Writer Terry Kavanagh

Penciler Dave Cockrum

Inker Jeff Albrecht

Colorist John Wilcox

Letterer Agustin Mas

Cover Dated June 1990

Phalkon Quest Part Two of Two

Lockheed is on the back cover!  That doesn’t happen too often.

Chapter One

Deathbird has Lilandra at gun point.  Lilandra is trying to get her kingdom back.

People are under the impression that poor Sikorsky is a traitor, but he was just reprogrammed.  He takes a blast meant for Lilandra.  The Starjammers try to distract Deathbird.  Lilandra is about to kill her sister, by knife, as the Imperial Guard shows up.

Chapter Two

Binary, also on the team, blasts through the floor.  The Starjammers rescue Lilandra, which annoys her as she was so close to killing her sister.  They had to rescue her, as the Imperial Guard wouldn’t have waited for her.  They are loyal to whomever is sitting on the throne.  Binary starts fighting Zenith, who is her teammate’s, Raza, brother.  Deathbird steals the location to Phalkon, which is the mysterious item both teams are after, but neither knows what it is – outside of it being quite powerful.  The Starjammers ship is out of commission, so Deathbird has a giant head start.

Chapter Three

Binary uses her cosmic power to recharge the ship.  They lost time but are back in the race.  They have the coordinates, they are heading to Earth.  On the way there, we get some interesting interactions.  Binary tells Raza that she killed Zenith.  He walks away, not revealing that he was his brother.  They were not close, but it was Raza’s birthright to kill him.  I had an action figure of Raza, when I was a kid, and did not play with him correctly.

Corsair and Hepzibah are flirting, this seems early in their relationship.  I think they are only at the merely flirting phase.  Ch’od is looking for someone to hang out with.  Waldo, the ship’s robot interface, is arguing with Sikorsky.

Lilandra visits Xavier.  This is sometime after Uncanny X-Men 200, so he is healing.  Except, we are told, for all points and purposes, that he is dead.  She starts crying.  Ch’od finds Raza, he shares the situation about his brother.  Corsair interrupts Lilandra, he tries to soothe her as Hepzibah interrupts them, as they were hugging.  That doesn’t look good.  The Starjammers have made it to Earth.  There are dozens of Shi’ar ships blocking their path.  They cut all of their power and coast by the armada.  They are in Earth’s atmosphere and on Deathbird’s trail.  She has already found the Phalkon.

They land their ship next to Deathbird’s.  They see her crew have been knocked out.  Next, they see Rachel Summers inside a space bed contraption.  So the bed-like device is the Phalkon, but it requires a giant power source to power itself.  That is my understanding.

Kitty phases the rest of Excalibur into the room the Starjammers are in.  Corsair doesn’t recognize Kitty’s new team.

I really like Cockrum’s Lockheed.

Chapter Four

Binary and Nightcrawler recognize each other.  As does Corsair and Kitty.  Kitty would prefer that he call her, Shadowcat.

Kitty recognized the guards as being part of Lilandra’s crew.  Deathbird is watching and enjoying the obvious misunderstanding.  Nightcrawler believes that this situation is all about the Shi’ar’s hatred of the Phoenix.  Lilandra explains that Deathbird is running the Shi’ar, and I like how she makes the point that Kurt should have remembered that.

Captain Britain sees Hepzibah, what he believes is her making a sneak attack.  Raza fights him, and that breaks out so that we get the classic hero team vs hero team.

Shadowcat realizes she hasn’t seen Xavier yet.  She tries to get onto the ship, but it starts to take off.  Lilandra explains that Xavier is dead.

How great is this splash page!

Corsair is trying to get everyone to stop fighting.

Nice how Nightcrawler and Raza get into a sword fight.  Binary fights Captain Britain.  Widget and Cr’eee get into it.  I’m not exactly sure who Cr’eee is.

The entire Imperial Guard shows up.

Because the Starjammers are on Earth, we have to check in with Cyclops and X-Factor.

Back to the fights.  Shadowcat is about to be blasted by Electron and Tempest.  She phases and they blast each other.

Gladiator and Binary get into it.

Lockheed fights Impulse, who I had to look up.

Shadowcat takes out Earthquake.  Astra punches her, as they can both turn intangible.

Meanwhile, on the ship.  Deathbird is about to harness Rachel’s Phoenix power.  Lilandra punches her sister.  The Imperial Guard take their unconscious queen and leave.

Rachel wakes up.  She lost a small amount of her powers.  How did the Shi’ar even capture her?  Corsair has an idea of what to do with the stolen power.

Months later, the Starjammers are starting rebellions.  The public face of it is . . . Bald Phoenix aka Professor X!  He is alive and well.  The Phoenix power won’t last, but while it does, he wants to do some good with it.