They fought the law, and the law lost!
Last time on X-Men: The Animated
Series, the Shi’ar came to Earth to fix the Dark Phoenix problem. And by “Fix”
I mean “End.” Rather than let them execute, let’s be real, Jean, Scott and
Logan (at bare minimum) Charles invoked the “Arin’nn Haelar” a trial by combat.
Despite their fear of the Dark Phoenix, the Shi’ar’s allies, The Skrull and Kree,
agree to this challenge, but the Skrull Empress and Kree Supreme Intelligence make
it clear that the “Earthers” cannot be allowed to win. The X-Men face off
against the Shi’ar Royal Guard in the Blue Zone, a portion of Earth’s moon that
has atmosphere. As this alien team has several members inspired by the Justice
League, including the Big Blue Boy scout himself in Gladiator, this goes about as
well as you can imagine. The X-Men aren’t pushovers but the Guard just sort of
overwhelm them. The team gets whittled down to just Scott and Jean, and when
Scott is nearly killed by falling rubble Jean’s switch flips and she turns back
into the Dark Phoenix. Do not mess with her man. The X-Men and Royal Guard try
to stop her, but the Dark Phoenix is too powerful. To Charles and Lilandra’s
shock, Jean uses what little control she has of her phenomenal cosmic power to
force the Shi’ar warship’s weapons to arm. Lilandra hits the button to blast
her with their main cannon, and Jean uses the last of her strength to mentally
shove everyone out of the blast radius. She’s killed in the blast, but this frees
the Phoenix from Jean’s mind completely, purifying it. The Phoenix offers to
revive Jean when prompted but must take life to give it. The X-Men all offer up
a portion of their lives to bring back Jean. The X-Men return home and Jean is
finally, truly able to sleep in her own bed. Enough recap. Let’s get to it,
shall we?
WE open on a green plane flying
through a cloudy sky. It very nearly collides with a pair of Shi’ar vessels
that are dogfighting across the sky. The fighting ships nearly collided with a
cruise ship and then a downtown area. We cut to X-Mansion as Storm and Cyclops
are going to answer an incoming call, the two cracking that it can’t be an X-Man
thing as none of the team get up that early. The video call is from Commander
Raknar of the Shi’ar Intergalactic patrol. He’s seeking their help apprehending
a ‘criminal vessel.’ He says he doesn’t know why the criminal has come to Earth,
but he warns them that the crew is heavily armed and dangerous. He seems to
neglect two very key bits of information in my estimation, the name of the
vessel and the captain of it. They head out.
We cut to the Starjammer and
its Captain, Corsair. The ship is currently on fire and Corsair is muttering to
it to just hold together as crashing into ‘their house’ (X-Mansion) is no way
to say hello. He just dodges hitting the ship and crashes into the river behind
the mansion. Cyclops and Storm arrive, Raknar tells them to let the Shi’ar
handle this, but Scott insists that if hey don’t hurry there won’t be survivors.
Scott swims in and grabs Corsair, while Storm uses her powers to keep the ship
from sinking long enough to grab them both. After coughing up some water,
Corsair says he needs some help. Scott isn’t sure they can as they’re on good terms
with Lilandra and can’t imagine that she’ll take kindly to them harboring a
fugitive. Corsair rather angrily says whatever, but demands that Scott give him
back his dog tags as they’re all he has left of his family. Scott accidentally
broke the chain from Corsair’s neck when Corsair fell over. In the most ham-fisted
way to reveal this, Scott accidentally pops open the locket that was with the
dog tags and sees a picture of Rachel Summers along with a childhood version of
himself and his brother Alex. Like, Scotty could have just looked at the dog
tags and learned Corsair’s name is Christopher Summers. Scott demands to hear
Corsair say his name, despite it being obvious at this point, and Corsair
confirms his legal name as Major Christopher Summers. Scott is, frankly,
furious to learn that his father is alive having thought him dead for 20 years.
Their reunion is interrupted by Raknar who is here to take Corsair into
custody. Scott just wants to have a few minutes to clear the air, but Raknar is
the sort of guy who takes any delay in capturing a fugitive as helping said
fugitive. Corsair is apparently wanted for attempted murder and kidnapping.
Raknar sends troops to apprehend Corsair. Corsair asks where the other X-Men are,
and Scott says they’re on a mission helping people that aren’t wanted by
interstellar police. Scott demands to know why he’s here and Corsair says that he
was framed and thought the X-Men would help him prove it. He rather snidely
adds “I guess I was wrong,” to which is say, Dude, there is no situation where
you get to take that tone with your son who is angry at you for abandoning him.
They start running, Storm taking to the air to slow the guards and saying she’ll
meet them at the monorail. She summons a whirlwind and knocks several ships
together. Scott and Corsair drop into a secret underground monorail terminal,
Storm dropping in after them.
