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Dazzler # 1

By Mark Rodriguez

I was always a fan of Dazzler, I guess cause she looked cool in the old Konami 6-player X-Men arcade and she had an awesome special. Most of her appearances on other media outside of the comics since then have been in cameos and shout outs. Now she got this cool little one-shot so how could I not pick it up?

This is an epic cover
The comic opens with Alison (Dazzler) getting ready for her concert with her new group Light Bringer and the Snikts (slight eyeroll). At the same time, two Inhuman fans Nora and Zee get ready for the concert as well. Elsewhere, someone else is getting ready for trouble.

Nora and Zee head for the Hologram where Light Bringer is performing and they face some racism from some mutants in the crowd. Alison starts her performance as she promotes the place to be where mutants and inhumans can hang and just dance and have fun without prejudice. Nora dances too as notices that her lightbursts are now happening when she wants them to.


Colossus is outside and mentions how the X-Men are trying to rebuild and get past their previous drama. He notices a hammer that looks like Mjolnir in the back of her van and she says it belongs to a friend and it's a long story. Alison asks what brought Piotr to visits and he wants to invite her back to the X-Men. Alison says the superhero lifestyle is behind, but Piotr says she is welcome whenever she wants to at least visit.


Nora and Zee are outside since they want to meet the band and tell them how awesome they are, but Nora is nervous. Just then, some mutants show up and get in their face. Before anything gets too heated, Alison blasts their leader and tells them to leave. She wants her concerts to support both mutants and inhumans and she doesn't want any trouble between them. The creeps leave for now and Zee tells Alison that those kids were part of a anti-inhuman mutant gang called Mutant Action. Nora tells her that they will be showing up at all of her concerts.

Alison noted as the nights went on and more and more of the Mutant Action members started showing up. She kept an eye on them, making sure they knew violence wasn't tolerated. One of them showed up at an autograph signing, telling her that her band is sick for treating inhumans just like mutants. He says they don't see them inviting Thor or Hulk to the concerts since they're just super-powered humans. Dazzler tells him to stop or she'll blast him so hard his grandkids will feel it.

Alison tells her bandmate Farley that she had security escort that kid out. She wants to leave the superhero life behind and just make music. She understands the tensions since currently Inhumans outnumber mutants, and the mutant race is still discovering from near extinction.

The Mutant Action gang is blocking the line outside the concert and get into Nora and Zee's face again. The leader punches Nora down. She is about to hit him with her light bursts but they just fizzle out. The gang has a Power Dampener, which he set to the inhuman gene. Before he can punch her again, Alison steps in and blasts the hell out of him.


The kid is confused since Alison is a fellow mutant and asks about solidarity. The Light Bringer remarks that punks like them won't be getting solidarity, but a beating instead. The kid says she won't get to decide if they can't fight for what's left of mutantkind and the Mutant Action gang surrounds the three women. Alison tells Nora and Zee to start singing. Since Alison's powers work off of sound, she uses the singing to blast the hell out the entire gang.

Light Bringer tells the gang that she no longer has the option to ignore them anymore, and if they so much as look at anyone funny, she will use ever ounce of mutant power upon them. She lets them know not to mess with the band.


Alison wraps up her concert in Brooklyn and tells her fans that together they can be bigger than the X-Men, the Avengers and the Champions. They have to stand together so they can stand apart. Colossus waits outside again and tells her she wasn't saying that last week. She says it did feel good to fight for the greater good. He gives her an X-Men walkie-talkie, which she jokes looks to be out of a Saturday morning cartoon. Piotr reminds her that the option to re-join the X-Men is still open.

Dazzler contemplates what to do with her life, and she remembers that everyone used to think if you had powers, you had to become a hero, and she resented that. But she figures it's time for people to be each other's heroes, because they have to stand together to stand apart.

Dazzler will join the X-Men in Astonishing X-Men # 14.



My Opinions

It's been a long ride for mutants and inhumans. It started with Scarlet Witch saying 'No More Mutants' and nearly wiping everyone out, until finally new mutants were born. Then we found out that the Terrigen Mists that unlock the dormant powers within potential inhumans is also deadly to mutants. So that sparks several battles between mutants and inhumans, following in Marvel's bizzare trend of having their heroes fight each other way more than fighting actual bad guys.

Through all this, I do admire Dazzler's efforts in making something fun where mutants and inhumans that just want somewhere where they can belong can just forget their drama at home and just have fun. I mean you have no choice in the matter, you're either born a mutant and will either look weird right off the bat, or have your powers come out as you hit puberty... or you're an inhuman with hidden powers all along that will only manifest if you get into contact with the Terrigen Mists. Light Bringer is a cool act. Of course there will always bigots or overall jerks that want to ruin the fun, but Alison cares deeply for her fans and steps in to stop any trouble. I guess she can't run from being a hero.

I liked this story. I just feel a bit bad cause I thought this was going to be a series, or at least a mini series, but it looks more like a lead in before she re-joins the X-Men. I will us her as a jumping point of sorts because I do intend to buy Astonishing X-Men # 14. Welcome back to the fold, Dazzler!


I do have to say with Colossus, between this and how he also kept bugging Deadpool to join the X-Men in the movies.... He sure likes to approach mutants and nag, nag, nag until they give in and join up, doesn't he?

Have you read this comic? Are you a fan of Dazzler or is she irrelevant to you? Are you looking forward to her inclusion into Astonishing X-Men # 14? Sound off in the comments below!

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