GAMBIT

Long before he was an X-Man, Remy LeBeau worked for Mister Sinister — and Sinister had him assemble the Marauders and lead them into the Morlock tunnels beneath Manhattan. That march set off the Mutant Massacre (1986), in which hundreds of Morlocks were slaughtered. A decade later, in Uncanny X-Men #350 (1997), "Trial & Errors" by Steve Seagle, Joe Madureira & Andy Smith, the secret finally caught up with him: a mysterious figure calling himself Erik the Red staged a mock trial in Antarctica, with Gambit's own teammates as jury.

The prosecution's star evidence was Rogue herself. Erik forced Rogue to kiss Gambit and absorb his memories, laying his guilt bare before the court — including his self-hatred and regret. The verdict went against him: guilty. Rogue spearheaded the decision to cast him out, and the X-Men left Gambit alone in Antarctica to survive or die on his own terms. The trial's final page revealed Erik the Red was really the returned Magneto in disguise.

The verdict was not the whole story — and that is what makes it sting. Gambit had not known the Marauders meant to massacre the Morlocks; when he realized their true intent he tried to stop them, was weakened by Vertigo, and was gutted by Sabretooth and left for dead. He still managed to rescue the child Sarah — the future X-Man Marrow — from Sabretooth. Even so, his role had cost Angel his wings, which led to Angel's dark transformation at Apocalypse's hands. The X-Men could not forgive the road that led there, even if Gambit had tried to turn back on it.