambit's skills, backgrounds and power-sets lend themselves to a variety of stories and genres. What can you tell us about the action and exploits they'll become embroiled in during your series?

For this story, we’re doing a sort of classic adventure caper that has some traditional superhero elements and also some sneakier undercover elements, which is not something Rogue and Gambit have done a lot of, but which I think is actually a great “genre” for them as a duo. But there’s also a twist to our story that plays directly into Rogue and Gambit’s specific strengths and weaknesses that I think it’s still too soon for me to talk about. People are going to have to pick it up to see!

What sort of characters will they run afoul of during this story?

We are going to get some characters from their past -- but again, maybe not in the way people might assume. We’ve definitely got a brand-new “big bad” for them to fight, and some new supporting characters, as well as a few cameos in issue #1 -- namely Kitty Pryde, Storm, Psylocke, Armor and Pixie.

We’re going to start out at the X-Mansion, because it was important to anchor the story in place and time, and to establish the “status quo” for Gambit and Rogue before sending them off on their mission. But the rest of the story (mostly) takes place on a remote island location.

I was a huge fan of Pere Perez's work on Deadpool Vs Punisher. I thought he handled the action and emotional scenes especially well. So I'm excited to see what he does here. What's it like collaborating with Pere? What do you enjoy most about his work?

Pere is doing amazing work. As people can see from that DPS from issue one he is really pulling out all the stops. There’s a lot of research and reference material in the scripts, which can be a challenge. And there’s also a lot of subtlety and nuance to getting this delicate relationship right and showing how it evolves over our series, but Pere has proved he’s more than up to that challenge. I can’t wait for everyone to see it.

While Rogue & Gambit is a miniseries, if it resonates with fans, it could become an ongoing. So I assume you have quite a few stories you'd love to tell with your title characters, correct?

Yeah, I mean, when you get a crack at two of your favorite characters in all of comics, you definitely have more than one story you’d like to tell. We’ll have to see. I think fans are really pumped about the book, so as long as they come out in strong numbers and I don’t disappoint them, then maybe we’ll get more Rogue & Gambit? Here’s hoping!