Gambit (Marvel Comics)

**Remy Etienne LeBeau**, also known as **Gambit**, is a mutant who was abandoned at birth in the hospital due to his burning red eyes. He was kidnapped from the hospital ward by members of the New Orleans Thieves Guild who referred to him as "le diable blanc", the white devil. They believed he was the child who had been prophesied to unite the warring guilds of New Orleans.

## Powers

**Molecular Acceleration:** Gambit has the power to take the potential energy stored in an object and convert it to kinetic energy, thus "charging" that item with explosive results. He prefers to charge smaller objects, such as his ever-present playing cards, as the time required to charge them is greatly reduced and they are much easier for him to throw. The only real limitation to this ability is the time required to charge the object. The larger the object is, the more time it takes to charge.

Most charging takes place through direct skin contact. The power of his explosions is dependent on the mass of the object he is charging. For example, a charged playing card explodes with the force of a grenade. He typically cannot utilize his powers on living matter or organic molecules.

This power has been altered on various occasions, sometimes bolstered while other times weakened. They were most notably augmented once by Sage to enable him to accelerate his own regenerative process and better control his kinetic shifting. This power was augmented again by Faiza when he was shot through the head by a crime lord and spat a bullet back at him that eviscerated Faiza.

* ***Disintegration:***Gambit can also cause objects to pull themselves apart instead of exploding violently, making them harmlessly melt down to nothing. Once having focused charging on dissolving on dissolving shrapnel in a victim's stomach and another time to overcharge falling debris from crumbling buildings. His control over this power has increased to the point where he can shatter the ice he was encased in without blowing up.
* ***Disruption:*** Gambit can tame his explosive acceleration to temporarily scramble a person's sensory awareness, knocking them out cold.
* ***Enhanced Conditioning:*** Gambit's ability to tap energy also grants him increased speed, strength, reflexes, flexibility, dexterity, coordination, balance, and endurance as a side-effect, bestowing him an added edge he has used to his advantage by developing a unique acrobatic fighting style. Under normal circumstances, the physical charge he receives makes his abilities excepetional, but not quite superhuman.
	+ ***Accelerating Regeneration:*** Gambit can enhance his own recovery rate by stimulating his own cellular activity. Through this process, he once healed after removing a bone slag lodged in his chest and again when his eyes were damaged by a charged card exploding in his face. However, Sage had augmented his powers, enabling him to restore his sight and indicating that his regenerative powers are innate but sparsely used.
* ***Static Interference:*** Gambit's ability creates natural static because of the charged potential energy always in his body that shields his mind from telepathic intrusion. He can increase the effect by holding a charged object near his head. Although reportedly uncomfortable for the parties involved, this shield does not totally prevent telepathic invasion.
* ***Vibration Emission:*** Gambit, through the kinetic acceleration instead of conversion, can emit a shockwave accompanying a bright flashbang which leaves a sizable crater in the ground.
* ***Sheering/Cutting:*** By charging his cards, Gambit can use them to slice through objects as dense as solid steel without worry of it exploding.

**Hypnotic Charm:** Gambit possesses a subliminal psionic talent that is channeled through his voice that allows a for a subtle influence over any sentient mind. This power allows him to compel others to believe what he says and agree with anything he suggests. More powerful minds have proven immune to his charm, and people who are consciously aware of what he is doing can shake off the effects.

**Deathseed Powers:** As the Horseman of Death, Gambit received new abilities and a new appearance. Sinister allegedly removed Apocalypse's influence from Gambit, but the Death personality and appearance resurfaced intermittently for several months. It has been some time since Gambit's last reversion into Death, but the second power set was never explicitly removed.

* ***Toxic Transmutation:*** As Death, he has the ability to convert breathable air into poisonous gases. He can either create clouds out of the surrounding air or transmute the oxygen already inside someone's lungs.
* ***Death Charge:*** As Death, Gambit can charge objects in a manner differently than his regular kinetic charge. This "death charge" causes his cards to break down living matter upon contact, totally disintegrating a victim.
	+ ***​​​​​​​Trajectory Manipulation:*** Gambit's Death persona also seems capable of guiding his charged cards telekinetically to their target.
* ***Enhanced Psychic Resistance:*** As Death, Gambit is unaffected by psionic manipulations that would affect him normally. When his Death personality resurfaced, he was no longer fooled or distracted by telepathic distortions.
* ***Corruption:*** When reverting to Death in Limbo, Gambit displayed the ability to corrupt other creatures and subvert them to his will. When used on Northstar and Dazzler, they began resembling him, gaining pitch-black skin and white hair.

**Kinetic Control (*formerly*):** Gambit's classic power set is a reduction of his true power levels. Unable to control his growing powers in his youth, Gambit turned to Mister Sinister for help. Sinister surgically extracted a portion of Gambit's brain, dampening and regulating his powers to a more manageable level. The surgically-removed gray matter was preserved by Gambit and Sinister in case he ever wanted his powers restored. The occasion did arise, and Gambit's powers and brain were surgically restored to their original levels. Gambit eventually burned out these excess powers in conflict with the New Sun.

Gambit could now use his powers to affect organic molecules, including living beings, and could exert his kinetic powers over a distance. Initially, this resulted in an unstable kinetic field that accidentally charged objects in his vicinity. Over time, however, Gambit essentially learned to use his powers to charge anything in his line of sight.

Gambit could also manipulate the intensity of his kinetic charges far more than before. At the low end, he could charge a human being so they experienced physical discomfort or a burning sensation from the charge. A tiny charge could even be benignly placed on a target, allowing Gambit to sense that person through the charge and track them over a distance. At the far end, Gambit could utterly destroy targets, causing them to incinerate without violently exploding, or explode far more violently than normal.

During this period, Gambit's enhanced powers included:

* ***Superhuman Physical Prowess (formerly):*** Normally operating at peak human levels, Gambit possesses genuinely superhuman levels of physical activity, especially endurance. This was dependent on active use of his abilities, however, as Gambit would be full of energy and stamina so long as he continued employing his powers. If he stopped using his powers for a few minutes, though, he risked crashing as his excess endurance faded.
* ***Precognition (formerly):*** Gambit was temporarily blinded due to a card in his hand being hit and exploding. During this period, he was able to 'see' images in his cards.

## Abilities

**Master Martial Artist:** Though not on the same level as the likes of Captain America, he is still a profound fighter, often employing martial arts, street fighting, and acrobatics. He is well adept in the martial arts of French kickboxing and bojutsu, the art of using a bo staff. Nick Fury even referred to Gambit as "one of the best hand to hand fighters [he'd] ever seen."

**Multilingual:** Gambit is fluent in English and Cajun French. He also knows some Japanese, though he is not very fluent.

**Master Marksman:** He is extremely skilled in throwing small objects such as cards, bolas, knives, and balls with great accuracy.

**Master Stick Fighter:** Gambit's extreme skills in bojutsu makes him dangerously skilled in the use of his bo staff.

**Master Thief**

## Weaknesses

**Uncontrolled Powers (*formerly*):** For some time, Gambit was unable to completely control his powers, which is why he had Sinister remove a piece of his brain.