Issue(s): Nomad #16
Cover Date: Aug 93
Title: "Honor among thieves"
Credits:
Fabian Nicieza - Writer
Art Nichols - Penciler
Bill Anderson - Inker
Hector Collazo - Assistant Editor
Glenn Herdling - Editor

Review/plot:
Nomad fights Gambit, for real this time.

Sorry, before i get to the story, i just have to mention again how weird it is that colorists can't seem to keep Bucky's clothing color straight. I'm starting to think it's a super power.

Ok. Nomad fought Gambit's doppelganger during Infinity War in a weird instance where a doppelganger wandered off and fought a random character instead of bothering its original. So obviously that causes some confusion this time around. But once that's settled, the story is about rival factions in the assassinations guild. Nomad was hired to retrieve a photo locket from a woman's death bed. Nomad is deliberately not asking for details.

But Gambit fills him in. The locket belonged to a couple that was excommunicated from their guilds a hundred years ago because one was from the assassins guild and one from the thieves guild, and it was illegal to intermarry between sects. Gambit convinces Nomad to help him steal the locket back. The guy who the amulet was given to stops the fight. He turns out to be the guy in the amulet (and the woman in the amulet was the dying woman).

The guy then brings his guild over to pay respects to the woman.

I was a little confused because i thought the old white man with the bald head and the yellow shirt in the beginning of the story was the same as the old white man with the bald head and the yellow shirt at the end of the story. I also still really can't tell you which people are from which guild, in part because i continue to skim any stories involving thieves and assassins guilds that don't take place in worlds with dungeons and dragons. There's also an (eventually overt) interracial/same-sex marriage metaphor in this story...

...and i half-wondered if one of the characters was meant to be black just to emphasize that, given the apparent unreliability of the colorist if Bucky is anything to go by. But i don't think that's the case, and the point is that restrictions on marrying who you love based on any artificial construction is wrong. Which is a nice message and kudos to Fabian Nicieza for continuing to use this book to explore social themes, but i find all the guild stuff to be too distracting for the metaphor to work well.

Nicieza will eventually write a Gambit solo series, and it's clear that (unlike me) he's got an interest in the character. Nomad kind of sees him as someone who can do everything he can do and that's before taking into account his mutant power.

Also in this issue, Bucky's mom is still on Nomad's trail.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Nomad fought the Gambit doppelganger in Nomad #7.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A