Comic Report: Dazzler 1-42, Dazzler: The Movie

So somewhere along the way I developed a slight obsession with Dazzler.

I liked her in New Excalibur, but I kept hearing people crack on her very 1980s book. Now I'm down with the 80s, and also with strong female superheroes. So I decided to check it out.

With a little eBay magic, I had the complete run along with the graphic novel that fell in the middle.

OK, so maybe they tried a little too hard with Dazzler in the beginning. The roller skates were a bit much -- especially when she clipped them onto high heels. No mutant power should have saved her from breaking her damn neck. And did she have to be best buds with *every* hero in the Marvel universe? Did the Avengers really have to take her to an audition in a Quinjet?

But even with that, you get some great scenes. Half of the heroes in New York trying to change into their tights in the men's bathroom of a disco is danged funny. And the Enchantress is a good archnemesis for Dazz -- her ego just won't stand for a heroine who's both beautiful and talented.

And there's no way I can't like a comic that has an issue subtitled "Last Stand in Discoland!"

You get a crazy array of Marvel's finest in these early adventures. Dazzler takes on Dr. Doom, Klaw, the Hulk -- she even briefly serves as a Herald of Galactus!!

That may seem kind of crazy, but it's all explained fairly well. And Dazzler doesn't go in gangbusters -- she knows she's out of her league, and she's just trying to stay alive.

Along the way, too, I started to really like Alison Blaire. Dazzler was really a book ahead of its time. Like Jessica Jones in Alias, Ali never wants to be a superhero. She just wants to be. And the cast of characters that develop from that (her parents, manager, band mates, etc.) are really quite interesting.

So I found myself really enjoying Ali as a person more than Dazzler as a superhero. But since they were so well integrated, I was really grooving on the book.

Then it all falls down.

Writer Danny Fingeroth leaves after issue 27, and the book never recovers. All of the plot lines I was really enjoying are abandoned, in favor of a bunch of nonsense about Ali's stupid half sister.

Ali loses three-fourths of her brain cells, dumps her life and her dreams, and ends up in California trying to "find herself." As an aerobics instructor. And the stories just keep getting lamer.

Dazzler: The Movie had a strong storyline -- Alison being outed as one of the first public mutants -- but I just couldn't get over the terrible choice of a "love interest" for her. Roman would have been a joke to my Ali, the one of the first 27 issues.

And her switch to being a typical superhero at the end of the run? Meh. The magic was gone by that point.

So while I'm a huge Dazzler fan, and I'll pick up almost any story that has her in it, I'm still waiting to see the real Alison Blaire return to comics.