Dazzler

Biography

Dazzler (Alison "Ali" Blaire) is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, often in association with the X-Men. She first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #130 (February 1980). A mutant with the ability to convert sound vibrations into light and energy beams, Dazzler was developed as a cross-promotional, multi-media creation between Casablanca Records and Marvel Comics until the tie-ins were dropped in 1980. A committee of Marvel staff, principally writer/editor Tom DeFalco and illustrator John Romita Jr., created the character. She starred in a self-titled series in the early 1980s which lasted forty-two issues, a Marvel Graphic Novel titled Dazzler: The Movie, a four-issue limited series co-starring Beast titled Beauty and the Beast, and later joined the cast of Uncanny X-Men. She has also featured in other Marvel teams. The character is considered a gay icon due to LGBT readers, particularly gay men, enjoying her disco aesthetic, popstar stage persona, and strong-willed characterization. Halston Sage portrays Dazzler in Dark Phoenix.

== Publication history ==

=== Creation and development === Dazzler was conceived in early 1979 as a joint venture between Marvel Comics and Casablanca Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group that had achieved considerable success with notable disco acts including Donna Summer and Village People. Accounts differ as to which party made the first move; in 1986 Louise Simonson would tell Amazing Heroes that Casablanca approached Marvel; however, in a 2011 blog post Jim Shooter would credit the idea to Marvel employee Alice Donenfeld and based on the success of The Archies, who later pitched it to Casablanca supremo Neil Bogart. Bogart was enthusiastic, not only wanting to produce music 'by' the character (who initially had the working name of 'Disco Queen') but also launch it with a half-hour animated special featuring numerous Marvel characters. Marvel began shaping the character; Shooter assigned the development to Tom DeFalco (who, like Shooter, had experience working at Archie Comics), Roger Stern, Roberta 'Dickie' Mackenzie and John Romita Jr. while continuing to oversee the project himself. Shooter recalled that DeFalco pitched the name 'Evelyn Free' (a pun on "evil and free") for the character's civilian identity before the group decided on Alison Blaire. At this stage much about the character was in flux; Romita Jr. initially designed her as African American, heavily based on singer/actress Grace Jones with a costume inspired by the skin-tight and revealing eveningwear he had seen on women at New York nightclubs; her name was changed, first to Disco Dazzler and then to simply Dazzler at the suggestion of Stern; and initially her powers were to be an ability to make people tell the truth. DeFalco objected to the latter, feeling it was "not very interesting for a comic book". Instead he successfully suggested that as her name was Dazzler light-based powers made more sense. Casablanca held final approval over the character at this stage, and vetoed some of Marvel's ideas. DeFalco would recall that the numerous delays led the creative team to believe disco "would be dead" before Dazzler's debut as the various parties hammered out the initial story, which DeFalco and Romita turned into an origin story Meanwhile, the multimedia side of the project changed several times. Shooter had produced a pitch for the TV special that had impressed Bogart so much he wanted to turn it into a live-action special with many stars he had under contract (including Cher, Donna Summer, Kiss, Lenny and Squiggy, Robin Williams and the Village People) to appear as Marvel characters. However, soon afterwards Casablanca struck financial trouble, and Bogart was forced out of the company. Instead filmmaker John Derek showed interest in Dazzler as a potential film vehicle for his wife Bo, who were looking to build on the success of 10 with studio Filmworks. As such the comic character was redesigned to more closely resemble Derek herself, becoming a white blonde, requiring Romita Jr. to redraw the work already done on the comic. The artist was unimpressed with the changes to the lead character. According to DeFalco, the Dereks' involvement in the project ended after the poor reception of their vehicle Tarzan, the Ape Man Marvel had planned to release the 34-page Dazzler comic as part of the Marvel Comics Super Special series, which generally dealt with media adaptations, while some thought was also given to releasing it as a black-and-white magazine. After Casablanca and Filmworks both withdrew, Marvel shipped the concept around other record labels and film studios without success. While this was happening, Dazzler had appeared in other titles to build anticipation.

=== 1980s === The character debuted in Uncanny X-Men #130 (dated February 1980) as an ally of the X-Men, and subsequently guested in issues of Amazing Spider-Man (#203, April 1980) and Fantastic Four (#217, April 1980). Due to the character still being in flux while these issues were produced they featured some inconsistencies - Richard Gagnon of Amazing Heroes noted the character was considerably more streetwise in her X-Men appearance than she would be for most of her subsequent appearances, while in the Spider-Man guest spot Dazzler fired beams from her eyes due to DeFalco having to tell Marv Wolfman to simply take pot luck over which of the three potential variations in powers Casablanca were mulling over at the time would be finalised.

