Uncanny X-Men #12 annotations
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #12
“Some Kinda Way”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Gavin Guidry
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
THE X-MEN
Gambit. This is a self-contained spotlight issue for him.
The flashbacks to his childhood take place, according to him, at a time when he “wasn’t quite wild yet, not quite feral”. He’s been adopted by Jean-Luc LeBeau at this point, but hasn’t yet been fully accepted into the Thieves Guild. If we’re going by the account of his early life in Gambit #1 (1999), this almost certainly means that he’s ten. According to that story, Remy was always seen as significant in New Orleans Guilds circles because of his strange eyes, and Jean-Luc had been keeping an eye on him throughout his life, but wasn’t able to take him in earlier due to guild politics. In the years running up to this, he’s been a member of a street gang called Fagan’s Mob, learned to fight and pick pockets, and already befriended Bella Donna Boudreaux. Everything here is basically consistent with that.
Remy’s powers are apparently starting to manifest at this point. He’s promised to stay out of trouble but winds up getting into a fight with some other Assassins Guild family members, which the Vig gets him out of, leaving him in debt. (See below.) These events also lead to him meeting Marcus St Juniors for the first time, while in hiding from the Assassins Guild. It turns out that the whole thing was engineered by the Vig, and this story is basically Gambit standing up to him when he tries to get back into Gambit’s life.
He correctly anticipates how both Jitter and Rogue will react to events in the previous issue, and seems to be the quietly emotionally intelligent one.
Rogue. She’s upset about her stunt with Jitter in the previous issue, wonders what she was thinking, and frets about whether it shows that she’s unfit to lead. This makes more sense if you see the previous issue as a self-doubting Rogue attempting to rise to the occasion with a botched attempt at Motivation the Wolverine Way.
Wolverine and Nightcrawler have cameos at the end, but don’t contribute much.
Jitter. Rogue’s stunt was in fact successful at motivating her – in fact, all of the Outliers are up at the crack of dawn to train in the makeshift “Danger Room”.
Deathdream asks Ransom to teach him how to box; he doesn’t give a reason, and both Calico and Ransom privately note that, given his powers, Deathdream is very unlikely ever to have a need for hand to hand combat skills. It seems to be more his way of trying to connect.
Calico is now wearing a “Mutant and Proud” T-shirt.
SUPPORTING CAST
Marcus St Juniors has been running Haven since Remy was a child, and gave him shelter when he was on the run from the Assassins Guild as a ten year old.
MacKenzie Deneer – the mother from issue #6, who was oddly effusive in her praise for Nightcrawler in issue #10 – shows up at the end of the issue trying to persuade the mayor of New Orleans to “do something about the mutants”.
VILLAINS
The Vig. An enforcer for Jean-Luc LeBeau, at least when Remy was young – since we haven’t seen him hassling Gambit in any previous New Orleans stories, presumably he’s been away for a while. Before Jean-Luc, he worked for someone called “the Mink”, presumably another crimelord who hasn’t come up before.
He’s presumably a mutant, or at least a superhuman of some sort; he has reptilian skin and pointed teeth, and seems somewhat resistent to damge. On the other hand, Gambit (as an adult) can handle him without too much difficulty, and Gambit seems to think that the Salvatore family ought to be a serious concern to him. (Admittedly, they are members of the Assassins Guild.)
He makes no attempt to conceal his appearance, wears a suit, and seems comfortable with using his appearance for the intimidation factor. His modus operandi seems to be to engineer situations where people think they owe him a massive favour, and then demand 25% of their earnings, with thinly veiled threats if they don’t pay. The word “vig” is short for “vigorish”; it’s an American term which originally meant the bookmaker’s cut of a gambler’s winnings (the sense in which the Vig is notionally using it), but also means the interest charged by a loan shark (the sense in which he’s actually using it).
In Remy’s case, the Vig engineers a conflict with the Salvatore family from the Assassins Guild. This apparently motivates Remy to pay the Vig for years to come, though he evidently stopped at some point. The Vig rather implies that it was no later than the time when he joined the X-Men. It’s not entirely clear why the Vig takes in interest in young Remy; it might be because he sees Remy as personally significant, but it might also just be because of his link to the patriarch of the Thieves Guild.
