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Gambit is a fictional character, a superhero who appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. He has held membership in the team known as the X-Men. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Jim Lee, the character first appeared briefly in Uncanny X-Men Annual #14 (1990), weeks before a more comprehensive appearance in Uncanny X-Men #266 (August 1990). As of 2008, there have been two attempts at an ongoing title starring the character. Gambit also had two different miniseries and starred prominently in the X-Force replacement title during the Age of Apocalypse, Gambit & the X-Ternals.

As a mutant, Gambit possesses the ability to manipulate kinetic energy. He is also skilled in card-throwing, hand-to-hand combat, and the use of a Bō staff.

Few X-Men trusted Gambit, who was originally a professional thief, when he first joined the group. There was consistently a source of stress between him and his on-again off-again love interest Rogue. This was exacerbated when his connections to villain Mister Sinister were revealed, although some of his team members accept that Gambit honestly seeks redemption.

A gambit (from ancient Italian gambetto, meaning tripping) is a chess opening in which a player, most often White, sacrifices material, usually a pawn, with the hope of achieving a resulting advantageous position. Some well-known examples are the King's Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4), Queen's Gambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4), and Evans Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4). A gambit used by Black may also be called a gambit (e.g. the Latvian Gambit—1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 or Englund Gambit—1.d4 e5), but is sometimes called a "countergambit" (e.g. the Albin Countergambit—1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 and Greco Counter-Gambit, an old-fashioned name for the Latvian Gambit).

The word "gambit" was originally applied to chess openings in 1561 by Spanish priest Rúy López de Segura, from an Italian expression dare il gambetto (to put a leg forward in order to trip someone). Lopez studied this maneuver, and so the Italian word gained the Spanish form gambito that led to French gambit, which has influenced the English spelling of the word. The broader sense of "opening move meant to gain advantage" was first recorded in English in 1855.

James Asmus is a writer, actor and comedian originally from Cleveland Ohio. He has been affiliated with such theaters as "The Annoyance" and the sketch group Hey You Millionaires.

Asmus has written several plays for both the Annoyance Theater and The New Colony theater group in Chicago. The plays he has written include Love Is Dead (The Annoyance), Hearts Full of Blood (the New Colony) and Amelia Earhart Jungle Princes (The New Colony). Both Love is Dead and Hearts Full of Blood received remounts in the New York Fringe Fest, winning awards for Outstanding Music & Lyrics and Outstanding Achievement in Playwrighting respectively.

Asmus is currently employed as a writer for Marvel Comics, writing such comics as Dark X-Men, The Runaways, X-Men: Manifest Destiny and Generation Hope

Scott Pilgrim is a series of graphic stories by Bryan Lee O'Malley. It consists of six digest size black-and-white volumes, released between August 2004 and July 2010, by Portland-based independent comic book publisher Oni Press. It was later republished by Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins. The series is about 23-year-old Canadian Scott Pilgrim, a slacker and part-time musician who lives in Toronto and plays bass guitar in the band Sex Bob-Omb. He falls in love with American delivery girl Ramona Flowers, but must defeat her seven evil exes in order to date her.

A film adaptation of the series titled Scott Pilgrim vs. the World starring actor Michael Cera in the title role was released in August 2010. A videogame of the same name developed by Ubisoft for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade was released the same month.

Creator Bryan Lee O'Malley was inspired to create the series and eponymous character of Scott Pilgrim after listening to Canadian band Plumtree's 1998 single "Scott Pilgrim", a song then-Plumtree singer Carla Gillis describes as "positive, but...also bitter sweet." In particular, O'Malley was inspired by the lyric "I’ve liked you for a thousand years,".