Only Kitty and Nightcrawler stand between tbe Earth and destruction!
Originally Published May 1982
When we last left our heroes, they were on something of a deadline: the planet Earth was mere hours away from being obliterated as part of the sinister plot to usurp the throne of the Shi'ar by Lilandra's older sister Deathbird and her ally the corrupt Admiral Samédàr as well as the gross giant wasp monster aliens The Brood. Worse, the Starjammer, the X-Men's only ride back to Earth, was considerably more than a few hours away from being repaired enough to get them there. Luckily, the X-Men are there to help expedite matters.
Yes, the old "Use their powers to accomplish mundane tasks" business. Now, how this is supposed to be a faster way of fixing a complicated alien spaceship, I do not exactly know - especially since it took about three months in-universe to repair the Danger Room this way after Kitty totalled it fighting the Demon. It's supposed to be related to doing it hands-on instead of letting the system do all the work, but you know, the Jammers have medical machines capable of bringing Colossus back from virtual death within moments, so I fail to see how the human touch is preferable here.
Speaking of...
Okay, perhaps Sikorsky's fix-job on our tin-plated friend was not so complete. Peter has re-aggravated his nasty case of chest-hole, necessitating further medical attention that lays him up for yet another extended spell. The medical robot chalks this up to Peter's "stubborn" nature and overexerting himself, but you know what, I didn't hear anyone complaining when he was kicking Brood ass left and right, nor when he decided to help repair the exterior of your damn spacecraft. So let's not be so quick with the judgments, okay?
Meanwhile, Lilandra is doing the sensible thing and using her private communications line to contact Chancellor Araki to clear up this whole kidnapping misunderstanding once and for all and get Earth off the hook/save it from being turned into space dust.
Alas, Araki is not in any shape to be picking up the phone these days:
Next, the Professor tries to telepathically reach Kitty and Nightcrawler, whom he had left behind as collateral while the X-Men investigated the kidnapping, but it appears there is some kind of major-league psychic whammy blocking his powers, causing a brutal feedback that waylays him. What could it be??
Meanwhile, back on the Brood's majestic lobotomized flying space whale ship, they are renegotiating the terms of their alliance with Deathbird following their defeat at the hands of the X-Men:
Yes, they lost one little fight and the Brood got scared. Now they pretty much just want to cut and run and kill Deathbird for good measure, but Deathbird - who figures she could kill a goodly number of them on the way out - lures them back with some tactful promises. Specifically, she indicates that as mutants, the X-Men would make excellent "breeders" for the Brood.
There's no explanation of what that exactly would entail, but it sounds icky as all fuck n matter what.
Back on the Shi'ar ship, Kitty and Kurt mount a jailbreak, only to discover Araki's dead body. They immediately deduce treachery, and are very sure that sleazy Samedar is behind it. As Samedar prepares the ritual destruction of Earth, Kitty uses the costume-making machine she's been enjoying for a while to create a crafty disguise:
A pretty amusing payoff to that cover tease and that running joke if I do say so.
Thanks to the psychic powers of the Imperial Guard member Oracle, the two X-Men win most of that group over to their side, but a certain number of the Guards have been flipped to the insurgent side, including, sadly Warstar, the giant-robot/little-robot-in-backpack team.
Also Fang, but nobody likes Fang.
Despite the X-Men/Imperial coalition's best efforts, including Kitty going and disrupting the ship's computers again, Samedar's team wins out, allowing his foes to live long enough to witness his triumph, a notion that always goes well for villains.
Samedar pushes the button to torpedo Earth and...
The Starjammer races in outtanowhere! They arrive in time to intercept the planet-killing blast and absorb it with its shields somehow. Lilandra Skypes in to declare herself not yet dead, thus ending the coup once and for all and ordering Samedar arrested.
Even Peter is back up and at 'em, making this a pretty complete happy ending, except for, uh, one more thing:
Further Thoughts:
As an individual story, it was fine stuff, keeping the action and suspense simmering to a near-boil on a few different planes, although the X-Men were only indirectly a factor in getting the Earth saved here. But it was nice to see a payoff to Kitty going overboard with the costume machine.
Personally, I am really ready for this whole Shi'ar adventure to wrap up. Don't get me wrong, the imperial intrigue and planetary danger definitely warranted such a long yarn - I hate it when a story loaded with possibilities and different threads gets shortchanged - but I also think there's something to be said for wrapping up and moving on. Over the course of the last few issues we've seen the resolution to the Corsair-Cyclops parental story, solved the mystery of the missing Empress, learned about the court betrayal and coup plot of Deathbird and Samedar and met two distinct implacable buglike alien warrior species in the Sidri and the Brood. It has been a very full story, and although this last cliffhanger indicates there's still more in the hand to play, I'm pretty done with this whole set-up.
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