You know who people hate?
Man, an awful lot of people out there hate Geo-Force. He's got to be nearly universally reviled as lame.
I've never really read The Outsiders or other comics featuring him, so I can't say that I get it. I'm not defending him...I'm just saying that as a relatively independent and casual observer, I don't see what makes him any lamer than any number of other contemporary DC creations.
But Marvel has their own spite magnet:
Gambit. Troll "Gambit" and "lame" on Google, and you'll find tens of thousands of hits. Again, I'm not sure why. I was done with the X-Men by the time the Cajun mutant showed up. And to my civilian eye, he seems no lamer than, say Bishop.
But far be it from me to question the wisdom of my fellow comics fans. Especially when I need you. You see, my lack of knowledge here leaves me spectacularly unprepared to answer the impossibly important question:
WHO IS LAMER--GEO-FORCE OR GAMBIT?!?
That's one that only you, my faithful readers, can answer. So help me out, vote in the poll over at the top of the sidebar, and let me know--who is really lamer?
Man, an awful lot of people out there hate Geo-Force. He's got to be nearly universally reviled as lame.I've never really read The Outsiders or other comics featuring him, so I can't say that I get it. I'm not defending him...I'm just saying that as a relatively independent and casual observer, I don't see what makes him any lamer than any number of other contemporary DC creations.
But Marvel has their own spite magnet:
Gambit. Troll "Gambit" and "lame" on Google, and you'll find tens of thousands of hits. Again, I'm not sure why. I was done with the X-Men by the time the Cajun mutant showed up. And to my civilian eye, he seems no lamer than, say Bishop.But far be it from me to question the wisdom of my fellow comics fans. Especially when I need you. You see, my lack of knowledge here leaves me spectacularly unprepared to answer the impossibly important question:
WHO IS LAMER--GEO-FORCE OR GAMBIT?!?
That's one that only you, my faithful readers, can answer. So help me out, vote in the poll over at the top of the sidebar, and let me know--who is really lamer?
Gambit sucks so much. Geoforce alwasy seemed like a generic character someone's friend made up from a template for a role playing game. Nothing that good or bad.
ReplyDeleteGambit was pushed so hard though. I remember his first appearance, the cover said "Wolverine was tough, but Gambit is way better!"
Gambit = Longshot + Wolverine, when Longshot would have been fine and was a fun character, just not dark enough I guess.
The bo staff, Claremont Cajun accent and trenchcoat are just like adding insult to injury. I think Gambit being introduced was my last moment as a real comic fan. Like the next week when it came time to get new comics I said "what's the use?" and found some weed instead.
Girls like Gambit though, maybe that's why he's hated. My friend Jake and I discussed him on this podcast:
http://veryserious.org/2009/02/avsp/avsc-things-that-girls-like
Sorry, wrote link wrong:This podcast
ReplyDeleteGambit's lamer, I'd say. Like pg said, Geo-Force is just generic and bland. He might have gone completely unnoticed like the rest of the Outsiders if DC hadn't decided to make him the brother of a much more significant character. He's basically Terra with testicles, only without personality or plot twists or any real purpose whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteGambit, on the other hand, he just sucks.
You have to understand that the fans hate Gambit because he reminds them of the guys the girls actually want to talk to instead of them.
ReplyDeleteHe is tall. He has an accent. Girls like him, AND HE KNOWS IT. The fanboys just can't relate.
Now look at Wolverine. The dude is fanboy wish fufillment personified. Wolverine is short. Wolverine has a bad haircut and awful skin, but he gets the girl and beats up people who so much as look at him the wrong way.
Plus the dude has a pink shirt....that has REALLY got to piss the fans off.
ReplyDeleteGF is stupid, even more so since Meltzer tried to make us believe he was actually cool, but it's Gambit all the way.
ReplyDeleteVisually, it's a wretched 90s design. Story-wise, he was born around the time Claremont had lost it completely.
In both cases, I agree with you Snell that they are "no worse" than other lame designs, except for this: Somebody out there thinks they're cool and keep force-feeding them to us. I don't mind all the lame characters running around, but please don't try to have me believe they're cool when they are not. Stop putting them in teams with the big guns, and stop putting them in movies. That just irritates the hell out of me.
