POST 3 OF 4: STORM AND GAMBIT

POST 3 OF 4: STORM AND GAMBIT Thinking about Wolverine and Jubilee made me want to do Storm and Gambit right after it, because they had another really interesting partnership during this same period. They met when Storm was a child, basically, because she had been de-aged. She was still Ororo, with all the history she'd already lived through, but she was caught in a child's body and dealing with the fallout of what had happened to her. By the time Gambit entered the picture, she was also caught up in the Shadow King's pursuit of her. That gives his introduction a very specific context. We meet him through Storm's situation, while she's away from the rest of the X-Men and having to survive without the life and position she had before. They performed crime together. They worked together. They were partners. Storm had a history as a thief long before she became an X-Man, so there was already a part of her that understood that life. Gambit came into the story with his own skills, his own way of handling people, and his own ability to get into and out of trouble. You could see why they worked together. It also lets you see Storm in a different setting. I'm used to seeing her as somebody the others can depend on, somebody who has carried a lot of responsibility for the team. During this stretch, she's separated from that role and forced to deal with a situation she never chose. She still has her instincts and her determination, even with everything that's been done to her. Gambit meets her in the middle of that. He doesn't start by meeting the whole team and getting a formal introduction to everybody. He meets Storm, helps her, works with her, and develops that connection first. Their partnership gives him an actual relationship with somebody in this world before he becomes part of the larger group. And because Storm has been turned into a child, I want to be clear about the dynamic I'm talking about here. I'm talking about their trust as partners and the way they look out for each other. The interesting part is watching these two thieves work together while she's trying to get through everything that's happened to her. Storm has her own abilities and experience, and Gambit gets to recognize that. She has been put in a vulnerable position, but she's still someone who can think, act, and contribute. Their time together gives both of them something to do in the partnership. They steal from criminals and help people in need, and they have to trust each other to get through the danger around them. Gambit helps Storm when the Shadow King is after her, and when Nanny captures Gambit, Storm goes after him. That gives you the same kind of back-and-forth protection that stood out to me with Wolverine and Jubilee. That's where I see the connection with the Wolverine and Jubilee story. Both of these introductions give a new character a personal connection to an established X-Man while the team itself is scattered. You spend time watching the relationship develop before everybody is back together again. Jubilee's route into the X-Men's world started with the women at the mall and her decision to follow Gateway's portal. Her partnership with Wolverine then became a huge part of how she found her place in that world. Gambit's connection with Storm works in a similar way. He gets involved through her, and staying with her brings him into something bigger than the life the two of them had been living on their own. He could have kept going his own way. Once Storm is an adult again, he wants her to leave with him and keep roaming. She chooses to stay because the X-Men are her family. When he realizes she's staying, he stays too. By the point I'm at, he's there in the middle of what the X-Men are dealing with. That transition grew out of the relationship we'd already watched develop. I think that's a really interesting way to introduce him. You have this whole period where the familiar team has broken apart, but some of the individual characters are forming connections that are going to matter when they finally come back together. Storm and Gambit were partners in crime before he was standing there with the larger team. That history comes with them. When I look at him among the X-Men at the end of this era, I can still trace how he got there through Storm and everything they went through together.