I’ve already gone through this miniseries in the Doom retrospective, but I’ll quickly cover the Dazzler stuff.
Beauty and the Beast #1 (1984)
by Ann Nocenti & Don Perlin
cover by Bill Sienkiewicz
Sienkiewicz stopped doing Dazzler covers, but apparently he was still under contract for a few more.
Beast is going to be the co-star of the miniseries, and we first meet him going on vacation in Hollywood to take a break from the Defenders.
We are at the peak of mutant hysteria, not helped by Dazzler revealing she’s a mutant in her graphic novel.
Dazzler is also in Hollywood, and we continue the trend of her career being in shambles.
Which, once again, means he optimism at the and of the graphic novel was completely misplaced.
As if that wasn’t enough, she’s having trouble controlling her powers AGAIN.
She manages to get some work thanks to a theater that employs only mutants (which is by far the most interesting concept introduced in the series), and that’s where she meets Beast.
The guy running the theater is apparently into some creepy stuff, and Beast gets very worried when Dazzler disappears. You have to love fellow superhero Wonder Man not giving a crap.
We follow Beast’s investigation for a while, but he eventually finds Dazzler, who has completely lost any control over her powers.
Beauty and the Beast #2 (1985)
by Ann Nocenti & Don Perlin
cover by Bill Sienkiewicz
As you probably imagined, Beast is the new superhero love interest.
Finally having a writer who is interested in telling a story is a breath of fresh air for the character.
It’s nearly impossible for me to feel bad for Dazzler at this point, but Nocenti still manages to write her surprisingly well.
Dazzler is being helped by a bunch of mutants that have been rejected by society.
Interestingly, that includes a girl who “flunked out” of Xavier’s school because her powers suck.
Which… I mean, they DO suck (she can change the color of flowers!!!)… but that sure puts a new perspective on the REAL objectives of Xavier, doesn’t it?
Ann Nocenti is a fantastic writer, but sometimes she completely loses me. For example, among the mutants there’s a guy who goes into this monologue:
And so Dazzler ends up falling for Beast. Let’s hope thing turn out better than whatever that business with Angel was about.
Dazzler eventually has to go back to the mutant theater, which turn out to be a gladiator arena.
Beast keeps describing the place as “decadent” and “distasteful”, which… I don’t know, is this a disagreement between writer and artist? Honestly this place looks freaking awesome!
Dazzler gives one of her usual hip-dislocating performances…
…but the public is only interesting is watching mutants fight.
Also: Dazzler, I utterly refuse to believe nobody has ever told you to shut up, considering how dumb you were in your own series.
Dazzler gets so much into the fight that she seriously considers killing her opponent (!!!), but she’s so distraught by the idea that she leaves the arena.
To keep the crowd entertained, the arena turns into a fight between ALL the mutants.
The narration here does the heavy lifting: all these people had the potential to be heroes to save the world, but life got in the way.
All for the sick entertainment of the rich. This is good stuff!
Well, it’s awful, but you know what I mean.
One of the mutants even dies in the arena, which understandably upsets Dazzler.
Beast tries to convince Dazzler that this is not the right place for her, but she’s so traumatized that at this point she’ll cling to any sense of accomplishment.
Plus… well she may be written by a competent writer, but don’t forget that Dazzler is really, REALLY dumb.
Beauty and the Beast #3 (1985)
by Ann Nocenti & Don Perlin
cover by Bill Sienkiewicz
Of course Beast didn’t really dump Dazzler, otherwise we wouldn’t have the rest of the miniseries.
In fact they’re back together on the very first page!
As I said in my original review, the anti-mutant bigotry shown in this comic is FAR more believable than the standard “kill them at first sight” sentiment that was everywhere in 80s X-Men.
This is sadly more realistic than showing people with pitchforks.
I especially like how both mutants talk like this doesn’t affect them, but their thought bubbles show differently.
The mutant gladiators are quite fascinating and complex.
The combination of her trauma, the camaraderie between gladiators and maybe a touch of mind control by their leader (more on that soon) has convinced Dazzler that this is her place.
Beast, however, is having none of it.
Investigating the theater, however, Beast discover that Dazzler has been secretly injected drugs that make her lose control of her powers.
Beast is also drugged and forced to fight Dazzler in the arena.
And HE is the one to break from the mind control, because God forbid Dazzler doing anything right.
And that’s when the owner of the theater, and the real bad guy of the story, shows up.
Beauty and the Beast #4 (1985)
by Ann Nocenti & Don Perlin
cover by Bill Sienkiewicz
Yeah that guy is the sole reason the miniseries was part of the Doom retrospective, because the theater owner claims to be the son of Doctor Doom.
In addition to the mind-altering drugs, this doofus is supposedly also a mutant with mental abilities.
Also, uhm, his power apparently works better on “the ladies”.
The narration is trying its best, but… I’m sorry, you just can’t turn this version of Dazzler into a badass hero.
After a big dumb battle with the gladiators, Dazzler manages to score a win…
…only for Doctor Doom to show up!
He’s been appearing throughout the miniseries; check out my original review for those scenes, but at the end he just shows up to confirm is supposed son is a dumbass.
The other mutants decide to handle their own theater. We’ll be seeing them once more.
And we suddenly end the romance between Beast and Dazzler in a rushed ending, basically for no reason. The two had a nice chemistry!
Don’t feel sad, Beast. You can do way, WAY better than Dazzler.
Dazzler significance: 2/10
I don’t know enough about the X-Men to be 100% sure, but I’m fairly certain her relationship with Beast won’t be referenced again. Bumped from a 0/10 by the fact we’ll see the mutant gladiators again.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
There’s some Silver Age-ness in the Doom scenes, but since I’m not covering those… nothing else, really.
Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
I stand by my original assessment, even after going through the majority of the regular series: this is not a bad Dazzler story. In fact she’s a FAR better character here! She has a believable personality and her relationship with Beast is interesting.
Speaking of Beast, he’s definitely the best of the two protagonists, helped by the fact that unlike Dazzler he’s himself for most of the story.
The weakest part is still Doom Junior. Since most of his stuff is relegated to the Doom scenes I barely talked about him in this review, and you can barely tell the difference.
How do you make a Doctor Doom wannabe with mental powers not feel threatening or creepy in the slightest!?
I know it looks like I skipped a lot of stuff, but in addition to not including the Doctor Doom scenes… nothing really happens for the majority of this book.
Super love interests: 6
Naturally adding Beast.