WARNING: There are unmarked spoilers on these sheets for all but the most recent comics.

Characters associated with the Marvel Comics Shi'ar empire, and the alien Shi'ar race itself.

Remember, except where the sheet states otherwise, this is only for characters and examples from the main Marvel Universe (referred to in-universe as Earth-616).

Please do not list other characters or examples from shows, movies or alternate universe versions here. If you've thought of a trope that fits an alternate version of the characters, please take that example to its respective sheet.

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/615820_vulcans_conquest.jpg

War-mongering bird-like aliens from their own, unnamed galaxy, one of the Big Three cosmic powers. Generally tend to deal with the X-Men, and have a complicated relationship with the Phoenix Force.

In General

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shiar00.jpg

Alien Non-Interference Clause: They apparently do have a Star Trek-esque Prime Directive. Which just means if they find an interesting planet, they'll just not tell the locals they're there.
Aliens Are Bastards: Imperialistic blood-knights who believe in cultural shotgun weddings, and are occasionally just kind of smug dicks. Even other aliens think that they're the worst, citing them as possibly the one species in the universe more violent than humanity (of course, there's some rampant hypocrisy at work here...). Ironically, of the Big Three superpowers, they're actually the most benevolent towards Earth. However, that's largely because of Lilandra's influence, and she was the White Sheep of the Imperial Family.
Ancient Conspiracy:
- Way back in the mists of their ancient history, the Shi'ar were guarded by the Fraternity of Raptors, a sect of assassins with Magitek power-armor following the edicts of their "datasong", all for the purposes of guiding the Empire to some nebulous goal. They disappeared, but following Secret Invasion, their gemstones have started waking up again, and the Fraternity have started getting right back to business.
- The second volume of Marauders also introduces the Kin Crimson, a cabal of covert agents empowered to guard embarrassing state secrets with extreme prejudice, even if that means executing the reigning monarch.
Anti-Hero: Despite being smug dicks, they are noble people despite their flaws and they are changing for the better thanks to Lilandra who manages to get her people to realise that their warmongering ways are wrong and harmful. Or they were. Then there was a coup in favour of D'ken, who got removed (incinerated) by Vulcan, who was praised precisely because he was a conquering dictator. However, they softened up somewhat under Gladiator's rule, and seem to be continuing the trend under Xandra. Usually, they're allies to Earth’s heroes, mainly the X-Men - unlike the Kree and the Skrulls.
Bird People: They evolved from birds, but the only way you'd know on first glance is that they've got feathers for hair. Occasionally, there are the odd genetic throwbacks who have fully functional wings, but the Shi'ar don't like them - or at least, they're not supposed to. In Deathbird's case, they might just be too scared to say it to her face.
Casual Interstellar Travel: According to Claremont's run on Uncanny X-Men, they get across galaxies via stargates, without which space-travel would take a very long time. Pretty much every story after that (except for Brubaker's run on the same book) has kind of ignored this one.
Decadent Court: The Imperial Court actually supplanted and overthrew Lilandra because she wasn't bloodthirsty enough, in favour of restoring her brother D'ken, who nearly destroyed all reality.
Galactic Superpower: One of the top three empires in the Marvel Universe, along with the Skrulls and the Kree.
Innocent Aliens: There are those who are not like the government like the Imperial Guard and Lilandra and her daughter who are noble and kind people despite their own flaws. The Shi’ar in general are slowly becoming this thanks to the fact they went through several civil wars and the fact that Lilandra’s death was the result of their refusing to change their ways, along with finding out that putting Vulcan in charge turns out to be the biggest mistake they ever made.
Internal Retcon: There is a super secret team of enforcers known as the Kin Crimson whose purpose is to maintain the secrecy of the "Ten Shames"; state secrets guarded with extreme prejudice to maintain the empire's reputation, largely to itself because the secret of "First Blood Spilled" is ultimately petty.
Monochromatic Eyes: Shi'ar at first glance appear to lack irises and pupils, but up close it's shown they do have them, only much paler than a human's.
Murder Is the Best Solution: Their solution to most problems, but especially that of the Phoenix Force. If someone starts going all Phoenix, the Shi'ar find their families and murder the ever-loving crap out of them, just in case. The flaw in this is pointed out somewhat bitterly by Rachel Summers with the evidence of the Phoenix Five - though given that Rachel was a well known host and the well known daughter of one of the most dangerous Phoenix hosts of recent times, you can at least see their reasoning.
Planet Looters: The earliest Shi'ar imperials, back when they were more bird-like, were essentially space viking raiders in traveling the universe and brutally razing other civilizations for resources. They even had lupakite berserkers in their retinue. Their first defeat was being repelled by the mutants of Threshold, which they considered so shameful they kept it stricken from all but one record under pain of death, even for the reigning monarch.
Praetorian Guard: The Shi'ar Imperial Guard, a small super-team's worth of bodyguards of varying abilities from throughout the empire. Bonus points for having an actual praetor to guard.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: With the blood-knight thing. Shi'ar warrior honor dictates that stealing someone else's kill is a murderable offense, because by doing so you're implying the person you took the kill from wasn't up to snuff.
Smug Snake: The crew of the first Shi'ar ship shown gives us a good indication as to their opinion of themselves, when it scans Earth's recent history. Skrulls? Wimps. Kree? Psh, whatever. Celestials? Snore. It's not until they find out Earth's beaten back Galactus that they get really scared. They're also quite sensibly terrified of the Phoenix.
Space Romans: Probably the closest of Cosmic Marvel's big three empires, with a praetor, a senate, and constantly expanding into the neighbourhood next door, and the occasional completely insane ruler.
Superman Stays Out of Gotham: They sat out Annihilation entirely, partly because the Wave didn't go anywhere near their galaxy, and partly because they were busy with their own civil war.

Shi'ar Empire

Royal Family

Majestor D'ken

Majestor D'ken Neramani

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dken.png

Nationality: Shi'ar Empire

Species: Shi'ar

First Appearance: X-Men #97 (1976)

"I am the Great D'ken, and everything you are today you owe to me."

The Emperor of the Shi'ar Empire, D'ken is a ruthless and cruel Smug Snake constantly out for more power. During his first appearance he tried to seize the M'Krann Crystal to harness its powers, and after a long absence he reappeared in the Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire storyline, where he met with his final (and well-deserved) end.

Ambition Is Evil: Despite being a literal space-king with authority over thousands of planets, D'ken's defining character trait is his pursuit of power at the expense of common sense. In both of his appearances he toys with powers far beyond his comprehension or ability to control, and both times he pays the price.
Beard of Evil: Has a goatee, and fittingly, he's a complete bastard.
Be Careful What You Wish For: His pursuit of the M'Krann Crystal ended with him being sucked inside of it. Seeing what lay within "The End of All That Is" predictably led him to Go Mad from the Revelation and subsequently slip into a Convenient Coma.
Bullying a Dragon: Even after declaring Vulcan worthy of marrying his sister he still treats him with barely-veiled contempt, making catty remarks about him learning to live among his betters and such, so it's really hardly a surprise when Vulcan - who already had an axe to grind considering that D'ken literally ripped him from his mother's womb as he murdered her, before artificially ageing him and making him a slave - turns on him.
Cain and Abel: The psychotic, murderous Cain to Lilandra's Abel, even going as far as to try and sacrifice her to a soul-drinking monster because she objecting to his idea of harnessing the power of the M'Kraan Crystal. With Deathbird and the other sister she murdered in the mix, it becomes a Cain, Abel, Other Cain and other Abel.
The Caligula: From what is shown of his reign he is shown to be one of these, being a capricious and unpredictable ruler who vacillates between rational-if-ruthless leadership and stark raving madness.
Convenient Coma: At the climax of his first story he fell into one of these. He didn't wake back up until 2007's Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire, courtesy of Vulcan - who promptly waited until he had married Deathbird to fry D'ken and usurp the Empire.
Disc-One Final Boss: In both his appearances D'ken plays this role, being played up as the story's Big Bad only for a greater threat to reveal itself after his defeat.
Even Evil Has Standards: Played with and immediately subverted when he proposes Vulcan wed his sister Deathbird — he speaks of owing the boy a debt (which, considering how he murdered his mother, is putting it lightly) for waking him, but with his next words he makes it clear that he feels he owes Vulcan nothing and is only inviting him into the royal family because he sees Vulcan as a powerful weapon he wants personal control over (and his sister likes him).
Fantastic Racism: Like his sister, Deathbird, originally did, D'ken sees every non-Shi'ar race as lesser beings. Unlike Deathbird, he didn't undergo Character Development.
Freudian Trio: He is the Id in his sibling relationship with Deathbird (Ego) and Lilandra (Superego).
Horrible Judge of Character: Sure, D'ken, promote the kid whose mom you murdered to your Dragon, who you had Made a Slave from birth, and who has since become an Omega Class powerhouse. He'll let bygones be bygones!
Hoist by His Own Petard: Screwing with the cosmic power of the M'Krann Crystal wasn't a bright idea, but screwing with an unstable omega-level mutant was what really ended up doing him in.
Killed Off for Real: Vulcan flash-fries him minutes after his marriage to Deathbird, microwaving the flesh from his bones and reducing him to a skeleton.
Loophole Abuse: Uses it to allow Vulcan to marry Deathbird. By Shi'ar law, any child born in the royal palace can be made royalty, and Vulcan was sort of born there, thanks to D'ken. Ironically, he then has it turned right back on him by Vulcan, who uses that same excuse (and marriage to Deathbird) to usurp the throne.
Luke, I Might Be Your Father: During The '90s D'ken was teased as having a possible familial connection to Adam X, a half-Shi'ar mutant who is probably D'ken's bastard son.
Non-Action Big Bad: In stark contrast to his sisters, D'ken has little combat ability and prefers to let his subordinates fight his battles for him.
Royally Screwed Up: He is a member of the Shi'ar royal family and is certifiably insane, falling prey to periodic fits of madness he calls his "blood rages".
Rules Lawyer: The law he invokes allowing Vulcan to marry into the royal family is identified as an ancient and long-forgotten one, never intended for the purpose D'ken uses it for.
So Last Season: In The Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire D'ken's Fantastic Racism is this, and it's a major part of the reason why he is defeated. Originally all the Neramani siblings were Fantastic Racists, even Only Sane Man Lilandra to a degree (in case you haven't clicked to it yet, the Shi'ar are basically an entire race of racist space birds). But by the time of the Rise storyline, both Lilandra and Deathbird had long since grown out of it after about thirty years of stories educating them on the inaccuracy of the trope (Deathbird even went from a grade-A Shi'ar supremacist to regarding humans as Worthy Opponents and being on her second human lover with Vulcan). D'ken, having been in a Convenient Coma since the seventies, missed out on this education and so upon waking up slipped right back into those old beliefs that humans were stupid primitives he could trash-talk and lord over as he pleased. This arrogance was what allowed a human child to outwit and destroy him.
Smug Snake: In both of his appearances D'ken is the classic smirking villain oozing smug confidence and unshakeable, completely unfounded belief that his insane plans will go off without a hitch. Needless to say, in neither case is this true.
Spell My Name With An S: According to the X-Men: Phoenix Force Handbook his name is actually D'ken, with a lowercase K. This is impossible to discern from the font used in the comics, and even in supplementary material his name is usually rendered with the K capitalized.
Too Dumb to Live: When a MacGuffin has the nickname of "The End of All That Is", most people would have the common sense to leave it alone. Not D'ken!
Villain with Good Publicity: He was popular enough despite his obvious failings of leadership that a secret order was established after his Convenient Coma to spirit him away to an undisclosed location, watch over him and scheme up a way to wake him up. When he returned in The Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire he immediately seized control of the empire away from Lilandra (whose pacifistic policies had made her unpopular with the militaristic Shi'ar) and it took recruiting a popular general she had banished for her to rally even a third of the support she'd once held.
Would Hit a Girl: He viciously murdered Katherine Summers and literally cut her unborn baby out of her body while in the grip of one of his blood rages.
The Wrongful Heir to the Throne: With his older sister Deathbird disinherited for parricide, D'ken is the rightful ruler of the Shi'ar by their laws. Unfortunately, he is also completely off his rocker.

Deathbird

Cal'syee Neramani-Summers / Deathbird

Nationality: Shi'ar Empire

Species: Shi'ar

First Appearance: Ms. Marvel #9 (1977)

"Take care how you address me, stranger — I am Deathbird, first-born of the house of Neramani!"

Lilandra's violent, envious and power-hungry sister who opposed the X-Men the minute they started to help the Shi'ar Empire. Her main goal is to usurp her sister's position and rule the Shi'ar empire herself as she deems she has been unjustly stripped from her lineage. She appears as a boss in the 1993 X-Men Sega Genesis game and in its sequel, X-Men 2: Clone Wars. She also appears as the Big Bad of the secondary storyline in the first two books of the X-Men Mutant Empire Trilogy.

