One of my favorite X-Men growing up was Gambit and when I saw the cover for this issue I was incredibly excited, and after reading it I’m even more excited. It had been some time since I’d seen Gambit highlighted in a new series and of course adding Deadpool into the mix promises to be a good time. In this series we have writers Ben Acker and Ben Blacker, who are most known for the Thrilling Adventure Hour, writing a buddy criminal comic with artist Danilo Beyruth who’s worked on Howard the Duck, Gwenpool, and Deadpool with colors by Cris Peter. Since it’s only on its second issue, there’s not much to spoil yet, but I’ll try to avoid as much as possible.

This series has an incredible start with Deadpool and Gambit meeting in line for a coffee, trying to remember their last adventure, and how they left things. From the first few pages you get a great sense of the relationship between Gambit and Deadpool, who are definitely not the most noble heroes in the Marvel universe. In their previous caper we find out that Deadpool and Gambit are impersonating Spider-Man and Daredevil in order to steal diamonds for their benefactor, Raul Chalmers. There are tons of hilarious moments that had me genuinely laughing out loud and kept me smiling throughout the entire book. Not only is it fun to read, but the story moves at a good pace that has you really paying attention to what’s happening and it keeps you engaged.

The witty banter between Deadpool and Gambit is excellent but besides them, all the other characters have great and funny lines even if their only around for a panel or 2. In an interview by Tim Steven’s for Marvel.com writers Acker and Blacker talk about how Deadpool and Gambit are selfish and that the book will explore how these two learn to trust each other and how far that trust can take them. From this first issue we see the level of trust between both Deadpool and Gambit is nearly razor-thin and that this is only beginning of them truly trusting each other.

The art is what really sells me on this book; there’s incredible detail in the background of each panel as well as amazing detail on the characters and action. Colorist Cris Peter’s work in this book is truly remarkable, with fantastic cyan and pale orange gradients in the background to help accentuate the deep reds, blacks, navy blues, and bright fuchsia’s of the characters and their powers.

Deadpool v Gambit #1 comes together into one fine package of crisp colorful action with a fun heist plot. Deadpool and Gambit are hysterical and have some genuinely hilarious moments together and with some of Marvel’s biggest characters. With the excellent writing and art I can see this going past their 5 issue run and see Deadpool and Gambit get into all sorts of shenanigans. I’m just excited we get a story like this from Marvel right now with Civil War II invading every other major Marvel title.