Real Name: Unknown (? Longknife?)

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Shi'ar Empire) mutate (?)

Occupation: Member of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard

Group Membership: Imperial Guard

Affiliations: Deathbird, Imperial Guard (Hussar, Manta, Quasar (Neutron), Warstar)

Enemies: Starjammers (Binary, Ch'od, Corsair, Cr+eee, Hepzibah, Lilandra, Raza, Waldo, Sikorsky, Prof. Charles Xavier)

Known Relatives: Raza Longknife (younger brother), Rion (nephew)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile through Shi'ar space

First Appearance: X-Men: Spotlight on...Starjammers#2 (1990)

Powers/Abilities: Zenith was an adult Shi'ar male, so he had avian features but was humanoid in build with feathers for hair. In line with Shi'ar racial characteristics, he had enhanced human strength and endurance. He may have been mutated to incorporate the superhuman ability being able to feed off the potential energy of other beings. Using this ability, he was able to rechannel the power absorbed from the Starjammer's dead ship back into the spaceship, effectively resurrecting it. His suit completely enveloped his body, and glowed green with luminous energy when activated for battle or exposure to space. This suit enabled him to fly and survive unaided in space, generating a close force field. As an Imperial Guardsman of the Shi'ar Empire, he was trained to fight and was strongly loyal to the Emperor/Empress of the day. Either his suit or his ability to rechannel energy allowed him to fire intense green bolts of immense concussive force, enough to stun the superhuman Binary. He appeared to be about 6' tall and was not aware of his brother being a member of the rebel group, the Starjammers.

History:

(X-Men: Spotlight on...Starjammers#2 (fb) - BTS) - Raza was Zenith's brother, but a possible betrayal by Zenith caused a blood feud to develop between them.

(X-Men: Spotlight on...Starjammers#2) - Imperial Guard members, Zenith, Hussar, Manta, Quasar (Neutron) and Warstar, teleported aboard Deathbird's Shi'ar Command Craft in defense of Deathbird, who was fighting her sister Lilandra. Onboard the Starjammers' small ship, the Starskimmer, a shuttle of their main ship, Corsair, Hepzibah and Raza watched in shock at the Imperial Guard's appearance, but only Raza recognized Zenith. Binary suddenly burst through the hull of Deathbird's ship, distracting the Guardsmen as Corsair teleported Lilandra and the robot Sikorsky away. Shi'ar troopers were being sucked out of the hole left by Binary, and Zenith and his fellow Guardsmen rescued who they could. However, the ship ruptured under the strain, but Deathbird used her personal teleporter to escape along with Guardsmen, arriving aboard the bridge of the deserted and depowered Starjammers' sentient spaceship, the Starjammer. Deathbird then commanded Zenith to use his powers to revitalize the dead Starjammer, effectively jump-starting the ship. Realizing this, the Starjammers entered the ship's loading bay in the Starskimmer, with Waldo blinding the sensors so that Deathbird could not detect them. However, this just alerted Deathbird to their plans and she dispatched Zenith, Hussar, Manta and Warstar to confront them.

Zenith powered up his suit and, sheathed in green energy, blasted Binary. The two then exited the loading bay into space, where Zenith engaged Binary in single battle in space and attempted to access the potential upper limit of Binary's power. However, he realized too late that Binary's power was limitless. The Starjammer then destroyed the Guardsman with a powerful blast of her own, just as Zenith paused when he heard Binary mention Raza name.

Later, Binary told Raza offhandedly about Zenith's destruction, at which point Raza excused himself to his quarters. Raza looked at a holographic image of his brother, as Ch'od entered and looked on. Ch'od was surprised that Raza had not indicated to his teammates of his brother, but Raza had no longer considered him his brother and wanted to kill Zenith himself.

(X-Men: Spotlight on...Starjammers#2 - BTS) - Raza performed the bloody rites for his dead brother.

Comments: Created by Terry Kavanagh (writer), Dave Cockrum (penciler) and Jeff Albrecht (inker).