Every now and then, I come forward and admit that while I’m not limber enough to consume comic books with any regularity, I do have this strange admiration for the offbeat characters. In general, this has applied to the world of Batman, which feels like there’s now hundreds of public domain-level villains that I can’t help but wonder “Why did they think that was a good idea?” It’s a mix of being too creative, mentally unstable, lazy, or desperate that they emerge in some perverse form, lasting decades and centuries for one reason or another. They may only ever appear in one issue, but good luck forgetting someone like Crazy Quilt.
However, this week marks an interesting cross-section of ideas for me. For starters, Kylie Minogue just released a disco album called, you guessed it, “Disco.” Also, after years of postponement, The New Mutants (2020) is reaching its home video release very soon. With that in mind, I decided to look at one of the few times that disco and X-Men overlapped. In fact, had I thought of this a year ago, there’s a good chance that I could’ve mentioned one of her sole big-screen cameos in X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019). But for now, I felt the need to dedicate this week’s Sales Rack to exploring the origin of Dazzler.
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| Next time, baby! |
In some respects, Dazzler is part of a middle-class series of X-Men characters that I mistake for each other. When I thought of her, I thought of Jubilee, if just because her yellow jacket is one of the few vivid images I have from watching X-Men: The Animated Series. I couldn’t tell you anything about Dazzler. All that I knew is she was made in order to be part of some fad, and I guess Jubilee feels like an 80s mall punk to me, and it somehow connected. Anyways, the origin of this character is way more interesting than that. In fact, it perfectly fits in one of my favorite boxes: the what if?
Dazzler, short for Disco Dazzler, was the joint project by Tom DeFalco and John Romita Jr. from a treatment made by Marvel Comic’s editor-in-chief Jim Shooter along with Neil Bogart of Casablanca Records.
Yes, you read that right. The worlds of comic books and disco records were about to collide in a major way. At least, that was the intent. It all started with the proposition of making something, not unlike The Archies: a cross-platform superhero who appeared in TV, movies, comic books, and music. Dazzler was going to be the character of the moment, banking on the popular trend of disco music. It was a wholly original idea and one that promised something exciting and new for everyone involved.
It all started with the pitch. Shooter had a weekend to crank out a script that would sell them on the then-animated special. Casablanca Records was excited about what they read, even though it immediately became a bit of an odd duck when you consider that this wasn’t going to be an origin story, highlighting the vivid wonder of a new character. No, the promise was to get a whole host of supporting characters from The X-Men and The Avengers who were prepared to fight The Enchantress among other villains. It was wild. It was also something that quickly got out of hand, especially since comic book movies by 1978 were not necessarily the most respected art form. Sure, you had Superman (1978), but there was little to suggest that a massive, big-budgeted cross-over was going to end well.
It didn’t help that Bogart was suffering from health issues around this time. As one of the most passionate about the project, he had the chance to direct how the short, which he believed needed to be a feature film, would play out. Of course, there was a mistaken belief that spectacle was way more important than a great story, and what would follow needed to be as big and wild as imaginable.
It’s easy to forget the character at the center of this tale. Dazzler was the new girl. Her gift to the comic book world was that she was a disco singer who could control soundwaves, turning them into bright lights. There’s obviously more to the character than that, but she was designed to be one of those disco goddesses topping the charts, quite possibly on Casablanca, and embodied the spirit of the music with her bright one-piece suits that glowed in the disco ball.
How you get a super stuffed Avengers/X-Men story off of that is beyond me. Given that Saturday Night Fever (1977) was still fairly popular, it’s not like there wasn’t a guideline for how to produce something more compelling than what they proposed. This was to be a fantasy of the highest order, and what’s amazing is that there was an opportunity to cast whomever they wanted in the film. A lot of them would end up being Casablanca Records players, including:
Cher, as the Witch Queen.Donna Summer as the Queen of FireKISS, as the DreadknightsRobin Williams, as TristanRodney Dangerfield as Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe, and as Lord ChaosThe Village People, as the StompersLenny and Squiggy as the Jesters
What a moment in time that all of these performers could even be considered for this project. Williams was going to be the love interest, and Dangerfield playing four roles would’ve been quite the head-scratcher. Still, the question we’re all asking ourselves is whether this impacts Cher’s incredible turn in the 1980s from a singer into an Oscar-winning performer, or if Summer would’ve made that “Last Dance” last a little longer. Still, who wouldn’t want to imagine how great The Village People’s theme song about Dazzler would be (let’s face it, they’re first in line for that).
