{"id":40116,"date":"2023-07-12T00:00:31","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T04:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/?p=40116"},"modified":"2023-07-14T00:45:08","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T04:45:08","slug":"the-original-starjammers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2023\/07\/the-original-starjammers\/","title":{"rendered":"The original Starjammers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dave Cockrum was a wildly creative guy, and was constantly coming up with ideas for new characters<\/a>. For instance, Marvel fans will recognize Raza and Ch'od<\/a>, part of the Starjammers team:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Cockrum came up with the team of space pirates known as the Starjammers in 1972. He submitted the idea to Marvel Spotlight<\/i> and Marvel Premiere<\/i>, the tryout\/anthology books, but was told they were booked for two years in advance. So he went to Chris Claremont and convinced him to put the Starjammers into X-Men<\/i>... with some changes.<\/p>\n

Rather than Corsair, the leader of the team would have been a guy called Bloodstar:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

If you remember Dave's other<\/b> creations, the Strangers<\/a>, you'll recognize Phaedra as being a reworking of the character Belladonna from that pitch, who would have been a vampire lady and the Wolverine character's sister:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In 1994, Cockrum partnered with Action Hobbies to release a model kit of Phaedra, which revealed some of the original intended 1972 Starjammers<\/i> story:<\/p>\n

Phaedra is a warrior princess of the planetary republic of Shandilarr; she is also a Genjaak Sorceress and member of the Bright Council of Llangobar.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Driven from her homeworld when it was destroyed by the Dark Empire, Pahaedra, with her chief warlord Bloodstar, formed a resistance group to combat the Dark Empire. The called themselves The Starjammers...<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A princess from a destroyed planet<\/a> leading a rebel group against an evil Empire<\/a>? It'll never work!<\/p>\n

For his part, Claremont tried to convince Cockrum not to use the Starjammers in the book - not because he didn't think they were good characters, but because if they appeared in X-Men<\/i>, then they'd be X-Men characters: if they appeared somewhere else first, Cockrum would still have claim to them, and could possibly get royalties for it. He even offered to drop their scenes from Uncanny<\/i> #107, and write around the absence. But Dave was excited about the team, so into the book they went, which is why today we have Corsair<\/a> instead of Bloodstar.<\/p>\n

<i>And now, some more OAFEry:<\/i><\/H5>