Dazzler #8 (1981)
written by Danny Fingerot (“from an idea by Tom DeFalco”)
pencils by Frank Springer
Dazzler looks absolutely badass on the cover!
Which probably means she’ll suck in the story… right?
Just in case you were wondering: yes, Dazzler is now in a relationship with Doctor McDreamy.
And no, it’s still not interesting.
You would think a doctor would understand the idea of interrupting a date because of a work-related emergency.
It looks like Dazzler’s manager, and more surprisingly Lancelot, are smarter than they look and DID actually notice her powers!!!
With the mutant hysteria of the 80s, I think Dazzler is justified in not revealing she’s a mutant (even though she’s blurted it out MANY times during action scenes). But at the same time, I can’t entirely blame the manager for finding this too sketchy.
While I’m willing to cut the manager some slack, Lancelot continues to be insufferable. Remember how he made a big deal about knowing everything about music? I’m still not convinced he’s not exclusively interested in the musicians being hot.
And then the Enforcers show up!!! We’ve seen Ox fight Daredevil before, but this is the first time they show up in my reviews. It’s very rare to see them after the 60s.
I could make a count of how many times Lance is utterly useless, but there’s an easier way: just take the number of times he appears in a comic book and multiply it by 1.
I guess the writers were going for “lovable loser with a heart of gold”. Well at least ONE of those words applies to Lance.
As you probably expected, the Enforcers are not working alone. They are the, uhm, enforcers of the REAL villain of the story: Techmaster.
Honestly it’s not a bad introduction for the character. He doesn’t come off as particularly scary, but with this series you take what you can get.
Dazzler’s manager goes to her for help (???) and reveals Techmaster’s origin story. He used to be a special effects master that invented a machine that shoots REAL LIGHTNING!!!
What could possibly go wrong with that?
He also goes full Doctor Doom, blaming his accident on someone else.
When the Enforcers show up, it’s time for Dazzler to… be completely useless.
That being said, the scene where Ox intimidates her is AWESOME.
It’s easy to see the Enforcers as joke villains, but if you put them against the right foes they’re great.
Despite being intimidated into NOT calling the police, Dazzler hunts down Techmaster… to the only place she knows he’s ever been.
Not exactly the world’s greatest detective, but again, with this series you take what you can get.
She even manages to get the Enforcers by surprise!
This is probably Dazzler at the most competent we’ve seen her so far.
Which isn’t saying much, but it’s SOMETHING.
She’s still a newbie, though. And the Enforcers have TONS of experience fighting real superheroes.
Dazzler even manages to take out Fancy Dan and Montana, but Ox is another story… he has legitimate superpowers. But Dazzler takes care of him in a way that I really like:
This works on multiple levels: it exploits the fact that the Enforcers are trying to keep away from the police, so this would work even if Dazzler didn’t have powers… but it shows she’s more resourceful than it seemed when it comes to finding other sound sources!!!
I was fully prepared to the manager not thinking that Dazzler has powers, even after witnessing it multiple times… but nope, he figures it out AND he respects her wishes AND he’s not even a little bit mutant-phobic!!!
Dazzler significance: 5/10
The manager knowing the secret is a somewhat important part of this section of the series.
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
I can’t give a 0/10 to a story that features the Enforcers, but I totally buy this version still being around in the 80s.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
I can’t believe it, but this was actually a good story! Nothing groundbreaking, sure, and Techmaster (who will return) is quite lackluster. But Dazzler is reasonably competent, the Enforcers are surprisingly menacing, and the manager turned out to be a good character too!
GO FOR IT!: 9
Obligatory underwear shot: 3
Can I just say, this is a good depiction of the Ox and the Enforcers in general. We usually see them as one step above throwaway henchmen, but here they’re allowed to be genuinely, murderously menacing. Kudos to Alison, though, for having the obligatory secondary superpower of being able to be punched in the face by a martial artist and not having so much as a mark afterward.