Dazzler’s series is very close to its ending, after which she will be rescued by Chris Claremont to join the X-Men. So let’s see how he tries to integrate her with the rest of his mutant titles.
New Mutants #29 (1985)
by Chris Claremont & Bill Sienkiewicz
You might recognize from the cover that we’re also going to see again the mutant theater introduced in the Beauty and the Beast miniseries.
As always, Sienkiewicz is spectacular on the cover…
…but to perfectly honest, I kind of hate the vast majority of his work on this series.
I mean don’t get me wrong, Sienkiewicz is a terrific artist… for certain kinds of characters and scenes.
Nobody draws horror and fantasy stuff like him!
But whenever he tries to draw regular people… everyone looks ugly, the story becomes very hard to follow and the storytelling is often all over the place.
The kids are New Mutants members Cannonball and Magik, who have just returned from an accidental trip through Limbo.
They go to supporting character (and fellow mutant) Lila Cheney, but first they have to get past her bodyguard.
If the giant bodyguard looks familiar, it’s because this is the first appearance of future X-Factor member Strong Guy.
This series has some… problematic aspects to it.
I’m not entirely sure just how old Cannonball is supposed to be at this point, but I’m fairly certain he’s a minor. And he’s in a relationship with Lila Cheney, who is most definitely an adult.
Lila Cheney is one of the most interesting things to come out of this series, in my opinion.
She’s a mutant with the power of teleportation, but ONLY over interstellar distances… and she’s an interstellar superstar, being a famous musician both on Earth and other planets.
Basically, Dazzler if she didn’t suck.
Speaking of Dazzler, THAT’S where we get the connection: she’s been hired for Lila’s band.
I keep getting distracted by the Lila & Cannonball relationship. Seriously, how old is he, because this is seriously creeping me out.
There is another reason to bring Dazzler into this: the rest of the New Mutants are currently fighting the mutant gladiators introduced in the Beauty and the Beast miniseries.
If you ONLY know Dazzler from this storyline, you may find her to be a sympathetic character. Having gone through her Graphic Novel, though, I’m still not convinced she doesn’t deserve like 90% of the hate she’s getting.
Speaking of the New Mutants part of the plot, it looks like the leader of the gladiators… the supposed illegitimate son of Doctor Doom from the miniseries… is the one pulling the strings.
Thankfully he’s SO lame that this will soon prove to be a red herring.
This is also a Secret Wars II tie-in, because this is when Professor X recruits Magneto to go after the Beyonder in issue 1 of that dumpster fire.
We’re going to ignore that for the moment, and instead focus on Lila Cheney and her mutant posse crashing the party where the gladiators are.
Remember that every one of these people except Strong Guy are supposed to look like regular humans. I still think the artwork is not serving the story well here.
For example, from THIS panel I thought the blonde with the pink jacket was supposed to be Dazzler in a wig…
…but a couple panels later we see that’s Magik, whose teleporting powers are currently unreliable.
So Dazzler is supposed to be the one wearing the mask and… whatever the f##k this is supposed to be? In what way does she look “edgy”?
Dazzler recognizes her friend from the miniseries and immediately blows her cover to save her.
Yeah that gender-bent Frankenstein’s Monster? That’s supposed to be the green woman from the miniseries WHO LOOKED NOTHING LIKE THAT.
That’s not a problem from the digitally recolored version, she’s not green in the original either.
The fight is interrupted by Magneto, who crashes the arena to recruit the New Mutants to go after the Beyonder.
With THAT costume, it’s a wonder the entire arena doesn’t start laughing.
New Mutants #30 (1985)
by Chris Claremont & Bill Sienkiewicz
Once again: Sienkiewicz on the cover? Just fantastic.
Sienkiewicz on the artwork? Well… it depends.
This is set immediately after Secret Wars II #1, where the Beyonder… for basically no reason whatsoever… unleashed Magik’s demonic side, leading to the New Mutants (plus Dazzler and Kitty Pryde) being teleported into her Limbo dimension.
Now THIS is Sienkiewicz at his strongest: drawing characters in crazy reality-bending situations.
But once the New Mutants return to Earth and are supposed to look like regular people? Not so much.
One of the reasons why I don’t like most of Claremont’s work in this era is the utter isolationism of his characters and his stories.
The X-Men, or in this case the New Mutants, insist to always have the mutants be the only ones allowed to handle other mutants. I don’t fault him for wanting the protagonists to be the ones that actually get to do stuff, but… at least give them plausible reasons?
It also has the nasty implication that the mutants are somehow beyond the laws of non-mutants, which SHOULD be exactly the opposite of the entire idea behind the X-Men.
Kitty Pryde has been an X-Men for QUITE some time at this point, but I find this scene pretty hilarious. She has to be what, sixteen years old at this point? At most? And she’s entirely correct in telling Dazzler that she doesn’t have the slightest clue about being a superhero!
No, Dazzler, it’s not that she doesn’t trust you because you were friends with these people.
She doesn’t trust you because YOU SUCK AT THIS HERO STUFF.
Although if she really was thinking you were going to be unreliable… great job proving her right, Dazzler!
Also: someone finally told the colorist the woman is supposed to be green. I just wished they also told Sienkiewicz she shouldn’t look ANYTHING like that.
The first time Dazzler met these guys, she was being manipulated by having her drink a potion that screwed with her powers, making her vulnerable to mind control.
So naturally she doesn’t hesitate drinking a different mystery potion!!!
