When it comes to the uncanny X-Men, everyone has their favorite mutants that they fervently rally behind. Nowhere was that more evident than when the card-toting Gambit was trending on Twitter Thursday, apparently originating from a sports analyst’s hot take that he is the “most overrated mutant.”
The tweet from Mina Kimes, an NFL analyst at ESPN, claimed that the character is nothing more than a “glorified poker dealer,” if he didn’t have his charisma. This was in defense of Storm, whom she called “powerful af,” after another Twitter user posited that Storm was, in fact, overrated.
This apparently kicked off a lot of people defending the character, with Twitter user @english_shamar saying he’s, in fact, “the most underrated X-men” and sharing a clip from the ’90s cartoon where the character absolutely kicks Apocalypse’s butt.
Indeed, many called Kimes’ hot take “Gambit slander.”
In terms of defending Gambit’s superpower, fans pointed out that his ability to turn anything into an energy explosion is far more impressive than other heroes’ powers in the mutant team.
On the other hand, some people agreed that Gambit is overrated, with his weapon of choice being a seemingly trite deck of playing cards.
Still others wanted to share the love for all the mutants, Gambit and Storm included.
Some were simply confused about why the character was trending in the first place, and under the sports category, no less.
After long being delayed due to Disney buying out Fox, a prospective Gambit film was reportedly in development back in 2013 and has since been shelved. However there are murmurs that those talks are underway at Disney to bring the character, as well as all the other X-Men, to the screen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Channing Tatum once again being eyed for the role by studio executives.