While Marvel rebooted its major heroes with Heroes Reborn, they also tried to elevate D-listers to major players given that Earth 616 found itself without its Avengers. In the Bullpen Bulletin describing this series, they say just that about the Imperial Guard miniseries…
Problem is: It’s not very interesting. DC writer Brian Augustyn tries to make these character matter (most of them are just group tagged by me–because they don’t matter and this series doesn’t change. that).
Lilandra sends the Imperial Guard to Earth to help defend the planet in the aftermath of the Onslaught Event.
While they are here, there’s a problem in the Shi’ar Galaxy, so the Uncanny X-Men have to go there to solve it. Uncanny X-Men #341 has them fighting Gladiator before they travel to help because every conversation or request for help in the 616 has to start with punching.
While on Earth, they have a pointless adventure and nothing really happens except for a new Guard member, creatively named Commando, joining the team.
The X-Men issue is decent enough, especially since Gladiator interrupts Christmas shopping and then there’s fun fighting. The miniseries is completely missable.