B'KET IMSTARI
Real Name: B'ket Imstari
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Shi'ar) technology-user
Occupation: Scientist/technician in charge of running Gul Damar Space Station's power grids
Group Membership: Shi'ar Empire, crew of the Gul Damar Space Station (notably Commander Gemet and Lieutenant H'ral)
Affiliations: Frenzy (Joanna Cargill), Gambit (Remy LeBeau), Magneto (Max Eisenhart), Rogue (Anne Marie);
Enemies: Friendless, Grad Nan Holt;
as they were controlled by Friendless: Starjammers (Havok/Alex Summers, Korvus Rookshir, Polaris/Lorna Dane)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: "Sugah" (from Rogue...she calls a lot of people Sugah (sugar with a Southern accent))
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
formerly the Gul Damar Space Station, presumably the Milky Way Galaxy (see comments for the Gul Damar Space Station profile)
First Appearance: (Unidentified)
X-Men Legacy#254 (October, 2011);
(identified)
X-Men Legacy#255 (November, 2011)
Powers/Abilities: As a Shi'ar, B'ket Imstari possesses both mammalian and avian characteristics, with feathers instead of hair
Though he didn't particularly
demonstrate it, he presumably has superhuman strength (lifting perhaps
1 ton) and endurance.
Imstari was apparently of
genius-level intelligence and a skilled and knowledgeable scientist
with an expertise in gravity dynamics.
His primary concern was using his
skills to save everyone else, and although he possessed a normal fear
of torture and dying, he was defiant to such threats and resisted with
his utmost ability.
Even when dying, he sought to share his knowledge to save others.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately 6')
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 180 lbs.)
Eyes: Light purple
Feathers: Unrevealed (his
eye-brow-feathers are white, but he was not seen without his headgear,
which completely covered his plumage)
History:
(X-Men Legacy#254 (fb) - BTS) - B'ket Imstari was a Shi'ar technician working aboard the immense Gul Damar Space Station.
(X-Men Legacy#256 (fb) / X-Men Legacy#257 (fb) - BTS) - The maddened Grad Nan Holt known as Friendless took
control of the Grad Nan Holt on Gul Damar, leading
them to war against the Shi'ar who had previously controlled them.
(X-Men Legacy#257 (fb) - BTS) -
The battle apparently damaged Gul Damar's gravitic flux generator.
(X-Men Legacy#255 (fb) - BTS) -
Answering a distress call on Gul Damar, the Starjammers (Rachel Summers/Grey, Havok, Polaris, Korvus Rookshir) ...
(X-Men Legacy#257 (fb) - BTS) -
...crashed into Gul Damar's hull due to the local gravity going haywire and then...
(X-Men Legacy#255 (fb) - BTS) -
...walked into a civil war.
(X-Men Legacy#255 (fb) - BTS / X-Men Legacy#256 (fb) - BTS) - Friendless psychically incapacitated Rachel and then placed the other Starjammers under his control.
(X-Men
Legacy#254 (fb) - BTS) - Fighting alongside the Grad Nan Holt, the
Starjammers did grave damage to the space station and slew many Shi'ar.
(X-Men
Legacy#254) - The Grad Nan Holt ambushed and blew up a vehicle carrying
some Shi'ar and then attacked the surviving Shi'ar. 
One of the Grad Nan Holt teleported away with B'ket Imstari who
protested that he was trying to save the...<he was teleported away
before finishing the sentence, but presumably was going to say either
the space station or the gravity modulator>.
(X-Men Legacy#254 - BTS) - Using
a translator, Shi'ar Commander Gemet spoke to Magneto. Learning
that they were Terran, the Shi'ar noted that they had encountered
"force wielders" like him and who had damaged the space station and
killed many.
(X-Men
Legacy#254) - Having returned to their base, the Grad Nan Holt cast B'ket Imstari to the ground alongside a group of
four other Shi'ar who were kneeling before the Friendless-controlled
Starjammers. While he tried to explain that he could repair the gravity
modulator and save the station, Havok warned them their troubles had
barely started.
(X-Men Legacy#255) - After the Shi'ar located the Grad Nan Holt base,
Commander Gemet prepared to "blast those rebel scum into loose atoms."
(X-Men Legacy#255 - BTS) - Appreciating
that the Grad Nan Holt had Shi'ar prisoners, Magneto intimidated
Commander Gemet into allowing himself, Frenzy, and Gambit to
negotiate the prisoners' release and then only resorting to force if
they failed to secure the prisoners' release. 
(X-Men
Legacy#255) - As the Starjammers summoned the prisoners, Imstari
introduced himself to Polaris, noting that he had some very important
information: The gravitic flux array was damaged, pulling the space
station into the sun. He could repair it, and if they took him there,
he could recalibrate the grid and save them all.
The Friendless-controlled Havok advised Imstari to
tell the tribunal when he went before them, as they would give him a
fair hearing...and then he ordered the prisoners to move out from the
left, two by two.
Still posing as a slave to the
Janissaries, Friendless acted as reader/sender to them as the
captured Shi'ar were brought before them. The top-seated janissary
"ordered" Friendless to read the minds of their captives
and tell them their ranks and offenses. Friendless
noted that all but one of the captives were soldiers of the Shi'ar who
had killed their brethren in great numbers but that the other
one, Imstari, was technician cadre, high and rank and in esteem.
Friendless further noted that Imstari had run Gul Damar's power grid
and had commanded many.
