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This article contains spoilers for X-Men ’97 season 2, episode 6.
Before sacrificing himself to stop the Omega Sentinel that was decimating Genosha, Gambit flashed his trademark smirk and said, “The name’s Gambit, mon ami. Remember it.” Of course, we could never forget. We think of Gambit not just because of his act of heroism but also for the indefatigable sense of style he kept as he went out.
Also we think of Gambit because he never really went away. From the post-credit scene of season one and throughout this second season, X-Men ’97 has reminded us again and again that Apocalypse has plans for the late Remy LeBeau. Those plans finally come to fruition in the post-credit scene of “Danger.exe,” but the comics have long warned us that when Gambit rises again, he’ll arrive in the form of Death itself.
Before we can talk about Gambit’s transformation, we might need a refresher on what the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are. As we’ve seen throughout season two of X-Men ’97, the ancient Egyptian mutant En Sabah Nur transformed into Apocalypse when he encountered the Celestials, the intergalactic deities responsible for seeding Earth and other planets. Nur challenged the Celestials by entering the shrine on Ship and gaining the armor that turned him into Apocalypse. Then to prepare for the moment when the Celestials would return and judge the Earth, Apocalypse expanded the survival of the fittest ethos of his clan the Sandstormers and began testing those with power.
To prepare the way for his tests, Apocalypse transforms four people into his horsemen: War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. These hosts rarely tend to last long, because they either die or rebel, as in the case of founding X-Man Warren Worthington III, aka Angel, who was turned into the Angel of Death Archangel back in the original run of X-Men: The Animated Series.
Gambit first became linked to Apocalypse via the villain Mister Sinister, who had been using Gambit to torment the X-Men even before his first appearance in 1990’s Uncanny X-Men #266. Over the years, Gambit’s history and relation to Mister Sinister evolved to something other than what co-creator Chris Claremont had intended (to read more about that, and how Claremont delved into Gambit’s intended origin in X-Men: The End, see this week’s comics newsletter). But by 2006’s X-Men #182, part one of The Blood of Apocalypse, Gambit was ready to make another deal with the devil if it could help his fellow mutants. This time, the devil was Apocalypse.
Written by Peter Milligan and penciled by Salvador Larroca, The Blood of Apocalypse takes place after M Day, the moment when Scarlet Witch used her magic to de-power all but 198 of the world’s mutants. Sensing a change in the world order, Apocalypse begins gathering his new Horsemen for an attack. At the same time, Gambit feels particularly troubled, in part because of M Day, but also because Rogue’s mother Mystique had joined the team with the goal of separating Remy from her daughter. So when he hears about Apocalypse’s plan to revive the mutant race, Gambit leaves the X-Men and aligns himself with their enemy, recognizing him as the mutant messiah.
Gambit voluntarily becomes the Horseman Death but with one caveat: he refuses to allow Apocalypse to control his mind, even if that means he will feel everything that happens to him during the transformation. Gambit wants to retain his personality and free will, even while serving his new master. Also he keeps his head sock on, which looks weird, but certainly fits the character.
Despite his insistence that he controls his own mind, Gambit fights against the X-Men in general and Rogue in particular. Worse, the experience leads him to once again join Mister Sinister and the Marauders, the same group of killers to whom he betrayed the X-Men way back before his first appearance. Even stranger, Gambit stays with the Marauders even after Mystique joins them, despite the fact that her intervention was the reason that Remy left the X-Men in the first place. Of course much if it turns out to be a long con involving rescuing Rogue from a coma and saving Hope, the first mutant born after M Day, but it takes a long time to get to that reveal.
From that quick synopsis, we can see that X-Men ’97 must take a different route to Gambit’s transformation. As far as we can tell, Gambit fully died on Genosha, so he cannot willingly make a deal with Apocalypse. Moreover, M Day hasn’t happened in X-Men ’97, meaning that the character has a very different relationship with his fellow mutants.
Do these differences mean that Gambit is stuck as a slave of Apocalypse? Or could some other plan be at work? Whatever happens, Gambit is, above else, a thief and a gambler, so even when he’s Death incarnate, he’s still Gambit—and only a fool would fail to remember it.
X-Men ’97 streams new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.
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