Jonathan Dobres

Season 3, Episode 18. Air date: February 25, 1995

I have to open this review with some incredible news. It took 44 episodes, but we finally have one in which Wolverine does not appear. I was starting to think it was never going to happen. In fact, most of the series regulars are absent. It’s just Cyclops and Storm, alongside—heavy sigh—Corsair and the Starjammers.¹

This is the one where Cyclops finally learns that Corsair is Christopher Summers, his long-lost dad. The story that surrounds it is a bad one. Corsair returns to Earth with a Shi’ar cop, Raknar, hot on his tail. Raknar claims that Corsair is wanted for the abduction of a young girl named Jandra, who is the only person who knows the location of the Lord Chamberlain’s treasury. Or maybe she witnessed a murder? Hence why she’s repeatedly referred to as “the witness”? It’s not clear. Anyway, the reveal is that Raknar is a crooked cop in the Chamberlain’s employ, and he was planning to murder Jandra to cover up…something?

So yes, Corsair was hoping to gain access to a fortune through Jandra, but he was also legitimately saving her life. Most of these story beats are told, not shown, making for a confusing episode. The Starjammers magically show up to ambush Storm, and later, Raknar, though since the episode made a big show of Corsair coming to Earth alone, I’m not sure how or when everyone got there. To top things off, characters spout some code phrases in an attempt to dress up a pathetically simple battle plan. The Starjammers are able to take down Raknar after Storm uses her powers to—brace yourselves—blow a tarp off of a deflector array.

Outside of that, we get a lot of Cyclops and Corsair processing the revelation that they’re family. Corsair explains that he and Cyclops’s mother were facing imminent abduction by Emperor D’Ken, leaving them no choice but to hurriedly push their two sons out of a plane. Cyclops is understandably very angry about being abandoned, and I have to give it to Norm Spencer here, who manages some decent acting amidst a truly ridiculous story. Cyclops and Corsair reconcile by the end of the episode, which I take issue with, as Corsair did absolutely nothing to win back his son’s trust. He even says that he just sort of assumed Scott and Alex were dead, and thus never bothered coming back to Earth to look for them. This seems like the total opposite of forgivable behavior, but I guess Cyclops is just that understanding of a guy.

Storm is extremely fun in this episode. She’s sporting a long ponytail, yet another fabulous look for a character who’s gotten more costume changes than anyone else (animation is expensive and it’s rare to see characters rotate through so many designs, especially for a ’90s cartoon). In this story, she’s Cyclops’s ultimate wingwoman, repeatedly conjuring gusts of wind and bolts of lightning to get the Summerses out of scrapes with the Shi’ar. The writers accidentally gave her super strength, too, as at one point she casually scoops up Cyclops and Corsair—two fully grown men—to get them to safety. She also fights (and then allies with) the Starjammers, with her abilities providing the decisive edge in the capture of Raknar (decisive, but nonsensical). Storm even drives a monorail! Did you know the X-Men have a private monorail? Did you know that Alison Sealy-Smith delivers an absolutely iconic line reading about the monorail? She’s spectacular. And not a god damn pterodactyl in sight.

Stray observations:

• As young Scott and Alex plunge toward the surface of Alaska with the plane’s only parachute, it catches fire. I get why Corsair assumed his sons were dead, but I’d still check.

• In addition to a silent flashback cameo of D’Ken, we also get the first appearance of the third and most troublesome Neramani sibling, Deathbird. Deathbird.

• Raknar’s navigator betrays him, showing Cyclops a set of ship’s logs that have been faked in advance to cover up Jandra’s planned murder. Why anyone would preemptively incriminate themselves like this, I really can’t say, but the Shi’ar have a weird culture.

• In the final scene, as Corsair and Cyclops are getting to know each other, he says, “So I hear you’re going to marry that redhead…” So I guess the show canonically considers Scott and Jean’s marriage invalid, because Morph was playing a fake priest? Do marriage licenses not exist on this version of Earth?

• Cyclops, wondering who could possibly be contacting them at Christ o’ Clock in the morning: “Well it can’t be an X-Man, they don’t get up this early.” I really enjoy the hint of a smile you can hear in Norm Spencer’s delivery. He’s no Lenore Zann, but he’s very good in this story.

• On the toilet: again, I almost can’t believe it, Wolverine! Along with every principle character except for Cyclops and Storm.