Dazzler #1

Dazzler #1 (1981)
by Tom DeFalco & John Romita Jr.

This was the very first Marvel comic to be distributed exclusively through the direct market.
Believe it or not, this thing sold 400,000 copies!!!

In the very first page of her solo series, Dazzler is fleeing some muggers.
This is basically the first time we get to see her face; in all previous appearances she either had her sage makeup or was wearing oversized sunglasses.
I’m still having a hard time believing she was designed to resemble Bo Derek!
The face was apparently re-drawn by John Romita Sr.

Good thing that these are among the dumbest New York City muggers I’ve seen in a comic book, and that’s saying something.

As we’ve already seen in her Spider-Man teamup, the early Dazzler needs music to power up.

And with this, Dazzler unveils what is effectively her battle cry: GO FOR IT!
That’s, uhm, that’s certainly no Clobberin’ Time.

Also, was “turkeys” something people used as an insult, or is the comic making this up?

Same question: “boogie those suckers out”?

The fight ends when Dazzler’s music player is destroyed (talk about a lucky shot!)…

…and it would be the end of Dazzler’s career if she wasn’t saved by Spider-Man. AGAIN.

Why are we hearing this as an exposition from Dazzler instead of, you know, reading the scene she’s describing?

While her connection to Spider-Man is flimsy at best, they do have something in common: they’re both absolutely broke.

Well, Dazzler does bring to the table something Spider-Man doesn’t: daddy issues!

Needing to hear a friendly voice, Dazzler decides to call the X-Men.
After almost THREE PAGES of the X-Men training in the Danger Room (!!!!), she gets to speak with Storm.
Not only they’re on a first name basis (they didn’t even speak to each other in their previous encounter), Storm is a bit of a jackass here… did she HAVE to point out Dazzler would need to give up her career!?

Product placement aside (???), this causes Dazzler to have a flashback to her origin story.

And here’s where we learn why she has daddy issues: her father is an ###hole.

Hey at least she HAS a father, that’s incredibly rare for a superhero! Obviously her mother has be dead because come on, let’s not overdo things.

Flashing forward when she’s a little older, and we witness the first time her powers kick into gear.
Plus the secret origin of “GO FOR IT”… a random schoolmate yelled it once.

So a teenage girl unleashes her powers for the first time at a school dance?

I don’t see how it could end horribly.

No, nothing that absurd happens. Instead the school dance is invaded by the Blazing Lords.

So the young Allison is forced to unleash her inhuman powers for the first time!

Okay she doesn’t go THAT far, but she ends up blinding all the thugs!!!!

As well as “temporarily” blinding every single kid, so Allison understandably feels a little guilty.
Luckily for her, the whole thing is blamed on “a freak power overload”, so her secret is safe.

And that’s not the only secret she keeps: her father has no idea that she’s practicing her music.

I will have to accept a lot of truly absurd stuff from this series, but this is a bit much.
Look, I can accept that she can graduate from law school… she’s a bit dumb in the series, but not THAT dumb. But the idea that DAZZLER graduated magna cum laude? SERIOUSLY!?

And that is the end of the flashback. All things considered it’s not a bad origin for a superhero!

And now, ladies and gentlemen, is when the story goes TO ASGARD.

Because we need a villain for the story, so who better than the Enchantress to fight Dazzler?
Look there were like five supervillain women in 1981, they had to pick SOMEONE.

This, it goes without saying, is due to a shift in the Cosmic Axis…

…caused by disco music!?!?!?

 Okay, if I got this right… there’s an interdimensional rift that is going to open at the disco, and the Enchantress wants to use is power for… something, I guess?
The important  thing is that no attention should be brought to that place!

That sounds serious! Which is precisely why we cut to the Avengers, where Beast is concentrated on a matter of the utmost importance…

…getting Dazzler a job! Wait, WHAT!?

 This is just BIZARRE. Why in the world would you have Beast, who HAS NEVER MET DAZZLER BEFORE, show up at her place to offer her a job!?

 

Not to mention this has terrible implications. At this point her identity is a secret: only the X-Men know that she’s Dazzler! So it would’ve made sense if one of the X-Men learned about the job opportunity… but nope! Apparently the X-Men just revealed her secret identity to Beast for no reason!? WHAT!?

Also that’s our connection to the Enchantress, because of course she got the job at the same exact disco that Enchantress is targeting.

Who else is hoping Dazzler’s first legit fight is actually a singing contest?

Two regular things you’ll see over and over in the series are Dazzler’s singing bordering on being supernaturally fantastic, and people asking no questions about the light show that spontaneously appears whenever she opens her mouth.

Was there really ever a question on whether Dazzler would win the singing contest?

And that’s it! Enchantress vows to destroy Dazzler… because she made her lose an audition.
Honestly, if we go by mythology, that is far from being the pettiest reason a goddess has chosen to ruin the life of a mortal.

So, uhm… if the idea was to avoid attracting attention to the disco, why did Enchantress go to the audition in the first place!?!?

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Dazzler significance: 8/10
Obviously a character’s origin story is quite important, and we will return to the father. Enchantress is also a recurring villain.

Silver Age-ness: 6/10
It was pretty low until Enchantress derailed her plan because she was upstaged in an audition. Which is not out of character for a goddess, but still.

Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
As far as the Dazzler series goes, this is passable. The origin story isn’t half bad, and Dazzler’s struggles as a civilian has a Spider-Man vibe, which is definitely on purpose.
Dazzler herself is a bit generic as a personality… she wants to be a singer, but other than that we don’t really learn who she is as a person.
The weakest part is definitely the Enchantress stuff, which really doesn’t feel like it belongs in a Dazzler story.

GO FOR IT!: 1
You better believe I’m going to keep count of how many times she yells it.

Superhero fans: 3
Adding Beast, who is such a superfan that he blows her secret identity to offer her a job. He’ll eventually show up in the love interest counters, because of course he will.

Super love interests: 1