Warning: contains spoilers for X-Men #17!
Marvel Comics' cosmic civilizations have faced many threats throughout the years, but the X-Men just found out things are worse than ever, and only the constant attention of their version of Superman is keeping things together. A galactic economic collapse is occurring across Marvel's alien races, threatening to spark war and destruction, and the usually effective Shi'ar Imperium is barely holding things together - and even then, only thanks to their Praetor, the Strontian superhuman Gladiator, and his Imperial Guard.
X-Men #17 makes it clear the problem isn't in any one place. The Skrull, Kree, Kymellians, and Shi'ar are all struggling, with economic collapse threatening both their interconnected peace and their own grip of their constituent worlds. As a result, Shi'ar figurehead Kallark - aka Gladiator, an alien hero whose incredible might is dependent on his self-confidence - is traveling throughout the cosmos with his Imperial Guard, personally maintaining order throughout a galaxy in collapse.
Marvel's cosmic civilizations, not unlike Earth, have often found themselves on the brink of collapse. But writer Jonathan Hickman (S.H.I.E.L.D., The Avengers) and artist Brett Booth (X-Men Unlimited, Fantastic Four) have revealed with X-Men #17 that now more than ever, Marvel's cosmic pantheon is falling apart everywhere at once. The Shi'ar believe that their new Majestrix Xandra Neramani, the daughter of Professor X and former majestrix Lilandra Neramani, can help, but only if veteran X-Men members Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Storm can solve her sudden disappearance. Meanwhile, Gladiator is tasked with his even more ambitious mission in her absence.
Prior to this dire recession, the cosmic scene was nowhere near ideal, but there was a system in place which kept the universe in tandem. Though the Annihilation Wave and the ever-prevalent threat of the world-eater Galactus created huge issues, the universe kept rebounding thanks to a well-established system of economics. Money kept these very different races connected, whether through outright trade or black-market deals, not preventing conflict, but allowing for peace to resume when immediate grievance was spent. Now, that system has collapsed, and the scale of the problem is best expressed through its ad hoc solution: a being with the powers of Superman, rushing from world to world, brutally stamping out disturbances every hour of the day.
What makes this situation so staggering is that it's happening everywhere at once. Prior cosmic problems had a single cause - an enemy to be fought - but it turns out that economic collapse is the enemy no-one saw coming. Armed with flight, super strength & speed, heat vision, invulnerability, and even super breath akin to DC Comics' icon Superman himself, Gladiator's remarkable battles have seen him triumph over some of Marvel's greatest powers, but he's always been a reluctant leader of the Shi'ar, and it seems that while he's the stop-gap solution to this particular issue, he may also be part of the cause, with Xandra needing to grow up fast to fill the gap left by her mother.
With the King in Black laying waste to entire worlds, and a fresh peace only just formed between the Kree and Skrull, the cosmic recession could go down in history as one of the most significant events in Marvel's cosmic saga; all the more shocking because it doesn't come at the hands of any one villain. While the X-Men manage to restore Xandra to the throne by issue's end, the idea of a hero of Superman's abilities rushing from planet to planet with a cadre of superhumans shows how chaotic Marvel's space-faring civilizations are right now. Hickman is an intricate plotter, so it will be fascinating to see how these cosmic struggles ultimately impact Marvel's comic reality - and what the X-Men may be forced to do to help set things right.