An archetypical example of how the comic book companies always mess up when they try to be "trendy" and "with-it", Dazzler was a Marvel Comics heroine based on the 70s disco craze, so naturally she made her debut in 1980. Thus, she followed the time-honored comics trend of belated trend-following, in the tradition of the "60s social-relevance" comics that began to come out in 1970.

In all of comicdom, it is Dazzler, and Dazzler alone who wields the perfect combination of super-powers, personality, and sheer star power that so many strive for. Be she clad in a white sequin jump suit donning a full head of long, luscious red hair, or dressed for war while sporting a freshly manicured bob cut, Dazzler was, and always will be, the quintessential superhero superstar.

Humble Beginnings

Alison Blaire started off life like so many of us, she was raised in a strict, one parent household where fantasies were sometimes the only things that made life worth living. While her father tried to instill society's ideals of the power of education and a steady job, Alison was dreaming of being a rock star. Her father tried to disabuse her best he could from her foolish dreams, but she persisted, like all true heroes do.

Alison had a tough time during her formative years. She began developing severe headaches, headaches her father used as a tool to further hinder her dreams, "You only have headaches because you listen to your music so loud", he'd say to her, "If you studied more you'd be fine." Fortunately for us, she didn't listen to his nonsense and continued dreaming her dreams.

What's this? Ohh, it's nothing...

One fateful afternoon in high school she finagled her way to sing at her school's next dance. Everything was going right, the dance was happening, the crowd was anticipating, and she was ready to sing. Once she began singing, however, her body began to emit a beautiful aura with dazzling sparkles- and Dazzler was born. Her powers scared her, and she vowed to never use them, and, for a good while, she didn't.

Her life moved on, and she continued to balance the realities of school with her fantasies of stardom. She worked her way up to graduate school with the aim of becoming a lawyer, but she never finished, opting instead to fulfill her deep seated desires to sing.

A star is born

The singing career of Alison Blaire took off when the word got out that, not only did she have a voice to die for, but her shows had awe-inspiring light shows. Little did her crowds know, these light shows weren't due to a highly technical stage crew with advanced tools, instead, it was Alison who was creating them. When she learned that she can't help but emit light when exposed to the sounds of the stage, she decided to take advantage of her powers, and use them to enhance her shows.

Her shows became renowned and, as all great shows tend to be, they were soon routinely interrupted by gangsters and supervillains. She tried to avoid it best she could, but she often found herself using her powers to thwart the vile intentions of the hooligans she encountered. Poor Alison, now known throughout the world as The Disco Dazzler, only wanted to be a star, she didn't want to be a star and a crime buster.

A bad choice is made

The Disco Dazzler soon moved from her home in New York City to the center of the entertainment world, Los Angeles. Once there she fell for one of Hollywood?s own, Roman Nekoboh. The two formed a nice team, but Roman eventually persuaded his Disco Dazzler to tell the world that she was a mutant, and that it was she, not her stage crew, that put on the light shows she was so famous for.

The people of the world were not ready for mutants, let alone ones that have 'fooled' the public. Immediately the Disco Dazzler was blacklisted from Hollywood. She was forced to masquerade as others, she was forced to take low paying jobs in dank, nasty clubs, and she was forced to second guess all her past decisions. And then she met the X-Men.

A good choice is made

The X-Men offered to keep her safe, to provide her a home, and to teach her how to accept, and better use, her mutant abilities. She took the X-Men up on their offer. She learned that she had the ability to transduce most sound energy into light energy. With her unlimited ability to form lasers of incredible intensity, blinding light shows, life-like illusions, and powerful force fields, all matched with her limited flight ability, The Dazzler, as she became known, quickly became one of the X-Men's strongest members.

Life found a way of taking advantage of the hardest working woman in super-hero business, and the Dazzler soon found herself dividing her precious time between saving the world with the X-Men and tackling some of the universe's greatest super-villains on her own. Life, however, also found a way of rewarding for her hard work when she found herself a lover in the mysterious Longshot.

Happily ever after?

With Longshot by her side, she ventured to the strange MojoVerse where she has oscillated between the roles of rebel super-hero to the oppressed masses and glamourous, beneficent queen. Her current whereabouts, unfortunately, are unknown.

Many have decided to chastise the Dazzler for her outlandish, anachronistic outfits, her sparkly purses and disco ball necklaces or her penchant for fighting crime with sparkly roller-skates that seemed to magically attach to her super stylin' crime-fighting boots. Such people have no sense of stardom, of fashion, or of glamour. The Dazzler was, and always will be, one of the most glamourous people in all of comicdom. Dazzler, we salute you, and wherever you are, godspeed.

sources: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/2855/dazzler.html http://www.geocities.com/bastetmajik/A-M/dazzler.html http://www.scott.linkt.com.au/bios/dazzler.html this site is useless propaganda, but might interest some of you: http://members.tripod.com/~mister_meesh/marv_hallofshame.html

Please /msg me w/any grammatical or factual errors

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