My dislike of Gambit is probably different than most people's.
My dad used to read me his older comics when I was little, but I'm unsure if Gambit was even in those. I don't remember. When I started reading X-Men on my own, though, I had already moved from Los Angeles to New Orleans.
Everything that made the character a New Orleanean was so foreign. Not because I wasn't exposed to those things in real life but because those real life things were completely different to what was in the comic. Starting at his name (I've never met anyone named Remy) to his speech (his accent and always calling himself by name) to his manners (people in Southern Louisiana can be severely polite in speech and I remember feeling a few times that it would've stopped some of his flirtation).
He was an alien to me, basically. I didn't understand where any of it had come from. From the beginning, I always viewed him as a caricature (and a really unfamiliar one at that) instead of a character. He went through some pretty intense things, sure, but he was never real to me like some of the other X-Men were. I could never take anything that happened to him too seriously.
Because of this, all I see is the cocky, self-assured guy, and that's really really annoying to me.
Other X-Men are stereotypes, too, and some of those I even like. I'm not sure if Gambit was introduced to me at just the wrong time of my life (just about a year after I'd moved) or if I was doomed to dislike the guy from the very beginning.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-01-12 02:17 am (UTC)My dad used to read me his older comics when I was little, but I'm unsure if Gambit was even in those. I don't remember. When I started reading X-Men on my own, though, I had already moved from Los Angeles to New Orleans.
Everything that made the character a New Orleanean was so foreign. Not because I wasn't exposed to those things in real life but because those real life things were completely different to what was in the comic. Starting at his name (I've never met anyone named Remy) to his speech (his accent and always calling himself by name) to his manners (people in Southern Louisiana can be severely polite in speech and I remember feeling a few times that it would've stopped some of his flirtation).
He was an alien to me, basically. I didn't understand where any of it had come from. From the beginning, I always viewed him as a caricature (and a really unfamiliar one at that) instead of a character. He went through some pretty intense things, sure, but he was never real to me like some of the other X-Men were. I could never take anything that happened to him too seriously.
Because of this, all I see is the cocky, self-assured guy, and that's really really annoying to me.
Other X-Men are stereotypes, too, and some of those I even like. I'm not sure if Gambit was introduced to me at just the wrong time of my life (just about a year after I'd moved) or if I was doomed to dislike the guy from the very beginning.