0% Approval Rating: Unlike her siblings, she does not enjoy popular support among the Shi'ar, though she holds just enough clout to legitimize Vulcan's authority as Emperor.
"Ass" in Ambassador: Despite her inherently, ah, let's go with undiplomatic personality, Lilandra chose to appoint her as Viceroy of the recently-annexed Kree Empire as a consolation prize after she ceded the throne. Due to Deathbird not yet being over her Fantastic Racism leanings (and being more interested in villainy in general), she fell into this. She's notable for occupying this position during her appearance in the Mutant Empire trilogy.
Ax-Crazy: How well she copes with it varies from story to story, but there's always a shrieking psycho inside Deathbird just waiting to be unleashed. Usually the Berserk Button that sets her off is her sister Lilandra. However, recent years have downplayed this trait, making her more of a standard Blood Knight.
Badass Boast: Makes a pretty good one, not on behalf of herself, but of her consort Vulcan:
Deathbird: My husband is strong enough to survive his own faults. His enemies are not.
Battle Couple: She and Bishop (the 'Wandering Duo'), and then she and Vulcan (the 'Imperial Duo'). The way to Deathbird's heart is through the bloody field of battle, apparently.
The Berserker: Take the imperial family's propensity for madness, and add the problem of being an evolutionary throwback. Once Deathbird gets going, nothing matters but the kill, not even imminent mortal danger.
Big Bad Wannabe: Deathbird fancies herself an interstellar power player, but she's more of a warrior than a leader and her propensity for treachery usually comes back to bite her. Unusually for villains of this type, she eventually realizes this and makes her peace with it. She's still ambitious, mind, she just doesn't want the burden of direct rule, preferring to be the real mastermind now.
Broken Pedestal: To Lilandra. In her words: "As a hatchling I worshiped her."
Blood Knight: A much more capable warrior than a leader, and honestly, she even seems happier when she's in battle.
Cain and Abel:
- Murdered her and Lilandra's sister in a blood rage. She actually feels bad about that one. However...
- Her and her sister just cannot get along. Like, at all. Her and D'ken don't fare much better either, even though she talks Vulcan into reviving him from his comatose state. When Vulcan flash-fries him later she shrugs it off pretty easily.
Captain Ersatz: Has one in the form of DC's Blackfire, a Teen Titans villain who was introduced three years after Deathbird's creation and was originally pretty much a straight copypaste of her (she's gotten development since then).
Character Development: Originally she was just a stock racist Evil Princess alien with zero redeeming qualities. As time has passed she's become a more multifaceted character, and impressively has done so without losing any of her hard-as-nails warrior's edge. She might not be the strongest or most popular lady X-villain, but Deathbird is probably the most developed of them.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: While visiting the Shi'ar Empire, Xavier calls Deathbird, "A woman who has made cruelty a game and treachery an art."
Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Attempts at offering sympathy will be met with attempts at murder. Cal's aware of what she is, and accepts it.
Enemy Mine: She allied with the X-Men against the Phalanx, and then entered a more sincere alliance with X-Men member Bishop at the end of the Phalanx crisis. She even ended up dating him.
The Exile: She was introduced as one, as D'ken (surprisingly enough for him) opted to simply exile her rather than imprison or execute her for the murder of their parents.
Evil Counterpart: To Lilandra.
Eviler than Thou: Subjected to this at one point by Apocalypse, who brainwashed her into becoming the third Horseman of War.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: During her alliance with Bishop and marriage to Vulcan she showed a rare protective side (if a Violently Protective Girlfriend side).
Deathbird: (to Havok) Get your filthy hands off my husband, or I begin disembowelling your friends.
Even Evil Has Standards: She follows a ruthless but principled code of honor. At one point, she helped Ms. Marvel save human civilians on a collapsing highway, reasoning that it would be dishonorable to stand back and watch helpless bystanders die.
- Is genuinely horrified when Vulcan kills members of the galactic council in the lead up to War of Kings so he could send a message about his power. She even tries talking him out of his plans for galactic conquest because even she knew he was going too far at that point.
The Evil Princess: A textbook example at first, wanting to take power for herself at all costs, especially if it allowed her to humiliate, or even kill, her sister. She's also notoriously jealous and rage-prone, but she's strangely quite dignified about it. It's later Reconstructed in that she eventually got what she wanted, only to find out that being queen isn't quite as gratifying as she thought it was, making cede the throne. Eventually, she prefers being The Woman Behind the Man as opposed to wielding power directly.
Fantastic Racism: In early appearances mainly, when every other line from her was a sneer about how humans, Kree, etc. were inferior to the Shi'ar. While she has never stopped believing in Shi'ar superiority, as time has gone on she's been more willing to consider other races, humans in particular, as at least dangerous enough to not be beneath notice - and now considers suitably worthy species at least nearly on par with the Shi'ar. She has even deemed two humans worthy of becoming her consorts, first Bishop and then Vulcan.
Freudian Excuse: Being condemned by her own parents over a prophecy that she would commit great evil turned the prediction into a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.
Freudian Trio: She is the Ego in her sibling relationship with Lilandra (Superego) and D'ken (Id).
God Save Us from the Queen!: She's consistently portrayed as evil whenever she rules over people, in constrast to her sister.
Happily Married: Her feelings for Vulcan seemed to be genuine and she tended to refer to him as "my love"
Has a Type: She had a thing with Bishop, married Vulcan and might well have a thing for Roberto DaCosta. All three of whom are mutants with energy based powers.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: By her sister during the War of Kings. At the time it was treated as a Career-Ending Injury, though she has since got better. Ironically, this could be said to be a twisted form of karma, as way back in Uncanny X-Men #155 she inflicted this on a weakened Colossus (he got better).
Interspecies Romance: With Bishop and Vulcan (both human mutants).
Javelin Thrower: She favors Shi'ar javelins as weapons, apparently because Shi'ar make them as a kind of Trick Arrow (some have released Deadly Gas and others taught her enemies Shock and Awe).
Lady Macbeth: She played this role to Vulcan from day one, focusing his rage and sharpening his ambition. When he killed D'ken to declare himself emperor, her expression said it all◊.
Made of Iron: Even from her earliest days, she's strong enough to go toe-to-toe with a Flying Brick like Carol Danvers, and tough enough to survive getting molten lava poured on her.
Mama Bear: On her return in 2013's X-Men series, it's revealed that she's pregnant - which, incidentally, is why the Providian Order want her, as Vulcan's the father. In X-Men Red (2022), she reveals she had them sent off to safety, partly to protect her child from the Shi'ar court, but also from Vulcan's influence, and hers. She even refuses to confirm the gender to Vulcan, using gender neutral pronouns and saying "child" rather than "son" (like Vulcan did).
The Man Behind the Man: The Woman Behind the Bugs: The Brood, an alien race that would later become a menace in their own right, were first introduced as Deathbird's Mooks.
Most Common Superpower: Prone to getting drawn this way from time to time. Her profile pic above, by Mark Kuettne, is a particularly rich example, as her jumblies are indistinguishable from balloons.
Mutant: She is the Shi'ar equivalent of one, often referred to as a "genetic throwback" for her physical features which are more avian like primitive Shi'ar than the more humanoid Shi'ar of the present day.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: As Chris Sims puts it, "It’s a little on the nose, but in a world where Apocalypse can wonder just why it is that people don’t want him in charge, Deathbird probably feels like she has some really good ideas about outer space governance that could really help people if they’d just give her the chance."
- Justified Trope: Her nickname is actually conferred upon her in-story after her murder of her parents.
Pet the Dog: In a strange roundabout fashion, she believes that Rachel's right to/desire for revenge for the deaths of her family at the hands of the Shi'ar is equal to her own desire for revenge on a member of the Providian Order for the medical torture they performed on her and her unborn child. Considering that she's a Proud Warrior Race Girl (and therefore treats blood feuds very seriously), it indicates a surprising level of regard for Rachel.
The Power of Hate: She is apparently a believer in this, as she defends Vulcan's petty tormenting of the captive Starjammers with "let him have his hate, it will make the empire strong." Later she expresses similar sentiments in battle with her sister Lilandra.
Pregnant Badass: If anything, she's more dangerous after she becomes pregnant.
Proud Warrior Race Girl: An extremely capable warrior, to the point where it was revealed at one point that she had trained Gladiator himself in combat. She was also capable enough to be named Praetor of the Starforce for a time.
Purple Is Powerful: Her default outfits all have purple in it and her hair appears purplish.
Put on a Bus: She's largely been on one since her Career-Ending Injury in the War of Kings. She hopped off the bus for a 3-issue storyline in 2014, but in her next appearance in 2015 she was comatose and possessed by a symbiote. S.W.O.R.D. freed her from the symbiote and took in her into custody, before she appeared once again in 2019 in Mr. and Mrs. X as the head of one of the competing factions after Xandra, genetically engineered daughter of Lilandra and Charles Xavier, for the legitimacy control of her would grant. With that, though, she seems to be back for good, reappearing in the Dawn of X titles as new regent and adviser to her niece - something which will probably end badly.
Really Gets Around: She's got a lot of kids, including Black Light and White Noise of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, her unnamed (and thus far unseen) child by Vulcan, Aliyah Bishop in X-Men: The End, and ambiguously Deathcry and Lifeguard, who are either her daughters or nieces.
Rogues' Gallery Transplant: She got her start as a Ms. Marvel villain, being used as kind of an Elite Mook before being promoted to an independent villain. This got a Call-Back in 2013 as part of the Captain Marvel storyline, "Enemy Within", where the villain conjured up Carol's old villains to fight her sequentially.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: Eldest of the three Shi'ar royals and by far the most willing of them to get her hands dirty.
Sealed Evil in a Can: At some point prior to the Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire storyline, her sister decided to seal her away in luxury confinement, considering her too dangerous to the Empire for any other option. She probably never would have been able to escape had the anti-Lilandra conspiracy not been able to arrange matters so Vulcan was thrown in the same prison with her.
Secondary Color Nemesis: To contrast her sister's blue cape, she dresses mostly in purple. Similarly, to Carol Danvers in her Ms. Marvel days, contrasting the heroines' red and blue outfit.
Self-Made Orphan: She killed her mother and sister (not Lilandra) in frustration when she learnt she was expelled from her royal lineage.
Signature Headgear: To the point it's rare seeing her without an elaborate headpiece.
Sole Survivor: With D'ken and Lilandra both KIA since War of Kings, Deathbird is the sole surviving member of House Neramani.
The Starscream: Has spent a good chunk of her history scheming to seize the Shi'ar throne from her sister. Ironically, getting it turned out to be the perfect cure for her Starscream aspirations. See Victory Is Boring below.
Status Quo Is God: During her time with Bishop, she showed a more compassionate side of herself that eventually faded and she went back to her devious ways.
Stronger Sibling: Her unique physiology makes her the most combat-capable member of the Neramani family.
Super-Speed: Nowhere near Flash or even Quicksilver levels, but she does move faster than the average human and is capable of flying at speeds of up to 63 mph.
Super-Strength: Low-level, but high among low levels. She can lift up to 6 tons in Earth's gravity, making her stronger than the likes of Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike, sometimes even Beast (whose powers fluctuate as much as his appearance).
Tangled Family Tree: As of her 2007 marriage to Vulcan, Deathbird is now an official member of the former Trope Namer family and can play "Six Degrees of Summers" with the likes of Cyclops, Jean Grey, and so on. During the 2013 X-Men series, Rachel Summers gets teased about Deathbird now being her aunt. She'd really rather not talk about it.
The Un-Favourite: Because it had been prophesied early in her life that she would be devoted to evil, her parents favoured her kinder and more moral sister over her.
Unholy Matrimony: With Vulcan.
Unwitting Pawn: In Operation: Galactic Storm, the Kree Supreme Intelligence's plan banked on her murdering the then-current heads of the Kree Empire so it could regain power. Not that she knew about this.
Victory Is Boring: She finally achieved her long-held dream of seizing the throne from her sister during The '90s, but she eventually found out that running an empire implied a round ton of paperwork to handle which proved too much for her and she eventually ceded the throne to her sister.
What the Hell, Hero?: Calls out Rachel Grey-Summers when the latter stops her from tearing apart a member of the Providian Order, who'd experimented on her and her unborn child, on the grounds that he might have useful information, arguing that she had a 'blood right' of sorts to his life. Notably, she adds that Rachel - whose entire family was wiped out by the Shi'ar - of all people should understand.
Winged Humanoid: Sports natural wings that are similar in power to Archangel's.
Wolverine Claws: Another perk of her 'throwback' mutation. She can extend talon-like claws from her fingers at will and they are strong enough to score steel.
Worthy Opponent: Has developed this attitude towards humanity over the years, particularly its mutant population. While this generally doesn't manifest as affability - mainly because Deathbird doesn't really do affability, with anyone - it does manifest as a certain grudging respect, and a surprising taste for human (mutant) lovers: Bishop and Vulcan.

Majestrix Lilandra

Majestrix Lilandra Neramani

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lilandra.png

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

Species: Shi'ar

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #97 (1976)

"We had such dreams, beloved. I will not see them turned to dust before their time."

