UNCANNY X-MEN #154: Reunion

Dad's home.

Originally Published February 1982

We begin with handball.

Cyclops and Storm have been honing their abilities in the Danger Room, not by evading buzzsaws or smashing robots, but by a good old fashioned game of handball, with modified rules that only permit them to play while using their powers. In this way, much like Wolverine and Nightcrawler's ongoing game of hide and seek, Storm and Cyclops are able to exercise their bodies and abilities while not also risking falling into a pit of flamethrowers or zapped into human Spaghetti-O's by lasers. It's a novel concept.

It's a fun little peek inside their dynamic as the X-Men's former leader (who sure does seem to be around a lot lately) and current leader find themselves evenly matched, each able to eke out points against the other.

But as fun as that is, important things are brewing in space.

We see the Voyager II on its flight past the outer planets, just barely missing capturing a shot of a massive interstellar spacecraft. It's funny that this probe makes a cameo in this comic, since at the time I'm writing this - way back in late 2019 - it has just been in the news recently for reaching the latest marker of "very far into space indeed."

But nevermind that. Aboard the ship is Corsair - the space-pirate leader of the Starjammers, who also happens to be Cyclops' father Christopher Summers. He's surprised to find himself making his way back to Earth, after spending much of his adult life pointedly not going back to Earth. It must be dire circumstances indeed - we see him being pursued by a Shi'ar military craft. As you'll recall, the Shi'ar are friends of the X-Men (except for the time they sentenced Jean Grey to death) and we know that the Starjammers are also friends of the X-Men, but the Starjammers are also also outlaws in the Shi'ar Empire (primarily due to their now-deposed/probably dead former Emperor D'Ken.) So while it's not surprising that they might be in pursuit, we are not sure what to think as readers.

The X-Men themselves are busy helping themselves to a brand new base of operations - Professor X can only stand to see his boyhood home torn apart by supervillains so many times before he starts checking the real estate listings.

As it just so happens, he knows of an entire mysterious, not-at-all-ominous island conveniently located in the heart of the Bermuda Triangle, home to a regal, fantastical ancient city, whose only previous inhabitant has recently vacated. Shame to let it go to waste.

Yes, the X-Men are moving on up to Magneto's fully loaded island base. When Nightcrawler rightly points out that this whole place is frickin' weird what with its Dr. Seuss architecture and inexplicable Cthulhu-themed décor, Professor X rebuts with the notable reasons why it's a good thing for them to relocate, such as the growing anti-mutant sentiment in the States, and also the access to all of Magneto's abandoned files of villainy, which he left behind just ripe for perusal. Not unnerving at all.

Also present is Carol Danvers, the erstwhile Ms. Marvel, whom we recently saw was de-powered and had nearly her entire identity erased by the villainous Rogue in the pages of Avengers Annual #10. It has been a lot for her to process.

We learn, in an interesting tidbit, that she and Wolverine worked together in the service, along with Carol's ex, Col. Michael Rossi. Boy, that Carol has had a heck of a career. Very eventful. Almost impossibly accomplished, really. As if she went slightly overboard trying to establish herself as a highly capable, storied character worth reading about. But some people just have time to do all these things, like how Wonder Woman creator William Marston created the lie detector or how Abe Lincoln used to wrestle.

Back in Westchester, Cyclops and Storm are sitting down for a meal, checking the mail, and having a soul-searching conversation about the burdens of leadership. You know, usual X-Men thingz.

Storm reflects that she was reluctantly thrust into the leadership role, but feels she has grown into it. Cyclops notes that he once basically solely defined himself as the leader of the X-Men, but now much has changed in his life and he isn't sure he could go back, if he wanted to.

Fortunately, this is all interrupted when Corsair's ship crashes into the pool.

Cyclops and Storm pull Corsair from the water, and at a time when most people would be very comforting and accommodating - you know, after nearly dying in a fiery space wreck - Cyclops decides it is appropriate to harass Corsair about some of his personal effects: namely, he happens to have a locket that contains a photo of young Scott, his brother Alex, and his mother, and it is very urgent that Scott press this recent spaceship crash survivor about the meaning of this.

Corsair has a pretty forthright answer for that.

While Cyclops is busy trying to figure out a different reason why this man who is old enough to be his father, and happens to greatly resemble him, would happen to have photos of himself and his brother as children, the whole exchange is quickly - and mercifully - interrupted.

Corsair is being chased by Sidrian Hunters. These guys are giant buglike alien creatures that shoot beams out of their face, and have been pursuing Corsair to Earth. He informs Scott that they are vulnerable to heat, so his blaster works to slow them down. I presume Cyclops' eye beams are actually not helpful since they are made of force, which I think, despite packing quite a powerful punch, is actually room temperature.

