The X-Men step through a stargate and find an entire alien super-team waiting for them. There is a huge crystal behind the opposition, an emperor who wants its power and a capti…

The X-Men step through a stargate and find an entire alien super-team waiting for them. There is a huge crystal behind the opposition, an emperor who wants its power and a captive princess who knows why everybody should be terrified. The Imperial Guard arrives in X-Men #107, written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Dave Cockrum. The story continues in #108 with John Byrne taking over the pencils. The opening encounter has an enormous cast, but the basic problem is easy to follow. Lilandra needs rescuing. Her brother D'Ken has the authority to order her death. The Guard is prepared to enforce that authority. Cockrum makes the empire feel vast through the people representing it. A giant stands behind a man wreathed in flame. A shapeshifter can become something monstrous. Other members look almost familiar until a face, a costume or a burst of power breaks the resemblance. Their individuality makes the group more imposing than a line of identical soldiers would be. The designs also play with Cockrum's earlier work on the Legion of Super-Heroes. That gives the Guard the visual confidence of a team with a whole comic book's worth of adventures behind it, even though the X-Men have only just met them. The Starjammers eventually help break the Guard's advantage. Winning that fight still leaves the M'Kraan Crystal to deal with. D'Ken is the ruler behind the confrontation, Erik the Red is his agent, and Lilandra is the prisoner. The crystal's guardians belong to the next danger. None of them should be folded into the Guard's field roster. This spotlight stays with that first encounter. The central question is already strong enough: what happens when an empire's champions keep following orders while the person giving them puts everyone at risk?