The High Queen of the Shi'ar, a race of human-like aliens with vestigial bird-like features who rule a great interstellar Empire. Enlisted the help of Xavier and the X-Men to help her deal with her evil brother (and later her evil sister), Lilandra is perhaps the one Reasonable Authority Figure in space the X-Men can consistently rely on.

Beleaguered Bureaucrat: As Majestrix of the Shi'ar. You'd need several dozen hands to count the number of stories in which something bad was going down with the Shi'ar, Chuck would contact Lilandra and she would say some variant of "I would love to help, my beloved, but..." Justified somewhat in that she was ruling over thousands of planets, and that bites a big chunk out of anyone's time.
Big Good: Like her consort Xavier, Lilandra often tends to take this role.
Big Little Sister: At 5'11"/180cm tall, she's actually taller than her older sister Cal'syee, who's 5'8"/173cm tall.
Blue Is Heroic: Her cape is a combination of this and True Blue Femininity.
Brainwashed and Crazy: Had this inflicted on her by Cassandra Nova while she was wearing Professor X's body as a meatsuit. Though Chuck had nothing to do with the incident, his status in Shi'ar eyes was forever tainted (not that it was very good even before said incident, mind).
Cain and Abel: She has two Cains, as both her brother D'ken and her sister Deathbird are evil - or at least, D'ken is, and Deathbird is more amoral than outright evil these days.
Cannot Dream: This is apparently a part of Shi'ar biology, for whatever reason.
The Chains of Commanding: Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi'ar who always struggles and frequently fails to hold on to her throne and keep her kingdom from turning into The Empire, despite all the challengers to her rule and the corrupt and warmongering bureaucrats under her.
Damsel in Distress: Tended to get used this way a lot, at least in earlier appearances. Her damseling tapered off as this trope itself declined in popularity.
Ermine Cape Effect: Wears a regal blue cape befitting her status as the queen of the Shi'ar.
Failure Hero: Though she manages to become a benevolent and beloved ruler, Lilandra never succeeds in bringing peace to the Shi'ar Empire, and her reign is rocked by one crisis after another. Part of the problem is that she is Too Good for This Sinful Earth and can't bring herself to make the hard but necessary choices someone in her position has to make regarding people close to her (she doesn't imprison Deathbird until after multiple overthrow attempts and doesn't take a firm stand regarding Charles Xavier after the Cassandra Nova thing, leading half her people to conclude she's still an Earther's puppet).
Fatal Flaw: Idealism. It blinded her to the reality that she'd never be able to completely suppress the Proud Warrior Race Guy tendencies of her people and eventually got her killed.
The Fettered: By the laws of the Shi'ar Empire once she becomes majestrix, and sometimes reaching Lawful Stupid levels. Her sister Deathbird would often toe to the very edge of the line of Shi'ar law and Lilandra would just passively take it while bleating about Deathbird's evil, never realizing she could toe those lines herself if she absolutely had to.
Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Lilandra is cautious, calculating and more often than not puts the good of her people first. Her siblings D'ken and Deathbird tend to let their passions rule them and the good of the Shi'ar is always incidental to their own ambitions and desires.
Freudian Trio: She is the Superego in her sibling relationship with Deathbird (Ego) and D'ken (Id).
Heroic BSoD: Has one after the Cassandra Nova incident, as it basically turned her chosen consort into her people's worst enemy.
The High Queen: Of the Shi'ar.
Human Aliens: The Shi'ar have shades of this, being very humanoid in appearance but with avian features such as feathered hair, hollow bones and cold blood. They were even more avian in their past, with talons and arms that doubled as wings.
I Am the Noun: Tried doing this just after Phoenix fixed the M'kraan Crystal, claiming she was the empire, only for Araki to pop up and explain that what with the whole "rebellion" thing, she wasn't the empress yet.
Interspecies Romance: A long-running one with Charles Xavier of the X-Men, though their respective responsibilities keep them from every truly committing.
- Happily Married: Played with, as her and Charles do eventually get married but they both try to manage their respective responsibilities at the same time rather than truly committing to each other. As a result the "marriage" is tumultuous, and eventually annulled by the Shi'ar Council.
Killed Off for Real: Assassinated by one of the Fraternity of Raptors during the War of Kings in 2009. So far, it's stuck.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Her decision to not execute her sister Deathbird but instead imprison her in luxury confinement comes back to bite her hard when Deathbird teams up with Vulcan.
Noble Fugitive: Often on the run with La Résistance when someone else is on the Shi'ar throne.
Only Sane Woman: She's the only member of her family who's not crazy and/or evil.
Politically-Active Princess: Which was the reason why she was forced to go on the run in the first place, as D'ken saw her as a threat to his reign.
Psychic Powers: Has minor ones, as she is able to contact Charles Xavier from light years away and telepathically communicate with him. Later issues establish they share a unique psychic rapport and she can't do this with just anyone.
Puppet Queen: Becomes this after her Heroic BSoD, withdrawing to a 'royal retreat' world and immersing herself in mindless beauty while her advisors rule in her place and scheme to yank the throne out from under her.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Consistently portrayed as the only one of these in the entirety of the Shi'ar Empire. It gets a little hard to believe at times, frankly.
Rebel Leader:
- Led a rebellion against D'ken, which didn't go at all well.
- Shares this role with Corsair of the Starjammers, providing the moral leadership to Corsair's field leadership.
Royally Screwed Up: Averted for her specifically but played straight with her family, as she is the only member of her family who is not insane and/or evil.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: Lilandra's no Badass, but she never hides behind her allies and always pulls her weight in a fight.
Ruling Couple: Subverted. Even after she marries Professor X, Lilandra retains sole authority over the Shi'ar Empire.
Sibling Yin-Yang: With her evil sister Deathbird.
Signature Headgear: Like her sister, she favors elaborate headpieces.
Spare to the Throne: By the laws of succession Lilandra has the least claim to the throne of her siblings, being the youngest (or at least, the youngest still alive). But being the Only Sane Man of her family helps her claim a great deal.
Staff of Authority: Is often seen carrying one of these, as seen in her profile image.
Super-Strength: Not relative to her people, but by Earth standards she has this, being able to lift up to 1 ton.
Trial by Combat: In yet another of her Beleaguered Bureaucrat moments, she was forced to hold one of these for Jean Grey to judge her crimes as Phoenix, despite the retcon being established by this time that the Phoenix that had committed said interstellar crimes (devouring a sun) hadn't actually been Jean.
White Sheep: As mentioned above, she is the only living member of the Neramani family who is not a villain. Her daughter with Xavier follows in her footsteps.

Vulcan

Gabriel "Gabe" Summers / Vulcan

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/604b35c4_3eb0_4aa9_9a30_1a9cbdcafbe2.jpeg

Notable Aliases: Kid Vulcan, Emperor Vulcan, Majestor

Nationality: American, Krakoan

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1 (November, 2005)

"I claim D'ken's throne as my own! By right of blood and combat! By right of succession! I name myself Emperor Vulcan, ruler of the Shi'ar Imperium!"

Gabriel Summers, (better known as Vulcan and formerly Kid Vulcan) is an antagonist for the X-Men as well as the cosmic corner of the Marvel Universe. First appearing in X-Men: Deadly Genesis he was created by Ed Brubaker and Trevor Hairsine. He is the Third Summers brother, first alluded to by Mister Sinister in the 90’s.

Gabriel Summers had it rough from the get go. He was still in utero when his mother Katherine Summers and her husband Christopher were abducted by the Shi'ar Emperor known as D’Ken. He was ripped out of her womb and artificially grown by Shi'ar scientists to adolescence, and sent to Earth to be a slave for Erik the Red. Escaping, he was found by Moira MacTaggert who took him in as her ward and helped him in the use of his abilities.

When the original X-Men were captured by Krakoa, Professor X found himself in need of a rescue team. He recruited Gabriel along with three other unseasoned and inexperienced young mutants known as Darwin, Petra and Sway. Mentally dumping months worth of training into the four, he sent them on their way. To put it mildly, the mission went awry and the four students were apparently killed. Cyclops managed to escape, but the professor erased all knowledge of Gabriel and his teammates. Scott would return with a second more successful rescue team that would later become the X-Men. In reality Vulcan survived by merging with Darwin who possessed adaptive abilities. Unfortunately, Polaris launched the island into space, where Vulcan lay dormant for over a decade until awakened by the Decimation. Enraged at being abandoned and forgotten, Vulcan attacked the X-Men eventually revealing the Professor’s dark secret. Still wanting revenge he went into space to kill D'ken. He was followed by his other brother Alex who was part of an X-Men team assembled by the Professor. He came into collision with the Shi'ar Empire, eventually killing D’Ken as well as his own father who by this time had become the space adventurer Corsair (he got better). Becoming Emperor of the Shi'ar, he married Deathbird and kicked off an all out galactic war the culminated in his apparent death.

Gabriel mysteriously survived and was next seen having joined Krakoa, which had now become a sovereign nation for mutants. Although he seemed more stable, and on good terms with his family, it soon became clear that he hadn't changed as much as it seemed.

After being confronted by Professor Xavier about his behaviour and mental health, Gabriel left for Mars (now colonised by mutants and renamed Arakko), where he fell under the sway of the ambitious Abigail Brand. Brand persuaded Gabriel to challenge one of the Arakki leaders, the Omega mutant Tarn the Uncaring, in a formal duel. Tarn negated Gabriel's powers and beat him to death. However, this turned out to all be part of Brand's scheme. Gabriel was soon resurrected, his original insane personality fully restored, and tried his hand at reconquering his old empire.

