What's This? An empire that hates the Omega Men.
The facts: The Citadel are a fascist interplanetary empire that came to dominate twenty-one of the twenty-two known worlds in the Vega star system. In other words, it's an Omega Men thing. Marv Wolfman introduces them in Green Lantern #137 (1981) and they are the big bad of the first half-dozen issues of Omega Men a couple years later. Surprisingly, they are defeated in issue 6, but the dregs of this empire continue to be a concern, rise up in alliance with other Vegan races, take part in the Invasion crossover, etc. The last 20 years have seen the Citadel show up in cosmic comics from time to time, whether in connection with Rann-Thanagar or the Green Lantern Corps.
How you could have heard of it: As long as Starfire's around, the Citadel and other Vegan baddies are bound to show in flashbacks and stories exploring her roots (most recently: Titans United).
Example story: The Omega Men #5 (August 1983) "Eye of the Tigorr" by Marv Wolfman and Joe Staton
It's hard to pick just one issue when the Citadel is essentially a whole empire, in the background when it isn't in the foreground, but their weird stronghold, built on chunks of a destroy moon, is on this one's cover. In this penultimate chapter of the Omega Men's first big story, Tigorr puts everything on the line to destroy the Death Star, if you know what I mean. The team's members all come from worlds subjugated by the Citadel, but up 'til now, under Primus' leadership, they've played it safe. Tigorr has other ideas. Of course, the Citadel's Branx warriors aren't going to make it easy for him to put his plans in motion.
Just your typical warrior clones, like Sontarans or Jem'Hadar, right? Well, Wolfman suggests a bit of death cult going on as well with prose like this:
They're not kamikaze fighters though. Tigorr uses a dangerous hyperspace maneuver to escape, but the Branx captain refuses to follow without checking and double-checking coordinates. Those are grunts on the front lines; let's look in on the supreme citadel ruler:
The way the Who's Who entry is designed, I thought for sure the "Supreme Leader" was the human-looking guy, but no, he's an earthling somehow embroiled in these events. Rather, it's the big guy. Huh. Reading the entry carefully would have made me realize this is really Harry Hokum (really? that's the name you're going with for this Prussian-lookin' dude, Marv?), who WOULD take control after this story, but I don't seem to be able to read Omega Men entries without my eyes glazing over, so that explains that. Another surprise, however, is that the Citadelians themselves, though painted as more "civilized" than the Branx, speak in pidgin English, their grammar very bad indeed. But maybe it doesn't matter when you've got a well-financed war machine. The Citadel's space-mines bear down on Tigorr's position (so... not really mines, then, more like, missiles), and Hokum's hired Lobo-before-he-was-a-star to kill the Omega Men too. Except the Main Man's code only allows him to work alone, and those space mines just broke his contract. Well, at least there's that. Tigorr evades the ordinance and makes a suicide run at the leader's ship, going into hyperspace at the last moment just to make Supreme Ruler crap his pants. I'm not kidding:
Of course, visual evidence would suggest that dude doesn't HAVE underwear. Looks like metal loincloths (loinmetals?) attached to a belt. Call a Branx janitor! Clean-up on the bridge!
Tigorr spends the rest of the issue making runs at Citadel ships, the Citadel quelling riots as its worlds, inspired by Tigorr's victories, start rebelling. But not without losses to their side.
In fact, in a final double-page spread prefiguring the climax of The Rise of Skywalker, a large number of ships from the subjugated worlds joins Tigorr for a last offensive. After its defeat, the Empire will become the First Order, and that's probably for the good. As they were, the Citadel was rather one-note - even their adjunct race (the Branx) are exactly the same warrior types as the Citadelians themselves. The New Citadel, by way of alliances, would create more diversity for the Omega Men, though the title perhaps burned through its rousing Spartacus (Spacetacus?) story a little early.
Who's Next? A warrior with a demon hand.
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