Gladiator has the clearest answer to the X-Men's demand for Lilandra. She is a traitor, she is their prisoner and they will not hand her over. From his position, the people comi…

Gladiator has the clearest answer to the X-Men's demand for Lilandra. She is a traitor, she is their prisoner and they will not hand her over. From his position, the people coming through the stargate have arrived to interfere with the lawful business of the empire. His cape, crest and position among the other Guardsmen give him the presence of a superhero leading his own book. Then the situation asks what that sort of figure does when the ruler he protects is wrong. Lilandra tries to make him see the danger. D'Ken wants access to the M'Kraan Crystal, and she believes the result could destroy everything. Gladiator answers by insisting on his duty to obey. The exchange is much more revealing than a demonstration of how hard he can hit. He is being offered a reason to reconsider, by somebody he knows, and he refuses to use it. There is personal history in his anger too. He tells Lilandra that he once cared for her. That admission makes the confrontation harsher. He can remember affection and still treat her appeal as the excuse of a traitor. By the time Cyclops goes down, Gladiator is standing over a woman whose warning he will not hear. Corsair's shot interrupts him as the Starjammers enter the battle. The scene gives the rescuers a wonderfully direct arrival, but it also exposes how completely Gladiator has committed himself to the wrong side of this crisis. His debut doesn't need a catalogue of later feats to establish the danger. The leader of this extraordinary force has decided that obedience settles the argument. Lilandra is trying to tell him that there may be no empire left to serve.