A Thief in Time: Witness Appreciation

[witness]

This one is going to be less popular than the Spat and Grovel appreciation society (but then if popularity was a sign of quality, we’d be talking about Dan Brown being William Shakespheare’s heir apparent) and I realise that Witness probably has only the one fan-boy but what the hell.

The Witness is Remy lebeau from Bishop’s future (and also technically Bishop and Shard’s foster father), A future where the X-men had been murdered and Lebeau was supposedly the last person to see them alive (which is how he got his name originally). In this dystopian future the Witness owned the company Stark-Fujikawa (which was, you guessed it, Stark industries merged with the company Fujikawa). This company whilst being at the forefront of technological advancement was also the front company for organised crime in the US. This led Bishop to suspect that Witness (Gambit) was the X-traitor and was responsible for the death of the X-men.

The witness is “Transchronological”, he exists at the confluence of all the timelines, both past and present. This is in all likelihood down to a combination of two things, he acquired the “Momentary Princess”, a Gem that’s a temporal anomaly, a fluctuating hole in time and space that appeared in increments of 27 and 29 years (though these appearances were later shown to be of the Witness’s making) as seen in the Gambit on-going series issue 10.
In the same on-going series it is also later shown how a fully-powered Gambit (he was lobotomised by sinister to give him control of his powers before he joined the X-men), could amongst other things use his kinetic power’s to ride the “kinetic” flow of the universe and travel through time. There are doubts over the Witness’s sanity which given the nature of other X-time travellers (Cable, Bishop, Stryfe, Trevor Fitzroy etc) are probably well founded. I realise I’m rambling now so I’ll just state a few reasons why I think he’s great.

1- Before Bishop went back into time and changed things (and I’m deliberately ignoring the ridiculous and lazy decision to retcon that story to suit the Messiah trilogy better), Witness was the only member of the “main” X-men to survive Onslaught,
2- His company Stark-Fujikawa was at the forefront of technological advancment and also owned organised crime in the United States and Witness was one of the most powerful and influential people of his time. Gambit has always (with the exception of the ludicrous BOA story) been known to do things for a reason and to quote the man himself “Hard times, require hard methods” which leads me to believe that greed was not neccesarily the motive for his actions.
3- During his life the Witness has acquired a whole treasure trove of goodies (see Gambit and Bishop: sons of the atom LS) from 616 and beyond which include (amongst other things)-

A damaged Mjolnir (Thor’s hammer)
Captain America’s Shield (also damaged)
Iron Man’s original Armour
One of Scarlet witch’s early costumes
Herbie (FF’s robot?)
Several droids from the Star wars universe
An At-St (also from Star Wars)
A Dalek (Doctor Who)
A Sentinel’s head

Right thats me finished boring you all to tears.

[Azure]

TLDR but I love this character, whoever it is. He/she should return immediately and slap Magneto or something.

[witness]

TLDR but I love this character, whoever it is. He/she should return immediately and slap Magneto or something.

This is going to seem a stupid question but what does TLDR stand for?

[Azure]

This is going to seem a stupid question but what does TLDR stand for?

Too long, didn't read. I'm sure that it was great, though! I lost focus after that long word starting with T.

[witness]

Too long, didn't read. I'm sure that it was great, though! I lost focus after that long word starting with T.

Blame marvel for that one (their description, not mine).

[Nathan]

This one is going to be less popular than the Spat and Grovel appreciation society (but then if popularity was a sign of quality, we’d be talking about Dan Brown being William Shakespheare’s heir apparent) and I realise that Witness probably has only the one fan-boy but what the hell.

The Witness is Remy lebeau from Bishop’s future (and also technically Bishop and Shard’s foster father), A future where the X-men had been murdered and Lebeau was supposedly the last person to see them alive (which is how he got his name originally). In this dystopian future the Witness owned the company Stark-Fujitswa (which was, you guessed it, Stark industries merged with the company Fujitswa). This company whilst being at the forefront of technological advancement was also the front company for organised crime in the US. This led Bishop to suspect that Witness (Gambit) was the X-traitor and was responsible for the death of the X-men.

The witness is “Transchronological”, he exists at the confluence of all the timelines, both past and present. This is in all likelihood down to a combination of two things, he acquired the “Momentary Princess”, a Gem that’s a temporal anomaly, a fluctuating hole in time and space that appeared in increments of 27 and 29 years (though these appearances were later shown to be of the Witness’s making) as seen in the Gambit on-going series issue 10.
In the same on-going series it is also later shown how a fully-powered Gambit (he was lobotomised by sinister to give him control of his powers before he joined the X-men), could amongst other things use his kinetic power’s to ride the “kinetic” flow of the universe and travel through time. There are doubts over the Witness’s sanity which given the nature of other X-time travellers (Cable, Bishop, Stryfe, Trevor Fitzroy etc) are probably well founded. I realise I’m rambling now so I’ll just state a few reasons why I think he’s great.