0% Approval Rating: His status as leader of the Shi'ar is this at first, since they see him as The Usurper. After leading the Imperium to numerous victories and conquests, he achieves a dramatic shift in popular approval.
A God Am I: Refers to himself as a God during a fight with Havok
Antagonistic Offspring: To Corsair.
Ax-Crazy: Completely and utterly insane and wildly, violently unstable. Upon his return in the Krakoa era, it was assumed he had stabilized although it was a result of interdimensional beings experimenting on him and creating the stabilized facade seen in Jonathan Hickman's X-Men. However as of X-Men Red the facade is broken and his real personality comes back.
Being Evil Sucks: After resurfacing in the Krakoan Age, he declared he didn't want to go back to being the psychopath he was before. Sadly, he starts going done that path again when the stable personality that was imprinted upon him begins to fail.
Black Sheep: While the rest of his family are heroes, he is not.
Born from a Dead Woman: His mother was murdered by D'ken while Gabriel was still in the womb; he was then cut out of her body and kept alive by Shi'ar scientists.
Cain and Abel: The Cain to Cyclops and Havok's Abel.
The Caligula: As the Ax-Crazy majestor of the Shi'ar imperium, especially during War of Kings,
A Child Shall Lead Them: Becomes The Emperor of the Shi'ar through a Klingon Promotion.
Determinator: Definitely something that's in the Summers blood. Wannabe The Man Behind the Man Talon even points this out in-story, remarking to a confederate that Vulcan's determination to win the War of Kings will ruin the Shi'ar Empire, and the sooner they can get rid of him and install a proper Puppet King, the better.
Dragon with an Agenda: He accepts D'ken's offer to marry into the Shi'ar royal family, with the ultimately successful goal of replacing him.
Drowning My Sorrows: After being resurrected but not really on Krakoa, he spends most of his days getting drunk.
Ermine Cape Effect: He was introduced wearing an X-Men uniform as he was one of Xavier's lost students, but quickly switched it out for a more regal, cape-adorned uniform after being promoted to The Evil Prince by D'ken.
Even Evil Can Be Loved: Despite his personality and all that he's done, his family are concerned for him and genuinely want to see him get better. In X-Men Red (2022), the Summers family try to use Charles Xavier not once but twice in order to help his mental health issues. Both attempts fail for different reasons. Later on in X-Men Red (2022), Cable notes he would hate to hand Vulcan over to the Shi'ar for a trial because he is Cable's uncle and therefore, Cable can't help but feel some level of familial love for him.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Genuinely loved Deathbird and is one of the few (if only) people in the universe he shows any genuine affection for. Even when he's trying to kill her niece in X-Men Red (2022), he remains pleasant towards her other than a snide remark expressing his disappointment at how she's changed.
Even Evil Has Standards: Even he thought that Black Bolt's plan to force the entire galaxy into becoming Inhumans was way out of line. Though seconds later, he admits his plan after killing Black Bolt is to take the T-Bomb and throw it at the Kree.
Evil Is Petty: When Vulcan captures Havok at the conclusion of Emperor Vulcan, he spends inordinate amounts of time tormenting the captive Starjammer from his cell, to the point of neglecting his duties as the Shi'ar majestor. Interestingly, he never actually tortures Havok physically, instead just going for a series of wannabe Hannibal Lectures that completely fail to break Alex.
The Evil Prince: Not born one, but becomes one after marrying into the Shi'ar royal family. He then immediately graduates by killing D'Ken to The Emperor.
Evil Uncle: One to his niece and nephews Cable, Nate Grey and Rachel Summers. Although he's only interacted with Rachel during X-Men: Deadly Genesis, Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire and X-Men: Emperor Vulcan and with Cable in X-Men Red (2022)
Evil Versus Evil: Unwittingly, during his fight with the Magus, who had already taken over Adam Warlock and was planning to summon the Many-Angled Ones.
Expy:
- He has a lot in common with DC's Superboy Prime. Also fellow X-villain Exodus, both of whom are antagonists with sympathetic backgrounds who clearly won the Superpower Lottery but suffer from Sanity Slippage for it and spend lots of time on buses due to writers having little idea of what to do with them.
- His background closely resembles that of his alternate nephew, Nate Grey. However, Nate is saner (albeit probably Crazy Sane), much smarter, not particularly ambitious in his own right (Vulcan wants power, Nate just wants to prevent the Age of Apocalypse by any means necessary), and at least had a Parental Substitute for a while.
Eye Scream: Loses an eye to a pissed-off Gladiator. It's the only injury he ever sustains that sticks. And then it gets fixed via Orbis Stellaris' superficial restoration of him at Brand's behest.
Face–Heel Turn: Started off as a hero but being trapped in Krakoa and finding out the truth of his birth sent him down the villain path.
Fallen Hero: Was enthusiastic about the prospect of becoming an X-Man and actually become one momentarily as he was sent to rescue his older brother and his team from Krakoa. But when he awakens after M-Day, he goes straight into the villain territory.
Fatal Flaw: He is far too over reliant on his powers and he is used to simply nuking and incinerating his opponents. While it does work out for him most of the time, it does not all the time. And when it does not, he is very easy to defeat, even by those much weaker than him.
Freudian Excuse: His mother was murdered and he was forced to spend his childhood as a slave.
Galactic Conqueror: He swallowed up a large swath of space into the Shi'ar Empire during his reign, including several territories held by other empires.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: Like many mutant baddies (and most members of his family, for that matter), he has these when using his power.
Going Native: He initially went to space with the goal of wiping the Shi'ar Empire off the map, but falling in love with Deathbird made him pull a complete 180 and become their ruler instead. You'd think this would translate to him becoming a Bad Boss Evil Overlord, but he ends up genuinely wanting their approval and to be seen as one of them.
Deathbird: You are Shi'ar. I can see it inside you, and the time will come when you will show the Imperium that you were born to rule them.
Go Mad from the Isolation: While he's not had the best start in life, he was a genuinely pleasant person and was eager to be an X-Man. It was only until after he had spent years being entombed inside Krakoa all alone (except with Darwin although he didn't know it) that drove him to the insanity he's known for now.
Goo-Goo-Godlike: Vulcan, Cyclops's long-foreshadowed second brother was found as a baby and raised to adolescence by aliens, and has the power to absorb literally any form of matter or energy and fire it back, survive in the vacuum of space, and shut off superpowers. He was described as "beyond Omega-level", but since Omega-level already means a mutant of unlimited potential, the part about being beyond a mutant of unlimited potential is most likely a regretful mistake. Still, he's very powerful.
Gone Horribly Right: The chancellors and conspirators still loyal to D'ken conspired to let Vulcan go free so that he could release Deathbird and dethrone Lilandra. The plan went a little too well.
Hair-Trigger Temper: Developed one after becoming the Shi'ar Majestor. He could go from calm and calculating to screaming madman in the blink of an eye.
Happily Married: From all indications, his feelings for Deathbird were genuine.
Heel–Face Turn: He's returned in 2019's House of X and is listed in that story as being an omega level mutant affiliated with the X-Men. The mysterious aliens who rescued him fixed his issues... superficially. This turns out to be intentional, as he's Abigail Brand's Manchurian Agent to blow up intergalactic politics.
Hero Killer: He killed Banshee, Corsair, and a lot of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard.
I Am the Noun: When Adam Warlock tries to warn Vulcan that his war against the Kree is threatening the fabric of the universe, Vulcan screams at him that he is the universe.
Imagination-Based Superpower: By the Krakoan era, his energy manipulation abilities have developed to the point where he can subconsciously generate perfect constructs of humanity in the form of Petra and Sway, and that he can create simpler constructs consciously.
In Love with Your Carnage: Towards Deathbird. A narrative box noted that he admired her ruthlessness immediately after seeing her kill Shi'ar guards as payback for keeping her captive in a prison.
Indy Ploy: His plan to take the Shi'ar throne, which was a strange mixture of this and Batman Gambit. He came to the Shi'ar on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, fully intending to destroy their entire empire, but shifted his focus when he fell in love with Deathbird. Deathbird talked him into reviving the comatose D'ken, the very Shi'ar who had killed his mother and been the architect of his misery. Vulcan considered just killing the comatose D'ken, but decided there would be no point in revenge on a vegetable. So instead he revived D'ken, let himself be talked into becoming D'ken's Dragon, and patiently waited until his marriage to Deathbird to kill him, since by Shi'ar law he would then have the right to claim the throne.
Interspecies Romance: With Deathbird (Shi'ar mutant).
In the Hood: Early in his reign he is shown as using this to go King Incognito and learn what his new subjects think of him.
I See Dead People: On his return in Hickman's X-Men, he hangs out with Petra and Sway... who, thanks to the nature of the resurrection protocols, shouldn't be there. It's eventually clarified that they're energy constructs made by Vulcan as a coping mechanism. And then Charles thought it would be a good idea to break this illusion.
Jekyll & Hyde: After his return, his original, volatile personality is buried beneath an artificial one created by the beings who experimented upon him in the Fault, making him Brand's Manchurian Agent on Krakoa.
Lack of Empathy: A rare justified example. Due to being a literal Psychopathic Manchild artificially grown into adolescence before his time, Vulcan's sense of empathy is sorely stunted, just when it was growing. The only person he shows any affection for is Deathbird.
Large Ham: Actually pretty restrained most of the time. Not so much when written by Jonathan Hickman, who has him going on in practically ultra-violet speeches all the time. Even when cooking steak. After his original personality starts to return this tendency towards drama remains.
Light Is Not Good: His powers often manifest as light and flames, but he is most definitely not the protagonist.
Line-of-Sight Name: He chose the name 'Vulcan' because as a slave the only solace he had was a book about Roman mythology.
Long Lost Sibling: He's the long-rumoured third Summers brother, born after the Summers parents were taken to Shi'ar space.
Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me: Being the very definition of a Smug Super, he's always going on about his being an Omega-level mutant.
Long Bus Trip: After his battle with Black Bolt at the end of War of Kings. Black Bolt quickly returned to life, but Vulcan spent nearly a decade on the bus before returning in 2019's House of X.
Madness Mantra: As the good personality that was brought to the fore by the beings who saved him from the Fault begins to slip away, Vulcan has taken to constantly declaring that he never died, and thus should still be recognized as ruler of the Shi'ar. His duel with Tarn the Uncaring unfortunately doesn't put an end to that claim, and he makes it again, trying to assassinate Xandra when Brand lures her to Arrako... and then finds that it's actually Sunspot under an image inducer.
Mask of Sanity: Nailed on by the beings who revived him at Brand's behest, and good enough to fool Charles Xavier. As of X-Men: Red, it's beginning to slip, and his original insanity is poking through, being completely broken by the resurrection process.
Misplaced Retribution: During his initial charge towards the Shi'ar, he resolved to continue his attack on the Empire even when the first ship he encountered confirmed that D'Ken was no longer emperor and that the empire as a whole was no longer a threat to Earth. He also continues to blame Professor Xavier for his years trapped on Krakoa, even though Darwin (who went through the same experience as Vulcan) has been able to accept that Xavier is a good man who just made some bad decisions and genuinely didn't know that Vulcan and Darwin survived the initial assault on Krakoa.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His hyper-aggressive leadership pushes the Inhumans to rise up against him.
Person of Mass Destruction: On a level comparable to the Inhuman king Black Bolt, being described as a planet breaker - and certainly capable of superheating a planet's core.
Powerful, but Incompetent: A powerful Omega level mutant capable of manipulating almost any energy yet he chooses to nuke his way through a battle, even when there are better, more sophisticated ways of dealing with an opponent. While he is not totally incompetent and has his moments of strategic thinking, he is far too unstable for that to happen regularly.
Psychopathic Manchild: He appears to be in his late teens but due to his severely messed up history he has the maturity level of a ten-year old child and the temperament of a perpetually angry kid. After his return, he's a bit odd, like an overcompensating child, but friendly - though it turns out that this is a facade created by the interdimensional aliens who experimented upon him, for Abigail Brand, and the psychopath has re-emerged.
Puppet King: Talon of the Fraternity of Raptors attempts to make him one, only to find out very quickly that Vulcan can't be controlled. By anyone. Though Abigail Brand more or less seemed to have it figured - to a certain level. She tried to get him to retreat after her plans started falling apart only to be told by him to stay out of his head (she had been communicating to him through Mentallo).
Random Power Ranking: Since M-Day Vulcan is a classified omega level mutant. He's not particularly shy about letting people know, either.
Resurrected for a Job: He was saved from the Fault by interdimensional aliens, who'd been looking for Black Bolt, who fixed some of his insanity and sent him back to Earth-616 as a Manchurian Agent on Abigail Brand's behalf.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: On the Shi'ar after Deadly Genesis, for the whole 'murdered his mother and made him a slave' thing. It eventually winds up with him in charge.
Sanity Has Advantages: He would be among the most powerful assets the X-men have, if he had a shred of sanity. He keeps getting his ass kicked because he makes ludicrous, erratic decisions.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Has happened no less than three times so far.
- The first time was after failing to stop Krakoa, Gabriel and his dying teammates were all entombed within the island while it was launched into space. He didn't get out until M-Day. It is the main reason why he hates Professor X so fiercely.
Vulcan: (to Professor X) Now I trap you in a rock!
- The second time was him and Black Bolt both being trapped in The Fault due to their battle in War of Kings.
- The third time is the result of Storm and the Brotherhood trapping him in a Mysterium shell after his attack on a Galactic Council meeting in X-Men Red (2022). While Ororo notes he can get out, it is going to take subtlety that he is not used to so it will not be for a while.
Self-Made Orphan: For a time.
Slasher Smile: After he goes nuts, and particularly during X-Men Red (2022) when he's drunk on power and thinks he's about to roast someone.
Slouch of Villainy: After becoming Majestor of the Shi'ar he becomes prone to this.
Smug Super: Probably the best example of this trope in the X-Men universe. As one of the most powerful mutants alive, there's almost nobody in the universe who can stand up against him. As such, the very idea of someone actually being stronger than he is absolutely inconceivable for him to imagine and at the same time, it's what deep down, he fears the most. The look on his face when Polaris briefly overpowers him is priceless.
Squishy Wizard: Despite being pretty much unkillable most of the time, physically speaking Vulcan's actually as durable as your average human. He still feels pain and can be knocked over by a sufficiently hard enough punch. It's just his powers make getting close enough to land the punch difficult.
Start of Darkness: In the 'Kid Vulcan' short during Deadly Genesis it was shown that he grew to adolescence as a slave of the Shi'ar. However, it was really being trapped in a rock in space for years that made him crack. Cue the events of Deadly Genesis.
Stronger Sibling: To Cyclops and Havok, though Havok was able to beat him once when Vulcan foolishly overcharged him by throwing him into a sun.
Superpower Lottery: Oh, boy. Where to begin?
- Energy Absorption: Vulcan's an 'Omega-level energy manipulator', which effectively makes him a god. There's not a lot he can't do. His demonstrated uses of this ability include:
  - Attack Reflector: Can do this as long as he's being attacked with an energy-based attack, like the optic blasts of Cyclops.
  - Flight: Capable of this on an interstellar level, being able to fly under his own power through the vacuum of space.
  - Hand Blast: His standard method of attack.
  - Imagination-Based Superpower: He graduates to energy constructs of terrifying sophistication by the Krakoan era, though often he isn't exactly aware that he's creating them.
  - Healing Factor: He can regenerate from near-anything. Black Bolt unleashes the full power of his voice, managing to flay Vulcan's skin off. And he still gets up a few minutes later.
  - Immune to Mind Control: He's not completely immune to them, but is highly resistant to both telepathic and psionic attacks.
  - Nigh-Invulnerability: Tough enough to tank attacks from Polaris and Havok at once, as well as being able to withstand blows from Gladiator.
  - Power Copying: A very strange case, and possibly an ability he was only able to tap into with the psyches of his teammates, as he never used it after Deadly Genesis. It wasn't actually copying as much as it was manipulating the powers of others, presumably through his own energy-manipulating abilities.
  - Power Nullifier: Like the above Power Copying, this was an ability he was only shown using during Deadly Genesis. He gets it back after being taught how to interact with mutant energy in X-Men: Red.
  - Power Parasite: He can rob the energy reserves of other energy manipulators, even non-traditional ones such as Adam Warlock.
  - Psychic Surgery: Not a psychic, but he awakened the comatose D'ken from a decades-long coma by using his energy powers to re-ignite the dead neurons in D'ken's brain.
- Elemental Powers: A case of All There in the Manual. Vulcan's creator, Ed Brubaker, explained an interview that he has the unrealized potential to generate and control the seven elements (fire, earth, electricity, wind, water, darkness, and light). He's only actually exhibited control over a handful of those elements, though.
  - Dishing Out Dirt: Only used this during Deadly Genesis.
  - Light 'em Up: Via his Hand Blasts.
  - Playing with Fire: By far his most favorite elemental ability, as well as the one most befitting his personality.
  - Shock and Awe: Another one he only used during Deadly Genesis.
- Combo Platter Powers: As if all of the above wasn't enough, Deadly Genesis revealed that he'd psionically absorbed the powers (and psyches) of his teammates Petra, Sway, and Darwin when they died, leading to:
  - Dishing Out Dirt: From Petra.
  - Time Master: From Sway.
  - Adaptive Ability: From Darwin, later lost when Darwin's psyche was separated from him.
- So, in short, Vulcan's a Physical God.
Tangled Family Tree: He's a late addition to the ever-tangled Summers family line.
Teens Are Monsters: A shining example of what happens when you give a teenager with a shitty childhood way too much power, add a bit more trauma, and then let them run wild.
Too Powerful to Live: The trick was finding something powerful enough to kill him. It is very, very hard. As Sunspot notes, Krakoans are hard to kill, especially Vulcan.
Took a Level in Badass: Since he's got vast potential and he's more or less learning as he goes, he gets stronger and stronger over time as he learns new applications of his abilities. In X-Men Red (2022), that plus a bit of rare common sense allow him to simultaneously beat up Gladiator, Nova, Frenzy, and Paibok the Power Skrull while gloating about it.
Trading Bars for Stripes: When the original Imperial Guard fails to wipe out the Starjammers, he puts together a new one made up of the Shi'ar Empire's most fearsome prisoners, rationalizing that hardened criminals will have more of a killer instinct than lifelong soldiers.
Unperson: After his reign, the Shi'ar like to pretend he never existed. Not a problem when he was presumed dead and gone, less so when he's alive and screaming in their face.
Unskilled, but Strong: He's had only a week of training as an X-Man, compared to the decades Cyclops and Havok got, but he's probably stronger than 95% of the X-Men's rogues gallery (and even more seeing as he was capable of trading blows with some of the Marvel U's super-heavyweights like Adam Warlock and Black Bolt). This was how Polaris got the upper hand; he was definitely the more powerful of the two, but she was powerful enough to be able to hold her own and much, much more experienced with fighting people on her level or stronger, whereas he was so used to annihilating anyone who challenged him that he genuinely had no idea where to go when he didn't manage to atomize someone in one shot.
- In X-Men: Red, he went up against Storm, who deconstructed this in a couple of sentences, noting that for energy manipulators on their level, it essentially comes down to willpower. And when it comes to his versus hers, his is severely lacking.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: When Moira MacTaggert first found him, he was an earnest young man who was enthusiastic about being an X-Man as well as desiring to control his powers to avoid unintentionally hurting others.
Villain Decay: Possibly overlapping with Sanity Slippage, as Vulcan's actions became increasingly less rational as time went on. Most vividly seen when the Guardians of the Galaxy sent Adam Warlock to negotiate with him; true, Warlock slipping aboard his ship without invitation probably wasn't the wisest thing to do, but Vulcan's response? Immediately attempt to incinerate Warlock, and when that didn't work, pick a knock-down-drag-out fight with him right there in the middle of his own flagship.
Villain Has a Point:
- As monstrous as Vulcan is, he's fully justified in hating and blaming Xavier for manipulating him and his comrades to be sent on a suicide mission and then mentally wiping the memories of others to cover up the incident. If Xavier had been more upstanding and honest, Vulcan wouldn't have turned out the way he did.
- Likewise, in his fight with Black Bolt he made some very good points about how utterly nuts and downright monstrous Black Bolt's Terrigen Bomb scheme (essentially a galactic scale Assimilation Plot) was.
Villainous Rescue: Without him the Starjammers, and by extension the rest of the universe, would have been utterly screwed by the Scy'ar Tal.
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Explicitly stated. He wasn't originally so powerful; the energies Scarlet Witch released on M-Day were somehow all absorbed by him in his comatose state, leading him to experience an exponential power increase all at once. Gaining so much power so quickly definitely took its toll.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: A Jerkass Woobie to be sure, because he's fairly horrible to anyone who isn't Deathbird, but he has a truly miserable past. He's also capable of blowing up planets, with this trope being made explicit in an alternate story where he gained the power of the Phoenix Force.
The Worf Effect: As mentioned above, Vulcan fought Adam Warlock at one point. He also completely dominated Warlock, using his energy-absorption powers to drain all of Warlock's magical reserves and rendering him nearly helpless. Keep in mind that Adam Warlock is a cosmic-tier hero who has thrown down with the likes of Thanos and even Galactus. More impressive given this was Adam turning into the Magus, who's even stronger and more dangerous than his good self.
Would Hurt a Child: Upon the restoration of his original personality and memories, the first thing he tries to do is take back the Shi'ar throne by force from Xandra. The fact she's Charles Xavier's daughter is merely a cherry on top.
Wreathed in Flames: Uses them for his Battle Aura.
Younger Than They Look: Between the Shi'ar forcibly speeding up his aging, and that long period spent being not quite dead, despite looking to be in his mid-to-late teens, he's mentally a lot younger than he should be (at one point during "Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire", he hallucinates a child version of himself who tries to work out the math).

