Who Is Professor X's Love Interest In X-Men '97? Lilandra Explained
This article contains spoilers for "X-Men '97."
The sixth and latest episode of "X-Men '97" was titled "Lifedeath – Part 2." Sure enough, it continued the story of Storm and Forge (adapting a classic "X-Men" comic), culminating with Ororo regaining her mutant gifts as she pounds her fears (including claustrophobia and a demon owl) into submission. Gaining her OG Dave Cockrum-designed costume and white locks to show for it, Storm (once more Mistress of the Elements) called down a lightning strike seen from orbit and soared like Superman. But that wasn't all.
Like the previous "Lifedeath," this episode was bifurcated with an unrelated story — a story set a whole galaxy away. The X-Men have told the world that their founder and mentor Charles "Professor X" Xavier is dead, assassinated by anti-mutant extremist Henry Gyrich. That's why Magneto, Charles' heir, has taken his best frenemy's place as team leader (and rekindled his romance with Rogue).
But if you'll recall the original "X-Men" series finale, "Graduation Day," you'll know Xavier didn't die. No, he merely left Earth to seek advanced medical care in the far-off Shi'ar empire. In "Lifedeath – Part 2" it turns out the treatment took. Xavier yearns to see his X-Men, but there's a rival burning in his heart: his fiance Lilandra Nerami (voiced by Morla Gorrondona), empress of the Shi'ar.
Yes, Professor X has an alien girlfriend. If you're only familiar with the far more mundane "X-Men" movies, then this probably seems bizarre. However, this relationship goes back to the original series and classic "X-Men" comics.
An X-Men love affair stretching galaxies
Chris Claremont is credited with revitalizing the "X-Men" comics (he wrote them from 1975 to 1991), but he didn't write the reboot kick-off "Giant-Size X-Men" #1. That was Len Wein, who created the new team such as Storm, Colossus, and Nightcrawler (Wein had previously created Wolverine to fight the Incredible Hulk, and recycled him to fill out the X-Men ranks). Claremont made these characters into who they are today, but he ultimately used Wein's springboard.
Lilandra and the Shi'ar? They were one of Claremont's first added wrinkles to the "X-Men" mythos and the cornerstone of his first major arc, "The Phoenix Saga." In "X-Men" issue #97 (Claremont's fourth issue, illustrated by Cockrum), Professor X starts having nightmares of an alien war. The X-Men also meet their old foe Erik the Red — which is perplexing because Erik the Red turned out to be Cyclops in disguise, but now the two come face-to-face.
These mysteries lay as mere seeds for a few issues while the X-Men fight Sentinels and Jean Grey is reborn as the Phoenix, but the payoff comes soon in "X-Men" #105. Xavier's "dreams" are really telepathic contacts from Lilandra, who sensed his psychic signal from across the galaxy. Lilandra, now only a princess, is fleeing her brother, the mad Shi'ar Emperor D'Ken. Erik the Red is a Shi'ar agent sent by D'Ken to kill Xavier and Lilandra.
Due to their telepathic contact, Xavier and Lilandra are already in love by the time they meet face-to-face. The X-Men (the Phoenix in particular) in turn help Lilandra defeat D'Ken, who threatens the whole universe with his plan to possess the powerful M'Kraan Crystal.
X-Men: The Phoenix Sagas
Lilandra stays a recurring character in Claremont's "X-Men," taking her brother's place as Shi'ar leader and continuing her very long-distance relationship with Charles. In "The Dark Phoenix Saga," after Jean goes mad with power and destroys an inhabited solar system, Lilandra returns to Earth to render judgment on her, leading to a battle between the X-Men and the Shi'ar Imperial Guard.
Both "The Phoenix Saga" and "The Dark Phoenix Saga" (two of the best "X-Men" comics ever) were adapted in season 3 of the original "X-Men" cartoon, including Lilandra's role. Her taking an injured Charles from Earth in "Graduation Day" is adapted from "Uncanny X-Men" #200, "The Trial of Magneto" — "X-Men '97" is running with the aftermath where Magneto moves into Xavier's School as the new headmaster. Like in the show, Xavier eventually returned to Earth, but his relationship with Lilandra endured until Grant Morrison's "New X-Men," when his evil twin Cassandra Nova mind-controlled Lilandra to make the Shi'ar destroy themselves and Earth.
Comic Lilandra has been dead since 2009, assassinated during the 2009 Marvel Cosmic crossover "The War of Kings." This is a long time as far as comic books go, but her legacy lives on in her and Xavier's test tube baby, Xandra, the current leader of the Shi'ar. Introduced in the 2018 series "Mr. and Mrs. X" (about Rogue and Gambit on their cosmic honeymoon), Xandra is installed as Shi'ar Emperor (or Majestrix) in Jonathan Hickman and Rod Reis' "New Mutants."
The Shi'ar's Burden
Let's talk about the Shi'ar as a whole. They're avians, which is why Lilandra's hair beneath her silver helmet looks like feathers. It also explains the motif of her evil (and flying) sister, Cal'syee Neramani/Deathbird (because one evil sibling just isn't enough for an empress).
The Shi'ar are also colonialists; "Lifedeath – Part 2" shows them at war with the Kree (inspired by the comic arc "Operation: Galactic Storm"), one of the Marvel Comics' galaxies other great empires. The ranks of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard are filled with natives of their vassal worlds, such as Gladiator, a Strontian. (Sidebar, Claremont based the Imperial Guard on DC's Legion of Superheroes; Gladiator is analogous to Superman).
This is why Lilandra marrying Charles makes her subjects suspicious, and Deathbird's command that Charles literally forgets his life on Earth resonates with them. The Shi'ar aren't just nationalistic; to them, humans are no more evolved than the primates we sprung from.
The future for Professor X and Lilandra
The thematic text of the episode's Shi'ar plot is a well-deserved attack on imperialism. Discussing the Shi'ar's history with Gladiator, Xavier alludes to Rudyard Kipling's infamous "The White Man's Burden" (arguing that Anglican empires had the duty to uplift "inferior" civilizations by subjugating them and erasing their own identities).
Xavier takes the Shi'ar leadership into a telepathic classroom, a move perfectly befitting his nobility and teacher-knows-best arrogance. Charles explains the Shi'ars' faulty notions of superiority, that other races are only "inferior" because the Shi'ar have the power to keep them so. In Xavier's words, the Shi'ar (like human imperialists) cut them off at the knees and then offered them a hand up. The episode uses this theme to tie its two plots together; Forge, a Native American, belongs to a colonized people.
Will Xavier continue educating the Shi'ar? Lilandra tells him if he goes back to Earth (as he intends to after sensing the Genosha massacre), their relationship will be over. Honestly, I was hoping "X-Men '97" would keep Xavier out of play to let Magneto stay and grow in his old friend's shoes. Xavier becoming Lilandra's full-time consort would be a convenient way to write him out, but we'll have to wait and see.
"X-Men '97" is streaming on Disney+.