So Dazzler gives her performance to the gladiator arena, which is… something.
Once again: way to prove Kitty Pryde’s point, Dazzler!!!
While this is going on, someone is watching her performance: the Beyonder, still looking like Molecule Man as he did during Secret Wars II #1.
This doesn’t entirely fit the timeline Secret Wars II miniseries… there’s really no way to fit this scene there… but it IS interesting because the Beyonder will eventually fall in love with Dazzler.
That will feel EXTREMELY out of nowhere in the miniseries itself, as it makes no reference to this moment.
Dazzler’s actions have saved the New Mutants that were supposed to be competing in the arena, but they don’t trust her.
She’s morally conflicted from this whole situation… at least I think that’s supposed to be.
The artwork makes her look more constipated than conflicted.
The Beyonder is brought up with a serious discussion on whether he’s God or not, which would be very interesting if I wasn’t distracted by Cannonball’s gigantic head.
Seriously, is it too much to ask for people to be drawn like people?
Speaking of the Beyonder, he shows up in person here as well… and his look is a bit confusing.
If we follow the scene in the arena, he SHOULD look like Molecule Man here… except he doesn’t have the scars on his face on some panels.
He looks more like his traditional dark-haired look, but he won’t get that until Secret Wars II #3.
This is one of the most minor tie-ins, but his telepathic fight with Rachel Summers isn’t bad.
Well, SHE calls it a battle. The Beyonder barely notices her.
Also Dazzler is supposedly a hero because she doesn’t go back to the gladiators or something.
But the storyline is not over, because the REAL villain reveals himself… next issue.
New Mutants #31 (1985)
by Chris Claremont & Bill Sienkiewicz
Well, I finally found a Sienkiewicz cover that I don’t like.
I think Claremont might be going a little overboard with his purple prose, even for Claremont.
So THIS is our real villain… the uber-telepath Shadow King, who is currently possessing fellow New Mutant Karma (???) which has turned her morbidly obese (???).
Despite having little brain to speak of, Dazzler is immediately under his control.
This escalates into a big dumb fight that goes on forever and, to be honest, looks almost as ugly as the Shadow King.
Eventually the green skinned mutant is the only gladiator left standing, and she leaves before the police can show up to see WTF all this noise is about.
Dazzler, despite consistently calling her a close friend, will never mention her again.
Why am I not surprised? She’s already shown herself to be a bad sister and a bad girlfriend, so naturally she’s also a bad friend.
Also, the alleged son of Doom was never there involved in this in the first place.
It should be noted that the characters don’t know they’re facing the Shadow King: they think they’re fighting Karma, who they though was dead at the time.
I guess they’re not surprised she looks NOTHING like Karma because nobody looks like he should in this comic.
It does make some sense, since Karma’s power was to possess other people’s bodies.
But it is kind of hilarious that the gladiators are being possessed by Karma who is being possessed by the Shadow King… at this point the Claremont plots were overcomplicated to the point of parody.
And that’s how Dazzler exits the New Mutants series, after having contributed… basically nothing, if you get down to it.
I disagree, Kitty. If you read her series, Dazzler has PLENTY of things to be ashamed of.
Dazzler significance: 0/10
You would expect this to be an important stepping stone for bringing Dazzler into the X-Men, but… not really. There’s an upcoming issue of her own series that does a better job at that.
This COULD have been significant if the Beyonder made any mention of the incident when he falls in love for Dazzler, but that’s also a dud.
Silver Age-ness: 1/10
There’s a lot of weird stuff going on that goes largely unexplained… but the style is as far removed from the Silver Age as possible!
Does it stand the test of time? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yeah this series is not for me, I admit my bias. I don’t like any of the characters, I can’t stand most of the artwork, and the plot wanders from meandering to impenetrable.
Even if I think Claremont’s writing is extremely overrated in this period, there’s plenty of stuff to like on his X-Men and at least I can understand why people appreciate that series.
New Mutants, though? I just don’t get the love this series gets and to be honest I have a hard time understanding WTF is going on 90% of the time.
Since I can’t separate my personal taste from the actual story, I can’t give it a honest score.
Superhero fans: 30
Shockingly enough, none of the New Mutants proclaims to be a fan of Dazzler, so the count is not affected.
I like this story, but then I am a fan of NM (and like the 31 cover). At least you admit your bias opinion prohibits you from giving a fair score.
Anyhoo, Sam is legally of age at this point. His original character angst was giving up college to be the family breadwinner, so that made him 18 at his debut.
Karma had been missing since NM 7. At least a year has passed more than enough time for Farouk to turn her obese.
Sientkiewicz’s art was the absolute pits. I remembered loving his art on the Moench run of Fantastic Four and was excited when he was announced as the new artist on New Mutants, only to see that crap on the page.
As the poster above notes, Cannonball was working in a coal mine in his first appearance. He’s certainly much younger than Lila Cheney, but he couldn’t possibly be a minor.
Also, in Karma’s most recent appearance prior to this, some evil telepath had attacked her mind, and then she disappeared without a trace. Her being possessed by Farouk was decently foreshadowed, and she was certainly not presumed dead, per the first rule of comic book deaths.
I remember dropping NM right after Sienkiewicz arrived because the artwork was so hideous. I also remember not liking any of the characters except Karma, but she was killed off. Or was she? Apparently not.
“New Mutants, Allison, like the X-Men, take care of their own.”
Boy, that Claremont sure could write natural sounding dialogue! Especially for teenage characters!!!
Sounds natural to me.