The Starjammers are a fictional team of space pirates from the pages of the X-Men comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Starjammers first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #107 and were created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum.

The Characters

• Corsair: Leader, father of the X-Men Cyclops and Havok
• Ch'od : Large reptilian creature
• Hepzibah : Corsair's lover, true name nearly unpronounceable to humans
• Raza Longknife : Cyborg
• Sikorsky : Insect-like robot

Origin

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 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, Corsair escaped and reached D'Ken's private quarters to try and assassinate him. However, he was caught and punished by having his wife murdered before his eyes. His spirit broken, he was sent to a mining camp on another planet.

The Formation of the Team

While working in the mining camp, Christopher witnessed the guards mercilessly beating a cat-like female. He stepped in, trying to get them to stop, but was then beaten himself. The woman was taken to the holding cells and Christopher huddled up in a corner, ashamed of himself. A little while later, Raza and Ch'od passed by and asked Christopher for the whereabouts of their comrade Hepzibah. Unfortunately, Chris was too afraid to answer. After they had left, Chris felt guilty and went to the guards' quarters, starting a fight after killing one of them. Surrounded on all sides, Christopher's cause seemed hopeless when Raza and Ch'od jumped in. After getting past the guards, they freed the cat-woman and snuck on board a Shi'ar starship. Naming Christopher their Captain, they became the Starjammers, a group of space pirates rebelling against D'Ken's leadership.

Recent Events

The Starjammers have had many adventures across the universe, many of them on Earth with the X-Men, during which he finally met his long lost sons, now X-Men.

A recent Starjammers series introduced a new member of the Starjammers. Although this series was seemingly out of Marvel Universe continuity, the events of the series were referenced in a recent entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe series.