Majestrix Xandra

Majestrix Xandra Neramani

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/xandra_neramani_xmen.jpg

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

Species: Genetically engineered Shi'ar/human mutant hybrid

First Appearance: Mr. and Mrs. X #1 (2018)

The engineered daughter of Charles Xavier and Lilandra, created after both of their deaths. She is now the new Empress of the Shi'ar Empire under the guidance of Gladiator and her aunt Deathbird.

Born as an Adult: She hatched from an egg as a young teenager. Thankfully her telepathic powers allowed her to read Gambit and Rogue's minds to learn about her parents and influence her personality.
A Child Shall Lead Them: Gladiator made her the new Majestrix despite her young age, with he and Deathbird serving as advisors for the young empress.
Death Is Cheap: Kin Crimson try killing her, but thanks to being part-mutant, Professor X is able to save her mind and she's resurrected on Krakoa.
Hero-Worshipper: She's very fond of Storm.
Master of Illusion: Her telepathic powers allow her to alter people's perception of reality around them. She mostly uses this to create a form for herself that doesn't look like an energy being to everyone else.
Telepathy: She inherited Xavier's considerable telepathic power.

The Imperial Guard

In General

Shi'ar Imperial Guard

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1005085_prv3685_pg1.jpg

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #107 (1977)

The Imperial Guard is a legion of superpowered champions who protect and defend the Shi'ar galactic empire.

Action Survivor: Not in the conventional sense but the members of the Guard who have survived the many Crises that have shocked their Empire can be seen as this.
Alien Among Us: A three-issue miniseries about the Guard released in 1997 focused on them traveling to Earth after the Onslaught crisis and becoming stranded in the Big Applesauce.
Aliens Speaking English: Like all the Shi'ar, they have various translators and devices to explain this away. Except for Star-Lord and Smasher (Izzy Kane), who are the two humans of the group.
Alternate Company Equivalent: They are the Legion Of Superheroes if they were a bunch of shitheads in the Marvel Universe. They were introduced when Dave Cockrum was the X-Men's artist, fresh off a long stint as artist on The Legion of Super-Heroes at DC. Most of the original Imperial Guard members are intended as shout outs to the Legion's members.
Amazing Technicolor Population: Justifed due to most of them being aliens.
Arch-Enemy: The Imperial Guard was originally formed to stop Rook'shir, an early wielder of the Phoenix Force, and over their existence they've often faced the Phoenix Force again through its various avatars.
Badass Crew: Even their weakest members are stronger and better trained than most Alpha-level mutants. It's only because the X-Men have been through Training from Hell by the time they meet the Guard that they do so well against them.
Battle Couple: Being based on Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad, Oracle and Flashfire used to be this, until some unspecified disagreement made them break up.
The Big Guy: Warstar and Titan are the Guard's main heavy hitters (aside from Gladiator).
- Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: Titan suffers from this thanks to being such an obvious target, which is why he has been killed and replaced at least two times.
Brother–Sister Team: The Shi'ar siblings Black Light and White Noise, who claim to be the children of Deathbird.
The Bus Came Back: Occasionally, members who haven't been seen in years reappear alongside their more consistent companions.
- After not being seen since Starblast in 1994, Voyager rejoins the guard during War of Kings in 2009. His partner Moondancer reappears the next year during Realm of Kings, helping the other guardsmen fight the horrors of the Cancerverse.
- Hardball, who only appeared in a couple of issues during the nineties, returns during Thanos in 2017.
- Commando, who like Hardball only appeared in a couple of issues during the nineties, returned during the 2010 Realm of Kings event.
Cadre of Foreign Bodyguards: Unlike the Skrull and Kree armies which are pretty homogeneous, the Imperial Guard stands out for having very few Shi'ar. Magique and Electron are the more stand out members.
Captain Ersatz: They are mostly based on the Legion of Super-Heroes, although some of its members are more original.
Casting a Shadow: Since she's based on Shadow Lass, Nightside can cast darkness and shadows.
C-List Fodder: Being based on a team with lots of members with a tendency to die, and literal thousands of reserves for every post except Gladiator's, the Imperial Guard has suffered many casualties in its long existence.
Conscription: As Majestor, Kallark once drafted none other than Star-Lord into the Imperial Guard's ranks.
Corrupted Character Copy: Imperial Guard of the Shi'ar were meant to be more antagonistic analogues to DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes. The Imperial Guard’s leader Gladiator who is even more of a pastiche of Superman than Hyperion and Sentry. Like Supes Gladiator is a powerful alien with a mostly red outfit including Badass Cape and Chest Insignia, he’s essentially the last of his kind, his real name is a portmanteau of both Superman’s Kryptonian and Earth names: “Kallark“, he’s very often only as Strong as They Need to Be like the Man of Steel and Gladiator was even named after the book that directly influenced Superman’s creators. However unlike Superman, Gladiator is a haughty jerkass and while not overtly villainous he’s still a superpowered jingoistic bully compared to the idealistic hero that is Supes.
Crippling Overspecialization: Compared to the X-Men, most of their members only focus on doing one particular thing (Oracle reads minds, Starbolt shoots firebolts, etc) and struggle against opponents for whom that One Thing they do is not enough.
A Day in the Limelight: Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard centers around its members and Gladiator as well.
The Dreaded: As the elite corps of the star-spanning Shi'ar Empire, the Imperial Guard has a fearsome reputation across the galaxy.
Enemy Mine: A one-off tie-in to the War of Kings focused on Imperial Guard member Starbolt being stranded on the Death World of Sakaar and being forced to team up with his enemy Gorgon of The Inhumans.
Energy Being: Impulse, being based on Wildfire. There's also G-Type, who's also one in a suit of armor/containment suit.
Fantastic Racism: There's a long-running hostility towards the Kree among members of the Imperial Guard, and the Inhumans became subject to this by proxy when they attached themselves (well, absorbed if you want to get technical) to Kree culture in the days before the War of Kings.
Flanderization: Smasher wasn't originally the throwaway joke character of the Guard, and in fact was originally just as capable as any other Guardsman. The latest Smasher, Izzy Kane, has restored the character's reputation.
Flying Firepower: Starbolt, being based on Sun Boy, can fly without the need of an anti-gravity device.
Green-Skinned Space Babe: Oracle, Nightside and Moondancer are pretty human-like and not unattractive.
Guest-Star Party Member: As previously mentioned, the Guard once drafted Star-Lord into their ranks, making him this whenever he appeared alongside them.
Human Aliens: Smasher, Voyager and Titan are easily the most human-like members of the Imperial Guard.
Humanoid Aliens: Hussar, Manta, Earthquake and Plutonia are humanoid looking, but they're certainly more alien than a Kree or Shi'ar.
I Need a Freaking Drink: During Realm of Kings, knowing they're very likely to die fighting the Cancerverse, Fang shares some contraband wine with his teammates Starbolt, Neutron and Flashfire. While Fang and Flashfire make it back, Starbolt and Neutron do not.
Intangibility: Being based on Phantom Girl, Astra can do this. She can even match Kitty Pryde while intangible.
Jerkass: Most of them are jerks to those who are not their companions.
Legacy Character: Whenever one of the 'Superguardians' gets killed, they are replaced by a successor who takes their codename and powers.
Master of Illusion: Being based on Projectra, Magique can cast illusions.
Mauve Shirt: The first Starbolt and Neutron get some limelight on the issues they're killed fighting the Cancerverse.
Mook Horror Show: Before he became the Shi'ar Majestor, Vulcan tore through the Imperial Guard like rice paper, slaughtering Cosmo, Impulse, Neutron, Smasher and Titan before finally being stopped by Gladiator.
My Master, Right or Wrong: Much like their leader Gladiator, the Guard's loyalty is to the Empire, as such they have served as both support and antagonists depending on the story.
No Dress Code: For a Praetorian Guard, they don't have much in the way of a uniform, with each member dressing completely different. Some don't even wear clothes, like Earthquake and Warstar.
Quirky Miniboss Squad: When they're being written seriously, the Imperial Guard are a terrifying threat. When they aren't, they're... basically the X-Men's Ginyu Force.
Persona Non Grata: The first Neutron supported Deathbird in her coup against her sister Lilandra. Even though all the guardsmen were pardoned, Neutron was no longer welcome in his home planet.
Powers as Programs: Smasher's 'power' is having a device called an Exospex that s/he can use to download powers in this way.
Praetorian Guard: They are the main protectors of the Shi'ar Majestor or Majestrix. They are even led by a Praetor.
Replacement Flat Character: Many of the new guardsmen don't get to show more personality when compared to their predecessors. The new Starbolt, Mentor and Plutonia being examples. This has occasionally been lampshaded, with Vulcan inspecting the Guard, then pausing by one Guardsmen and asking, vaguely puzzled, "Didn't I kill you?"
Sizeshifter: Titan and Scintilla, being based on Colossal Boy and Shrinking Violet, respectively.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Justified as the Guard seems to be composed of roles rather than individuals and those roles can be filled by another after the original dies, i.e. how they've had no less than half a dozen different Smashers.
Starfish Aliens: Webwing, who looks like an alien octopus.
They Killed Kenny Again: Smasher has the rare honor of having been killed and succeeded six times, the most recent being the human Isabel 'Izzy' Kane.
Token Human: Izzy Kane is currently the only human in the Imperial Guard, unless one counts Star-Lord (who is normally exclusive to the Guardians of the Galaxy but once got drafted into the Guard's ranks).
True Companions: If they live long enough for their teammates to get to know them, they become this.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Hobgoblin (no relationship to the more famous Hobgoblin) can do this, being based on Chameleon Boy.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Some of its members have been killed on the same issue or shortly after they've been introduced.
We Have Reserves: The sad reality they face, knowing that when one of them dies, they will be replaced by a member of the same species, or a clone for that matter.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Combined with Men Are the Expendable Gender in the case of Smasher, as the human Smasher Izzy Kane is the only one of the half dozen Smashers that is female and human. Being these two things, she is also the only one of them that isn't treated like a Red Shirt joke character.
The Worm That Walks: Squorm is a hive of thousands of vastly intelligent, tiny worm-like creatures that control a suit.

