This guy's uniform was even in the classic red and blue color scheme complete with a red cape. Although he didn't have a giant "S" emblazoned on his chest, there was a golden triangle drawn there instead.
If you dragged Gladiator straight out of the Marvel Universe into any random parallel world over in the neighboring DC universe, calling him a counterpart of Superman wouldn't be a problem at all.
After Zod-Xis used his super vision and super hearing to spot Gladiator, he was quite surprised.
It was actually Gladiator.
If Kryptonians were a race that had their cheats turned on across the board, then Gladiator's original planet was not far behind, perhaps even more freakish.
Because they didn't need to soak up sunlight. The lore behind Gladiator's race was utterly bizarre; they were a weird species whose degree of idealism surpassed even Ultraman's. The source of their power relied entirely on confidence.
To put it simply: if he thought "I'm amazing," then Gladiator truly was amazing.
According to the lore, the strength of Gladiator's race could grow infinitely alongside overflowing confidence. And as the number one powerhouse of the Shi'ar Empire, Gladiator just so happened to possess an unprecedentedly inflated sense of self-confidence.
Regarding Gladiator's lore, Marvel actually hadn't retconned anything yet—as of the current comics, there seemingly never was a way to determine the upper limit of Gladiator's pure physical strength.
The opponents Gladiator couldn't beat were mostly at a level where pure brute force was already useless. If you tried to name someone in the Marvel Universe who could beat him in an arm-wrestling match, you'd probably come up empty. Even the Mad Titan Thanos of the Eternals would only end up getting pinned down and mercilessly pummeled by him.
Zod-Xis coveted Gladiator's race immensely, or rather, he was curious—curious enough to want to dissect him.
Because the abilities of Gladiator's race reminded him of DC's Uncle J'onn—namely, the Martian Manhunter.
Of course, in terms of sheer freakishness, Gladiator's race was far more abnormal. As for how they went extinct... uh, Zod-Xis could only assume they went extinct the same way Krypton did.
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"You are all outstanding warriors. You have earned this opportunity for yourselves."
Gladiator stood with his hands clasped behind his back beneath his large red cape, exuding the air of a grandmaster.
"I assure you my subordinates will not intervene. You only need to defeat me. No matter how many of you attack at once or what methods you use, as long as you can beat me, we will leave Earth immediately."
The superheroes were stunned.
Was there really such a sweet deal?
In fact, this was Gladiator's original purpose for coming here—to test his strength.
When the news spread that an unidentified, mysterious powerhouse had appeared on Earth, it quickly caught Gladiator's attention.
So he had traveled all the way to Earth not for destruction, not for invasion, but for this sole purpose: to draw out the one said to be Earth's strongest and verify his own might against them.
Bumping into this team of extraordinary superheroes was completely outside his expectations, but Gladiator had no reason to pass up a chance to fight a fellow powerhouse.
Gladiator's words also suited the superheroes' wishes perfectly. "To catch the bandits, first catch their king" had always been their core philosophy. Such a good deal as beating the boss to instantly clear the game was not something to be refused.
"Hulk's gonna smash you!"
Hulk charged out first.
No one saw clearly what happened; they only heard a dull, heavy crack like metal striking metal.
The very next second, Hulk flew backward, rolling twice across the ground like a massive slab of meat before crashing into the wall behind them.
Gladiator stood calmly in place, his cape of alien material gently fluttering in the fierce flames.
He was so fast that nobody had any idea what he did, but there was now an exaggerated, sunken crater clearly visible in Hulk's chest.
"Hulk!"
Although Stark was thoroughly shocked by Gladiator's thunderous strike, he was worried the opponent would take this chance to pursue Hulk.
Without missing a beat, he shot forward, charging straight for Gladiator's face.
Gladiator casually waved his hand in a sweeping motion, and Iron Man's domineering repulsor beam was instantly swatted apart.
The sweep of his arm stirred the indoor airflow. The air pressure in the massive room plummeted as a hurricane swept through. Stark was only halfway through his lunge when the terrifying wind pressure hit him head-on. Black Panther, unable to resist at all, was blasted flying backward by the sheer shockwave of the fist.
Iron Man activated his thrusters, circling Gladiator at supersonic speed for half a lap. A missile slammed into Gladiator's side, and the exploding fireball rolled straight up to the ceiling.
At the same time, his hand armor rapidly shifted. His entire right arm morphed into a large-caliber electromagnetic repulsor cannon, and a dazzling energy beam roared out from the muzzle, striking straight toward the silhouette in the center of the curtain of fire!
With more and more gods and monsters popping up on Earth lately, Stark had spared no effort in upgrading his Mark armor. On average, he had to upgrade and replace his armor every three months.
The electromagnetic repulsor cannon was a new weapon he had developed for the new model armor, boasting a power equivalent to three to five times that of a conventional repulsor tech energy cannon.
However, the most interesting thing about weapons was that no matter how many times he upgraded or how much firepower he gained, he would always find that it still wasn't enough.
Just like right now. Stark's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he watched the Shi'ar alien walking forward, using his chest to push directly against the electromagnetic repulsor cannon.
It wasn't that he hadn't considered the possibility of this new weapon being ineffective. At the very least, he never expected this energy cannon to guarantee a one-hit kill against Zod or Hulk.
But even if it was ineffective, it should at least deal some damage, right? Could Hulk tank the impact of the electromagnetic repulsor cannon while casually strolling forward as if nothing happened? Obviously not.
But this alien could.
Gladiator reached out and grabbed the electromagnetic repulsor cannon that Iron Man's arm had morphed into. With a flex of his hand, he crushed the barrel inward. The armor healed rapidly; the symbiote suit wasn't bothered by this kind of damage.
"Your armor is quite interesting," Gladiator commented.
"Although the technology is primitive, the underlying concept is quite inspiring."
"ROAR!!!"
The newly risen Hulk lunged forward, his fists bombing out like heavy artillery.
He drew Gladiator's attention. The latter gave a low grunt, casually swatted Iron Man aside, and turned to face the Hulk.
BOOM!
A suffocating hurricane. The shockwave erupting from the collision of monstrous strength seemed to vacuum all the air out of the room, and even the entire battleship began to tremble slightly.
It was fortunate that the Shi'ar battleship's structural design was so precise.
However, bearing such an exaggerated impact head-on, Gladiator still stood indifferently, blocking the Hulk's massive fist with a single hand.
His feet dragged half-meter-long furrows into the thick metal floor before planting themselves in place as if taking root, refusing to yield an inch.
The Hulk seemed absolutely furious that someone could withstand his strength. He roared, raining down blows like a torrential downpour. The winds from his fists surged, and the air currents whirled violently. The surrounding Shi'ar guards couldn't help but retreat—if they were even grazed by a stray shockwave from that monstrous strength, it would be enough to blow their brains apart.
Yet Gladiator, facing this storm-like assault, showed not a sliver of fear, handling it with effortless ease.
/-\
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