Posted in: Comics | Tagged: dazzler, dazzler x-song, marvel, x-men, x-song, X-ual Healing - The Weekly X-Men Recap Column

X-ual Healing – Rock Against Hatred with Dazzler: X-Song #1

Published Sat, 09 Jun 2018 18:00:41 -0500

by Jude Terror

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Sworn to sell comics for Marvel executives who feared and hated the fact that Fox owned their movie rights, The Uncanny X-Men suffered great indignities, but with a corporate merger on the way, the X-Men can finally get back to doing what they do best: being objectively the best franchise in comics.

Each week, armed with the joy, heartbreak, and frustration of 30+ years of reading X-Men comics, we read every new X-book that comes out, recap the events, provide the historical context so you can read it on Marvel Unlimited, and wonder when Marvel will let Chris Claremont write something again.

It's the way X-Men comics were meant to be read! It's the column that can only be known as…

For more about the column, check out the reboot issue here.

DAZZLER: X SONG #1
MAGDALENE VISAGGIO (W) • LAURA BRAGA (A)
Cover by ELIZABETH TORQUE
Variant Cover by BILL SIENKEWICZ
HEADSHOT VARIANT COVER BY MIKE MCKONE
DAZZLER ROCKS ON!
The Brooklyn punk scene has never been cooler with DAZZLER's new band taking center stage. But while she's trying to find herself and reconnect to the one thing she's always loved, Dazzler stumbles upon a truly toxic part of the underground punk scene. When a new and violent gang threatens the young Inhuman fans that follow her from venue to venue, Dazzler may have to turn to her own past to provide some guidance–and butt kicking.
Written by the Eisner-nominated Magdalene Visaggio, and drawn by the incredible Laura Braga, DAZZLER: X SONG is an energetic epic that you won't want to miss.
32 PGS./ one shot /Rated T+ …$3.99

This Dazzler story was meant to be one of the Legacy One-Shots, but it's coming out now. As a one-shot not tied into the ongoing X-Men continuity, it needs to establish its world pretty quickly, so the opening scene tells us that Dazzler has a band called Lightbringr, and they're playing a punk show at The Hologram. Getting ready to go to the show are Nora, an Inhuman, and Zee, her friend. As Nora and Zee take the subway to the show, Dazzler and her band unload their gear and do a soundcheck. Meanwhile, a mysterious man with pale white skin and what look to be scales on his arms is also getting ready for something. It's not apparent whether he's a mutant, an inhuman, or something else, but he seems sinister.

Nora and Zee arrive at the show and wait in line outside. In the line, some mutants harass Nora over being an inhuman. Tensions are still high after the Inhumans vs. X-Men super-mega-crossover event. Nora doesn't put up with their prejudice.

Inside, as Dazzler's band plays, we learn that Nora has similar powers, light bursts. Though she has had trouble controlling her powers before, in this environment, she's in complete control.

Outside, after her set, Dazzler chats with Colossus about her mission of supporting mutant and inhuman harmony through her music. Colossus is a fan of the band, but he came to talk to Dazzler about coming back to the X-Men. She says she's not really into that right now, but Colossus leaves the offer open. Thanks to the delayed publishing of this book, Dazzler will actually be joining the X-Men next month. Colossus notices that Dazzler keeps what appears to be Mjolnir in the back of her van. That actually belonged to Dazzler Thor (it's a long story), and if you're interested, you can check out the All-New All-Different Marvel version of A-Force.

Elsewhere, Nora and Zee are waiting at the club's back door hoping to meet the band. Unfortunately, they're confronted by a group of anti-inhuman mutant bigots, including the white-skinned scaly guy from the beginning of the issue. The mutants attack, but Dazzler shows up and chases them off. Nora explains to Dazzler that the mutants are part of Mutant Action, an anti-inhuman hate gang. Apparently, their goal is to keep inhumans out of mutant spaces, and they're going to be at every Dazzler show from now on. If they really want to get rid of inhumans, they should just give them a TV show. BOOM!

As Dazzler plays more shows, their presence there grows. One of them shows up an autograph signing and preaches his anti-inhuman bigotry to Dazzler, but she shuts him down. Later, Dazzler's bandmate Farley asks her why she didn't Dazzler up and kick the guy's ass, but Dazzler says she's not a superhero anymore. Farley doesn't believe that for a second. Dazzler says she understands why mutants are scared. Marvel did just try to replace them with the inhumans due to movie licensing deals. She hopes the problem won't escalate. Fat chance!

Dazzler arrives at her next show to see Mutant Action blocking the door, refusing to let inhumans in (side note: how can they even tell who's an inhuman and who's a mutant? do they carry around mini-cerebros?). Nora attempts to stand up to them, but the Mutant Action leader has a power dampener that blocks inhumans. A fistight is about to ensue, but Dazzler humps in and kicks the guy's ass. Humiliated, white scales plays the victim…

Boo hoo! His gang closes in, so Dazzler asks Nora and Zee to provide her some fuel for her light powers by singing. It works. Dazzler easily beats the whole gang and disables the inhuman power generator. She warns them that any more racist shenanigans and they'll get even worse. White scales is impressed with her power, even though he got his butt kicked. It seems like maybe he learned his lesson, marking the first time in history that's ever happened. Later, before Lightbringr plays their set, Dazzler gives a speech about unity. Outside, Colossus is waiting. He gives Dazzler a communicator device so she can join the X-Men if she wants. She's considering it now. Good timing, considering she's on the new Astonishing X-Men roster, though the final page spoils us a bit – she won't appear until August's Astonishing X-Men #14.

The Bottom Line

It was nice to get a break from six-part written-for-the-trade stories and get a complete story in a single issue with Dazzler: X-Song #1. It also seems to lead well into Astonishing X-Men, even though it was presumably written before that book was a thing. It was also a nice touch that Peter was dressed like he was back when he had amnesia after the X-Men went through the seige perilous and he became an artist in the Village.

All he needed was the stubble. As to the book's message, we couldn't agree more with it in an allegorical sense for real-world bigotry and unity. But as an X-Fan… @#$% the Inhumans!