Starjammers

The Starjammers are a team of space pirates and freedom fighters who frequently interacts with the X-Men and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Their leader is Corsair, aka Christopher Summers, the father of Cyclops, Havok and Vulcan.

Origin

Ever since Christopher Summers was a boy, he loved the adventures of the swashbuckling heroes of old novels and movies. Even as a major in the United States Air Force, he chose the call sign "Corsair" in homage to them. Chosen for the space program, he hoped he would soon travel into space. He got his wish, but not in the way he would have wanted.

Following a visit to his parents in Anchorage, Alaska, Major Summers was flying his wife, Katherine Summers, and his sons, Scott (a.k.a. Cyclops) and Alex (a.k.a. Havok), down the Pacific coast in his private plane when they were attacked by a Shi'arstarship. Scott and Alex parachuted to safety, but Major Summers and his wife were teleported aboard the starship and taken back to the Shi'ar throneworld. Their last view of their sons was of their parachute on fire, and they assumed their children had perished.

Christopher was imprisoned but escaped only to find Emperor D'Ken attempting to force himself on Katherine. They fought and in the scuffle D'Ken murdered Katherine before Summers' eyes and then sentenced him to the mines of the planet Alsibar. Unknown to Christopher, Katherine was pregnant at the time of her death. This fetus was harvested and aged to adolescence in an incubation chamber. The resulting child, Gabriel (a.k.a. Vulcan), was raised as a slave of the Shi'ar. After escaping the mines of Alsibar, Corsair and his fellow escaped slaves began a life of piracy in opposition of D'Ken's rule.

Story

Slowly, Christopher Summers' spirit was broken. This changed when he witnessed some guards viciously beating a fellow slave—a female, catlike alien named Hepzibah. Outraged, Summers attacked the guards. Two more of his fellow prisoners—Ch'odand Raza Longknife—came to his assistance.

Together, the four stole a spaceship and escaped. Summers took the name Corsair and called his new band of outlaws the Starjammers, sharing their name with the ship they'd stolen. They became rebels and pirates, revenging themselves on the Sh'ar by attacking their spacecraft.

The Starjammers helped the X-Men to stop the Shi'ar Emperor D'Ken's attempt to destroy the universe with the M'Kraan Crystal. In gratitude, Lilandra unofficially put an end to the feud between the Empire and the Starjammers. After she was overthrown by Deathbird, Lilandra found refuge with the team until she regained the Shi'ar throne.

Now aware that his two eldest sons survived their crash, Corsair developed a distant but emotional relationship with Scott and Alex, although he remained in space due to his responsibilities with the Starjammers.