I'm pretty sure I'm correct in saying that never before, or since, did Marvel create a character purely for merchandising and promotion, but such was the case with our next look behind the locked doors and into the dusty, seldom-swept forgotten chambers of minor Marvel characters. Seeing how popular KISS had become, not only as a rock band but as a merchandising brand, their label, Casablanca, asked Marvel to develop for them a female hero who they could use to promote and sell disco records. Sounds a bit bizarre, almost like putting the cart before the horse, but this is what they did, and so a new hero was born.
A mutant by birth, Alison Blaire's ability to control and direct light and sound first manifest when she is in high school, securing her a job as the “human lightshow” at the discos. Always on the alert for new mutants, and eager to contact them with a view to either recruiting or at least helping them understand their abilities, three of the X-Men – Cyclops, Phoenix and Nightcrawler – track a signal to a local disco in New York, unaware that they themselves are being tracked by a mysterious organisation called the Hellfire Club, an inner circle of which is dedicated to taking power at any cost. Now, I'm not up on the X-Men – they were never my favourite heroes, not even my favourite group: I was really more of an Avengers girl – but it appears that one of the Hellfire Club has designs on wooing Phoenix (Jean Grey) from the X-Men and into joining the Hellfire Club, and this man, Jason Wyngarde, is also present here. We learn that the rest of the X-Men, who had gone to investigate another signal, this one from Chicago, have been captured by the Hellfire Club's ally, the White Queen, Frost (look, don't blame me: I don't write this stuff!) but one junior X-Man in training, one Kitty Pride, has escaped.
She is still in the building, and Storm gives her a telephone number to ring, and she evades her pursuers, her power being the ability to move through solid objects at will. She gets to a phone, rings Nightcrawler, who is waiting outside the disco, but just then the Hellfire Club goons attack. Using specially adapted weaponry that renders their powers useless, the goons tackle Nightcrawler and others head into the disco, where Alison Blaire has revealed herself as Dazzler, the mutant Cyclops and Phoenix sought. As the two of them are attacked, Dazzler fights back with the power of light, rendering one of them (who presumably was not prepared for this new mutant and has no defence against her) catatonic. Luckily for the other two X-Men, he was the one holding the weapon that was nullifying their powers, and they are now free to strike back.
Having disposed of the goons, Cyclops tells Dazzler that she is a mutant, which is news to her. She has apparently never up to now questioned where her powers came from, and now she is told that she is special, and that that could get her killed, as she has just seen. With little choice left, she tags along with the three X-Men as they go to free their comrades in Chicago. Blah de blah blah, don't really care about the X-dudes; upshot is she helps them free the others and then says the life of an X-Man is not for her and heads back home.
The next time we meet her is in her own title,
Dazzler. The first page of this first issue has her using her powers against the toughs of a record company executive who had offered her an unfair contract which she had refused. She manages to blind and deafen the goons but firing wildly, one of them manages a lucky shot and takes out her radio, which stops the music and so cuts her power off. She is then rescued by Spiderman, who had already met and fought alongside her in one of his own titles. To be fair, the comic does not glamourise the music business nor make it seem that it's easy to succeed. Dazzler is living on the breadline, two months behind in her rent and with no food. As she says herself, all that is left in the fridge is “half a cantaloupe and a packet of crackers. I'd fake tomato soup, but I can't afford the ketchup!” No, life is not all roses for this young lady, and her powers, while they may be useful, don't appear to be helping her earn any money. She is something of a cliche, not surprisingly, with a strict father who wishes her to follow him into the law, being a judge himself, and to whom she has not dared reveal her mutant powers. She feels like jacking it all in, but music means so much to her.
So far, so melodramatic, but so at least realistic. I'm sure there are hundreds, thousands, or more, kids who leave home trying to be a star and make it in the music biz (or there were, before the likes of the
X Factor, so maybe I can grudgingly give that show some credit for providing an outlet, a safe outlet, for kids who seek fame and fortune) only to find that the world is a cold, hard, lonely place, as Alison is finding out now. She thinks back to her first realisation of her powers, when she was singing in the school talent contest and some local thugs broke in, trashig the place and attacking everyone. She responded with a blast of light so powerful and intense that it blinded everyone – except her – and she knew that somehow she could draw on this amazing ability when she needed to.
Now it's the turn of the Avengers, in what's rapidly becoming a list of guest starring spots, or a sort of product endorsement for Marvel, the product being their many superheroes! Alerted by the Beast (don't ask) to auditions being held at a top night club called “Numero Uno”, Blaire heads there but finds she has competition in the shape of the Enchantress, a goddess from Asgard who has come down to ... you know what? This is just pointless and I can't follow, or in some cases believe it: read it if you want, but take it from me, she's here to battle for the singer slot. Good Lord, Lee! What, again, were you thinking of? Um, Dazzler wins and the Enchantress leaves, vowing to return and wreak an unholy vengeance. Um again.
Notes
Not sure what to say, really. The plotting for this is all over the place, pulling in many diverse Marvel characters and settings. It makes little sense, to me, anyway, but then I suppose the core idea was to sell a brand, and they do that ... well, they don't do that very well either. They mention Pink Floyd (EMI) and Billy Joel (Capitol) but none of their own artistes, and they also namecheck a Marantz sound system, but other than that, I really don't see the point. I can't see this, on the face of it, turning into any sort of epic adventure, but then the Wiki page says she meets Galactus! How in hell that happens I can only guess. My head hurts.
Further note
Stan Lee, you cheap whore, you! Within these pages are a blantant ad for Hostess Fruit Pies, in which Daredevil (who I never liked anyway) uses them as a way to foil criminals. Oh god! Superheroes advertising candy treats? Is there no low you won't sink to, Stan? Shame on you.
I think it's time to get back to Judge Dredd...
