Post by davidb on Jan 14, 2010 8:07:47 GMT -5
The Cast: Gambit, Jean-Luc LeBeau, Jacques LeBeau, Tante Mattie, Souris, Fontanelle and Courier
Antagonists Faced: New Son and Belladonna
Stand-Out Character: Jacques LeBeau
Best Moment: Gris Gris revealing to Jean-Luc that he has a grandson.
I know a lot of people rag on Gambit stories involving his dealings with the Guild and try to shy away from them. In some respects, they really are The Hand to his Daredevil, but interesting stories can still come from his interactions with them. David manages to create an interesting story because he manages to get you to care about the other characters in the Guild besides for Remy. His father and his brother especially felt more real to me here than they ever have in the comics. David did a very good job with Jacques and added layers to him within a few short issues.
David really put in the time to make Gambit’s supporting cast interesting and that helped make dealing with yet another Guild story a lot easier. And David is answering some of the bigger mysteries revolving around Gambit. I couldn’t help but to be enthralled by the journal entries from the thief Fleur. As anyone who knows me knows, I’m a huge Sinister fan so seeing him pop up was a definite plus. But by putting forth answers to questions long since revolving around Gambit the reader is definitely getting hooked in.
One of the better things I like about the series is that Gambit’s accent isn’t overdone, but it isn’t completely ignored either. I don’t prefer either extreme as I feel one stereotypes, but completely ignoring the accent does his background/heritage injustice. So I enjoy that David was able to reach a middle ground on that point. Being a native of Louisiana and having the majority of my family there, I can hear Gambit and the characters around him with such clarity that I would probably keep reading the series just to get that home feeling.
Antagonists Faced: New Son and Belladonna
Stand-Out Character: Jacques LeBeau
Best Moment: Gris Gris revealing to Jean-Luc that he has a grandson.
I know a lot of people rag on Gambit stories involving his dealings with the Guild and try to shy away from them. In some respects, they really are The Hand to his Daredevil, but interesting stories can still come from his interactions with them. David manages to create an interesting story because he manages to get you to care about the other characters in the Guild besides for Remy. His father and his brother especially felt more real to me here than they ever have in the comics. David did a very good job with Jacques and added layers to him within a few short issues.
David really put in the time to make Gambit’s supporting cast interesting and that helped make dealing with yet another Guild story a lot easier. And David is answering some of the bigger mysteries revolving around Gambit. I couldn’t help but to be enthralled by the journal entries from the thief Fleur. As anyone who knows me knows, I’m a huge Sinister fan so seeing him pop up was a definite plus. But by putting forth answers to questions long since revolving around Gambit the reader is definitely getting hooked in.
One of the better things I like about the series is that Gambit’s accent isn’t overdone, but it isn’t completely ignored either. I don’t prefer either extreme as I feel one stereotypes, but completely ignoring the accent does his background/heritage injustice. So I enjoy that David was able to reach a middle ground on that point. Being a native of Louisiana and having the majority of my family there, I can hear Gambit and the characters around him with such clarity that I would probably keep reading the series just to get that home feeling.
When I started working on Gambit, I knew that I wanted to do something nobody else had done - move him out of the X limelight and back into the shadows of New Orleans (one of the primary reasons that I've never used any X-book characters other than Mr. Sinister, who has strong ties to Gambit). The Guild was an important part of that.
I always hated what Marvel did with the Guilds. By the time they united in the old Gambit book, I believe there were maybe six total members of the Assassins and Thieves Guilds combined. That's not a guild.
What I tried to do was to expand the role of the Guild so that someone could be walking down the streets of New Orleans and the person beside you could very easily be a Thief or Assassin.
I appreciate what you said about Jacques and Jean-Luc as well. Jacques was a brand new character and I'm glad that he's grown to fit the book so well.
Sinister's not done yet, and neither is Fleur. There's still a showdown coming between those two, and it may not end like you'd expect.
The accent is something that I've struggled with. Like you said, I don't want it to be comically stereotypical, but on the other hand Gambit doesn't speak like other characters do. There should be a major difference between what he says and what the cultured Professor X would say. The best way I've found is to actually speak the words he says and tweak the accent accordingly. I'm glad that it's working so well.
Thanks for reading, and there's a lot more yet to come.
