Annihilus used his newly acquired power to dominate other lifeforms that had arisen from the spores on Arthros, and plotted to either conquer or destroy the neighboring worlds in the Negative Zone.

Obsessed with survival, the paranoid creature, who came to be known as Annihilus, set out to destroy any other living being he viewed as a possible threat to his existence. This enhanced his intelligence and strength, creating a ' Cosmic Control Rod' and body armaments. Significantly intelligent due to a mutation, the creature found the Tyannan starship wreckage and used a knowledge transference helmet to master the advanced Tyannan technology. Many generations later, one of those spores evolved into a weak insectoid creature. A freak meteor collision hurled one of their ships into the volcanic planet Arthros, where the crew released their spores before starving to death. Untold millennia ago, the Tyannans, a technologically-advanced semi-humanoid/leonine species of the anti-matter universe the Negative Zone, seeded barren worlds with life spores. Even after many of the Guard chose to side with Samédàr, Gladiator remained steadfast in his loyalty to then-Empress Lilandra. Gladiator was later amongst those few Imperial Guard members who opposed the treacherous Shi'ar High Council member Lord Samédàr who was aiding an attempted coup of the Shi'ar throne by Deathbird. The Guard defeated the X-Men on this occasion, but the mutants were allowed to return to Earth after Phoenix seemingly committed suicide.

As praetor of the Guard, Gladiator was an obvious choice to be one of eight Guardsmen chosen to battle the X-Men. The Guard and the X-Men subsequently clashed once more when the Shi'ar sought to end the threat to the universe posed by the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix, which had assumed the form of X-Men member Jean Grey. Following the orders of their emperor, the Guard clashed with the X-Men and were on the verge of winning when the band of interstellar freebooters known as the Starjammers arrived to turn the tide of battle in the X-Men's favor.

Gladiator was amongst the first of the Imperial Guard encountered by the team of superhuman mutant adventurers known as the X-Men who sought to rescue the Princess-Majestrix Lilandra from her insane brother, then-Majestor D'Ken. The fiercely proud Gladiator is the leader, or praetor, of the Imperial Guard, a multi-ethnic group of super-powered alien beings who act as enforcers of the laws of the Shi'ar Empire.

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