Gladiator

Kallark / Gladiator

Species: Strontian

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #107 (1977)

"I am Gladiator, Superguardian of the Shi'ar Imperium. My sworn duty is to preserve stellar harmony."

Praetor of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, Gladiator is also its single most powerful citizen, having subjected himself to an enhancement process in his youth along with nine other candidates to earn his current rank and title. He serves the Shi'ar throne with Undying Loyalty.

The Ace: He is this for the Shi'ar Empire as a whole, as their most powerful champion and most dedicated protector.
Always Someone Better:
- At full power Gladiator easily overpowered all the earthly heroes he met. Then he met Thor. Later, he came again, backed by the Imperial Guard, to bring his son home... and very unwisely picked a fight with the Phoenix Five, X-Men who were temporarily supercharged by the cosmic power of the Phoenix.
- In the Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire storyline he is the brick-in-the-face messenger of this trope to Vulcan, and numerous storylines later remains one of the few characters who has managed a decisive victory over him.
Amazing Technicolor Population: He has violet skin.
Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Not only is he the strongest member of the Imperial Guard, he is often stated to be the strongest individual in the entirety of the Shi'ar Empire.
Bodyguard Crush: Often depicted as having romantic feelings for Lilandra. He's far too noble to ever voice them, though.
Break the Haughty: Of all Gladiator's defeats, the most brutal of them was the time he tried to go up against Cassandra Nova, Professor Xavier's Evil Twin and a hugely powerful telepath. Nova was at the peak of her borderline-Eldritch Abomination power at the time, and effortlessly rendered Gladiator catatonic while cruelly mocking her effect on him:
Cassandra Nova: Oh, now look what Gladiator has done... he's gone and wet his silly romper suit.
Casual Interstellar Travel: His abilities allow him to fly through space effortlessly, though he still needs the Shi'ar stargates to travel the galaxy-spanning distance between Chandilar and Earth.
Chest Insignia: He wouldn't be a Superman Expy without one. In his case it's some sort of triangle, although its significance hasn't been explored.
Clashing Cousins: His cousin Xenith, The Strontian, is his enemy.
Deadpan Snarker: During The Trial of Jean Grey, he has a moment when talking to the time-displaced teen Cyclops.
Gladiator: Scott Summers. The older you would know better than to test me this day.
Scott: Give me Jean Grey or I will kill you.
Gladiator: I take it back. You sound exactly like the older you.
Delinquent Hair: A dark blue mohawk... one is tempted to say he foresaw the rise of '80s Hair and decided to beat it to the punch.
The Dragon: He makes his first appearance as the Dragon of Shi'ar emperor D'ken and his sworn loyalty to the Shi'ar Empire means he ends up taking this role to whoever is currently in charge, be it a Reasonable Authority Figure like Lilandra or a mad Galactic Conqueror like Vulcan.
Dragon Ascendant: As pretty much the last man standing in the Shi'ar after the War of Kings, he became majestor by default and has remained in the role ever since. One gets the feeling he's still just warming the chair for the day Lilandra or Vulcan turn back up, though. In the end, he cedes the throne to Xandra, artificially created daughter of Lilandra and Charles Xavier.
Enemy Mine: He once aided the X-Men in a fight against a team of rogue Imperial Guardsmen serving the Shi'ar traitor Lord Samedar.
Evil Parents Want Good Kids: Not evil, but usually bound by a My Country, Right or Wrong attitude that brings him into conflict with the X-Men, and occasionally an absolute douche. Nevertheless, he sent his son Kubark a.k.a. Kid Gladiator (a previously unmanageable Royal Brat with Flying Brick powers) to be a student at Wolverine’s new school, in the hope that the X-Men could straighten him out. And, astonishingly, he was right, with Kid Gladiator becoming much more classically heroic and a Jerk with a Heart of Gold rather than a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk.
Eye Beams: Powerful enough to pierce the Hulk's skin, though not powerful enough to injure Apocalypse.
Expy: Aside for the obvious similarities with Superman, Gladiator is visually inspired by Omac, one of the characters Jack Kirby made for DC.
Face–Heel Revolving Door: Often caught in this, owing to his My Country, Right or Wrong attitude. Whether the Shi'ar are trying to rescue or destroy a world, he will side with them anyway.
Flight: His body generates and manipulates anti-graviton particles, enabling him to fly unaided.
Flying Brick: As Marvel's original Superman analogue (the Imperial Guard were in many respects palette swaps of the Legion of Superheroes) this is his basic power set, though he also has most of Superman's secondary powers (Eye Beams, Frost Breath, Super-Senses, Super-Speed, and so on).
Honor Before Reason: His devotion to My Country, Right or Wrong often forces him into obeying the whims of rulers that are clearly evil (D'ken), insane (Vulcan), or some combination of both (Deathbird).
Horrible Judge of Character: Possibly. In the 2019 New Mutants series, he figures Deathbird, Deathbird of all people, is a good choice for Xandra's mentor in politics. On the other hand, considering how brutal Shi'ar politics often are (of their last four rulers aside from Gladiator himself, three have been evil, and the only sane one was assassinated - as was one of the evil ones), plus Deathbird having somewhat mellowed out, he might not be entirely wrong.
An Ice Person: In keeping with his origins as a Superman expy, he has icy breath.
The Juggernaut: He is one of the strongest beings in the universe on his day (his powers fluctuate with his confidence) and is pretty much unstoppable by earthly standards. In one appearance he manhandled The Juggernaut himself with ease.
Klingon Promotion: He was named Praetor of the Imperial Guard as a reward for executing the elder members of his own people. Later he gets a less-planned promotion when Lilandra is assassinated and Vulcan goes MIA at the end of the War of Kings. When Xandra turns up, he happily cedes the throne to her.
Last of His Kind: Last of the Strontians in an obvious parallel to Superman and Kryptonians. As if it wasn't obvious enough, he later gains a Supergirl analogue in Xenith, with the little difference that he and Xenith do not get along, on account of her being completely bug-nuts insane.
Lightning Bruiser: At his peak he is one of Marvel's best, being depicted as strong enough to destroy planets with his blows and fast enough to fly at a hundred times the speed of light.
Love Cannot Overcome: He and Lilandra have feelings for one another, but her siding against D'ken soured that. Kallark did love her, but his loyalty to the throne outweighed his feelings. Then she became empress, and he couldn't date his boss, and she was with Charles, so that was that. Her dying put a final nail in the coffin, so to speak.
My Country, Right or Wrong: His devotion to the Shi'ar Empire is so absolute that the he was the only member of their race to obey an order from the Shi'ar emperor to execute his own people's elder members.
My Master, Right or Wrong: Subverted for most of his appearances, as he consistently states he is loyal to the Shi'ar Empire itself rather than any single person ruling it, hence how he can stand to obey rulers like D'ken and Vulcan. However, late in the War of Kings he finally has enough of Vulcan and defects to Lilandra (and later supports her daughter without question), playing this trope straight.
Nigh-Invulnerability: Fuelled by his Psychoactive Powers, Gladiator is almost totally invulnerable. At his peak, he's capable of going though the Sun's core easily.
Noble Top Enforcer: Top cop of the Shi'ar Empire and one of its most noble citizens, though this often works against him.
Older Than They Look: He doesn't look it but he was born an unspecific number of "centuries ago".
One-Man Army: He defeats the Fantastic Four on his own with frightening ease.
Praetorian Guard: The Shi'ar Imperial Guard, which he leads. His title as its leader is even 'Praetor' to drive the point home.
Primary-Color Champion: He's the champion of the Shi'ar Empire, and his outfit is fittingly red, blue and yellow.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: He is this not for the Strontians, but for the Shi'ar Empire itself. As he puts it, "Like many adopted sons, I am fiercely devoted."
Psychoactive Powers: His race is stated to only be able to access their great powers if they are "completely devoted to a purpose". To wit, Gladiator's powers are fueled entirely by his confidence and sense of purpose, waxing and waning wildly in strength from story to story, hence why he can be a cosmic bruiser in the same weight-class as Thor on one day, then punked by Cannonball on another.
Puny Humans: Had this attitude at first. Nowadays, it's more a mix of Worthy Opponent and frustration that they simply will not stop meddling with Things Man Was Not Meant to Know and the fundamental underpinnings of the universe - like frequently screwing with the Time Stream and the Ultimates transforming Galactus from devourer of worlds into creator of worlds. While the latter would normally be cause for celebration, it's also the sort of thing that has previously had cosmic scale consequences (and did). However, Alpha Flight cynically - and possibly accurately - speculate that he, and the Shi'ar in general, are mainly annoyed because they didn't think of it first.
Purple Is Powerful: He has purple skin, dark purple hair, and is the strongest member of the Shi'ar Empire.
Reasonable Authority Figure: As both leader of the Imperial Guard and Majestor of the Empire itself.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Lilandra gets shot in War of Kings, he goes after Chancellor Araki, mowing his way through the Supercommandoes to get him.
Shout-Out: His name is a shout-out to the 1930 novel Gladiator that is said to have partially inspired Superman. His real name, Kallark, is based on Superman's both Kryptonian and American names: Kal-El and Clark Kent.
Smug Super: In his more Jerkass moments he has affected this attitude.
Species Loyalty: Subverted, as his loyalty to the Empire outweighs his loyalty to his own people.
Strong as They Need to Be: Due to his powers being reliant on his confidence he is pretty much the anthropomorphic personification of Power Creep, Power Seep, with his power level swinging from Pre-Crisis Superman at his strongest to not even being able to handle a single C-list mutant like Cannonball at his weakest. While he's usually depicted at the high end these days, the only constant where Gladiator's power is concerned is that he'll be exactly as strong or as weak as the storyline he's in requires him to be.
Superman Substitute: All the Shi'ar Imperial Guard's members were this to various members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, and as their leader it should come as no surprise that Gladiator is basically Marvel's answer to Superman.
Superpower Lottery: He ranks up there with the likes of Exodus and Vulcan in the X-corner of the Marvel Universe, so much so that he was once able to deal Vulcan one of his rare defeats. His powers include the classic Flying Brick combination, plus Eye Beams, Super-Speed, Super-Senses and icy breath, all of which are fuelled by his confidence.
Super-Senses: Has Superman-level reflexes and x-ray vision.
Super-Speed: Arguably Marvel's fastest character at his peak. Recorded by Reed Richards to fly within the Solar System at a hundreds time the speed of light.
Super-Strength: The limits of his physical strength are arguably incalculable. Some of his classic feats include lifting the Baxter Building with ease, destroying a planet with the force of his blows and his son described seeing him tearing apart black holes.
Took a Level in Jerkass: During The Trial of Jean Grey, combined with Took a Level in Dumbass, as both Oracle and J'son of Spartax point out - the teenage Jean is not the Phoenix and is just a scared little girl, but if he keeps on pushing her, then he might wind up unleashing the Phoenix anyway. As it happens, he doesn't, but Jean does still wind up fighting him to a standstill.
Trojan Prisoner: In one plotline Lilandra sends him to infiltrate the Kyln space prison disguised as a prisoner.
Unwitting Pawn: Gladiator isn't quite dim enough to qualify for Dumb Muscle, but compared to most of the other Shi'ar characters he's very prone to being manipulated by his superiors, as well as being outwitted in battle by physically weaker but mentally swifter characters.
Weaksauce Weakness:
- Aside from the need for confidence detailed above, Strontians are also vulnerable to magic. Do we even have to tell you why at this point?
- He's also vulnerable to radiation, an additional weakness seemingly tacked on just so The Incredible Hulk could get a leg up on him that time the two characters fought.
Weak to Magic: A weakness he shares with all Strontians.
The Worf Effect: A beneficiary of this in an early appearance, as he worfed the Juggernaut to establish his Badass cred. Most later appearances would see him as a victim of it instead, to the point where fans often crack wise about him losing 5 fights for every fight he has won.
Worthy Opponent: Considers the X-Men as this after all the run-ins he's had with them over the years, enough that he trusts them with straightening out his unmanageable Royal Brat of a son (and astonishingly, they succeed). Also considers the Avengers and humanity in general to be this following the events of Infinity.