Listen, I know it's a shock, Scott, but maybe take a pause on processing this until there are no longer alien monsters to fight? Just my take.

Corsair suggests eliminating the threat with a huge bomb in case they happened to have one they wanted to detonate within the house, a suggestion that leaves Storm questioning what kind of man he is. Which is funny, because moments later, Cyclops asks Storm to cover him and Corsair while they escape to the Hangar, leaving her to a very likely violent death - leaving Corsair to wonder what kind of man Cyclops is.

Really, you're both not great.

With so many things on his mind, Cyclops answers Corsair's accusations the only way he knows how:

I have to admit - it's not healthy, but "Being willing to take a swing at just about anyone who pisses him off" is one of Scott's more appealing character traits.

In reality, Cyclops is counting on Storm's ability and cunning to deal with the Sidri, then whip up a strong wind to bring her to the hangar in time to join them aboard the modified Lockheed SR-17 "Blackbird" jet. See, it was actually good leadership to abandon her!

In the chaos, unfortunately, the Sidri destroy the Mansion...

We just spent like 6 months repairing it after that whole demon thing!

They would seem to have escaped the danger, but, the Sidri have another trick up their sleeve...

They battle it out in mid-air with the Sidri in their combined spaceship stingray gestalt form, but to no avail, even using weapons like this magnifying glass windshield that was installed specifically to give the jet Cyclops' powers:

That's the kind of kooky nonsense you used to always get in the 1960's issues, and I welcome it.

Eventually they send Storm out to disrupt the Sidri's colony-mind with lightning, causing them to fall apart, conveniently onto a petroleum refinery. Corsair is still keen to blow the place up and kill the whole lot of those critters. Cyclops is taken aback to discover that the Sidri are living, thinking beings (he thought they were... what, wind-up toys?) Also, there are 100 other reasons not to blow up an oil farm. But none of them are good enough for Corsair, and:

Corsair reveals that all that property damage is really all small potatoes. In a quick summary, Corsair reveals what led him to return to Earth: the Shi'ar's Grand Council was slaughtered by terrorist insurgents ten days ago, and Lilandra was kidnapped. The Starjammers were framed and the real culprits left a trail heading straight to Earth. The remaining Shi'ar forces plan to come to Earth and either find Lilandra, or blow the whole place up, or maybe both.

Which is pretty bad considering wanton planetary destruction is exactly what they wanted to kill Phoenix for. (I'd hate for them to have to start punching themselves in the face.) But nobody really expects consistency from a government, Alien Space Bird People or otherwise.

To be continued!

Further Thoughts:

When Corsair lands on Earth, he treats us to a coma fantasy flashback of his origin, which is a version of the story we've already seen from Cyclops' point of view. Major Christopher Summers was piloting a plane that for some reason was being attacked by aliens. Scott's mom pushed him and Alex out the hatch to safety, but the parents were whisked into a life of alien servitude, with poor Mrs. Summers being made into (...groan...) a sex slave for D'Ken, thus explaining Corsair's vendetta against the Shi'ar and general outlaw status. I swear it's always about sex slaves with this book.

Throughout all of this caper, Cyclops is mad at Corsair, even as he comes to realize this man is his father. How mad is he? He calls him "Mister."

That's like getting called "You motherfucker" by anyone else.

In recent issues, I've been harping on how I feel like the book has taken a step backwards, reverting to two-dimensional superheroics at the expense of what had been a very compelling human drama developing, with the superhero action stuff being what the book has been less good at. Basically, it has been too much action, and it's not always good action.

In this issue, the book has found its footing again. This story is action packed, and exciting for that, but also loaded with soap operatic drama surrounding Corsair and Cyclops' relationship, as well as the uneasy dynamic between Storm and Cyclops as the X-Men's current and former leaders. There's enough going on to provide a really solid read and make me excited for the upcoming continuation.

I still don't happen to believe that Dave Cockrum and Chris Claremont on X-Men represented state-of-the-art comics in 1982, with the pair basically picking up where they left off with Corsair and Cyclops four years ago before Cockrum had to leave art duties to John Byrne. But it never goes out of style to see an artist in his element, as Cockrum is here with the space opera he helped introduce to the series. It's clear he has a love for the material and with creatures like the Sidri and the court intrigue with Lilandra, there is no shortage of ideas, both visual and cerebral, to mine from it.

The execution here is a fine middle-ground between the wild-and-wooly early days by Stan and Jack, and the long form human melodrama that Claremont had been pioneering with John Byrne. Lots of fun.