Guardians of the Galaxy/All-New X-Men: The Trial of Jean Grey

Given the amount of titles that Bendis writes at any given time in the Marvel Universe, it’s honestly pretty surprising that we haven’t had a full-fledged crossover between them until now.  This team-up between the “Guardians” and “All-New X-Men” comes with a pretty interesting hook as the young Jean Grey is kidnapped by the Shi’ar and forced to stand trial for the crimes she will commit as the Phoenix later on in her life.  This leads both teams on an interstellar mission of mercy to rescue her before this cosmic kangaroo court finds her guilty.  Much as I would like to buy into this idea, and the moral issues that arise when someone is asked to pay for a crime they will perpetrate in the future, there’s one big thing keeping me from doing this.  That would be Bendis’ take on the current Majestor of the Shi’ar Empire, Gladiator.

Yes, Gladiator.  The big burly, mowhaked, purple, super-strong former praetor of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard turned leader of one of the biggest empire in Marvel’s cosmos.  Father to Kubark, “Kid Gladiator,” from Jason Aaron’s run on “Wolverine and the X-Men.”   Also can be accused of being a Superman knock-off due to his power set if you’re feeling particularly snarky.  Gladiator has generally been portrayed as an honorable individual, carrying out the orders of whoever is in command of the Shi’ar empire even if the individual has no honor.  He became the ruler of the Shi’Ar empire in the wake of the “War of Kings” event, served on the galactic superteam known as the “Annihilators,” and fought alongside the Avengers in “Infinity.”  What I’m getting at here is that even if he can be a hardass who loves to fight, the character is one of the good guys and will do the right thing whenever possible.

This is why Bendis’ use of the character here rankles so much.  The story kicks off with another meeting of the heads of Marvels cosmic empires at which Gladiator lets everyone know that he intends to capture the time-displaced Jean Grey and put her on trial for the crimes she has committed as the Phoenix.  It’s pointed out to Gladiator by a few other members that this version of the character has yet to commit these crimes, but he says they have to be answered for anyway.  Having the character act in this way is completely at odds with how he has been portrayed in the past.  Kidnapping Jean and putting her on trial for these reasons is something that one of the former mad leaders of the Shi’ar empire — either D’ken or Gabriel Summers, take your pick — would’ve done with Gladiator stuck in the role of dutifully following orders while seething inwardly that he has to do this.  Unless he’s been secretly replaced by a Skrull, the character is being written wildly out of character here.

Things in this story start to break down even further when you get into the wider issues of continuity.  Bendis seems to have forgotten that Jean was already put on trial for her crimes as the Phoenix and died for them.  In one of the most famous “X-Men” stories of all time, no less!  Then you have to consider that if the Shi’ar were still so bent on making the woman pay for her crimes after she came back to life, they would’ve done so after she came back to life.  I get that Bendis is trying to do a riff on the idea of “Would you kill Hitler before he rose to power if you had a chance?”  Yet he has picked the wrong character to instigate this kind of story.  This is even more true in the wake of “Infinity” since Gladiator’s train of thought would have to be something alongside the lines of, “It was great fighting alongside the Avengers against the Builders and Thanos, but I think I’m going to have one of my cover strike teams go back to their planet and kidnap one of their mutant friends and put her on trial for crimes she hasn’t committed yet.”  It’s a line of reasoning that would be great for one of the Shi’ar’s mad emperors, but is completely incongruous with how Gladiator has been portrayed over the years.

A better way for this story to work would’ve been to have a group of fanatical Shi’ar nobles (because there are always some of those) bring the time-displaced Jean to Gladiator’s attention and demand that she be put on trial for her crimes.  Realizing the illogic of their stance, the majestor rejects their idea and the these nobles go behind his back to have Jean kidnapped and convene a galactic tribunal with forces sympathetic to their claims.  This would also include J-son of Spartax, because as this story has shown he loves, LOVES to troll Gladiator whenever possible.  Stuck trying to dismantle the proceedings by official means — because he is majestor and can’t simply beat up everyone involved in an official galactic function — Gladiator lets the Guardians/X-Men team do their thing while providing what behind-the-scenes aid that he can.

Yet that’s not what we got, and all Bendis has achieved with this arc is to commit the grave crime of making me think I could’ve written a better story than him.  Even with all these issues, there are some things that I did like in this story.  The banter between the teams is fun.  It may get to be a bit too cute at times, but there’s a good rapport established between them that makes me think this team-up could work if they were placed in a better story.  We also get some significant developments for members of both teams in this crossover.  The Kitty/Starlord romance is set up here, Jean develops some new powers, the Guardians wind up as enemies of the Shi’ar, and Cyclops goes off into space to star in his own ongoing series.  We at least get a good story out of this crossover thanks to that last development.

Then there’s the art which comes from the always-excellent Stuart Immonen on the “All-New” side, and Sara Pichelli on “Guardians” with David Marquez and Immonen pitching in as needed there.  The cosmic setting is a great showcase for all of their skills with the many different aliens and spacecraft on display, so the visuals are consistently interesting in that regard.  We also get a ton of action in the many fights between the teams and the Shi’ar, and Immonen comes off the best here as he imbues them with real energy.  Pichelli and Marquez aren’t far behind in that regard, and all of the artists — veterans of Bendis’ style — handle the many dialogue-driven scenes in an entertaining fashion.

I realize that if you’re not familiar with the character of Gladiator, or don’t care enough about him to care about how he’s used, then you’re not going to have the same issues I did with this story.  Assuming that Bendis didn’t care either, it’s likely that he thought he could get away with it because of how many new readers he has brought to “Guardians” and the cosmic side of Marvel’s universe.  For someone like me, who does have a decent bit of familiarity with the character and cosmic Marvel stories, this reads like the writer had a story he wanted to tell and forced it to hinge upon a specific character without considering whether or not it would actually work if he did this.  The end result is a story that just doesn’t work for me.