1- Before Bishop went back into time and changed things (and I’m deliberately ignoring the ridiculous and lazy decision to retcon that story to suit the Messiah trilogy better), Witness was the only member of the “main” X-men to survive Onslaught,
2- His company Stark-Fujitswa was at the forefront of technological advancment and also owned organised crime in the United States and Witness was one of the most powerful and influential people of his time. Gambit has always (with the exception of the ludicrous BOA story) been known to do things for a reason and to quote the man himself “Hard times, require hard methods” which leads me to believe that greed was not neccesarily the motive for his actions.
3- During his life the Witness has acquired a whole treasure trove of goodies (see Gambit and Bishop: sons of the atom LS) from 616 and beyond which include (amongst other things)-

A damaged Mjolnir (Thor’s hammer)
Captain America’s Shield (also damaged)
Iron Man’s original Armour
One of Scarlet witch’s early costumes
Herbie (FF’s robot?)
Several droids from the Star wars universe
An At-St (also from Star Wars)
A Dalek (Doctor Who)
A Sentinel’s head

Right thats me finished boring you all to tears.

you forgot Hellboys hand of doom was there too :)

i like the Witness charracter but wasnt it retconed that he was'nt Gambit and killed during MC

[RickyD410]

Thanks for the update. I always wondered what was up with him. I've always liked Gambit, and its likely that he'd survive the other X-Men. Too bad he was taken out during Blinded By The Light (even though it was an excellent arc!).

[Puunk]

Nice thread, witness.

This guy sounds cool.

[witness]

you forgot Hellboys hand of doom was there too :)

i like the Witness charracter but wasnt it retconed that he was'nt Gambit and killed during MC

Marvel are always retconning things to suit their purpose. If you read Gambit ongoing series 10 you'll see without a shadow of a doubt that Gambit is Witness. (and I prefer to believe Fabian Nicenza on this one)

Death in the MU is usually a temporary state of affairs, so we might yet see him again anyway.

You're right about Hellboys hand of doom. I missed that one. If you or anyone else who has the comic in question notices any others that I missed, please let me know. :)

[witness]

Thanks for the update. I always wondered what was up with him. I've always liked Gambit, and its likely that he'd survive the other X-Men. Too bad he was taken out during Blinded By The Light (even though it was an excellent arc!).

Thankfully, Death isn't the handicap in the MU that it is in the real world.

(Blinded by the light was excellent though, lazy retconning aside)

[witness]

Nice thread, witness.

This guy sounds cool.

Thank you, I always liked him.

I'd like to see a what-if story on how the Onslaught saga would have played out had Bishop not been there.

[Jeff-X]

The Witness in the alternate future we saw in Bishop: The Last X-Man was also clearly meant to be Gambit. Once Bishop's series (and Gambit's) was canceled they had that mini together (Gambit and Bishop: Sons of the Atom) which established the trans-chronological Witness.

I just assume that in Bishop's original time line, before he went back in time and altered it with his presence, Gambit was supposed to somehow become Witness after the trans-chronological Witness somehow died. Same thing would work for the Last X-Man series.

[Foon4000]

Sons of the Atom was terrible, it shouldn't count except as a dream Bishop had on Christmas Eve.

I always liked the idea of Gambit outliving all the X-men and turning into the Witness. Despite all his attempts to reform himself and be a decent guy, at the end of his life he reverts to being as much of a (nearly) complete shit as he was before the Morlock Massacre.

[witness]

The Witness in the alternate future we saw in Bishop: The Last X-Man was also clearly meant to be Gambit. Once Bishop's series (and Gambit's) was canceled they had that mini together (Gambit and Bishop: Sons of the Atom) which established the trans-chronological Witness.

I just assume that in Bishop's original time line, before he went back in time and altered it with his presence, Gambit was supposed to somehow become Witness after the trans-chronological Witness somehow died. Same thing would work for the Last X-Man series.

Yeah, I was thinking about this last night. Witness got killed in X-men 200 but considering the Trans-chronological thing (and that fact he's an older version anyway) it doesn't stop him still being "Gambit".

[witness]

Sons of the Atom was terrible, it shouldn't count except as a dream Bishop had on Christmas Eve.

I always liked the idea of Gambit outliving all the X-men and turning into the Witness. Despite all his attempts to reform himself and be a decent guy, at the end of his life he reverts to being as much of a (nearly) complete shit as he was before the Morlock Massacre.

It wasn't great I grant you, the scene with Witness's treasure trove and Remy's "suicide run" in the 1st one were probably the only bits I liked about it.