Review by Win Wiacek
Dazzler’s introductory material reprinted in Volume 1 was a mix of mainstream superheroics, soap opera romances, telenovela melodrama and the hoary plot of A Star is Born. Assorted gods, monster, terrors and supervillains couldn’t believe Dazzler didn’t care about them and Did Not Want To Fight, she just wanted to sing. The idea was still to address and remedy the lack of a significant female readership (after all, what normal girl would read X-Men, Spider-Man or the Hulk?) that had presumably dropped to insignificance once Marvel’s romance, nursing and humorous fashion titles were cancelled.
In an effort to be daring and different, but still keep attracting readers the only way they knew, the editors and writers and artists did what they always did but honestly sought a different path. However, for Marvel at the time the medium was the message and somehow that meant a super fight every issue and lots of underwear, shower, and getting dressed/undressed moments in the quiet time.
Somehow Alison Blaire never truly escaped traditional Marvel tropes and superhero schtick while forging her own path, as seen in this second collection covering 1982 to 1983. It’s typified by opening selection ‘…Without Getting Killed or Caught…!’ as Danny Fingeroth and Frank Springer reveal how after making waves as an opener for aging stadium-filler Bruce Harris, Alison and her band are caught in the crossfire when a top hitman targets Blue Shield. As the would-be killer ludicrously believes boyfriend Lance is the crime-crusher, the snafu then leads Dazzler into an ambush where she must battle a deranged, mesmerised She-Hulk temporarily mind-controlled by the Mob (sample art).
Dazzler teams with Spider-Woman, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Black Bolt, faces mainstay villains Absorbing Man and De Octopus and is co-opted into an Asgardian singing contest by the Enchantress before being romanced by the Angel.
The prevailing subplot is a search for Alison’s mother and the hows and whys of Barbara (Blaire) London’s absence. It’s resolved here and fills in some hidden passages in the life of Alison.
A new tone begins with evil mutants ‘The Sisterhood’ maliciously targeting Angel. The larger goal of Mystique, Destiny and wild child Rogue is to destroy the entire X-Men team but after Alison humiliatingly defeats Rogue and her parents, the unbalanced teenager becomes obsessed with punishing Dazzler.
The main comics biography pauses when the living transducer experiences every performer’s greatest nightmare. Crafted by Steven Grant and Mark Bright, ‘The Jagged Edge’ exposes her response to an appreciative fan who slowly crosses the line from heartfelt appreciation to lethally psychotic stalker.
Although very much of its troubled times and even if not to everyone’s taste this collection sees the transformative shift in attitudes that resulted in women becoming less decorative and unshakably ornamental, and increasingly authors of their own fates.
