Warning: SPOILERS for Mr. And Mrs. X #2 ahead
Rogue and Gambit just got married, and they’re already dealing with her strangest former flame: Deadpool. Their first mission as husband and wife takes them to the far off Shi’ar Galaxy, where Rogue finds herself adrift in space - rescued not by her beau, but the Merc With a Mouth.
When Kitty and Colossus’ wedding was called off in X-Men Gold #30, it was Rogue and Gambit who stepped up to the altar. The on-again, off-again X-Men had just rekindled their mutant romance in the aptly titled mini-series, Rogue & Gambit (written by Kelly Thompson, who now also writes Mr. And Mrs. X), so the timing couldn’t have been better. But even if Deadpool now shows up to literally save Rogue’s life, his own timing couldn’t be worse.
For starters, he’s also after the mysterious package being sought out by the X-Men - revealed as some sort of strange alien egg worth $100 million to Wade - and so Rogue and Gambit have to play keep-away from Deadpool. But that isn’t the only complication. Rogue and Deadpool share a history - a romantic history, with kissing - a factoid which Wade is only too happy to bring up.
When Rogue and Deadpool had their romance during an earlier run of Uncanny Avengers, there were many fans who got on board with “Roguepool”. The idea that these ’two loneliest people in the world’ could find happiness together was appealling, but Roguepool turned out to be nothing more than a short-lived fling. Of course, little of that matters to Gambit. As he sees it, the man whom his wife implied was a better kisser than the ragin’ Cajun is not only trying to steal the egg - he’s crashing their honeymoon! The complicated dynamic between these three makes for an enormously entertaining escapade, and judging by where it leaves off (which we won’t spoil here), things are only going to get a whole lot weirder and more complicated.
And while that’s bad news for Gambit and Rogue’s honeymoon, it’s great news for this series. Bringing Deadpool into the picture adds a wildly unpredictable element to an already a precarious situation. Sure, Rogue and Gambit are in the honeymoon stage now (literally), but once that glow wears off, they might fall back on old habits. And let’s be honest: breaking up is kind of their thing. And Deadpool’s presence here might just be what lights that fuse.
Deadpool not only brings a fun tension to Gambit and Rogue’s marriage, he brings more eyes to the book - Wade Wilson is, after all, a bonafide movie star. Rogue and Gambit, on the other hand, not so much. Anna Paquin’s Rogue played a large role in Fox’s first X-Men franchise, but was undeserved by the overall narrative. Gambit technically appeared in Wolverine: Origins but the less said about that film the better, and the planned Gambit solo film starring Channing Tatum remains perpetually in creative limbo.
Rogue and Gambit might be popular comic book characters, but they could still benefit from a little of Deadpool’s star-power.
Next: X-Men’s Extermination Begins With [SPOILER]’s Death
Mr. And Mrs. X #2 is now available from Marvel Comics.
