STORY: "When Strikes A Gladiator!" (22 pages)  The X-Men are doing their Christmas shopping in New York when Gladiator enlists their aid on behalf of the Shi'ar Empire. He teleports the Beast, Rogue, Gambit, Joseph, Bishop and Trish Tilby away.

What you need to know:
Gladiator enlists the X-Men's help in this story because the Imperial Guard have been sent to Earth on another mission.  That story appears in the Imperial Guard miniseries, which I read the first issue of and dropped like a stone.  If anybody knows what the plot was, do let me know.

Joseph unveils the machine he'd been working on in recent issues of X-Men, which turns out to be a device that shuts down Rogue's powers.  So why doesn't it ever get used again?  Well, a token attempt to explain it away is made in X-Men vol 2 #86, which suggests that the machine was actually a device for channelling Joseph's powers - thus, it doesn't work without him present.

Sam suddenly and handily develops the power to absorb impacts and use them to fuel his force field.  Again, never referred to again.

Chronological problem.  It's Christmas Eve in New York, and Sam's buying Christmas presents for his family in Kentucky?  Uh?

The Punisher can be seen, very briefly, in page 4 panel 2.  And for the benefit of anyone really slow, that's editor Bob Harras on page 9.

Comments:
We're now into the last year of Scott Lobdell's run, and a lot of this stuff frankly isn't very good.  This begins a five part Shi'ar storyline, and I've never really liked it when the X-Men do outer space stories.  It just doesn't strike me as being what the X-Men are about.  Still, here we are.

This issue is largely given over to a totally gratuitous fight scene between Cannonball and Gladiator.  On the plus side, it does allow Cannonball to look competent for a change.  On the minus side, it's totally stupid.  If Gladiator just wants to talk, why does he charge in and attack in the first place?  This sort of pointlessness only gets worse next issue.  Still, the Christmas stuff is fun, if a little schmaltzy, and Madureira produces some excellent artwork.  The scene where Joseph kisses Rogue on the forehead after finally shutting down her powers is particularly good.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
The Beast, Bishop, Cannonball II, Gambit, Joseph and Rogue (all last in X-Men '97)

SUPPORTING CHARACTER
Trish Tilby (last in X-Men '97)

VILLAIN
Gladiator II (between the flashback and main story in Imperial Guard #1)

GUEST APPEARANCE
The Punisher (...)

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