Amazing Spider-Man #203

Amazing Spider-Man #203 (1981)
by Marv Wolfman & Keith Pollard

Dazzler barely got any screen time in her first appearance, and there’s only a single other story set before her regular series. Will she get to do anything?

We begin with Spider-Man randomly coming across Dazzler being chased by a ball of energy, which he believes is one of his minor villains, “Will O’ The Wisp”.
This is actually where her roller-skates come from: she didn’t wear them in the X-Men story.

Apparently she’s been trying to shake off this thing for a while, and she has to be rescued by Spider-Man.

Aaaand she immediately faints. What is this, the 60s?

Dazzler is far from being famous at this point, but at least in the neighborhood she has to be popular since Spider-Man immediately recognizes her… and it’s not like Peter Parker regularly goes dancing (at least in this period where Mary Jane is not around).

Have you ever wondered why in this period Dazzler goes around wearing a miniature disco ball around her neck? It’s a weapon! Specifically, it helps her focus the light she creates after absorbing sound.

Dazzler disappears for a few pages of subplots, and once we see her again… yeah maybe she should’ve accepted Spider-Man’s help after all.

Turns out that Spider-Man was right: that energy WAS from one of his minor enemies, but it’s from someone much lamer than Will O’ The Wisp.
It’s Lightmaster, who SOMEHOW uses Dazzler’s powers to return to Earth after being exiled into another dimension in his previous fight with Spider-Man.

The connection to Dazzler is not entirely random. Dazzler absorbs sound to create light, and Lightmaster needs to constantly absorb light to keep his powers and stay alive.

Lightmaster is a very lackluster villain for Spider-Man. He’s actually quite powerful, being able to create objects of solid light… basically he has Klaw’s gimmick but with light instead of sound.
Too bad he’s not particularly interesting, and the fact that his costume is just awful really doesn’t help.

The fight between Dazzler and Lightmaster happens right next to the theater where Peter Parker is watching a movie with his supporting cast, because of course.
Specifically he’s watching “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”. And I don’t mean a movie that is obviously meant to be a real one, like it often happens in comics, the gang is explicitly watching Star Trek.

Maybe my earlier remark about the 60s was accurate: quite often Stan Lee would have a random civilian dismiss something incredible by thinking it was just a publicity stunt, something that I always find hilarious.
This story goes a step further with the audience believing that THE THEATER CATCHING FIRE is a special effect!!!

Admittedly, the slower scenes of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” would’ve benefitted tremendously by the place catching fire.

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I feel Lightmaster is a mismatch as a Spider-Man villain. I don’t know why… many of his villains are more powerful than him, but Lightmaster seems better suited for a hero with a more fantastical setting.

Lightmaster manages to escape with Dazzler, and he gives a somewhat redundant explanation for why he kidnapped: he wants to exploit her powers. I wonder if this will become a trend for her.
(spoiler: it will)

So how does Spider-Man track down Lightmaster? A spider-tracer? Maybe he picked up some clues? No, Lightmaster is just dumb: he went to the same exact lab he used to have before he turned supervillain.

Lightmaster pulls a switch to create an explosion, and after Spider-Man deals with that… turns out the villain is now possessing Dazzler’s body!

So, uhm, yeah.
This is supposed to be a way to boost interest for Dazzler in the readers, and what does she do? She gets captured by the villain and is mind-possessed for the majority of the story.
Now run to buy Dazzler #1, I guess?

Presumably nobody pays enough attention to Dazzler foro this rampage having any sort of negative effect on her career. Unless New Yorkers are naturally used to blame Spider-Man for everything, which… yeah that’s about right.

For all of Lightmaster’s boasts, he (she?) is stopped by THE most basic Spider-Man trick.

Spider-Man gets to escape and rest between a couple more subplots; the next day he manages to find Dazzler.

Or not.

No please, Lightmaster, do keep talking about the most powerful villain ever.

Uhm, Spidey, maybe be more careful where you put your hands?

Come on, Lightmaster, are you REALLY going to be defeated by just a few webs? What happened to having “the energy of the Sun itself”?

Our new hero and our big villain, ladies and gentlemen… defeated by being b##chslapped by Spider-Man.

Spider-Man manages to free Dazzler from Lightmaster’s control by using what’s left of his laboratory.
And so we end with Spider-Man hinting that next issue he’s going to deal with a romantic plot.

He’s right: the Black Cat returns in the following issue.
As for Dazzler, they’ll meet soon enough in her series, where he’s one of the few heroes not instantly smitten.

Once we get back to the retrospective, it’ll be for Dazzler’s debut with a regular series.

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Historical significance: 1/10
Dazzler knowing Spider-Man will play a small role at the beginning of the issue, but they’re not exactly close. And while this introduces the skates, technically speaking the first Dazzler issue was published first (although it takes place afterwards).
Weirdly enough she never gets to fight Lightmaster again.

Silver Age-ness: 8/10
Lightmaster is quite Silver Age on the Marvel scale, plus Dazzler’s general uselessness seems straight out of the first 60 stories.

Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
The Wolfman run on Amazing Spider-Man is pretty bad, possibly the worst Wolfman work I’ve read. This one was mostly just bland… you can tell his heart wasn’t in it; the decision to have a story centered around Dazzler was certainly an editorial mandate.
From the Spider-Man perspective, this is very formulaic… there are no stakes involved, and despite Lightmaster constantly boasting about how awesome he is there’s never really a moment when Spider-Man feels like he’s in danger. Honestly it looks like he’s just sleepwalking through the entire thing! Which CAN be used to great effect, especially if it makes the villain mad, but… not this time.
From the Dazzler perspective, this is less than promising. Other than surprising Spider-Man by showing she has powers, she just plays the damsel in distress the entire time.
They didn’t even play up the mind possession thing, let alone the gender bending angle!
The artwork is serviceable but not amazing (pun intended), but… the story is by-the-numbers, the villain is uninspired and the guest hero sucks.