WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Avengers #29, by Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, Paco Medina, Mark Morales, Jason Keith and VC's Cory Petit, on sale now.
In the latest storyline of Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes have been on a race throughout the cosmos to find the new Starbrand. Recently, a new host for the powerful cosmic entity was awakened, and fiery death and destruction soon followed. When the news spread across the Marvel Universe, the superheroes were quick to blast off into space, but now they find themselves scattered and facing old Heralds of Galactus Firelord, Silver Surfer and Terrax.
The Starbrand is, inherently, a force for good, meant to protect the Earth, but there are many who don't see it that way. And now, everyone has their own idea of what to do with the new Starbrand wielder. The Avengers want to save and protect them, while the heralds want to kill them to avoid further bloodshed.
In Avengers #29, Captain Marvel is busy fighting Firelord; Captain America, Thor and She-Hulk are taking on Terrax; and the Black Widow has broken out her own War Machine armor to fight the Silver Surfer. With all of these powerful characters otherwise occupied, the Shi'ar Empire's majestor, Gladiator, is able to get to the Starbrand first, and he wants to kill her.
The Starbrand became the source of a space-wide hunt after attacking a prison in Shi'ar-controlled space. While the cosmic force has been leaving its mark on a series of planets burned to a crisp, the identity of the new Starbrand remained a mystery, until now.
When Gladiator finds the Starbrand, he discovers that she is a pregnant human woman who's about to give birth. For the moment, we don't know anything else about her identity, just that she's carrying a child. While she has been responsible for the destruction of a few planets, those were all accidental side effects of her powers, which appear to flare out (very badly) whenever a contraction comes.
However, that doesn't matter to Gladiator in the slightest. Due to his high-ranking status within the Shi'ar Empire, Gladiator has used his Superman-like abilities to fight with teams like the X-Men, the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers as often as he's fought alongside them. While he might be a noble warrior, he's fueled by his relentless devotion to the Shi'ar and doing what's best for the good of the intergalactic empire.
With that in mind, Gladiator sentences the woman to die to keep his people safe, and he seems to be mere seconds away from carrying his final judgment out. To potentially save countless lives, Gladiator seems to have decided to kill this new Starbrand and her unborn child. While it's not entirely clear if Gladiator will be able to carry through with his decision, his choice may save the Marvel Universe from its next major threat, or it may have doomed the galaxy's next major hero.