For some reason, the Vig demands that Gambit clear his arrears by handing over one of the four Outliers. It’s not clear why the Vig wants this – perhaps he just thinks he can traffic them – or why he seems so confident that his reputation will keep Gambit and the X-Men in line after so long out of touch.
OTHER FOOTNOTES
Page 6 panel 5: “I just found out I like [cinnamon]”. Issue #9.
Page 7 panel 1: Chaoui is a Cajun French word (borrowed from Choctaw) for a raccoon. Presumably the reference here is to Gambit’s dark eyes.
Page 7 panel 3: “In the memory of a boy prince…” This flashback takes place after Remy has been adopted by Jean-Luc LeBeau, then the patriarch of the Thieves Guild. According to Gambit’s origin flashback in Gambit #1 (1999), Remy was adopted by Jean-Luc at the age of 10.
Sounds like a rather inconsequential story. I don’t see what this really adds to Gambit’s character. From the general plot description and the solicit, I’d have guessed this would tie in somehow to Gambit’s theft of the Eye of Agamotto, or at least that the Vig would be more of a threat.
While “the Mink” will probably turn out to be either a throwaway bit of suggestion or a new villain, a small part of me hopes that a future story reveals them as an Earth-616 version of any one of the Minks from the MCU, Squadron Supreme, or Jonathan Lethem’s Omega the Unknown.
It’s nice to see Rogue realizing that she was wrong to injure a teenager like that. Although, on the other hand, we saw in Exceptional X-Men that Axo had no clue what to do when Sinister was immune to his powers, so you can sort of see why Rogue felt she needed to be harder on the kids.
I hard no idea that Matt Murdock met Killer Croc when he was a kid. Oh, wait, that’s young Gambit and the Vig.
I’m not sure that I buy that one of the kids threatened Bella Donna Bodreaux. Her father was the leader of a group of assassins- not the kind of person you want to piss off. Then again, some kids are stupid.
I guess it makes sense that Remy stopped paying the Vig around the time he joined the X-Men. The Vig really isn’t that scary compared to the kind of villains the X-Men fight.
Apparently MacKenzie Deneer doesn’t have anything sinister in mind. According to Bleeding Cool, a future plot in Uncanny X-Men will involve the city of New Orleans throwing a Mutant Appreciation Day festival. Presumably this is leading up to that plot. Of course, considering how the Hellfire Gala went, Mackenzie Denver probably would cause less trouble for Kurt if she actually was a supervillain.
Breevort admitted in the letters page that the readers have been complaining that Simone has been focusing too much on the Outliers and not enough on the established X-Men. That’s probably a good sign, especially since this issue focused on Gambit.
I find it funny that Gambit now has two villains in his backstory who are interested in trading children, and they are called the Vig and the Pig.
I enjoyed this as a quiet interlude to flesh out a little more of Gambit’s youth and, presumably, add in the sort of mid-level superhuman antagonist who can come back at some point. Sometimes, those come in handy.
(My head canon is that he’s literally a mutated crocodile or alligator, possibly a renegade New Man from the High Evolutionary’s stable. It works better than him being yet another mutant we never met during all those years.)
Rogue questioning how she’s raising the Outliers is nice. She’s never been wholly comfortable as a leader, and lord knows being raised by Mystique and Destiny wasn’t an ideal scenario.
Jack-Gambit teams up with US 1 to fight Big Rig,
Gambit reveals a heretofore unknown adventure in the USSR where he matched wits with little-known Soviet Super-Soldier, MiG.
Let’s not forget Gambit’s hardest battle with his archenemy, the Cig, New Orleans spirit of addiction to smoking.
In the far future, an aging Remy must come to terms with male pattern baldness, metaphorically, through his fight with Wig.
@ChrisV: In a lost classic from the Marvel UK vaults, see Remy’s team-up with racing champion Jamie Braddock as they face off against the Stig.
And then Gambit’s little-know past in the Merchant Marines catches up to him in the form of his onetime captor, the Brig.
Then, in a flashback to his earliest Uncanny X-Men appearances, see Gambit try to help the de-aged Storm by seeking out a legendary magical fortunetelling machine, only to discover it was made up for the Tom Hanks movie Big.