They start up the monorail and
Corsair asks where they’re going. Scott tells him they’re headed to one of the
Mini-Jets, saying that if Corsair is telling the truth they’ll use it to get
out of there. Corsair is clearly hurt at the accusation that he’s lying and
starts by asking his son how he could think that, to which Scott shouts at him
to “Never call me that!” He trauma dumps a little on how it feels to learn his
father, who he idolized and looked up to, was alive and never came for him. He accuses
Corsair of abandoning his family to knock around the galaxy. He’s also not
really in a talking mood as when Corsair tries to explain what happened, saying
“You got it all wrong,” Scott screams at him, demanding to know if he just ‘imagined’
the orphanage or the foster homes that never wanted him because of his powers.
The Shi’ar, meanwhile, detect the monorail and blast into it to try to get
Corsair, Raknar saying that he wants Corsair dead or alive. They make it to the
jet, but several robots burst in and knock the Summers on their asses. Storm
blasts them and carries them to the jet before they take off. Scott recovers
and takes the controls, saying that if they stay low that should keep them from
the Shi’ars sensors for a bit. Corsair then takes the stick from him, saying
that Scott probably won’t like what he has to say.
The Shi’ar investigate the wreckage
of the Starjammer. The soldier says that the ship is empty. Raknar is
furious to learn that Corsair was alone and demands to know how no one noticed
that he ejected the witness. They fly skyward, back into space.
Corsair begins his story, saying that
the family was flying on their way back from a camping trip in Alaska when it
happened. Their plane was attacked by a Shi’ar vessel and shot several times. They
only had a few minutes, and since the attack destroyed all but one of the
parachute, the Christopher and Rachel elected to strap their sons together and
have them jump out of the plane in the hopes they’d survive. Scott got the
parachute strapped to him and then his younger brother Alex. To the horror,
though, they saw the parachute catch on fire. And a moment later they were teleported
onto the Shi’ar ship. They were captured by Emperor D’Ken and his other sister,
a lovely sociopath by the name of Deathbird. He says that they’d been ‘collected’
as part of a Shi’ar… well, zoo for lack of a better term. He was freed by the
Starjammers, but he saw Rachel killed by D’Ken before he left. He says that he
thought his entire family had died, hence why he never came looking for his
boys. Scott gives him back his locket. He asks if Corsair had known that he and
Alex were alive, and Corsair cuts him off by saying that had he’d known the Shi’ar
slavers wouldn’t have been able to stop him from getting back to them. Raknar’s
ship catches up to them and shoots them down. Corsair performs a controlled
crash, and the team are able to flee as safely as they can while being shot at.
Raknar radios the X-Men and says that he’s not sure why they’re helping
Corsair, but accuses him of kidnapping a witness that knows the location of the
“Lord Chamberlain’s horded fortune” and is keeping the witness from Raknar so
he can steal the money. Scott demands to know if this is true. Corsair is more honest
than he probably should be, saying that he’s helping the girl, Jandra, because
he cares about her, but like… ya, he could use the money to keep his starship running.
Scott is furious at this reveal and tells Storm to find Jandra and protect her
from everyone while he sorts this out. She flies off and he goes to yell at the
space cops. He orders the patrol to hold their fire and grabs Corsair’s gun,
saying he is Scott’s prisoner and he’s turning him in.
Corsair tries to convince Scott
that he and his crew are protecting Jandra, but Scott seems to not be
listening. Scott tells him to get in and shut up, they’ll find Jandra and then
talk. On the ship, Raknar thanks Scott for his cooperation, but Scott clarifies
that he’s agreed to nothing before they find the girl. He radios Storm, who is
flying through a South American jungle from the look of it, following the beacon
that Corsair gave to Jandra before jettisoning her escape pod. She’s then
attacked by Hepzibah, the wolf woman alien from the Starjammer’s crew and possibly
Scott’s step-mom? I remember a lot of affectionate touches between her and
Corsair the last time she showed up… Storm blasts her back with a whirlwind but
then is grabbed by Raza (one eyed alien cyborg) and Ch’od (big lizard man).
Raza cuts her communicator off her uniform.
On the ship, Raknar has Scott imprisoned
in a stasis beam and orders the navigator to keep an eye on him. He finds Corsair
strapped to a chair in the brig and asks to know how he learned that Raknar had
been hired by the Lord Chamberlain to kill the witness. Corsair says he’d never
tell and Raknar admits that he’d hoped Corsair would say that and dons an electrified
glove.
The Starjammers have Storm trussed
up and are carrying her to their base of operations. She asks why they’re treating
her like an enemy when they worked together fighting D’Ken. Raza says that they’d
been kept abreast of the situation by Corsair keeping his communicator open,
and they know that Scott turned Corsair over to Raknar. They reach their command
post, which seems to be in some Aztec ruins. Jandra is revealed to be, like, 14
at most and asks why the lady is tied up. Ch’od explains how she helped betray
them to the false Shi’ar commander, but Raza adds that given the lies they were
told, she and Scott can’t be looked at too harshly. He grabs a device and hits
a button.
