There comes a time when one of the commonly held maxims of comics must be put to the test, and that’s what All-New X-Factor will be for me. The theory in question is that there are no inherently bad characters, and they just need the right writer to come along and make them work, the writer is Peter David, and the character is Gambit. David’s legendary run on The Incredible Hulk is a big reason I’m a comic book fan today, I loved his Captain Marvel run and I remain a fan of his Spider-Man 2099. But Gambit has long been my least favorite character in comics, thanks to his role in making that ugly-ass headwrap thing so ubiquitous in the ’90s, being a generally obnoxious douche who looked like a focus group decided to create a character based on what they thought was cool (trenchcoats are in! Make him throw cards at people!), and getting attached like a barnacle to the sassy, brash version of Rogue I enjoyed from the X-Men’s Outback era and overloading her with so much angst that I honestly can’t remember the last story I read of hers where she had any kind of fun. Admittedly, Rick Remender’s bitter-pill take on her in Uncanny Avengers may be coloring my memory, but I digress.
The challenge here is whether or not Peter David can hook me into regularly reading a book that has Gambit as one of its main characters. After reading All-New X-Factor #1, he’s managed it for at least one story arc.
David’s previous iteration of X-Factor starring Multiple Man Jamie Madrox has run its course, although this new version had a prelude in X-Factor #260, which showed us that Lorna Dane, aka Polaris, was having a very rough go of things. How rough? She got hammered, wrecked a bar and tried to shoot her half-brother Quicksilver with bullets. At the end of that issue, she was sprung from the pokey by Serval Industries, a mysterious corporation with a mysterious proposition for her. In the All-New X-Factor #1, we find out what that proposition is – she’s heading up the first ever corporate superhero team. Serval’s even bought the X-Factor name from Madrox. Her first recruit is Remy Etienne LeBeau, who may just be a little fed up with being treated like an idiot kid by Wolverine.
Of course, no one inherently trusts a corporation for any reason unless they’re Fox News pundits, but Polaris seems to have vetted them. Gambit doesn’t trust them, though, but he’s also kind of a seat-of-his-pants guy, so he’s going along with the ride just to see what’s going on. Plus, Quicksilver also joins up, claiming he’s had a falling out with the Avengers (although they imagine he may be spying for them). The CEO of Serval is a man named Harrison Snow, and he claims they are just interested in doing good and helping people, and he illustrates that by sending the trio on their first mission – infiltrating an A.I.M. base where they seem to be doing evil experiments on mutants.
So we’ve got some complex corporate intrigue going where we can expect David won’t provide an easy classification for Serval – he’s done the Big Bad Megacorp with Alchemax already, anyway. Quicksilver is always amusing to have around, because he’s one of those superheroes who is allowed to be a disagreeable prick as well. Polaris seems stable enough right now, but we’ve seen how bad she can get when drunk, so she’s got some issues. The artwork from Carmine Di Giandomenico is solid, although the new corporate uniform designs are questionable. They’re really heavy on the yellow, which isn’t inherently bad, but while he’s taken Gambit out of that stupid headwrap thing, they’ve slapped it onto Pietro, and that’s unfortunate. My hatred of that stupid not-mask-not-hat thing may be somewhat irrational, but it’s just so damn ugly. Then again, if any costumes are going to look designed-by-focus-group, they’d be the ones from a company who would literally have focus groups.
So how’s Gambit? Well, he’s certainly not offensive yet. Having Logan run him down like a dumb child helps deflate some of that lame LeBeau “mystique.” and making it seem like he’s stumbling into something way out of his league also negates that ‘too cool for school’ malarkey that made him so unappealing. So Peter David and his talent for interesting character work may actually be able to do the unthinkable – make me like a book that stars Gambit. That is some of the highest praise I can offer.