Rather than throwing away the earlier material, Shooter decided to repackage it as an ongoing comic series. DeFalco would write additional exposition and other material to turn the 34-page one-shot into two 22-page single issues. As Romita Jr. had moved on to other projects an uncredited Walt Simonson provided the art for the new pages. In order to make the debut still something of an event, Shooter decided it would be Marvel's first ongoing series that was exclusive to the direct market - i.e. sold only to specialist comic stores, rather than also to newsstands - a model used by several smaller independent publishers. This also made the comic non-returnable for retailers. Given a healthy promotional push, the first issue - dated May 1981 - was a resounding commercial success for Marvel, with around 400,000 copies sold to stores - around double the number of most of the company's best-selling titles. With the Romita Jr. material running out midway through the third issue (which also featured work from Alan Kupperberg), Frank Springer became the title's new regular artist. The first issues contained a plethora of Marvel's finest as guest stars as a legacy of the book's origin as a one-off special, and the pattern was kept up for the early issues of the title to support the new character's sales - Dazzler #3-4 featured Doctor Doom; #6-7 guest-starred Hulk; #9 saw an appearance by Quasar; and #10-11 saw Dazzler cross paths with Galactus. Some of these appearances drew criticism due to the unsubtle way many of Marvel's established heroes were in awe of the newcomer. After issue 6 DeFalco left the title, partly due to his growing editorial commitments at Marvel and partly because he was disagreeing over the direction of the series with Springer, who wanted to draw more on romance comics than traditional superhero fare. Dazzler #8 also saw another talent added to the book, with Bill Sienkiewicz contributing the first of what would be a number of covers for the series. DeFalco's replacement was relative newcomer Danny Fingeroth, initially working from his predecessor's outlines. Fingeroth would also write Dazzler's first appearance in alternative universe anthology title What If, contributing a story that was based on the Galactus storyline from Dazzler #10-11. Issue #17 saw the start of a short stint by the X-Men team-member Angel as a suitor; Fingeroth would admit this was an attempt to draw readers to the series, which had not kept up its early sales. As with other guest appearances, Angel's behaviour in his Dazzler appearances drew mixed responses, with Gagnon describing him as "boorish". Dazzler #20 introduced the villains Doctor Sax and Johnny Guitar, named by Fingeroth after the Jack Kerouac book and the Nicholas Ray film respectively, while #21 was an extra-sized issue exploring the fates of Alison's parents; Fingeroth felt such human interest was an important part of a superhero series' appeal to readers. It also featured another unusual attempt to make the title stand out - a photo cover of model June McDonald posing as Dazzler. The following issue saw Fingeroth also leave the title; Springer briefly wrote and drew the title, before scripts by Shooter and Ken McDonald. Despite a change of direction that saw Dazzler change from a singer in New York to an aspiring actress in Los Angeles (which also saw the much-derided original costume finally dropped for a series of leotards) the series' fortunes failed to improve, and from #31 the title switched to bi-monthly publication. Dazzler #32 saw Mike Carlin take over for an ultimately short stint as writer, and shortly afterwards Geof Isherwood started art duties on the title. In an attempt to draw more attention to the series Shooter, Springer and Vince Colletta created Dazzler the Movie, the twelfth entry in the Marvel Graphic Novel series; the story publicly outed Alison as a mutant, a development that would drive subsequent issues. It did little to boost sales, and Gagnon would later call Dazzler the Movie "the most extravagant waste of the graphic novel format to date". In the regular series, Dazzler #33 featured a Sienkiewicz cover closely referencing Michael Jackson's hugely popular Thriller music video, and cameos by long-dormant Marvel humour characters Millie the Model and Chili Storm. Another attempt to find an audience came with the spin-off mini-series Beauty and the Beast, pairing Dazzler with the popular Hank McCoy, at the time a member of the Defenders. The series was written by Ann Nocenti, and along with Louise Simonson's Power Pack and Trina Robbins' fashion comic Misty was an attempt by Marvel to find the female audience the publisher had lost over the previous decade. To this end Nocenti attempted to write Beauty and the Beast as a romance comic, though she would later reflect it was a "tough assignment" pairing a "blonde airhead" with a "deep intellectual".

