Dazzler has a fan following strong enough to keep a strong demand for her in the X-Men family of titles. Although her creation is mired in a failed cross-media event with a record company, her legacy in comics is achieving greatness despite her crass origins. Although much of her early adventures are trite, she went on to fame as one of the X-Men.
Many writers since Chris Claremont have taken a stab at writing the would-be pop star. Sometimes these efforts have resulted in magnificent stories. Sometimes, the stories have been rather poignant, carrying layers of complexity beyond mutants beating each other up.
10 X-Men: Manifest Destiny #5 Showed That She Still Could Sing & Take Down Bad Guys
When Dazzler returned to the United States after being part of Excalibur, she found herself on the same flight as Man Mountain Marko, a super-strong mob enforcer turned music star. Marko began to throw his weight around and become belligerent. Dazzler confronted him and he took a flight attendant hostage.
In the standoff, Marko wanted Dazzler to sing for him. It was a touching performance that of course, didn't end with Marko letting his hostage go. Therefore Dazzler did the only thing she could do and plug him with a laser to the head, using his own voice against him. She also gets a jump-start on her new career in San Francisco.
9 Deadpool #30 Brought Her To The Future To Fight Vampires
During the Original Sin event, Deadpool found himself at odds with a large group of vampires due to marrying a vampire queen at war with Dracula. He needs Dazzler as an ally to battle the vampires due to her light powers. Since the current Dazzler wouldn't help him in a million years, he goes back in time a few years to bring a Dazzler that hasn't met him yet to the present.
Dazzler is very successful against vampires. This frees her to build the confidence that she'll exhibit once she meets the X-Men and the rest of the super-hero community. Most of all, this is Dazzler having fun with her mutant powers.
8 Dazzler: The Movie Publicly Exposed Her As A Mutant
In the pages of Uncanny X-Men, readers were often told that mutants were feared, but in other comics, it didn't seem quite as bad. That all changed with Dazzler: The Movie. It was part of Marvel's graphic novel series, and Dazzler's inclusion meant increased visibility for the character.
Dazzler is romanced by movie producer Roman Nekobah who's out to make her a movie star. Once he learns that she is a mutant, he publicly outs her to drum up publicity for the film. It backfires and sparks a new age of public fear and hostility of mutants.
7 Uncanny X-Men #130 Was Her Debut
Dazzler's debut was part of one of the biggest X-Men stories of all time, the Dark Phoenix Saga. The X-Men are split up to investigate and possibly recruit two new mutants. One is Kitty Pryde, but Nightcrawler, Cyclops, and Phoenix go into Manhattan to discover Dazzler using her powers to enhance her performances.
When armored Hellfire Club agents attack, Dazzler's powers come in handy to help battle them. She doesn't have quite the focus of her later adventures, but she shows courage in facing the attackers instead of running. She also goes off to help rescue the X-Men that the White Queen has captured.
6 Dazzler #3 Put Her In The Path Of Doctor Doom
Some villains instantly show if a hero is capable of playing in the big leagues or not. In Marvel, one of those villains is Doctor Doom. When the United Nations exhibits the Latverian crown jewels, Doom comes out of hiding to reclaim the jewels, specifically one very powerful jewel.
Others have their eyes on the jewels, though, and Dazzler helps stop their theft. She crosses paths with Doctor Doom and puts up a good fight to stop him from seizing a mystically powerful gem. It's all for naught as Doom defeats her and decides to use her as a pawn to claim another mystic gem.
5 Dazzler #38 Guest-Starred The X-Men & Started A New Direction
Dazzler's public exposure destroyed her music and acting career. It also made her a target for powerful mutants. She went to Professor X for assistance and that culminated in her being tested by Wolverine and Colossus. That's when Dazzler unveils a new look and with it, new confidence.
The new costume helps her refine her powers, storing sound energy for her to use. It also seriously updates her look for the 1980s, carrying through her career as an X-Man. It also helps her show Wolverine how serious she is about using her public status as a mutant to repair some of the damage that she's caused.
4 Dazzler: X-Song Spoke Against Prejudice Between Marginalized Groups
Almost since the beginning, the story of mutants in the Marvel Universe has been an allegory for the civil rights of marginalized groups. Initially, it was the civil rights movement for African Americans, but in recent years, it has taken on aspects of the fight for LGBTQ rights. In Dazzler: X-Song, this became very apparent.
The friction between mutants, still recovering from Scarlet Witch's decimation of their numbers, and Inhumans, whose numbers expanded into the general population is on full display here. Dazzler strives for unity and her words mirror things said in the LGBTQ community. Different groups sometimes seek to alienate others as not worthy of inclusion, and the fight here makes a stand for a big tent movement.
3 Uncanny X-Men #217 Pit Her Against One Of Her Biggest Fans, The Juggernaut
Dazzler wasn't in the X-Men very long when she went to Scotland to accompany mutants injured in the Mutant Massacre to Muir Isle. Dazzler needs time to clear her head and goes into town. While there, she runs into the Juggernaut and confronts him.
It turns out that Juggernaut is a fan. He doesn't want to fight Dazzler, but she's out to prove something. She exhausts her power and collapses, leading Juggernaut to believe that he killed her. Fortunately, as the X-Men often do, she got better.
2 X-Men Unlimited #32 Had Hulk Watching "Beyond The Music"
While Dazzler was stuck in the Mojoverse, she found herself to become the subject of questions like, "Whatever happened to Dazzler?" That particular question was the subject of a "Beyond The Music" episode that Hulk wanted to watch on a bar's television. The episode covered the highlights of her career.
It even features other Marvel characters watching and being interviewed for the program. The Beast mentions his brief romance with Dazzler, and her trial for apparently murdering the supervillain Klaw. It even shows that Dazzler: the Movie has become a cult phenomenon, sparking an apparently horrible musical about her.
1 Uncanny X-Men #260 Showed The Dark Side Of Being A Legend
In Dazzler: the Movie, the villain was the unscrupulous Hollywood producer Eric Beale. Dazzler's rejection of him drove him to the brink of madness. When she reappears after being believed dead, he sets out to kill her.
After many hilariously failed attempts, Beale manages to kidnap her. Dazzler uses the effect of her powers to produce a calming light show that reaches past Beale's drug-fueled rage. It's refreshing to see a mutant fight end with an enemy calmed rather than unconscious. It's a great showing of how different a hero Dazzler is.