Korvus Rook'shir

Though the Shi'ar denied it for centuries, one of their race once wielded the power of the Phoenix. Rook'shir wielded the universal power though a giant blade, called the Blade of the Phoenix, and devastated much of the Shi'ar Empire until the Imperial Guard was formed to defeat him. However, a fraction of his power remained in the blade, which could only be lifted by a direct descendant of Rook'shir. Hoping that the blade would never be lifted again, the Shi'ar focused on wiping out Rook'shir's descendants.

The descendants were killed by the Vice-Chancellor K'tor, a loyalist of Emperor D'Ken, who kept only one survivor as a slave. The survivor was Korvus, and he was tortured as he worked on mechanical constructs. When he reached adulthood, Korvus was imprisoned in the high security prison on the moon of Phygim and a device was placed on his brain that could be triggered if he tried to escape.

K'tor approached Korvus in prison and offered to commute the rest of Korvus' sentence if he acted against Rachel Summers, who was coming to the Shi'ar Empire to stop Emperor Vulcan, along with her fellow X-Men. K'tor allowed Korvus to take the Blade of the Phoenix and gave him a ship so he could slay Rachel. Korvus eventually found the X-Men by tracking Marvel Girl's Phoenix's brand, to which he was drawn. Korvus landed on their ship and easily thwarted the combined X-Men with the Blade. However when he tried to slay Rachel, she grasped the Blade and their minds were involuntarily linked, reliving each other's lives in essence and forming a close bond between them. He then chose to ally with the X-Men and the device on his brain was deactivated with the help of Rachel.

Korvus taught the X-Men that their jumpship had the potential of opening a stargate using their own mutant power sources. Korvus worked on fixing the ship while the X-Men sent out a distress signal to the Starjammers. Korvus and Marvel Girl continued experiencing their mental bond, drawn together, and became romantically involved. She soon put an end to the relationship, believing their connection wasn't real and was due to the time their minds bonded because of the residual Phoenix Force. This was much to Korvus' dismay, who had actually begun to fall in love with her.

After the death of Corsair at the hands of Vulcan, he, along with Havok, Polaris, Rachel, Ch'od and Raza become the new Starjammers, electing to remain in Shi'ar space and restore Lilandra to the throne.

The Starjammers found another threat in the form of the Scy'ar Tal (translates as "Death to the Shi'ar"). Rachel made contact with the Eldest Scy'ar Tal and discovered their true origin. The Scy'ar Tal were originally called the M'Kraan. Early in their history, the Shi`ar attacked them, killed a great number of their people, making the rest flee for their lives. Eventually, the Shi'ar settled on their planet, took the M'kraan Crystal as their own, and passed down the legend of the M'Kraan Crystal as a sacred gift from their deities, Sharra & K`ythri. The M'Kraan then changed their named to Scy'ar Tal and devoted their culture and society to the destruction of the Shi`ar Empire. With their first attack, they destroyed Feather's Edge by transporting a star to obliterate it. After which, Vulcan made contact with the Starjammers to call a temporary ceasefire. However, they were all betrayed by Vulcan and the Shi'ar who captured the Starjammers except Korvus, Rachel and Lilandra.

During battle with Vulcan's new guard, the Phoenix fragment within both his sword and Rachel left.

When the Starjammers were answering a distress call on a space station they were mind controlled by a creature by the name of Friendless. An X-Men team led by Rogue arrived to save them however and the entire space station was safely brought to Earth. Korvus quickly grew restless among the mutants on Utopia however, longing for space. Rogue arranged for him to become the new captain of Sovel Redhands crew and he was able to leave Earth.

After deciding to leave everything behind Korvus decided to find and rejoin the remaining Starjammers. When a rival pirate group riding the Desolation attacked, while Corsair and his son were away, the Starjammers were cast out their ship to die in space. They were saved by a passing ship, but the crew recognized them and had them arrested. Korvus was to auctioned off as a slave but was saved by Corsair.