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Way back in Uncanny X-Men #107, Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum introduced
us to a brand new team of superheroes from another galaxy, an elite cadre of
sentients from a multitude of alien worlds, the Shi'ar Imperial Guard.
Artist Dave Cockrum first made a splash in comics with a successful and
ground-breaking run on the Legion of Super-Heroes and remains a favorite
among Legion fans.
With the Imperial Guard, Cockrum was able to "correct" one of the "wrongs"
of the Legion of Super-Heroes, that being, the almost complete and total
lack of non-human, non-caucasian heroes, or villains, for that matter. He
still suffered from what John Byrne once called, "central casting syndrome",
that is, the tendency of artists to design aliens who are almost, but not
quite, human. Two arms, two legs, a head on top, two eyes in front, a mouth,
probably a nose. Sure, the skin color would be blue or green, or purple, but
it's still just some guy. Occasionally, the artist would get crazy and give
the alien a bog head, or bulging eyes, or that wonderful old chestnut,
pointy ears, but, essentially, the only thing that would make it difficult
to cast the character, is the fact that most comic book characters have
improbably perfect, muscular bodies. Considering that we're dealing with ink
on paper, the only reason to stick with a basically human figure is for
audience identification, it has absolutely nothing, NOTHING, to do with
artistic laziness, that is simply a dirty lie!
As a parallel to the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Imperial Guard has always
interested me and a recent commission piece got me to thinking about
something that was missing from the Guard and that was a counterpart for
Supergirl. After all, if Gladiator, the powerhouse of the Imperial Guard is
Superboy (grown up, with a mohawk), then there ought to be a Supergirl, as
well. Supergirl did some of her best work as a Legionnaire and I always
thought they should have brought her back into the book after Superboy
stopped appearing. The people at DC never seemed to know what to do with
Supergirl in the 20th century.
Very little has been revealed about Gladiator's origins, for all we know,
he's from a race of super-normals, or from a race, similar to Kryptonians,
who develop super powers under certain environmental conditions. For my
purposes, I'm assuming that powers are not uncommon, among his species.
Fortunately, like Superboy and Superman, Gladiator has a name that readily
converts to the feminine.
My idea is that Gladiatrix would be a relative of Gladiator, sister or
cousin, and, though Supergirl was clearly older than Superboy, in the
Legion, I'd rather Gladiatrix was a bit younger than Gladiator. I gave her
the mohawk, but softened it a bit, from Gladiator's. I also think she should
have a softer...attitude...than Gladiator's.
For a costume with the typical primary color scheme, I think this one works
better than most. It also translates from the male to the female form, very
easily. I'll have to look more at the Imperial Guard and see who else is
missing, over there.
As always, feedback is appreciated. See you next month!
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