issue summaries

Uncanny X-Men 478 The Rise & Fall of the Shi'Ar Empire Part 4 of 12 Writer: Ed Brubaker Penciler: Billy Tan Inker: Danny Miki and Allen Martinez Colorist: Frank D'Armata Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos Assist. Editor: Sean Ryan Assoc. Editor: Nick Lowe Editor: Mike Marts Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada Date: November 2006

In the Imperial ministry building on Chandilar (the Shi'ar capital), Vice-Chancellor K'Tor receives word that the Imperial Guard has been dispatched to deal with the rogue starship that has been destroying stargates. K'Tor fumes over the fact that the stargates had just been repaired after Xavier destroyed them. An underling tries to correct them and says Empress Lilandra declared Xavier innocent, but K'Tor doesn't believe Lilandra.

The underling also has for K'Tor news relating to the line of the Phoenix.

The X-Men's ship, needing supplies and fuel, approaches a Shi'ar space station. Rachel telepathically scans it and finds a skeleton crew. She thinks she can "jedi" them in. They dock their ship and Xavier wears a spacesuit to disguise himself.

The Shi'ar crew are a bit suspicious until Rachel convinces them telepathically otherwise.

The X-Men split into pairs and go off to get supplies.

Lorna asks Alex if Professor Xavier always pushed his will on people like that or if she is noticing it more now that he needs to use Rachel. Alex thinks he did, recalling when Jean was Phoenix and Xavier made an airport full of people forget what happened. Lorna mentions how much she misses Jean and how much better Scott was when Jean was alive. Alex blames the Shi'ar for Jean's death when she was Dark Phoenix and doesn't mind Xavier pushing the Shi'ar around.

Darwin complains to Kurt about how overprotective Xavier is of him and wants to know why Xavier is a wanted man in Shi'ar space. Kurt brushes off his question.

Alex and Lorna find a door with a strange symbol on it. They open it and find murdered Shi'ar inside.

Darwin had already picked up the Shi'ar language. Suddenly, Kurt and Darwin are attacked. The window shatters and Darwin is sucked out into space. But he adapts and is able to breathe.

Rachel suddenly feels nauseous. James asks her what's wrong. She explains that as she tried to probe the mind of one of the workers, she started feeling weird. They realize something is horribly wrong when they see Darwin outside of the space station.

James is attacked by a Skrull. He grabs Rachel and yells to Xavier that it is a trap.

Nightcrawler teleports the Skrull that attacked him and Darwin outside and then teleports back inside.

Rachel is unable to think straight. James and Xavier try to get her to concentrate and use her T.K. to help them.

Lorna and Alex rush in to help Xavier. Xavier tells Lorna to destroy the implants in the Skrulls' brains that are hurting Rachel. She does so and all but one of the Skrulls keel over.

Rachel gets up and is so pissed off at the Skrulls for messing with her head that she telekinetically blasts the remaining Skrull into the wall, but doesn't kill him.

Darwin gets back inside and also located some Shi'ar crew imprisoned in the station. Kurt rescues them.

The X-Men take off with the two Shi'ar with them. The Shi'ar explain that the Skrulls ambushed them and took out the rest of the crew. Rachel asks why the Skrulls left those two alive. The Shi'ar reply that the Skrulls couldn't kill the men that had rescued them. Xavier busy their excuse, but Kurt doesn't think it is a good idea to let them stay onboard.

Later, the Shi'ar talk amongst themselves. They have recognized Xavier and intend on turning him over to the Vice-Chancellor.

In the Shi'ar High Security Prison, K'Tor goes to see a prisoner. He tells the prisoner that he is the one who has imprisoned him, and also killed his brothers and had his mother sterilized, just as all of the descendents of Rook’shir have been treated for the past 500 years.

K’Tor tells the prisoner, Korvus, that he allowed him to live since he knew one day he would have a use for him. He asks if he would like to have his sentence commuted. Korvus asks what he needs to do. K'Tor replies that it is something only the Blade of the Phoenix can do.