“You Two Are Brothers”: Believe It or Not, Gambit Is Related to One of the X-Men’s Founding Heroes

[[{“value”:”

Legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont once revealed that Gambit is the “brother” of team leader Cyclops – as a result of some genetic trickery by the malevolent Mr. Sinister – and though the story is now considered non-canon, it offers a fascinating glimpse into a potential alternate path that X-lore could have taken in the 1990s.

X-Men: The End – written by Chris Claremont, with art by Sean Chen – revealed that Gambit was created in a laboratory by Sinister, a product of the villain’s own DNA mixed with that of Scott Summers, the original X-Men member.

Though The End was always considered an out-of-continuity story, even at the time of its 2004 release, what makes it fascinating is that it contains hints of threads that Claremont left dangling when he abruptly left Marvel over a decade earlier in 1992.

Gambit’s “Sibling” Connection To Cyclops & Why It Is Non-Canon, Explained

X-Men: The End – Written By Chris Claremont; Art By Sean Chen; Ink By Sandu Florea; Color By Ian Hannin; Lettering By Dave Sharpe

X-Men: The End was part of of Marvel’s wider The End line of comics, which purported to chronicle the “last” adventures of the publisher’s most iconic heroes. By 2004, Chris Claremont had been back in the Marvel fold for nearly five years, and had been making the most of his second extended stint with the X-franchise, meaning it made perfect sense to have him craft the “final” X-Men tale. While the comic series – which morphed into a trilogy – has many memorable moments, perhaps its most exciting lore reveal was the establishment of Gambit as a clone of Cyclops and Sinister, combined.

“In terms of genetic material, you two are brothers,” Sinister tells Gambit in a pivotal scene, “half-brothers, anyway.” Though the series, and this gamechanging surprise, were never intended to be canon, it has always stuck out to fans as a memorable connection – especially given that it originated with Chris Claremont. Both Gambit and Sinister are creations of Claremont’s, and as such, to this day, X-fans tend to treat the author’s plans for the character, scrapped or otherwise, with a strong degree of reverence.

Gambit Being Cyclops’ “Half-Brother” Is A Major Marvel “What If” That Has Never Been Explored Further

The End’s Lore Legacy Remains Undefined

At the time of its release, many readers noted that The End’s most intriguing details seemed to be reprises of plot ideas from Chris Claremont’s original X-Men run, which had been left unresolved when he left the franchise in 1992. Several years later, in 1999, Marvel actually made this the overt premise of another series, X-Men Forever, in which Claremont picked up directly from where he left off in ’92’s X-Men #3. The connections between his early work and The End are more thematic, and less narratively literal, but they nevertheless amount to a notable kind of Marvel “What If?”

That is to say, the X-franchise would have been very different if Chris Claremont had not left in the early 1990s. While fans can only speculate whether Gambit would be an in-canon clone of Sinister and Cylcops if Claremont had kept the creative reigns in the ’90s, it is the mere possibility that makes The End and the author’s other 2000s X-Men output particularly exciting to revisit. Gambit’s genetic connection to Cyclops is a fascinating, if barely explored potential thread in X-Men lore, and one of countless thrilling ideas to come from franchise icon Chris Claremont.

X-Men: The End and its sequels are available now from Marvel Comics.

“}]] Gambit was almost related to an OG X-Man.  Read More