Chris Claremont Dances Between The Raindrops Again In July’s ‘Gambit: Wanted’
by Tony Thornley
He built the foundation that everything X-Men is built on, and in July, Chris Claremont returns to one of his most famous creations to reveal Remy LeBeau’s last adventure before joining the X-Men in Gambit: Wanted.
Teaming with artist Robert Gill, Claremont jumps back to the moments between Gambit’s series of adventures with the X-Men around X-Tinction Agenda to Remy officially joining the team in X-Men #1. The five issue limited series sees Remy returning to New Orleans, considering joining the team, but when a threat to mutantkind reveals itself, he has no choice but to act.
The solicit reads: Get ready, mes amis, as Gambit, the mutant-thief-hero, travels back to his hometown for an explosive showdown! Set in the timeframe when Gambit returned Storm to what was left of the X-Men, discover how Gambit came to join the team for the first time — and the deadly trial that made it so! Someone’s got mutants in their crosshairs down in New Orleans … and when they hire Bullseye to target Gambit, hang on for the most kinetic showdown of the month!
Claremont said, “I enjoy returning to Gambit because when I first created him, I never had much of a chance to build his backstory. I gave him the dichotomy of being both a hero and a thief, a conflict that creates a fertile patch for stories. Gambit: Wanted is set when he first meets the X-Men, and gives me a chance to explore why he decided to give up his unfettered life doing as he wished in New Orleans, becoming bound to this group of heroes, dramatically changing his life’s course.”
“Getting the chance to work on a Gambit book with Chris was a complete surprise, and it continues to be a surreal experience,” Gill said. “Chris’s name is iconic and one that surrounded my early days of reading comics. I’ve always thought Gambit was one of the coolest and mysterious X-Men characters, and despite more than eight years drawing comics for Marvel, I’ve almost never drawn him … until now!”
Check out the main cover from Leinil Yu and the first of wanted poster style variants from Phil Noto, as well as a first look at Gill’s interior pages, and watch for the series in July from Marvel Comics.
