Today, I'm writing about "Rise and Fall of the Shi'Ar Empire by Ed Brusker, Billy Tan, and Clayton Henry. Those of you just familiar with the Saban series may remember the X-Men's missions that involved the Shi'Ar imperium. They were the one's with the facial markings and big black hairlike feathers.
SPOILERS - The lead in is the story of "Deadly Genesis" - SPOILERS
Leading into this story, there was the House of M event and the subsequent mutant decimation. This surge of mutant energy not only triggered a return of Apocalypse but also unearthed a dark secret from Xavier's past. In the 70's Wolverine and Storm's first X-Men team was created to rescue a first team who had been captured by a living continent called Krakoa. Before Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, etc.. were recruited, Xavier had sent in a a another team. That's right, there were others all this time. Xavier had lost contact with them, and other X-Men who would encounter with Krakoa would be oblivious to this team. Two members had somehow survived this time in a dormant status. Vulcan (the third Summers brother) and Darwin (a mutant who's ability to adapt in any way that would mean survival) had combined into one being, with Vulcan taking control. Like his brothers, Vulcan's abilities involve absorbing energy and letting it loose. With House of M, and Decimation, he took on so much energy that he became an "omega level" mutant with this heightened power he acted out in vengeance with devastating results. This didn't end with Earth, and a remorseful Xavier leads a team to try saving the Shi'Ar some grief.
Going into House of M, what we knew of Cyclops and Havok's origin was that they were of an Alaska family where the father was a pilot. During a family flight, the small plane encountered some malevolent Shi'ar craft. Scott and Alex parachuted down, but the parents were abducted. the father (who became the space pirate "Corsair") would later escape, but after seeing Emperor D'Ken kill his wife. It turns out that the wife was pregnant. The third Summers brother was torn from the womb and put an accelerated incubator until he was of ripe for enslavement. He would later escape, but now Vulcan wants payback.
One of D'Ken's sisters had been the empress for a long time, but trouble was brewing as rebels started trying to bring back a more warlike imperial regime. There's a handful of coups, killings, melees, and a wedding. We learn about the history of the Shi'Ar royal lineage, and how different individuals have tied to rule in different styles. Unfortunately, after a violent climax, we don't see much resolution as much of the staff gets prematurely sent back to Earth. Despite this arc being promoted as a big saga of an event, I feel that this was more an awesome chapter of a bigger story. Afterward, Brubaker would write one more story for Uncanny X-Men prior to Messiah Complex, while the story of Vulcan continued in a string of limited series by other creative teams. I had tried following it, but honestly, the story got too exhausting for me. I looked into what happened once the dust settled. some of the leaders from the story have been killed off and eventually, the head of the Imperial Guard is appointed the new Emperor. As of now in the books, Gladiator still leads the imperium, but many of the deaths from this larger story have already been retconned with means like a cyborg resurrection.
In terms of the art, I think it was thoroughly awesome, but I loved the covers by John Watson. They had a sense of realism in the anatomy, costume, and landscapes. It reminded me of Alex Ross or the Leyendecker brothers.
The book was an enjoyable adventure, but I've definitely read better from Brusker. Wait until I start posting about Gotham Central.
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