Dazzler #39 (1985)
by Archie Goodwin & Paul Chadwick
cover by Jackson Guice
So now that we have a competent team handling Dazzler… for all of four issues… just what is she going to do?
The first few pages are actually dedicated to bounty hunter O.Z.Chase, who has been hired to hunt down Dazzler because she jumped bail.
Which really confuses me. Dazzler HAS been arrested before, but A) not when she was in Los Angeles B) she wasn’t released on bail anyway.
One bit that I really like is how O.Z.Chase finds her: by interrogating a guy who gave her some contacts that would allow her to continue her singing career despite being a mutant, because he knows all about discrimination. It’s understated bit, but it works.
Chase’s sidekick is his wolf Cerberus, who has a diet consisting of cigars.
Had the series lasted past issue #42, I bet we would’ve found out that’s a mutant wolf.
Dazzler doesn’t show up until page 6 (I guess her habit of being upstaged by everyone is still going strong), where in her journey towards her next gig she comes across a car accident.
Chadwick is wasted on the pencils of this series, check out how much details he puts into this.
Now I’m not saying the Dazzler of the previous runs would’ve abandoned those people, but… yeah actually that’s exactly what I’m saying.
It’s AMAZING just how different Dazzler feels in the Goodwin issues. She’s competent now!!!
Unfortunately for her, the crap she did over the first 37 issues is still haunting her.
Not to mention the Graphic Novel, of course.
That even ties into the villain of the story, Deathgrip. Whose daughter Melissa was turned into a mindless vegetable by Dazzler’s completely irresponsible misuse of her powers.
It’s a shame Deathgrip never appears again after this story, because he would be an AMAZING villain for any X-team! Yeah his look isn’t anything to write home, but if he had debuted in a better series you better believe someone would’ve find a use for this guy.
I should probably give Dazzler the benefit of the doubt: Melissa was on drugs before the accident, so it’s possible it’s not Dazzler’s fault.
But on the other hand, completely ruining someone’s life and never even finding out would be 100% on brand for the pre-Goodwin Dazzler.
Not only Goodwin is honestly trying to turn Dazzler into a three-dimensional character, I think he’s actually succeeding!
O.Z.Chase, on the other hand despite getting a surprising amount of pages, remains a bit too generic. Even when he discovers the guy who hired him is DEFINITELY a bad guy, he doesn’t seem to care all that much.
Deathgrip, I know this is the Dazzler series so I’m used to her being ignored, but you’re supposed to attack HER and not Chase!!!
This time Dazzler doesn’t waste any more time and proceeds to fight Deathgrip.
Maybe the reason why Deathgrip hasn’t been used again isn’t that he debuted on this series. Maybe it’s the fact that, despite having a cool concept behind him, he sucks at this villain stuff.
Seriously, WTF is up with this cigar-eating wolf!?!?
Deathgrip manages to hold his own against Dazzler…
…but this is Goodwin’s Dazzler, so she’s NOT an amateur anymore!!!
Of course when the fight proceeds on top of a giant insignia, it helps that Dazzler is borderline superhumanly agile and Deathgrip is a middle age guy.
Despite having grabbed her several times during the fight, apparently only this time it’s supposed to be fatal.
This leaves Dazzler with no chance but to zap him with light show, something that is witnessed by his daughter (who has been brought here under Deathgrip’s orders).
This SOMEHOW cures his daughter but at the same time turns Deathgrip into a vegetable.
So even if Dazzler wasn’t responsible for making her disabled, it’s 100% canon that her light can DESTROY YOUR BRAIN.
And we close with O.Z.Chase leading her towards their next adventure.
Which will happen after a bit of a detour, because Dazzler is next given a prominent role on Secret Wars II.
Written once more by Jim Shooter.
Be afraid.
Dazzler significance: 0/10
Even her meeting O.Z.Chase barely goes anywhere.
Silver Age-ness: 4/10
I know I’m the only one who cares, but again: what is up with the cigar-eating wolf!?
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
Definitely a step down from the previous issue, but still not a bad story. There’s a few too many coincidences… Deathgrip is there to witness Dazzler saving people from the car accident, so he must’ve found her quite easily, while O.Z.Chase has to go through a lengthier process even though it’s his job to find her.
And the resolution is both extremely rushed and unsatisfying, since Dazzler doesn’t really learn anything and either doesn’t know, or doesn’t care, about what she did to Deathgrip.
Nothing unbearable, especially for THIS series, but I expected a little better from Goodwin.
Serious question – anybody know what kind of trees those are that Guice put in the background on the cover? My neighbor had one when I was little. My older bothers called it the Stupid Tree and told me I fell off it. I need to know the name of the tree that I resent.
Even once Dazzler got good, it still found ways to traumatize me…
I always thought Dazzler was a misused character. She went on a long hiatus and never found solid ground in the Marvel universe. The graphic novel a joke.
I wonder if the cigar loving wolf was intended as some sort of inside joke referencing the fact that apparently most (or at least some) of the people involved in the creation of Wolverine thought that wolves and wolverines were the same thing?