Dazzler #38 saw another new direction, with the popular Archie Goodwin as writer and Paul Chadwick as artist. Goodwin redesigned the character's costume and planned to return the series to superheroics rather than personal and showbiz drama. He would later admit he took the Dazzler series on as no-one else wanted it and he needed work at the time. Chadwick had caught Goodwin's eye after pitching his creator-owned series Concrete when the latter was an Epic Comics editor. Goodwin also introduced bounty hunter O. Z. Chase to the series as a supporting character. The relaunch attracted a mild improvement in critical response, but following Dazzler #40 (which tied into the Secret Wars II crossover) Goodwin and Chadwick were told the series would be ending after two further issues due to poor sales, ending after #42 (dated March 1986). While sanguine about his experiences on the book, Chadwick would later note the modifications to the cover of the final issue - which saw another artist add the Beast to his original work - was a factor in his decision to return to launching Concrete rather than to continue working with Marvel. At the time the series was not greatly mourned; reviewing the final issue of the series for Amazing Heroes, R. A. Jones felt Dazzler would "not be missed" and criticized its lack of success across several genres - though also expressed that the book might have been more successful if Goodwin and Chadwick had arrived earlier. Shortly afterwards in the same publication, Richard Gagnon described it as "easily one of the worst comics that Marvel Comics Group has ever put out". Retrospective reviews have been kinder, however. Angelo Delos Trinos of CBR.com ranked the Dazzler comic book series 5th in their "10 Times Comics Changed The World" list, writing, "The '80s were some of comics' most profitable years, and this was thanks in part to the growing speculator market. Publishers were already moving away from young readers to adults who treated comics more as an investment than populist entertainment. They finalized this shift after Dazzler #1, by Tom Defalco, John Romita Senior and Junior, John Buscema, Alfredo Alcala, Bob McCleod, and Glynis Wein became a blockbuster." Following the cancellation of Dazzler, the character was considered as a possible founding member of X-Factor, but the decision to resurrect Jean Grey put that idea aside. Instead, Dazzler would find a home in the pages of Uncanny X-Men, still under the aegis of Chris Claremont - who had scripted the character's debut appearance. In-universe, Dazzler had twice turned down membership of the X-Men before finally joining the team from Uncanny X-Men #214 (dated February 1987) and would go on to be a member of the team until #248 (September 1989), when she was effectively written out after travelling through the Siege Perilous and losing her memory.

=== 1990s and after === Subsequently, Dazzler made only occasional appearances between 1990 and 2005, before returning to regularly featuring in monthly publication for the first time in 15 years when she joined the cast of New Excalibur. New Excalibur also saw Dazzler gain the power of being able to instantly resurrect herself, a development that was effectively forgotten about soon afterwards. After the title was canceled, Dazzler was brought back as a supporting character in Uncanny X-Men written by Matt Fraction. In February 2010, Marvel published a one-shot Dazzler special by writer Jim McCann and artist Kalman Andrasofszky as part of the Women of Marvel series. According to Diamond Comic Distributors, the special was the 115th best selling comic book of May 2010. Doug Zawisza of CBR.com called Dazzler #1 a ""Greatest Hits" comic album of Dazzler's best material", while Bryan Joel of IGN, calling the character "a great candidate to show off the themes central to the "Women of Marvel" drive." The 2012 series X-Treme X-Men featured Dazzler as the leader of a dimension-hopping X-Men team, and later that year she appeared Uncanny X-Men as an agent of superspy outfit S.H.I.E.L.D. Beginning in May 2015, Dazzler appeared as one of the main characters in A-Force, an all-female Avengers launched by G. Willow Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, and Jorge Molina during Marvel's "Secret Wars" storyline. 2018 saw the character feature in another starring one-shot, Dazzler: X-Song. The issue was the 100th best selling comic book in June 2018. and received positive reviews, with Mike Fugere of CBR.com referring to it as "the most important X-story Marvel has published in years", noting "Maybe Dazzler isn't the beckon [sic] of social progress we were looking for, but it seems she has become the one we have." Joshua Davison of Bleeding Cool stated, "'Dazzler: X-Song #1 is an excellent self-contained story centering around the ever-lovable Allison Blaire of the X-Men. The themes are interesting, the characters that are supposed to be likable succeed in being so, and the art looks great."

== Fictional character biography ==