Oracle

Sybil / Oracle

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/f30e3ba5_fb55_4f4d_9c85_63934a571fed.jpeg

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #107 (1977)

A telepathic alien whose mental powers allow her to serve as the Imperial Guard's go-to for psychic threats. Usually there to get worfed.

Captain Ersatz: For Saturn Girl, being a telepathic girl.
Expository Hairstyle Change: When she first debuted, she was a girly girl with long hair, these days she's something of a hard-ass and has a punkish short spiky hairdo.
Green-Skinned Space Babe: She's got pale blue skin but is pretty attractive and human-like.
Expressive Hair: Her hair style constantly changes from story to story and you can usually tell what role she'll be taking by it. Down long, she'll be more passive. Short or mohawked, she'll be taking a more active role. Poofy hair, you're reading her earliest appearances.
Monochromatic Eyes: Her eyes are completely blank.
My Master, Right or Wrong: While she didn't like it, she dutifully served under Vulcan and later Gladiator.
Mysterious Past: Nothing is known of her history prior to joining the Imperial Guard. The sole indicator is that she is often referred to as Lady Sybil, indicating possible nobility.
Nominal Importance: She's one of the few Imperial Guardsmen whose real name was revealed, and she has survived events that took several of her companions.
Number Two: Oracle has become this for Gladiator after losing so many members.
Overshadowed by Awesome: She's the most skilled telepath in the Imperial Guard, but she's completely surpassed by telepaths like Professor X.
Pink Is Feminine: Her outfit stands out for being pink.
Psychic Powers: Oracle is the team's usual go-to telepath.
The Worf Effect: She's supposedly the premiere telepath of the Shi'ar Empire's, but is always just below whatever telepathic opponent she happens to be facing.

Mentor

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/4cd535e0_a36d_4fb5_a258_7e6a8b6c1f81.jpeg

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #107 (1977)

Amazing Technicolor Population: He's got green skin.
Captain Ersatz: He's the counterpart for Brainiac 5.
Jerkass: Much like Brainy, he can be an insufferable wad.
Legacy Character: Mentor is a title that has been held by multiple people. When a member of the Guard dies, a member of their respective race takes their place.
The Smart Guy: Being based on Brainiac-5, he serves this role.

Warstar

B'nee and C'cil / Warstar

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bnee_and_ccll_earth_616_from_official_handbook_of_the_marvel_universe_a_z_update_vol_1_4_001.jpg

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #107 (1977)

A pair of alien "mechaniotes" who have a symbiotic relationship that allows them to act as a single being.

The Big Guy: Among the most recurring Imperial Guard members, Warstar is usually the largest and tallest.
Big Guy, Little Guy: Warstar are two aliens in a symbiotic relationship. B'nee is the brains and is always on a perch on C'cil's back, while he's the brawn and not very intelligent.
Brains and Brawn: Pretty obvious B'nee is the brain while C'cll the brawn.
The Dividual: They are always together and talk as if they're one and the same.
Elite Mook: To the Imperial Guard itself, as a War of Kings tie-in comic revealed that B'Nee and C'Cil are just two of several hundred Warstar units, though they are easily the two most prominent and successful units of the Warstar line.
Flat Character: It's not really not what makes him (or them, rather) tick. B'Nee is The Quiet One, and C'Cil is... also mostly quiet. That's about all there is to Warstar.
Green and Mean: A cybernetic character with a green body who's almost always portrayed in an antagonistic role.
Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Warstar once betrayed the Empire by siding with the Shi'ar traitor Lord Samedar, and was punished for it by being exiled to Earth during the "Maximum Security" event in which the Shi'ar very foolishly decided to use Earth as their personal prison colony. After this he was pardoned and reinstated into the Guard's ranks.
Mechanical Lifeforms: He's identified as a "mechaniote" and while he has the typical Mysterious Past of Imperial Guard members, he's been consistently described as an alien rather than a robot. Realm of Kings reveals that the duo are part of a series of Warstar units produced in the several hundreds.
Shock and Awe: B'nee can electrically shock opponents with his touch.
Super-Persistent Predator: One issue of Captain America focused on Warstar attempting to abduct Cap/Hulk supporting character Rick Jones, and for Rick and Cap Warstar very much played this trope to the hilt.
Shout-Out: Sound those names out.
Your Size May Vary: Warstar's height has been given as both 7'2" and 14'2 and he's been drawn at both heights. Like Frenzy, he seems to be one of those characters originally designed to be huge who later got shrunken down to more mundane size by lazy artists.

Fang

Species: Lupakite

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #107 (1977)

Fang is an alien member of the Shi'ar Imperal Guard. He is mostly known for having his costume taken by Wolverine, who used it for some time.

Beast Man: Being based on Timber Wolf, he comes from a species of them called Lupaks.
Bizarre Alien Biology: They have a semi-autonomous gland that's invisible to the human eye. The gland floats about a foot away from their body. If it's destroyed, they die. If not, they can always come back.
Captain Ersatz: Of Timber Wolf from the Legion of Super Heroes (ironic, since Wolverine is already in many ways a Captain Ersatz of Timber Wolf).
Evil Counterpart: Not really evil so much as antagonistic, but he's basically an inferior alien version of Wolverine.
Clothing Switch: As mentioned above, he is most famous for having his costume stolen from him by Wolverine.
Pointy Ears: His ears are long and pointy.
Unexplained Recovery: The very first Fang was killed by The Brood, yet reappeared several years later, apparently recovering thanks to his Lupak physiology.
Vitriolic Best Buds: The second Fang and the first Neutron. Fang's rather saddened when Neutron is killed.

Earthquake

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #137 (1980)

A member of the Imperial Guard, Earthquake can psionically cause earthquakes and tremors in land.

Humanoid Aliens: He's humanoid but his skin appears to be made of stone.
Mauve Shirt: He doesn't have that much of a developed personality, but he's often seen alongside the rest of the guard in crowd shots.
Non-Humans Lack Attributes: He doesn't appear to have genitals and is one of the more obviously alien members of the guard.
Shockwave Stomp: Earthquake can do this.

Hussar

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #137 (1980)

Hussar is a member of the Imperial Guard and her duty is to protect and defend the ruler and the Shi'ar galactic empire. She defends herself with a whip that can channel a bioelectric shock.

Amazing Technicolor Population: She has bright red skill red skin.
Bizarre Alien Limbs: She only has three fingers on each hand and her feet have two claws.
Leotard of Power: Hussar wears a white one.
Lightning Lash: Hussar's weapon is a neuro-whip that she can channel electricity into.
The Paralyser: Her neuro-whip somehow affects the nervous systems of the people she hits with it, causing them to become paralyzed.
Rubber-Forehead Aliens: She has a prominent forehead, her arms appear to be feathered, her hands only have three fingers and her feet only have two claws.
Whip of Dominance: She's a stoic and authoritative Imperial Guard who wields a whip in battle, and often talks about using her whip to make her enemies subjugate to her and the Shi'ar Empire.

Manta

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #137 (1980)

Manta is a long-standing member of the Imperial Guard, currently serving under Gladiator, the ruler of the Shi'ar empire. She perceives her environment through infrared vision, and can generate blasts of intense light, heat, and concussive force from her wings, which also allow her to fly.

Alien Hair: She's an alien and has no hair.
Blinded by the Light: By opening a cape she releases a flash of blue-white light which dazzles and blinds everyone to fall within its influence. It has been described as brighter than the stars but it is unknown if this is true or just hyperbole.
Cast from Lifespan: The light is connected to her life force and attempts to disrupt it causes her harm.
Flight: Manta can fly but whether this is a natural power or use of an anti-gravity device is unknown.
Infrared X-Ray Camera: Manta has infrared vision.
Light 'em Up: Manta can shoot light from her body. It seems to be tied to her life force.
Support Party Member: She can disorient enemies but has little offensive power on her own and mostly acts as support to the more powerful Imperial Guard members.

Smasher

Vril Rokk / Smasher

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #137 (1980)

A long-standing member of the Imperial Guard, Vril Rokk was the first and longest-running character to use the Smasher identity. He was killed in battle with Vulcan, and his codename has since been taken up by at least four other characters.

Bash Brothers: He liked and teamed up with Thunderstrike, Thor's brief successor from the nineties.
Captain Ersatz: Of Ultra Boy, from the Legion of Superheroes.
Flying Brick: He's naturally tough, he's got the standard Guardsman Flight patch that allows him to fly, and his exospex let him download whatever other power he needs to be a low-rent Superman.
Human Aliens: A lot of the Guard's members are humanoid, but Smasher has no alien features at all to distinguish him from a human.
Killed Off for Real: After everything he survived, a cheap blast from behind from Vulcan was what did him in.
Shout-Out: His name is a riff on two members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Brainiac 5 (Vril Dox) and Cosmic Boy (Rokk Krinn).
Super-Strength: Usually this is the power he downloads with his Exospex.
Super-Toughness: This is his only natural power; everything else he can do comes from equipment.
They Killed Kenny Again: His successors seem to die much more than any other Imperial Guard member. It took making a human woman take the role to make writers ease off on the gleeful Smasher-killing.
Upgrade Artifact: His sunglasses are actually an alien device called an Expospex that allows him to download Powers as Programs.

Commando

M'Nell / Commando

Species: Kree

Citizenship: Kree/Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Imperial Guard #1 (1996)

A Kree soldier recruited to serve in the Imperial Guard's ranks after the Kree Empire was (temporarily) absorbed by the Shi'ar.

Amazing Technicolor Population: Like most of the noteworthy Kree, M'Nell has blue skin.
Broken Pedestal: He revered the Kree Supreme Intelligence until he found out it intentionally wiped out 90% of the Kree population to jumpstart their evolution.
Clothes Make the Superman: When first introduced he was just a well-trained Kree wearing a suit of Powered Armor not dissimilar to Ronan's. He quickly manifested actual superpowers, but still kept the suit.
Cool Helmet: Usually wears a goggled green helm into battle.
Conflicting Loyalty: He was initially conflicted about serving in the Guard (as much as many of the Guard's members were about having a Kree among their ranks) but during the Imperial Guard miniseries he and the other Guardsmen worked out their differences. And then he disappeared.
Energy Absorption: He can absorb nega-radiation, and with enough of it he becomes a heavy-hitter to rival Gladiator.
Hot-Blooded: For a Kree soldier from the already-snobbish society's upper caste, he's got a surprisingly light fuse.
Immigrant Patriotism: He's a Kree who joined the Guard after his people were conquered by the Shi'ar, and despite numerous occasions when he could have returned home he chose to stay with the Guard instead.
Intrigued by Humanity: Initially looked down on humans but witnessing the bravery of Rick Jones made him swing the other way on that position.
My Species Doth Protest Too Much: He was introduced as the atypical Kree, worshiping the Supreme Intelligence while looking down on all those Puny Humans. His experiences on Earth cured him of this, and by the mini's end he renounced Kree culture entirely.
Shout-Out: His name is based on the Legion of Super-Heroes member Mon-El, continuing the tradition of LoSH references among the Guard's members.
Vitriolic Best Buds: Him and fellow Imperial Guardsman Flashfire have this relationship.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Following the 90's Imperial Guard mini, he vanished for close to 20 years. He then reappeared for two issues of the Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard mini but was only used as a background character and hasn't been seen since.

Others

Chancellor Araki

Species: Shi'ar

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: X-Men #109 (November, 1977)

The chancellor of the Shi'ar Empire, and right-hand man to whoever is presently in charge of the Empire.