The tribunal conferred -- but they were all under the control of
Friendless, who sought the space station's destruction and who knew
that Imstari could potentially repair the damaged gravitic flux array,
which was pulling the space station into the sun -- and then they
ordered a quick and honorable death for the soldiers, and a slow and
shameful death for the scientist. 
After the Friendless-controlled Korvus Rookshir slaughtered the
captive soldiers with his blade, the
tribunal the delivery of the torture instruments. Initially
invoking the Shi'ar gods (presumably Sharra and Kythri), Imstari
defiantly proclaimed that he was Shi'ar, and that if they wanted him to
break and weep, they would be disappointed. He further asked who was
his torturer, so he could look him in they eye and curse him. The
Friendless-controlled Tribunal clarified that Imstari himself would
wield the blades and screws.
As Imstari struggled futilely against Friendless' control, the mind-controlled
Polaris noted that this seemed cruel, but Havok advised her to recall
how the Grad Nan Holt had been treated, and he further noted that the
torture of an enemy wasn't just a right but a sacrament.
Magneto, Frenzy, and Gambit then arrived, and Magneto advised the Friendless to
read a little deeper to see that a Shi'ar battalion stood ready to
destroy their base but had allowed them to approach first to broker a
truce. When the tribunal replied that they desired no truce, Magneto
warned them that if they sent himself and his allies back empty-handed
that the battalion would "pour enough firepower into your bay to melt it to slag."
(X-Men
Legacy#255) - Gambit explained that they were only
advising the Grad Nan Holt to move their people out of the targeted base and leave
the prisoners until the last moment as a safety guarantee. The tribunal
argued that there was only one prisoner left alive and that his sins
were too high to release him...and then Friendless had Imstari plunge a dagger into his chest.
Commander
Gemet then ordered his men to fire all weapons on maximum aperture.
(X-Men
Legacy#256 - BTS) - As Rachel telekinetically sealed the resultant hull
breach, Rogue moved in to stop the Shi'ar guns, and the dying Imstari
called out to her. He tried to tell her what needed to be done, but as
he faded, Rogue assured him that he would leave a legacy and absorbed
his memories and knowledge -- at the cost of losing the
teleporter's power (the means by which she and her allies would return
home) but in hopes of saving the billions on Gul Damar -- of how to
repair the gravity modulator.
(X-Men Legacy#256 - BTS) - After Rachel temporarily dispatched Friendless, the Starjammers
regained their own wills, and
Magneto guided and aided Polaris in repairing the hull.
Frenzy subsequently shared half of her powers with Rogue to allow them to survive as they used the station's flux array to swiftly travel to the generators (which were 10,000 miles
away) in the hour before Gul Damar hit the sun's corona.
(X-Men Legacy#258) - While Rogue's mind
struggled to complete the equations from B'ket
Imstari's mind, Rachel joined with her to enslave Friendless' mind and
force his genius-level intelligence to solve her equations.
Using this, they arranged things so that when the Null Cascade was
fired into the already-gravity-afflicted sun, it caused the sun
to collapse into a wormhole with the far end pointed at Earth. The entire Gul
Damar station was then transported to Earth orbit.
Comments: Created by Mike Cary, Steve Kurth, and Jay Leisten.
B'ket Imstari was a pretty tragic
character. All he wanted to do was fix the gravitic array and save
everyone. Friendless, who had been tormented to the point of madness,
forced Imstari's murder. Rogue risked getting her friends home to save
the Gul Damar Space Station, and Imstari's knowledge was critical to
doing that. Ironically (and yes, I think this is actually a case where
that word is appropriate, as his goal was to destroy the space station
and everyone on it), Friendless saved the day with his
super-intelligence.
I would hope that the X-Men
reported his heroic nature to the powers that be and that he received
whatever honors would be due to him.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
B'ket Imstari should be distinguished from:
- other "B'ket" or "Imstari" characters, groups, items, events, races or places...
images: (without ads)
X-Men Legacy#254, pg. 15, panel 2-3 (seized by Grad Nan Holt);
#255, pg. 10, panel 2 (upper);
panel 3 (face);
panel 4 (full, pulled);
pg. 14, panel 3 (curved, jagged blade);
pg. 18, panel 5 (stabs himself)
#256, pg. 7, panel 3 & 5 (dying face and body)
Appearances:
X-Men Legacy#254 (October, 2011) - Mike Cary (writer), Steve Kurth
(penciler), Jay Leisten (inker), Sebastian Girner
(assistant editor), Daniel Ketchum (editor)
X-Men Legacy#255 (November, 2011) - Mike Cary (writer), Steve Kurth
(penciler), Craig Yeung & Jay Leisten (inker), Sebastian Girner
(assistant editor), Daniel Ketchum (editor)
X-Men Legacy#256 (November, 2011) - Mike Cary (writer), Steve Kurth
(penciler), Craig Yeung with Jeff Huet and Ed Tadeo (inkers), Sebastian Girner
(assistant editor), Daniel Ketchum (editor)
X-Men Legacy#257 (December, 2011) - Mike Cary (writer), Khoi Pham
(penciler), Tom Palmer (inker), Sebastian Girner
(assistant editor), Daniel Ketchum (editor)
X-Men Legacy#258 (January, 2012) - Mike Cary (writer), Steve Kurth
(penciler), Ed Tadeo (inker), Sebastian Girner
(assistant editor), Daniel Ketchum (editor)
First posted: 10/22/2023
Last updated: 10/22/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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