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Who would have thought that throwing cards would be a cool way to defeat enemies?
One of the best comic characters to ever come out of the Marvel Universe has to be Remy Etienne LeBeau, also known as the mutant Gambit. While other mutants had straightforward powers like optic blasts, super strength, or supersonic flight, Gambit’s power is indirect as he taps in to the kinetic energy of objects and uses them against his enemies.
What makes Gambit extremely deadly is that he is able to throw things with great accuracy, even with things like playing cards. He can flick cards so fast and with such deadly results that he is considered one of the more dangerous mutants in the Marvel Universe. Add the fact that a deck of 52 cards is so compact; he packs more firepower than tank.
Starting out as a villain, Gambit became a full-fledged member of Marvel’s Uncanny X-Men later on. Although whether he is a villain or hero hasn’t seemed to matter as he continues to be one of Marvel’s more popular characters not to mention one of the coolest. And this is one of the reasons why he was included in the movie entitled X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
In this movie, Wolverine meets Gambit as the latter is playing poker inside a dark room in New Orleans. Fearing that Wolverine was sent to capture and take him back to Three Mile Island, he charges several cards and throws them at Wolverine to explosively send him through a wall. As their fight spills in to the street, both mutants pull out all the stops until it becomes clear that Wolverine is merely seeking passage to Three Mile Island. It was one of my favorite scenes from that movie
Even thought Gambit had a quick cameo in the movie, it was enough to consider a spin off tentatively titled X-Men Origins: Gambit. The same actor, Taylor Kitsch, is expected to reprise his role from the origin movie of Wolverine.
Interestingly, Gambit is not the only Marvel superhero fond of the card games. Wolverine has been known to play a mean hand of poker in the comic books. Another Marvel mainstay who is fond of the game is the Thing from the Fantastic Four. Just like Wolverine, he is usually portrayed with a cigar in his mouth as he plays.
The connection to poker is so strong for these characters that BetFair Casino licensed them from Marvel for their online slot games. In addition to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, Marvel fans have Iron Man and the Ghost Rider to choose from.
Poker may have been around long before the comic books were popular, but it was characters like Gambit that made it cool in the comics 4sho! Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.
