Thief, X-Man, Cajun. Gambit has led a varied and interesting life. Abandoned as a baby and then abducted by the Thieves Guild put him on a path that would prove near impossible to escape. It's a testament to the strength of his character that he managed to evolve beyond a life of crime to become a bonafide hero.
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Life as a mutant has never been easy and like all X-Men, Gambit has had some less than admirable moments mixed in with his heroism. Here are five of his finest hours and five that he'd probably like to forget.
10 Best Mutant: Hunting Himself Across All Realities
In one of the many Marvel Universes, Remy Lebeau ditched the alias of Gambit and started calling himself "The New Son". In his universe, his ability to kinetically charge objects became amplified and grew beyond his control. In a severely unexpected twist, this led to him accidentally sterilizing the entire planet.
Committing a planet-wide genocide came with some serious psychological damage. Rather than spend the rest of his life alone on a dead world with his guilt, The New Son set out on a mission to save every alternate reality he could find.
There's nothing heroic about killing everyone on Earth but hunting yourself down across the multiverse to save countless lives is.
9 Worst Mutant: Becoming Death
When Apocalypse awoke (for the 100th time) Gambit decided he was the best hope for mutant-kind, despite the whole "survival of the fittest" thing. In order to help Apocalypse save mutant-kind without the hell on Earth survival of the fittest routine repeating, Gambit volunteered to become the horseman Death, provided he could retain his winning personality.
Perhaps this is another incident that could be blamed on Gambit's brain stem operation. Why would the horsemen be needed if the intention was to turn over a new leaf? This absurd plan goes about as well as you'd imagine. Gambit really is the worst sometimes.
8 Best Mutant: Destroying Mr. Sinisters Diary
While disguised and using the alias "Nathaniel Essex", Mr. Sinister managed to recruit Gambit to recover hos diary from the notorious Weapon X facility.
Gambit, being a master thief, had no difficulty in completing the job. Luckily, Gambit also witnessed the brutal and violent escape of a berserk Wolverine among other horrifying experiments. This gave him the idea that the content of the diaries might be dangerous and rather than take chances, he destroyed them. It's safe to assume that this act set Mr. Sinister and his evil experiments back quite a bit and saved more than a few lives.
7 Worst Mutant: Leading A Massacre
So it needs to be made clear that Gambit didn't fully realize he was leading a mission to exterminate the sewer-dwelling Morlocks but it has to be asked, what exactly did he think was going to happen?
The team he was leading had members with names like "Malice" and "Scalphunter" which should have maybe given the game away. The reason Gambit lead the mission was to repay a debt to Mr. Sinister for reducing his powers by removing a part of his brain stem. Perhaps this had something to do with him missing the obvious warning signs.
Regardless, leading a gang of mutant hating mercenaries into a sewer to exterminate the inhabitants is hard to justify.
6 Best Mutant: Ending A Blood Feud
Blood Feuds can go on for centuries and cause suffering for generation after generation.
The Assasins guild and Thieves guild had been waging a blood feud for longer than either side could remember. Luckily for both sides, Gambit treats Rogue like dirt and was happy to take part in an arranged marriage to unite the guilds and end the feud.
Things went sideways pretty fast and Gambit found himself dueling with the brother of his new wife. After killing him, Gambit was banished. A raw deal no matter which way you look at it. To keep the peace, Gambit accepted the decision and left with his dignity intact.
5 Worst Mutant: Conquering Realms And Enslaving Friends
Much like Archangels struggle to fully return to himself after becoming a horseman for Apocalypse, Gambit's struggle to be free of his Death persona has been full of woe. During one occasion when the Death persona took control, Gambit attempted to conquer all of the realm known as Limbo.
As Death, Gambit had developed the ability to corrupt other beings and make them his servants. Using this power, he corrupted the demonic entities that exist in Limbo along with the X-Men Dazzler and Northstar. Forcing former teammates into psychic slavery is messed up and if the remaining X-Men had not won the battle against his Death persona, it's clear he would have enslaved the entire team.
4 Best Mutant: Helping Rebuild The School
When faced with the choice of living life as a world-renowned thief or becoming a teacher, not many people would choose the latter. Gambit proved he is more than just a thrill-seeking adventure junkie when Wolverine asked him to help rebuild Xavier's Westchester school for the gifted.
It might have been partly due to the guilt from the time he attacked the school and students but regardless, he accepted Wolverine's offer and took up residency as a teacher. It's hard to imagine going to class when your teacher used to be Death but the students of the school are probably desensitized from years of attacks by killer robots, aliens, and fascists.
3 Worst Mutant: Trying To Kill His Girlfriend
Becoming Apocalypse's Horseman was a confusing experience and one that took a long time to recover from. During his recovery process, Gambit was convinced by the mutant Sunfire (also a horseman of the apocalypse) to attack the Xavier Mansion. The plan was to renounce his past and also rescue another horseman of the apocalypse being held there.
To further prove his willingness to renounce his past, Gambit tried to murder Rogue. Of all the things he has done and for all the reasons he has done them, this is the worst. Attacking a school full of children and trying to murder your girlfriend to prove to your new buddies that you can let go of the past is gross.
2 Best Mutant: Saving Marrow
During the horrific massacre of the Morlocks, Gambit managed to save a single child.
It's the one thing that redeems his bizarre choice to take a team of psychopaths on a mission of extermination. It should be noted that he only saved one child while all the others died but he did so at great risk to himself. He was mortally wounded while saving the only soul he could.
The child he saved was named Marrow and she would grow up to become the leader of The Morlocks.
1 Worst Mutant: A Cheap Wedding
Kitty Pryde and Colossus were about to get married. The guests assembled and the event was underway. Kitty developed a severe case of cold feet however and left Colossus alone at the altar.
Never one to miss an opportunity, Gambit proposed to Rogue on the spot and the two essentially hijacked the service as their own and got married right there.
Instead of being there for their friend and teammate after he was ditched, they chose to more or less rub his nose in the loneliness.