Quite enjoyed this one – if it’s back to basics, than a character-focussed breather is more than welcome. Especially amidst the histrionics in other titles. Really liked the interplay between Gambit, Rogue, and the kids – this felt a little more “lived in”, if not necessarily a major contribution to Gambit’s history. Kind of sweet!
Teen Gambit risks flunking out of da T’ieves Guild if he can’t defeat his math-genius rival, The Trig.
During one of his times away from the X-Men, he’s targeted by a mutant-hating bounty hunter that keeps you guessing, the Zig (and their partner, the Zag, but we don’t talk about them.)
New math tutor for the Outliers arrives, Newton “The Fig” Isaac
Honestly, I liked that one. Simone’s writing managed to give The Vig a charm that elevated him beyond just being a two-bit conman.
At the risk of damning with faint praise, this might have been the best issue so far.
I liked the bit with Jitter revealing Gambit has already apologised. Remy’s good with kids/young adults (sometimes, when written that way) – my favourite use of him is as Laura’s friend on the road in Marjorie Liu’s X-23.
Trapped in an Irish Renaissance Fair, Gambit can only escape by winning a dance-off against… The Jig!
Gambit’s charged cards are useless if they can’t hit a target as skinny as… The Twig!
Jubilee must still be so angry at Rogue she up and left. Or maybe she had a date with that cop.
She definitely feels like the odd one left out right now. Not saying that is good or bad, but just an observation I’ve had.
Overall, enjoyed the issue, even if it didn’t progress things all that much, story was fun and Deathdream comic relief is nice.
Also, for those wondering, Deathdream wants to learn boxing because he was left completely helpless against the robot dogs a few issues before. (Until he killed them all instantly after realizing they had living bits).
Gambit is trapped in an ever-filling over-sized beer stein. To escape, he much team up with one of his most fearsome enemies….The Swig!
On a trip to Egypt, he must defeat that evil archaeologist: The Dig.
(On the way back, he helps Lila Cheney & Dazzler defeat The Gig.)
To defeat his most hated foe, Male Pattern Baldness, Gambit must don…The Wig!
In a vain attempt to catch up to the Blackbird, Gambit must pilot…The MiG!
Sorry, not sorry.
Oops, I clearly did not let everything sink in from earlier and repeated stuff. Sorry!
@TheOtherMichael, yeah I don’t think that Vig’s a X-gene mutant or at least if he’s one , he’s got something x-tra as otherwise Gambit could have just blown him up directly (Mike Carey revealed during his OG XMen Legacy run that Gambit apparently can still charge other X-gene mutants [he formed a mutant circuit w/ Sebastian Shaw to destroy Mr. Sinister’s superscience machine] even though he supposedly burned out his full-powerset [so he cannot charge organic matter anymore, or so he claims] when battling his villainous Omega-level AU counterpart The New Sun) . Personally , aside from your renegade New Men suggestion which is inspired (the New Men are wastefully under-used as characters) , I’d consider making the Vig a magickal (DarkHold-based) were-crocodilian because 1) theyre an actual mythological type IRL (The SyFy Channel actually made a 2013 b-movie about redneck weregators, Alligator Alley) , 2) Marvel never features any other werebeasts in their stories except the usual werewolves and the occassional werecat and werebear
@Omar Karindu : I was hoping Gambit’s battle with the Brig would be another lost Marvel UK story, from the era when Doctor Who Magazine was kinda-sorta Marvel canon.
The series is up and down (up this issue), but the covers remain consistently excellent.
Untold Tales of Gambit #16- On the run from the law, Gambit tears his UCL and must undergo tommy john surgery from an unscrupulous back alley surgeon, but can he trust… The Lig?
I suppose the international readers deserve a sidebar for context. In baseball, sometimes a pitcher throws so hard his elbow ligament tears. In the 1970s a pitcher named Tommy John underwent an experimental procedure to take ligament out of the hamstring or forearm and replace the UCL. It was more or less successful and tons of pitchers have “tommy john” surgery and go on to have successful careers.
The real world lesson is the human arm isn’t meant to throw a baseball 100 miles per hour repeatedly. Maybe the comic explanation would be he was throwing exploding playing cards too hard
Gambit’s premarital playboy lifestyle is condemned by: the Prig!