Marvel Team-Up #109

Marvel Team-Up #109 (1981)
by Tom DeFalco & Herb Trimpe

Dazzler gets a second team-up with Spider-Man.
Good news: it’s written by Tom DeFalco, who as her regular writer should know the character.
Bad news: the artwork is by Herb Trimpe. Better known as Wolverine’s co-creator, whose artwork in this period is… well… it’s Trimpe artwork.

Last time Spider-Man saved Dazzler, and she gets to repay the favor by rescuing him from lame supervillain Thermo, “the Thermatronic Man”.
Yes. That is SERIOUSLY how he calls himself.

Alright, Dazzler FINALLY got to do some superhero stuff without immediately embarrassing herself!!!

Thermo manages to escape, and Spider-Man is too exhausted from the fight to follow him. His ally from last issue carries over to this one: the super-mercenary Paladin.
Who is too busy hitting on Dazzler to be of much help.

Paladin wastes no time hitting on Dazzler because A) she’s a woman, and B)… actually that’s it. That’s just how Paladin works.

The reason Spider-Man is out of commission is that Thermo’s power is to absorb heat from people’s bodies and use that energy to give himself super-powers. He’s basically a heat vampire, except FAR lamer.

Then Thermo… and I’m not making this up… interrupts a fake satanic ritual (!!!!) to gather a following.

AND IT WORKS!!!

Meanwhile, as Thermo prepares to take over the world or something (I’m not entirely sure what’s his deal)… Dazzler makes breakfast.

Nearly every superhero that meets Dazzler considers her almost supernaturally beautiful… except Spider-Man, who compares her to Aunt May.
Ouch.
It just MIGHT have something to do with how she’s currently dressed or her sudden fear of spiders.

Remember how the story started with Dazzler’s saving Spidey’s life? Good times.

This might be a team-up, but it’s still firmly a Spider-Man story. So once he leaves Dazzler’s apartment, he gets busy working on a gizmo that Paladin gave him that should shut down Thermo’s powers.
I might go back to the previous issue to check what Thermo’s deal is, but… does ANYONE seriously care about Thermo?

Let me see if I got this right: since Dazzler is one of the good guys, her music is the musical paragon of goodness. And the bad guys don’t like Dazzler’s music because they hate goodness.
Subtlety, your name is Tom DeFalco.

I have to be honest, I seriously miss the Metal Men retrospective sometimes. Then I am reminded why I chose Dazzler to get my fix of heroes sucking at being heroes.

DID YOU GET THEY ARE THE BAD GUYS?

The fact that Peter Parker is a genius is a core aspect of Spider-Man’s mythos, but I never like it when he gets turned into a super-genius. This DEFINITELY qualifies.

Spider-Man and Paladin come to Dazzler’s rescue, and once again she gives priority to her roller-skates than to the music that supposedly powers her.

Your regular reminder that we are supposed to find her roller-skating skills more impressive than the fact that SHE CAN SHOOT LASERS.

You might be wondering: is this fight any good? Well… the highlight is the use of one of the worst sound effects ever seen on a comic book (“ZORCH!”), so make of that what you will.

Dazzler takes care of the fake satanist followers.
Now THAT is a sentence you don’t hear every day.

This is very impressive to Paladin. At least according to Dazzler; from what we see from his facial expression, I think he just had a stroke.

And so we end with Thermo being defeated with the dignity he deserves…

…and Dazzler admitting that she sucks at this.

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Dazzler significance: 0/10

Silver Age-ness: 10/SATAN!!!

Does it stand the test of time? 0/10

Super love interests: 2
And now we have Paladin falling for Dazzler. To be fair, Paladin falls for basically every woman he meets, but still.

 

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Well that was crap. Any chance we have a small cameo as a palate cleanser?

Avengers #211 (1981)
by Jim Shooter & Gene Colan

 It’s the obligatory “Who will join the Avengers now” kind of story. With Jim Shooter writing, is it any wonder we have a ton of candidates? His Legion background showing up, perhaps?

Dazzler doesn’t exactly make a grand entrance, feeling Iceman’s coldness.

You might wonder why in the world would Dazzler show up for an Avengers audition, since she doesn’t even want to be a superhero.
Well, you’re right: turns out all these heroes are here under the telepathic influence of Moondragon (we last saw her in the Doom retrospective), who has decided that she wants to join the Avengers again.
And in typical Moondragon fashion, she’s doing this by being manipulative and insufferable (it’s kind of her thing).

If Thor tells you that you’re too full of yourself… THOR… maybe you’ve gone a liiiiitle overboard.

It’s actually kind of great to see Moondragon interact with Dazzler, because I can think of very few Marvel characters that would be at such an opposite side of the spectrum, personality-wise.

Yeah not exactly the greatest start.
But, to be fair, coming from Moondragon this is a HUGE compliment: this is basically as polite as Moondragon gets.

And that’s the extent of Dazzler’s cameo.

I just love Moondragon. It’s so refreshing to have a hero who is the absolute epitome of being completely and utterly unlikeable in every possible way.
That may SOUND like sarcasm, but I mean it!
Moondragon is a delightfully fun character to have around and get on every hero’s nerves.

Obviously no ratings on this bonus cameo.
It’s nothing special… one of the typical “let’s clean up the roster for the next run” kind of story that the Avengers get all the time.
It was fun to see Gene Colan draw some characters he never typically gets to draw, though.