SABRETOOTH (a.k.a. Victor Creed)
Sabretooth is a mutant very much like Wolverine with enhanced animal
senses and claws. He is the definition of a homicidal maniac and lives to kill. He and Wolverine have
worked together in the military and dislike each other very much.
Sabretooth has obviously had a number of encounters with Gambit before he joined the
X-Men including one in Paris in Gambit's youth involving a young woman named
Genevieve.
Later when Gambit gathered the Marauders for
Sinister, it was Sabretooth who wounded Gambit when he tried to stop the Morlock Massacre.
Obviously, Gambit has little love loss for Sabretooth, but it is questionable as to why Creed so hates
Gambit, since he seems to have always been on the better end of each of their encounters. He continually
tried to hurt Gambit the most while in the X-Mansion being "helped" with his problems by
Professor Xavier. Perhaps Creed feels Gambit betrayed the Marauders in the tunnels, or he may
hate Gambit for the same reason he hates the X-Men - because they are compassionate. This would seem
to contradict his frequent allusions that Gambit is no good.
[See XM 6, 28, 33, 38; UXM 326, 348, 350; XM Unlimited 3]
SILVER SAMURAI AND CLAN YASHIDA
The Silver Samurai is the brother of Wolverine's dead fiance, Mariko, who competed with her to head the Clan until her death. It is unknown how, but Gambit apparently came to steal something very important to them and now has their permanent animosity. However it is unclear if they don't only know of him by reputation since the Silver Samurai didn't seem to know him personally in Wolverine 57.
[See X-Men Unlimited 3]
SINISTER (a.k.a Nathaniel Essex)
Nathaniel Essex was once a Victorian scientist with a wife and family, living in the mid-1800s. Essex
was doing genetic research and generally ignoring any moral ethics when he was approached by
Apocalypse and granted immortality and powers. Apocalypse wanted Essex to help him in his conquest
of the world for his "worthy". Essex accepted the alteration of his body by Apocalypse and took the
codename of Mr. Sinister, but his only real goal was to be able to further his genetic knowledge and
experiments undeterred and has since tried creating a powerful mutant to destroy Apocalypse.
Sinister's first encounter with mutants was with Scott Summers and Jean Grey, and he believes them to
have great genetic potential. He has been involved with the genetic engineering involved in the existence
of Cable's and X-Man's existence.
Sinister came to believe that mutants are the natural evolution of mankind, and he continues to collect
samples of genetic material, coding and experimenting with them, even attempting to make various clones
and sometimes succeeding.
Sinister's connections to Gambit are not clearly known. It could be he has deep interest and plans for
Gambit or that he only sees him as an alpha class mutant and a master thief whose skills could be very
useful to him. Some hints from Sinister indicate the former.
Sometime after being told to leave New Orleans by his Guild
and prior to the Morlock Massacre, Gambit became professionally involved
with Sinister, stealing information, etc. for him. He owed Sinister some unknown debt, having "been
there for (Gambit) in (his) time of need."
It is obvious Gambit didn't like Sinister or the work and didn't want to do his bidding. However, Gambit
must have worked for him for a fair amount of time since he knows quite a bit about Sinister including
where Sinister's secret base near St. Louis was, and Sinister has implied that he knows Gambit well
enough to predict how he will react and what's important to him.
To finally pay off his debt to Sinister and in order to receive a payment of something extremely
important to him, Gambit was requested to gathered a group of criminal types together for Sinister,
and he did just that.
This group would later become known as the Marauders and obviously future Marauders know Gambit from
that encounter.
Sinister paid Gambit with a small capsule/vial for gathering the Maraurders, and Gambit hadn't wanted
to know what they had been gathered for. He then told Sinister he was leaving his employ, but Sinister
stated Gambit would leave when he decided and offered him one more job. Gambit was supposedly persuaded
to get the Marauders into the Morlock tunnels, but this contradicts an earlier storyline of the Morlock
Massacre, which showed the Marauders followed one of the Morlocks themselves, Tommy. It is unclear if
Gambit was perhaps supposed to have been with the Marauders when they left Los Angeles, following Tommy
to New York, or if he met them there after they killed her and then helped them sneak in.
Regardless, Gambit didn't know for what specific reason they were going there. He had a "bad feeling"
and thought there would probably be some big heist or something where killing might likely occur if
necessary, but never suspected an outright massacre of innocent men, women, and children.
When Gambit found out what was happening, he tried to stop the Marauders. He fought them, but was attacked
by Sabretooth, wounded badly, and left for dead. He managed to escape saving a Morlock child, Sarah,
who later became Marrow. Despite his interest in Gambit, Sinister obviously
considered him expendable for this job.
