Starjammers

The Starjammers are a fictional team of space pirates appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Starjammers have often appeared in the pages of the X-Men comic books. The Starjammers first appeared in X-Men #104 (April 1977) and were created by Dave Cockrum. The name "Starjammers" was created on the basis of the type of sailing ship known as "Windjammer". Dave Cockrum created the Starjammers with the intent of having them star in their own series. However, when he submitted the concept for Marvel's two try-out series, Marvel Spotlight and Marvel Premiere, he was repeatedly informed that these series were booked for two years solid. Cockrum showed the Starjammers to X-Men writer Chris Claremont and convinced him to use the characters for this series. In order to provide a plausible excuse for the Starjammers to make repeat appearances in X-Men, they decided to make Corsair, the leader of the Starjammers, be the father of Cyclops, the leader of the X-Men. The story of the Starjammers began with Christopher Summers, a military pilot returning with his family from a trip to Alaska. Without warning their plane was attacked. Chris's wife, Katherine, strapped their two sons (Scott Summers and Alexander Summers, who later became the X-Men Cyclops and Havok) to their only parachute and pushed them out of the plane, saving their lives. The husband and wife were then teleported from their plane to the ship of an advanced alien race called the Shi'ar. This had been a zoological scouting mission to bring in a human specimen. They were brought before D'Ken, the then ruler of the Shi'ar Empire, who was immediately smitten with Katherine, making her his concubine and sending her husband to the slave pits. Eventually, Christopher escaped and reached D'Ken's private quarters to try to assassinate him. However, he was caught and punished by having his wife murdered before his eyes, and his unborn son cut out of her womb. His spirit broken, he was sent to a mining camp on another planet.