Well, Bishop gets off easy because he is at heart little more than a weak Cable carbon (even though his fans - there actually are Bishop fans - want to deny it), so many would rather concentrate on the Cable suckitude. After Claremont left the X-Men (X-Men vol. 2 #3), Gambit and Bishop were both heavily sold as teh awesome at some cost to other characters; to establish Bishop's "street cred", his enemy Fitzroy got to kill off the Hellions, pretty much any one of whom I find more interesting than Bishop and Fitzroy put together. In Gambit's case the trail of destruction involved even more prominent characters, e.g. he got to defeat Wolverine in a danger room fight. What incensed me and a lot of other fans however was the way the "romance" between Gambit and Rogue was written. Rogue's personality was fundamentally changed to suit it, from an independent person and heroine in her own right (who e.g. had interacted on terms of complete equality with Magneto in Claremont's final stories and was confident enough to take a position that put her at odds with (nearly) all of her teammates), she was demoted to Gambit's clinging-vine girlfriend. All of a sudden she went into a panic at the thought of using her absorption power, something emotional abuser Gambit exploited in his mind-games with her when he kept hinting that he could be immune to her power (the old Rogue would simply have said: "Let's just try!" and did it). Not to mention that also all of a sudden Rogue not using her given name (which, as flashbacks had shown, she did not even use with her nearest and dearest from her childhood) suddenly became an issue. At the time some Gambit fans even argued that Rogue not telling her given name offset the fact that Gambit did not mention that he was married until his wife made an appearance.
ReplyDeleteGeo-Gambit. With a Monster Cable gun. And more thigh pouches. Mullet. Give that trench coat enough flowing length to make McFarlane blush. Make 'em adamantium playing cards. And bullets.. 'cause that's an *awesome* idea! Facial tattoo. Drawn by Liefield ...no, too obvious... Land!
ReplyDeleteReally wish I could draw sometimes.
Anyway... Gambit. All the way. I actually liked Geo-Force back when he first appeared.
For my money, Gambit has always been the lamer character. Geo-Force is just boring.
ReplyDelete100 reasons Geo-Force is cooler than Gambit:
ReplyDelete1: Drawn by Jim Aparo.
2-100: See #1
Ugh...Gambit wins hands down:
ReplyDelete- bad accent
- convoluted backstory (pretty much standard X-Men fare in those days though...)
- kneepads!
- finger-less gloves!!
- pink shirt!!!
- head condom!!!!
I honestly can not recall reading anything that really made me say "Wow, I really wish i could get more Gambit."
Bishop is definitely lamer than both characters combined.
ReplyDeleteI don't actually dislike any of them, but it kind of surprised me to see Gambit as an unlikeable guy when I always thought he was so cool.
Obviously, my vote for "lamest" goes for Geo-Force.
Mutt--What if Aparo drew Gambit??
ReplyDeleteSnell: He would still not have been DESIGNED by Aparo.
ReplyDeleteOK, what if Aparo had DESIGNED Gambit?. Man, I can just see an issue of Brave & Bold teaming Batman and Gambit...
ReplyDeleteI just love the term "spite magnet". I vow to work it into a blog post of my own....with your permission, of course.
ReplyDeleteOh, by the way, I voted for Gambit. Anyone wearing an overcoat over armor who uses glowing #$@%& playing cards for weapons gets the catapult.
ReplyDeletePermission freely granted, Mark.
ReplyDeleteI gotta love all the " Gambit is lame accusations... especially when none of them give an actual reason for hating the guy....
ReplyDeleteI mean, really? his costume offends that Much ? When 90 % of superheroes wear their undrwears on their trousers , I don't think it's that fair to hate on the guy who just wears a trenchcoat & a pink/magenta armour. His personnality ? here is the opinion... http://devilkais.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=48#/d3jddp8
Now here's his quote
" Insult me again an' I'll show de master thief magic trick. wit' mon Bostaff , I turned Pete Milligan's eyes into little cometes, wanna try ?"