X-Men #266 (August) Gambit.
Chris Claremont, Mike Collins, Joe Rubinstein.
This issue provides an origin for the Hounds, as seen in various Days of Future Past sequels and distinguished by their studded leotards. I hadn't considered the possibility that they might require an origin story, but it's here if you want it along with the debut appearance of Gambit - which is why I wasn't going to bother buying a copy of this, the cheapest one costing about a million quid these days; but somehow my wife deduced that I was after this issue and picked one up for my birthday, and - Jesus Christ almighty - a copy signed by Claremont. She wouldn't tell me how much she paid for it, and I didn't tell her I didn't even remember it being an issue with much going for it. I love that woman.
Okay, so the art is a somehow awkward fit to the story, but it's otherwise readable aside from the introduction of Gambit, a character I've never found remotely interesting. Here he's introduced as one of those dashingly romantic burglars who swashbuckles as he disables your security camera with chewing gum and smashes a window at the back of the house while everyone is at work. He's a good burglar because he steals stuff that's already been stolen from the people who stole it in the first place, or summink. Also he's Cajun, which you can tell because he drops the occasional spot of Français into his conversation and addresses you as chère. For example, if he's going for a dump he might say Je suis just going a la lavatory because je am touching cloth, chère. His mutant power is the ability to throw playing cards at his enemies. To be fair, his power transforms them into energy bombs which explode on contact, so they don't actually need to be playing cards. He could throw PG Tips tea cards, Top Trumps, baseball cards from the forties, unsold Cats Laughing 7ʺ singles, but he throws playing cards because that's cool, and everything about the introduction of Gambit tells you how cool he is and how much we're going to love him, which is why I don't.
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