Capture and Replicate: During Operation: Galactic Storm, he was abducted by Skrulls manipulating the Shi'ar and Kree. Nobody realized until Living Lightning accidentally fried his imposter.
Dirty Coward: Araki has no fighting experience, being a politician and bureaucrat. When he's face to face with an insanely angry Gladiator bearing down on him, he tries hiding behind the Death Squad.
Evil Chancellor: Not at first, at least by technicality, but after Cassandra Nova's rampage he assisted the coup attempt to restore D'Ken, then went along with the assassination attempt on Lilandra.
Number Two: His job. And he managed to survive D'Ken, Deathbird and Vulcan, so he's pretty good at smooth-talking lunatics, if nothing else.

Kid Gladiator

Kubark / Kid Gladiator

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kubark_earth_616_from_wolverine_and_the_x_men_annual_vol_1_1.jpg

Species: Strontian

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Wolverine and the X-Men #1 (December, 2011)

Kubark, known as Kid Gladiator, is the son of Emperor Gladiator. The young prince was sent to the planet Earth by his father to train and learn more about his powers, and enrolled in the Jean Grey School For Higher Learning.

Captain Ersatz: Just like his father is a Superman Substitute, he's based on Superboy, both of them; Conner Kent and Jonathan Kent.
Commuting on a Bus: While his father continues to appear whenever there's focus on the Shi'ar Empire, Kid Gladiator is rarely seen unless the plot demands it.
Cool Shades: Red-tinted shades that can withstand his Eye Beams, and he's never seen without them.
Delinquent Hair: Like his father, hence his nickname of "Prince Mohawk".
Fiery Redhead: Unlike his father's dark purple hair, his hair is red and he's a fiery teen.
Last of His Kind: It's not clear if he's a full-blooded Strontian or a half-blood, but he, his father and evil cousin Xenith are the only known Strontians in existence.
Missing Mom: His mother has never been mentioned.
Parent-Child Team: Now he fights alongside his father to defend the Shi'ar Empire.
Royal Brat: His father was Majestor when he was introduced, and he destroyed part of a city for fun. Luckily now he's more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
Vague Age: While his father is apparently centuries old, Kid Gladiator's age is ambiguous beyond looking and acting like a teenager.

Warbird

Ava'Dara Naganandini / Warbird

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2466421_wb6.jpg

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

Species: Shi'ar

First Appearance: Wolverine and the X-Men #1 (December, 2011)

Kid Gladiator's most trusted bodyguard. She was sent to protect him during his stay at the Jean Grey school for Higher Learning.

Bodyguarding a Badass: She might be Kubark's bodyguard, but as a Strontian he's much stronger than she is.
Child Hater: She was assigned to protect Kubark in hopes she would grow to hate children so she would be more efficient as an assassin. It didn't work and they became Fire-Forged Friends.
Death By Child Birth: Not her, but her mother. In the comic that focused on her, she mentioned as a baby she clawed her way out of the alien mother used to give birth to her. This appears to be a common happening with the Sh'iar.
Do You Want to Copulate?: Says to Bobby she wants to conduct a "mating ritual" with him after seeing him freeze and entire area.
Dual Wielding: Sometimes she wields two blades instead of just one.
Facial Markings: Has them that look like tears.
Fish out of Water: Being a warrior for most of her life means she's not used to human activities, like pottery.
Hidden Depths: She's not satisfied with just being a warrior and so she took up art.
Interspecies Romance: Has expressed interest on Iceman, Quicksilver and Doop.
One-Steve Limit: Her codename, which is shared by her group, is also one that Carol Danvers used.
Mystical White Hair: One of the few seen Shi'ar with white hair and a Designer Babies.
Navel-Deep Neckline: Her Warbird outfit exposes all the way past her navel.
Stripperiffic: As Warbird she exposes almost as much as Lady Mastermind.

Xenith

Xenith / The Strontian

Species: Strontian

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Star Masters #1 (December, 1995)

Xenith was a member of the short-lived Star Masters team. A cousin of Gladiator of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, she is now the leader of Vulcan's Preatorian Elite.

Amazonian Beauty: She has incredibly toned arms and is pretty attractive by human standards.
Ax-Crazy: She likes killing people in incredibly violent ways. Her cousin is not exempt from that.
Bald of Evil: A female example of this trope. While introduced with dark purple hair, she is bald when she reappears in War of Kings, which contrasts with her cousin Gladiator's signature mohawk, signifying her role as a villain.
Boxed Crook: She was freed from imprisonment by Vulcan to serve at his own Praetorian Guard.
The Bus Came Back: Stopped appearing in the mid-nineties and returned for War of Kings during the 2000s.
Clashing Cousins: Her cousin Kallark defeated and imprisoned her when she turned against the Imperium. She serves Vulcan with the promise of killing Kallark as revenge.
Distaff Counterpart: To Gladiator.
Evil Counterpart: She's Kallark without any of his redeeming traits.
Expy: As Gladiator is an expy of Superman, Xenith is an expy of Supergirl, being his female cousin. Given her bust size and cleavage, however, she can also be considered an expy of Power Girl.
Kick the Dog: During the War of Kings, she slaughtered an entire battalion of Nova Corpsmen after they were defeated.
Last of Her Kind: She's possibly the only remaining female Strontian.
Navel-Deep Neckline: Her new outfit as the Strontian is open all the way to her navel.
Pointy Ears: Her ears are sharp and pointy.
Purple Is Powerful: Like Gladiator, she has purple skin and is very powerful and dangerous.
The Smurfette Principle: The only female amongst Vulcan's Praetorians.

Deathcry

Sharra Neramani / Deathcry

Notable Aliases: Lifecry

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

Species: Shi'ar

First Appearance: Avengers #363 (June, 1993)

Sharra Neramani is a young and skilled Shi'ar warrior, who joined the Avengers when she was exiled to Earth, and took upon the name Deathcry.

Anime Hair: Her hair forms some sort of horns, which is rather different from regular Shi'ar styles.
Beneath the Mask: Her tough warrior persona is used to hide her real self: a teenage girl scared, nervous and confused after being exiled for reasons she doesn't even know. Her room at the Mansion is even filled with stuffed animals. She eventually became a tough warrior for real however.
Berserk Button: As a Proud Warrior Race Gal, she WILL try to murder you if you kill her targets. This lead to her death when she was on Star-Lord's Proto-Guardians team when she attempted to kill her teammate Captain Universe for doing so. She was completely obliterated by the Uni Force when Gabe acted in self defense.
Dark Age Of Super Names: Deathcry is quite an edgy name. She fittingly debuted in 1993.
Fatal Flaw: A mix of pride and her temper makes her jump Captain Universe in the middle of a fight for a perceived insult to her abilities making her unable to keep herself in check.
Femme Fatalons: Deathcry possessed a retractable, extremely sharp and durable claw at the tip of each finger.
Forgotten Fallen Friend: Barring a one-off mention, none of the proto-Guardians were terribly sorry to see her go, and forget about her entirely afterward.
Green-Skinned Space Babe: She's a Shi'ar with purple skin and she's not bad looking.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: As a Shi'ar, her pride as a warrior is one of the most important things in their lives.
Royally Screwed Up: Her mother, grandfather and uncle are all evil sociopaths.
Super-Senses: Her reflexes were similarly enhanced and were superior to those of the finest human athlete.
Super-Strength: Deathcry was superhumanly strong and possessed greater physical strength than the average member of her race. At her peak, she could lift approximately 2 tons.

Eric The Red

Davan Shakari

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e5e8ec35_68d7_4d84_8c5a_b63ed668715c.jpeg

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

Species: Shi'ar

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #97 (1976)

An agent of the Shi'ar Imperial Intelligence during Emperor D'ken's reign and the majestor's hand on Earth.

Costume Copycat: Cyclops and Magneto have both used the Eric the Red identity, the former bizarrely using it even before the character was officially introduced.
Hoist by His Own Petard: He was hired to hypnotize Adam-X, and ultimately met his final (X-Treme) end by that hero's hand.
Horns of Villainy: Being an older villain, his getup sports these.
Humiliation Conga: After D'ken's death, he was discharged by the Shi'ar military and forced to become a mercenary.
Killed Off for Real: By Adam-X, who ignited his blood and turned him into Ludicrous Gibs.
The Real Remington Steele: Cyclops used both the name and costume as a disguise in the early early days. Then during the Phoenix Saga, Shakari showed up confusing Scott. This was never really explained.
Powered Armor: He had no unique superhuman powers and derived all his strength from the armor he wore, which protected him from telepathic probes and allowed him to trap enemies in a "cerebral lock".
Reassigned to Antarctica: How he felt about being assigned to Earth.
Red Is Violent: Wears a predominantly red armor and has no compunctions about resorting to violence.
Spell My Name With An S: His name has been rendered as both Eric and Erik, though per his Marvel Handbook entry the former is the official canon spelling.

Shi'ar Death Commandos

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #467 (2006)

A group of Shi'ar professional killers. They killed all the members of Jean Grey's family (including her parents) except for Rachel Grey. The Shi'ar sanctioned the murders in order to ensure there would be no new host for the Phoenix force after Rachel would die.

Ambiguously Gay: When Magik asks Flaw, Offset and Hypernova if they want to make out with her, the first two answer in the negative but Hypernova says she wouldn't be opposed to it if she wasn't on the clock.
Anything but That!: SeGa can't stand the thought of being turned from gaseous to solid form when the New Mutants threaten him to do so.
Bird People: Krait looks a humanoid eagle with wings to fly.
The Brute: This is Shell's role, being a Rock Monster with limited thinking.
Butter Face: Offset has the body of a Green-Skinned Space Babe but her head is that of an insect.
Cold Sniper: Warshot serves as the team's sniper.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: They're quite a varied group, with different powersets and appearances.
Evil Wears Black: Black Cloak is characterized by their dark outfits.
Has a Type: When Magik asks if they want to make out, Offset answers she doesn't have enough arms for her tastes.
Karma Houdini Warranty: After avoiding punishment for murdering the entire Grey family with the exception of Rachel, they're all killed during War of Kings. The remainder died in New Mutants (2019) when they were sent to kill Deathbird.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Offset has four arms.
Navel-Deep Neckline: Both Hypernova and Offset have their cleavages exposed all the way to their navels.
Professional Killer: They're all hit-men working for the Shi'ar Empire and whoever hires them.
Sinister Shades: D'evo wears red shades.
Starfish Aliens: SeGa is some sort of sentient gaseous creature.
Sole Survivor: SeGa appears to be the only surviving member after their assassination attempt on Deathbird.
Two Girls to a Team: Offset and Hypernova are the only females.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Despite having the body of a War-Skrull, since Flaw has the brain of a Shi'ar he struggles to shapeshift.
Would Hurt a Child: They even killed the children of the Grey Family.
You Are in Command Now: After the death of the first Black Cloak, Flaw became their new leader.
Your Head Asplode: Rachel Grey used her powers to blow up the head of the first Black Cloak.

Characters / Marvel Comics: Shi'ar

Edit Locked

WARNING: There are unmarked spoilers on these sheets for all but the most recent comics.

In General

Shi'ar Empire

Royal Family

Majestor D'ken Neramani

Nationality: Shi'ar Empire

Species: Shi'ar

First Appearance: X-Men #97 (1976)

Cal'syee Neramani-Summers / Deathbird

Nationality: Shi'ar Empire

Species: Shi'ar

First Appearance: Ms. Marvel #9 (1977)

Majestrix Lilandra Neramani

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

Species: Shi'ar

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #97 (1976)

Gabriel "Gabe" Summers / Vulcan

Notable Aliases: Kid Vulcan, Emperor Vulcan, Majestor

Nationality: American, Krakoan

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1 (November, 2005)

Majestrix Xandra Neramani

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

Species: Genetically engineered Shi'ar/human mutant hybrid

First Appearance: Mr. and Mrs. X #1 (2018)

The Imperial Guard

Shi'ar Imperial Guard

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #107 (1977)

Kallark / Gladiator

Species: Strontian

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #107 (1977)

Sybil / Oracle

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #107 (1977)

Mentor

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #107 (1977)

B'nee and C'cil / Warstar

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #107 (1977)

Fang

Species: Lupakite

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #107 (1977)

Earthquake

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #137 (1980)

Hussar

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #137 (1980)

Manta

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #137 (1980)

Vril Rokk / Smasher

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #137 (1980)

M'Nell / Commando

Species: Kree

Citizenship: Kree/Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Imperial Guard #1 (1996)

Others

Species: Shi'ar

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: X-Men #109 (November, 1977)

Kubark / Kid Gladiator

Species: Strontian

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Wolverine and the X-Men #1 (December, 2011)

Ava'Dara Naganandini / Warbird

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

Species: Shi'ar

First Appearance: Wolverine and the X-Men #1 (December, 2011)

Xenith / The Strontian

Species: Strontian

Citizenship: Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance: Star Masters #1 (December, 1995)

Sharra Neramani / Deathcry