Summary
After the devastating data breach the company experienced late last year, fans got an earlier-than-intended look at the upcoming slate of games coming out of Insomniac. Among them are expected releases like a third Spider-Man game and the long-announced Wolverine standalone, but there were some big surprises in there as well. Chief among these surprises was aSpider-Man spin-off focused on Venom, and a presently untitledX-Mengame slated for a 2030 release, presumably following up onMarvel’s Wolverine.
WhileMarvel’s Wolverineexperienced some of the worst of the breach, with an entire playable alpha build leaking online, details are still very sparse about what the studio has planned for the X-Men title. It’ll likely be a departure for Insomniac, as most of its superhero offerings just focus on one or two playable characters, but the timing for an X-Men game couldn’t be better. With the characters coming back to the big screen in the MCU and the explosive popularity of the animated show on Disney Plus, there’s one thing the developers can do to bring in fans from the show.
Insomniac Needs to Incorporate the Rogue/Gambit Romance in its X-Men Game
Spoilers for X-Men 97 below
Anyone who’swatched any amount ofX-Men 97will attest that one of the strongest points of the show is and has always been the tragic relationship between Gambit and Rogue. The two started dating shortly after Gambit debuted in 1990 and the characters have remained Marvel’s resident star-crossed lovers ever since. While strangely absent from most of the Fox live-action films, their relationship has been a cornerstone in most X-Men stories since the 90’s; the original animated show, and its modern continuation are no exceptions.
Gambit and Rogue’s story has always had a twinge of tragedy, due to the latter’s powerset preventing her from having a normal relationship, butX-Men 97took it to a whole new level with its debut season. In an act of self-sacrifice, Gambit dies on Genosha defending his friends from the Tri-Sentinel attack. His death affects everyone on the team, but Rogue understandably takes it the hardest, and it kicks off her arc for the rest of her season. And while anybody who knows comics can say that there’s agood chance Gambit will come back eventually, there’s no telling when that will be, leaving fans of the ship high and dry for the time being.
Insomniac Could Do Gambit and Rogue Better than Other Adaptations
Many Marvel fans love the Gambit/Rogue dynamic; it’s as integral to the X-Men as stories like the Dark Phoenix saga or the Logan and Sabertooth rivalry. It’s one of those narrative beats that follows the team through almost every adaptation, and when it’s missing like in the Fox movies, fans take notice. Insomniac would be leaving money on the table by not featuring the two in its X-Men game. And because of the nature of the medium, the team might be able to make a huge improvement to the couple’s story.
One of thebiggest weaknesses of the Rogue/Gambit relationshipcomes from the nature of the medium telling it. Comics, and by extension, television, are incredibly serial in nature and thrive off that long-term storytelling. For relationship stories like Rogue and Gambit’s, that means there’s a lot of beating around the bush, “will they, won’t they?” drama. While this is great to keep audiences invested in a long-term story, it usually means that the characters never get the resolution fans want them to get.
Insomniac has gone on record saying it wants itsMarvel’s Spider-Manseries to be a self-contained storywith a set beginning and set ending. This is great news for the studio’s take onX-Menbecause it finally means that fans can see the Rogue and Gambit relationship finally be resolved one way or another. With a well-defined ending in mind, Insomniac can give Marvel’s most tragic couple the happy ending fans have been waiting for since 1990.