Then there was the casting decision. Who was Dazzler? What did she look like? It was originally going to be singer Grace Jones. That is why there’s artwork that exists of Dazzler as a Black woman going into Bogart’s office and asking for his attention. However, that was quickly changed when success got in the way. They wanted Dazzler to look more like Bo Derek, who was coming off of the success of the comedy 10 (1979), featuring Dudley Moore and Julie Andrews. They needed a bankable movie star for the project and tried to approach her for it. This included Alice Donenfeld, vice president of business affairs, going to the 1980 Cannes Film Festival with Shooter’s treatment, trying to pitch it.
If you look carefully, you’ll discover that Derek got her hands on a bunch of Marvel Comics. There’s even a People Magazine cover where she’s walking with husband John Derek, holding issues of She-Hulk. Donenfeld is alleged to have been cut out of these photographs. Still, this idea was kiboshed when it was revealed that Bo wouldn’t star in the film unless John was attached as director. That, apparently, was a step too far.
As one can guess, Dazzler as a project was fading faster than Studio 54’s popularity. The music trend was starting to shift in the 1980s, and by then the idea of making a disco queen was beginning to fade. Nobody wanted to make the movie anymore and financing was dropped.
Had this been in the hands of Casablanca, there’s a good chance that this would be the end of the story. While the record label would continue to this very day, it was clear that the idea of working with Marvel wasn’t in their immediate imagination. They had created this curious creation and orphaned her, unable to work with Lenny and/or Squiggy solving mysteries with a fun backing track by Summer. So much of this world feels like it would’ve been a campy spectacle that maybe wouldn’t have been great but would’ve made for a fun footnote in history.
It’s important to note that Marvel is far from the successful track record that it has today. While some could argue that they had a significant impact in the comic book world, their crossover success was far less guaranteed. Most of the big hits of the time were associated with their rival D.C., whether it be the Superman franchise, or the Wonder Woman and Batman TV shows. These were the comic book icons. Almost everyone else may as well have been obscure. Save for The Incredible Hulk with Lou Ferrigno, there was no permanence. The chances of Dazzler being the big breakthrough is tragically farcical.
Still, imagine a world where comic book characters made movies and TV shows. Decades before Gorillaz made that more of a reality, Dazzler could’ve set a template. It would’ve been wild, or just an indulgent reminder of disco’s bygone era, not unlike the delightful of-its-time Thank God It’s Friday (1978). Still, the world wasn’t ready for Dazzler. From the sound of it, she still hasn’t climbed up to the status of big feature headliner, even as she dons a new persona to follow the path of various music trends.
By some miracle, she would finally make her shift into the comic book home full-time with a brief appearance during X-Men’s Dark Phoenix arc. It still would be some time before she got her own series, but for now, it was evident that there was something worth holding onto. She was a unique character, one of the few who used her singing to change the world. Even then, it’s tragic to note that her time in the recent series of films has been reduced to an allusion in Apocalypse (2016) and a brief appearance in Dark Phoenix. Given how badly those films were received, chances of her being a fan favorite on-screen are very difficult.
There may be a lot more to Dazzler’s story, but this overview should give you an idea of how some characters are built to survive. In fact, they tried it again in the 90s with Nightcat. The only major difference is that where Dazzler was conceptualized to be a hit, Nightcat at least got to release their own album. Then again, they still had to pack their bags at the end of the day. Their fate is even more tragic if just because you’re likely Googling who Nightcat is right now whereas with Dazzler, you still have some idea who she is. Dazzler still gets to hang out with Kitty Pryde every now and then.
That’s what makes this whole origin story so fascinating. It’s a matter of what if Dazzler ended up being a reality. Would she be a big hit for Casablanca, or would this be some nefarious secret bankruptcy in disguise? I don’t know, but it’s one of history’s best-kept secrets. It’s ridiculous enough that you have trouble believing that it was ever true. With that said, it feels like the perfect embodiment of high ambitions getting the best of both worlds. Who thought that a wild story was better than just celebrating the world of disco? I don’t know, but I kind of want to see The Village People as The Stompers and see how ridiculous everything could’ve turned out. That, more than anything, is what I’m missing about this story.
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