He later, however, tracked Gambit's activities for years even after he'd joined the X-Men telling his
assistant at the time, Threnody, to inform him should Gambit ever go to Seattle, Washington, where Sinister's
"Essex Theatre" was located. Threnody did so when Gambit followed Rogue
there in X-Men #45. Sinister followed Gambit there and reminded him again of the time when he was once
there for him. It seems Sinister may still feel Gambit owes him for "the hand he has dealt him", while
Gambit feels strongly that whatever debt he owed has been paid.
Gambit was recently put on "trial" by a mysterious "Eric the Red" for his involvement with Sinister
and was subsequently told not to return to the X-Men.
[See XM 34, 45, 51-52; UXM 350]
SPAT
Spat is a bounty hunter who works with her alien partner, Grovel. It
is unknown if she is a mutant or has any powers as she has only been seen using a gun.
She and Grovel once worked with Gambit in his past to find the Fountain of Youth, and at that time,
she apparently at least liked Gambit, although they may have been more than just friends.
They found that the "Fountain" was actually some old containers of Sh'iar age liquid lost in a ship
crash. When one of the containers ruptured, she pushed Gambit out of the way and was splashed with the
material. The contact with the liquid caused her to slowly de-age though the process increased in times
of stress.
To obtain a cure and because she blamed Gambit for what happened to her, she agreed to bring Gambit
to "Eric the Red" to be tried for his involvement in the Morlock Massacre. Which she and Grovel did
in Antarctica. However, it appears Magneto, who was the person disguised
as "Erik the Red", did not fulfill his part of the deal.
Over a year after the Trial and still de-aging and her slow progression to infancy becoming very likely
to kill her, she and Grovel enlisted Gambit's help to find the Tomorrow Stone, an ancient artifact that
might stop and reverse the process. Forgiving and forgetting their involvement in his trial and near
death afterward, Gambit agreed to help his dying friend since he did feel partially responsible for
her condition.
While searching for the Stone, the group came into conflict with Sekmeht
Conoway, an archeologist trying to find a way to bring her mother back to life. Gambit convinced
Sekmeht to allow Spat to use the stone instead (as it only has so much power and then takes centuries
to gain that power again). Spat was returned to an age in her late teens and started to age normally
again from that stage forward.
[See UXM 348-350 and the Gambit cybercomic]
SPIDERMAN
Gambit has fought alongside Spiderman (Peter Parker) and even his clone, Ben Reilly, on a number of occasions and Spiderman generally considers him an ally.
[See Spiderman issues in the Appearance List]
STOKER, OLIVER
Oliver Stoker is a being of evil bent on controlling and corrupting people's souls. He was interested in obtaining the fallen angel Anielle and fought with Gambit as well as sending his disciples against him to get her.
[See the 2nd Gambit LS]
STORM (a.k.a. Ororo Munroe)
Storm is a mutant with the power to control the weather. She has long been a member of the
X-Men and the team's co-leader. In her youth, she was a thief and a pickpocket on the streets
of Cairo to help her teacher and his family of child thieves. She never went beyond being a good street
thief and left Cairo in her teens, walking across the desert where her mutant powers manifested and
was taken for a weather goddess by a local tribe. She lived as such, worshipped by them for years until
she was sought out by Professor Charles Xavier and asked to join the
X-Men.
Storm was the first X-Man Gambit met. Storm had been de-aged and her memory had been affected. Gambit
helped her escape from the Shadow King and then from a version
of Magneto's robotic Nanny and the villain, Orphan Maker.
When he first met her, Gambit seemed to recognize Storm in some manner, probably as one of the people
that fought the Marauders during the Morlock
Massacre or possibly because he already knew of the X-Men. He wanted to help her and took her youthful
version in as his apprentice, stealing from criminals and giving to the poor.
Storm eventually remembered being an X-Man and returned to the team, with Gambit joining her. She and
Gambit have an almost brother/sister relationship, and he stayed at first with the X-Men because of
her eventually earning his own place on the team. In the past, Storm has been the one most likely to
defend Gambit and his most trusting and best friend. However, after the revelations about his past with
Sinister and the Morlock Massacre, possibly because she was once the
leader of the Morlocks and felt responsible for them, she said little concerning Gambit during his exile.
But upon meeting up again with him in Seoul, did ask him to return to the team. She also expressed hurt
that he had not contacted her to tell her he was ok after the trial, and that she was ashamed about
the actions surrounding his disappearance from the team.