Gambit's Powers, Explained

As a team, the X-Men count several unpredictable members among their numbers, but Gambit is the ultimate wild card. Even when the deck is stacked against him, Remy LeBeau beats the odds and makes the cards fall in his favor. 

While Gambit may be famous for turning playing cards into explosives, his mutant power to manipulate kinetic energy grants him numerous abilities that he has used to get out of sticky situations. Whether working as a master thief or saving the day with the X-Men, Gambit's fantastic powers have been the ultimate trick up his sleeve.

Now, let's take a closer look at Gambit and his mutant powers. We'll break down his abilities, as well as the way he used them to become one of the most dangerous mutants in the Marvel Universe.

KINETIC ENERGY CHARGE

Gambit's mutant power dramatically accelerates the kinetic energy of objects, which allows him to give those objects an explosive charge. Gambit's powers are most effective on small inorganic objects, like his signature playing cards, which can cut through substances as dense as steel when charged. 

Despite the small size of his cards, Gambit was able to knock out Gladiator by hitting him with an entire deck at point-blank range in UNCANNY X-MEN (1963) #277 by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee. Gambit can quickly charge up small objects in the heat of battle, but his powers work more slowly on larger objects, so charging something as big as a train can take some time and exhaust him. 

Gambit can also control the amount of charge he gives any object to change the size of the explosion and how quickly it detonates. While he can give a few playing cards enough of a charge to blow up a car, the master thief has also used his powers to quietly open countless locked doors. 

LeBeau frequently channels kinetic energy through his bo staff to make its strikes stronger or create small shockwaves, but he doesn't put enough energy into it to make it explosive. He even used his powers to briefly power one of Iron Man's armors in GAMBIT (2012) #13 by James Asmus and Amilcar Pinna.

ADVANCED AGILITY

As a side effect of his powers, Gambit subconsciously draws the potential energy around him and channels it into himself. With a body tailor-made for continuous motion, Gambit has near-superhuman agility, reflexes, and speed. 

While he regularly dodges gunfire, lasers, and various types of energy blasts, Gambit was even fast enough to catch a sniper's magic bullet and throw it away milliseconds before it hit him in EXCALIBUR (2019) #22 by Tini Howard and Marcus To. Gambit was also fast and agile enough to jump between several vehicles in a high-speed convoy in GAMBIT (1999) #1 by Fabian Nicieza and Steve Skroce.

Gambit's agility helped him frequently in his career as a thief. He is also an experienced physical fighter with a formidable style that mixes his acrobatic moves with martial arts like stick-fighting and a form of French kickboxing called savate. With his bo staff, Gambit can easily deflect bullets. When paired with the multiple layers of lightweight armor he usually wears, this makes him particularly hard to take down in battle.

CHARM AND TELEPATHIC RESISTANCE

Although his powers are primarily used to channel energy, Gambit also has a few low-level psychic abilities. With his voice, Gambit can effectively hypnotize people by speaking to them and making himself seem likable or agreeable. While strong psychics are immune to Gambit's superhuman charm, the Shadow King—a powerful psionic entity—admitted that Gambit's hypnotic tones could be effective on him during Gambit's debut in UNCANNY X-MEN (1963) #266 by Chris Claremont and Michael Collins.

Because of the way his body stores kinetic energy, Gambit also generates a constant static field that makes it hard for telepaths to read his mind. When Psylocke tried to read his mind, LeBeau realized what she was doing and forced her out of his head in UNCANNY X-MEN (1963) #324 by Scott Lobdell and Roger Cruz. Although he is not strong enough to completely resist a telepath like Professor X, the static energy around Gambit is still strong enough to make reading his mind a painful endeavor.

HEALING FACTOR

Gambit also possesses some superhuman healing capabilities. Although LeBeau's regenerative powers are typically not as strong as those of Wolverine, his healing abilities have been artificially boosted to the point where he could accelerate the energy of his cellular growth. 

When Gambit was possessed by the gaseous mutant Mary Purcell, his powers hit a dangerously high level. During this time, Marrow accidentally threw one of her bone spikes directly into his chest in GAMBIT ANNUAL (1999) #1 by Fabian Nicieza and Walter McDaniel. Despite his impalement, he was able to remove the bone painlessly and blow it up without any bodily harm. 

Years later, Gambit lost his vision after one of his cards exploded in his face. When Sage used her mutant ability to analyze his genetic code and jump-start his powers, LeBeau instantly regained his vision in X-MEN (2004) #165 by Chuck Austen and Salvador Larroca. However, Gambit's power levels returned to normal shortly after both incidents.

MUTANT EYES

At a glance, Gambit's eyes are the most visible aspect of his mutation. LeBeau has had black eyes with red irises since birth. Because of his unique eyes, the Thieves Guild took an immediate interest in the newborn Gambit and kidnapped him from the hospital where he was born, as detailed in GAMBIT (1999) #1 by Fabian Nicieza and Steve Skroce. 

Feared and cursed as an abomination by some members of the Guild, the young LeBeau was nicknamed "le diable blanc" or "the white devil," a figure who was destined to bring the Thieves' Guild together with the rival Assassins' Guild.    

As an adult, Gambit's unusually sharp eyesight helped him achieve several impressive feats with his playing cards, including cutting a wire on a bomb from 50 feet away and striking Magneto through the gaps in his helmet. Shortly after he lost his vision, Gambit also briefly developed the ability to see future events through his playing cards in X-MEN (2004) #163 by Chuck Austen and Salvador Larroca.

KINETIC ENERGY MASTERY 

As it stands, Gambit's powers are formidable, but the X-Man could have become one of the most powerful superhumans in the world. When Gambit was struggling to control his growing mutant powers as a young man, he approached Mister Sinister and had the evil genius remove part of his brain, as revealed in UNCANNY X-MEN (1963) #350 by Steve Seagle, Joe Madureira, and Andy Smith.   

In a reality where that never happened, one Gambit variant grew into a villain called the New Sun, who had complete mastery over biokinetic energy. The New Sun was strong enough to step between dimensions, kill the Phoenix Force, and wipe out all life on Earth with a moderate power boost. 

When Gambit had his powers augmented to face the New Sun, LeBeau could fly, charge up matter without touching it, and blast his evil variant around the world. However, Gambit burned out his enhanced powers in his final fight with New Sun in GAMBIT (1999) #24 by Fabian Nicieza and Yanick Paquette.

HORSEMAN OF DEATH POWERS

After enduring a brutal falling out with Rogue and watching most mutants lose their powers following HOUSE OF M (2005), Gambit thought Apocalypse could save mutantkind. He volunteered to become the villain's Horseman of Death in X-MEN (2004) #184 by Peter Milligan and Salvador Larroca. As Death, Gambit's skin turned black, his hair turned white, and his personality was overwritten to make him Apocalypse's loyal servant. 

Gambit's powers were augmented in several lethal ways as the Horseman of Death. He developed the power to change air into poison gas, including the air inside someone's lungs. Gambit also gained the ability to charge objects with decaying energy that could disintegrate organic matter upon contact. As a potential augmentation of his charm powers, Gambit also developed the ability to corrupt people and influence their actions and appearances. Even though Mister Sinister seemingly removed Apocalypse's augmentations, Gambit's Death persona has reappeared on a few occasions, and it remains a lingering threat deep within the darkest corners of Gambit's mind.

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