Corsair (comics)
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Corsair (Major Christopher Summers, USAF) is a fictional comic book character in the Marvel Comics universe. He leads the spacefaring team the Starjammers and is best known as the father of X-Men superheroes Cyclops, Havok and Vulcan. He first appeared in X-Men #104, and was created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum.
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[edit] Fictional history
Summers, his wife Katherine Anne, and two sons Scott and Alex, lived in Alaska. One day Summers was taking the family for a flight in their airplane, when it came under attack by an alien Shi'ar spaceship. As the plane went down in flames, Summers strapped the boys into a parachute and ejected them from the plane. Before the plane crashed, Summers and his wife were captured by the spaceship and taken away from Earth.
Summers was sent to the slave mines, but the Shi'ar Emperor D'Ken was smitten with his wife and held her in his personal court. She was later killed in front of Summers' eyes by D'Ken himself, for the Emperor's own amusement. Summers eventually escaped the mines and hooked up with a group of aliens rebelling against the Shi'ar. The group formed the Starjammers, a constant thorn in D'ken's side, and Summers took the name Corsair.
Years later, Corsair and the Starjammers met his son Scott, now the mutant hero Cyclops and leader of the X-Men, in the final battle against D'ken. Though at first ignorant of each other's identities, they eventually learned the truth and were reconciled. While Corsair has visited earth several times since, he now considers his life in the stars with the Starjammers to be his home, and has remained there.
At one point, Scott was killed by Apocalypse, only to be resurrected after some months. After Scott's revival, Corsair apologized to his son for not checking up on him during his time with the Starjammers. Corsair's felt that since he could not keep the plane from crashing and that he could not save his own wife, he felt that Scott and Alex were in better hands in the care of the various homes that his two sons stayed at rather than with him. This apology clearly sunk in: prior to House of M, Cyclops' student team of X-Men was called the Corsairs.
[edit] Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse alternate storyline, Corsair had still been abducted by the Shi'ar, but in this storyline, he did not escape. The ship on which he was contained was infested by the Brood. He would return to Earth, but was captured by Mister Sinister. Sinister turned him over to the Dark Beast, who would then proceed to experiment upon him, turning him into a genetic monster. He was eventually killed by his son Cyclops, who believed that there was no other way to save him.
[edit] In other media
- Corsair appeared several times during the original X-Men Animated Series, where his story was very similar to the comic book version.
- Corsair appears in the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.
[edit] Ultimate Corsair
Corsair was referenced in Ultimate X-men's Sinister storyline, but not as a person. Instead, it was a science fiction world that Cyclops invented after seeing Star Wars. It is unknown whether Christopher Summers will be revealed as Corsair in the future, or even if he is still alive.