On the ship, the navigator frees
Scott and asks if he’s really Corsair’s son. Scott begrudgingly confirms he is,
and she shows him the ship’s log for three days from that day. He’s shown a video
reporting that Jandra was killed by an electrical storm enroute to their
destination, proving to him that his father was telling the true. The navigator
reveals she leaked the info to Corsair, knowing that he was the only one brave
enough to stand up to a commander like Raknar. Scott is horrified to realize that
he may have gotten them all killed by interfering and she tells Scott that that
remains to be seen, but he should put a little more faith in his dad. Scott and
the Navigator free Corsair, Christopher saying that that’s the Scott Summers he
gave the last parachute to. They flee on some Shi’ar hover bikes as the ship pursuits
them. Ch’od radios into Corsiar, telling him to alter his course by 13 degrees
north and to remember Alderbaran 5. Storm also radio’s Scott and says that Professor
Xavier sends his regards. Raknar, who’s crew is listening in, does wonder what
their obvious code could mean, Alderbaran in another galaxy and Xavier is half
a planet away but orders them shot down. Scott and the Navigator’s ships are
shot down, but they land on Corsairs. He says he doesn’t know what happened on
Aldebaran but hopes it was good, Corsair acknowledges it was.
Their last bike is shot down and
they make a break for the ruins. Raknar orders them to take out Corsair, they shoot,
but then Storm pulls back the fog revealing an alien device. Corsair dives under
it as the shot hits, reflecting the plasma blast back at the ship and causing
it to crash. They join up with the Starjammers and Ch’od hugs the Summers men
in joy. Corsair apologizes for his friend, but Scott says he thinks he gets Ch’od’s
feelings.
Later the Starjammer has
been fished out of the water and repaired. The Starjammers are preparing to
take off to bring Jandra to the trial she’s supposed to be a witness in.
Corsair asks what made Scott change his mind about him, and he says that he
just likes long odds. Scott admits to wanting to know more about his father,
and Corsair promises that they’ll get to it soon. Scott asks if maybe he could
stay, just for a few hours, so they can catch up. Corsair agrees to it, much to
Ch’od’s dismay, who says to break out the cards because they’ll be here a
while. As they walk in, Corsair tells Scott that that feisty red head that beat
the pants off the Shi’ar that Scott’s engaged to reminds him a lot of Rachel.
Scott asks how so, and Corsair jokes about saving that info for after they’re
married. Somewhere on Earth, Havok is feeling annoyed he’s being left out of father-son
time. Ha!
Honestly, my biggest gripe about this
episode is about how forced the reveal that Corsair is Christopher Summers is.
Like… seriously, the dog tag should have been enough for Scott to be like “Oh, you’re
Major Christopher Summers from the Airforce? That’s funny, my dad’s name was Christopher,”
and Corsair to be like, “Wait, Cyclops, what’s your first name… and how old are
you?” The picture was just too much for me. Otherwise, I liked this episode a
lot. As you saw from my previous posts, not mentioning that Corsair was Scott’s
father was one of the things that annoyed me about the Phoenix saga as something
that shouldn’t have been ignored. Jean, just take the two minutes to tell Scott
who his daddy is. Jeeze. The background on how the Summers got split up is nice
and does rationalize why Corsair never came back looking for his boys. The
whole “the last time I saw you, you were strapped to a burning parachute” thing
does at least make it seem reasonable that he assumed his boys both died. And I
liked that despite how reasonable that explanation is, Scott still didn’t
completely forgive Corsair until the end. The 20 years of bitterness and loneliness
he’d been dealing with isn’t something erased with words, and I mean, his dad
is a self-described space pirate, I’d probably assume the worst as well. Scott’s
abandonment issues are something that other series touch on, but I don’t think
are ever that fleshed out outside the comics. Like, they touch on him being an
orphan, they touch on him missing Alex, but they rarely have him get the kind
of catharsis I assume he got when he was able to shout at his father for
leaving. Emotional outbursts are healthy, it’s bottling them up that lead to
issues, that’s my philosophy, so seeing him get to blow up before tempers cool
and he can hear the story was a good bit of story telling in my opinion. The
whole ‘the space cop is the real bad guy’ twist is fairly obvious from the
moment you learn for sure that it’s Corsair piloting the ship, but at least
they tried to make Corsair seem a little bit sleezy before the reveal. Corsair
might be in the scoundrel archetype as a pirate, but there’s no way he’d be
portrayed as an out-and-out villain. Not in this story. He was being perfectly honest
with Scott when he essentially said, “I’m helping because it’s the right thing
to do… but obviously I want to get paid for my efforts,” it was just the
absolute worst time to say it. Or phrase it like that. So yeah, an overall good
episode about finally addressing one of the three unknown-to-Scott Summers
relationships. Cable and Havok just have to wait their turn I suppose. … It’s
been 30 years, and they just got to Cable in X-Men: 97. Sorry,
Havok. Lol Next time, some more alien shenanigans… but not the Shi’ar this
time. Neat!
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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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