This article contains spoilers for X-Men ’97
Episode 6 of X-Men ’97 introduced the Shi’ar Empire once again, who appeared in the original Animated Series, way back in the 90s. The Empire’s greatest asset, the Shi’ar Imperial Guard, made an appearance in the episode once again, fighting Ronan the Accuser and soldiers of the Kree Empire. In addition to focusing on non-mutant characters, the episode brought in one of the X-Men’s most powerful adversaries, Gladiator.
The Shi’ar Imperial Guard is a team of heroes (or villains, depending on the storyline) that are made of the strongest members of the races that fall under the Shi’ar Empire. Modeled after DC’s Legion of Superheroes, there are a lot of characters that are often written off as one-to-one expys. Among these characters, stands Gladiator, the strongest that the Strontian race had to offer to The Empire, and (one of) Marvel’s very own homage to Superman.
Gladiator is very heavily Superman-coded by his creators in X-Men comics.
Gladiator made his debut in the comics in 1977, created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum. The character, like most of his fellow members of the Imperial Guard, was made as an homage to DC’s Legion of Superheroes. Gladiator was famously inspired by Superboy, with his ‘civilian’ name being Kallark, an amalgamation of the names Kal El and Clark Kent, both of which were Superman’s identities on Krypton and Earth respectively.
Gladiator came from a race that was similar to that of Kryptonians, named after another element on the Periodic Table. Gladiator had all the powers of Superman and then some, being one of the strongest opponents to the X-Men. Since his first appearance in the comics, the character has gone toe to toe with some of Marvel’s strongest, such as Galactus and Thor, and even became the ruler of the empire in the wake of the War of Kings storyline.
The Shi’ar Imperial Guard are all homages to Legion of Superheroes characters
As depicted in the teaser put up by Marvel before the episode aired, a quick glance at the members of the Imperial Guard would quickly betray who all have come to take the fight to Ronan in Episode 6 of X-Men ’97. There is Gladiator, who Superman/Superboy inspires. There is Atlas, who is an Expy of Colossal Boy, Starbolt, who is supposed to be an homage to Sun Boy, Smasher, who is understood to be a copy of Ultra Boy, and Electron, an Expy of Cosmic Boy. Additionally, the episode featured Flashfire, who is supposed to be a stand-in for Lightning Lad,
There are also three original members of the team, Earthquake, Warstar, and Manta, who do not have any direct connection to the Legion of Superheroes. Given that the Imperial Guard is making an appearance in an X-Men property, it is curious that Fang was left out of the mix. Fang hails from another planet in the Shi’ar Empire and is considered to be an homage to Timberwolf. What is interesting is that Timberwolf predates Wolverine, and looks distinctly like the X-Men character, causing a lot of fans to speculate if the latter drew inspiration from the former.
X-Men ’97 is now streaming on Dinsey+
