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Cover of Emperor Vulcan #1

You will show them greatness that D'Ken never possessed, you will show them strength that Lilandra never had. And they will love you for it.
— Deathbird to Vulcan

X-Men: Emperor Vulcan is a five-part miniseries by Christopher Yost.

The miniseries follows up on the stories set up in X-Men: Deadly Genesis where it was revealed that Professor X recruited a team of five X-Men to rescue his original students from the sentient island Krakoa. All but two of these recruits, Gabriel Summers (Vulcan) and Armando Muñoz (Darwin), perished and Xavier erased memories of them from the other X-Men's minds. Gabriel returned with the intent of exacting revenge upon Xavier but was stopped. Travelling into outer space, Gabriel leads a bloody coup upon the Shi'ar Empire which sees him kill several people including D'Ken, the eldest sibling of the Shi'ar royal family and Christopher Summers, Gabriel's own father. This put Gabriel into conflict with Lilandra and her allies including Alex Summers, who seeks to avenge his father's death.

The story focuses on the conflict between Vulcan a.k.a Gabriel Summers, the new ruler of the Shi'ar Empire (and former Shi'ar slave) and the rebellion against him which includes Lilandra, the former empress of the Shi'ar and the Starjammers led by Havok a.k.a Alex Summers, Vulcan's older brother.

The miniseries lasted from November 2007 to March 2008. The events of the series were continued in X-Men: Kingbreaker.


Emperor Vulcan contains examples of:

  • Abnormal Ammo: The Finality, the Scy'ar Tal's Kill Sat/space station, shoots dwarf stars.
  • Antagonist Title: Vulcan is the titular "Emperor Vulcan".
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Gabriel captures all of the Starjammers and Lilandra is forced to flee for her life.
  • Blatant Lies: Nightside says that she wants the human mutants to die in fire. Oracle, who is communication with Rachel, says that Nightside wants no harm to come to them as they are their new allies.
  • Cain and Abel:
    • Gabriel is the Cain to Alex's Abel. The former killed their father and is the main villain of the series. The Eldest expresses shock at the idea of two brothers fighting.
    • This also applies to Lilandra and her sister Deathbird. The former was a benevolent ruler while the latter sides with Vulcan and even marries him.
  • Downer Ending: The Starjammers are captured, the M'Kraan fail to get their revenge on the Shi'ar, Ka'ardum allies with Gabriel and Lilandra is forced to flee for her life since Gabriel will be after her.
  • Enemy Mine: Gabriel's forces and the Starjammers set aside their conflict in order to stop the Scy'ar Tal whose quest for the M'Kraan crystal could result in millions of lives being wiped out.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Vulcan might be a murderous lunatic but even he isn't willing to risk wiping out the entire universe just to get what he wants.
  • Insectoid Aliens: The Scy'ar Tal formerly known as the M'Kraan.
  • King Incognito: The first issue has Gabriel inconspicuously walking among the Shi'ar people to learn what they think of him.
  • Rings of Activation: Vulcan tries to kill Alex by throwing him into the vacuum of space. Alex survives by drawing power from a star, which grants him a Battle Aura composed of rings of blue light.
  • Star Power: Vulcan knocks Havok out of a space station. Instead of dying, Havok absorbs power from a star and defeats Vulcan.


Alternative Title(s): Emperor Vulcan

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