Part Three: Cajun Gumbo, or Dumbo?

Karen: I've always thought that the 1990s were a terrible time for comics. We had all the ridiculous gimmicks, like the foil covers, multiple covers, and holographic covers. But the quality of comics in general seemed to decline. I was particularly put off by the 'art'. Sure, there were some guys who eventually blossomed, like Jim Lee, and then there were those who just kept sliding further and further down the slippery slope of horrifically bad (and yes, I do mean Liefeld).

Doug: What are you trying to say, Karen? That you aren't built like one of their women who would have permanent spinal cord damage from posturing all the time?

Karen: To go along with this, there were a lot of horrible costume designs. The X-Men were at the forefront of this. Suddenly, the X-Men were all covered with straps and pouches. People had padding all over. Headbands. It was awful. And the one that bothered me the most was Gambit.

Doug: Yeah, all of those accessories almost made those stupid bomber jackets the Avengers were wearing look good!

Karen: Let's take a look at his ensemble. It is confused. It looks like three different character designs were combined into one. We have the skin-tight jumpsuit, with the odd steel blue and violet color combo. He has weird scriggly things around his neck. Headband, check. The boots look either metallic, or later, like robot-dinosaur feet. And of course, the most glaring item, the trenchcoat. I have no problem with trenchcoats per se. But combined with tights, well, I think they look ridiculous.


Karen: I don't get this. What are they going for here? The trenchcoat seems to indicate toughness, yet he's got that big violet chest piece, which just seems kinda wimpy.

Doug: Agreed. You'd have thought he could have found a violet-colored trench coat. Of course, they never drew him with irises, so perhaps he couldn't really see how dorky he looked...

Karen: But I should admit that I am biased, as I always thought Gambit had the dumbest powers to go along with his look. I mean, c'mon - the guy throws playing cards at people. I guess if he missed his target, they'd probably fall on the floor laughing, so he'd still catch them. But really...playing cards.

Doug: The only time playing cards were used in an "oh, wow" way was by Bullseye in Daredevil #181, and that was certainly a morbid display of accuracy.

Karen: Obviously, I am calling this one a disaster.

Doug: Second. And get a haircut, too!