Alison "Dazzler" Blaire

Alison Blaire
Portrayed By	Beverley Mahood
Gender	Female
Date of Birth	July 29, 1977
Age	31
Zodiac Sign	Leo
Aliases	Ali, Dazzler
Place of Birth	Gardendale, NY
Current Location	New York, NY
Occupation	Singer
Known Relatives	Barbara London (Mother), Lois London (Half-sister)
Significant Other	None
Identity	Public
Known Abilities	Absorbing sound and emitting it as light, predominantly in the form of lasers and holograms.
First Appearance	Uncanny X-Men #130 (Feb 1980)

Well, there was a time I would have
Hung around just to be seen
Hey man, it's a shame when you start to fade
Diamond rings and sparkily things
Won't make your shine stay

Sheryl Crow, "Superstar"

History

My childhood was nice - raised in Gardendale, Long Island by my dad and grandma. My mom left us when I was really little because she fell into drugs and drinking while performing in jazz clubs and my dad hated it. Which is why when I got to high school and really wanted to perform, I basically had to do all my public singing behind his back. My first non-paying gig was singing at one of the school dances - surprise surprise, I found out I was a mutant that night too when I accidentally almost blinded the entire Junior Class. Go me. No one suspected - they all just figured it was an equipment malfunction and since no one was permanently injured I didn't bother correcting them.

Dad put the kibosh on any more singing after that, and because I was a little freaked out by the whole powers thing, I went along with it. I even studied law in college, following in his footsteps. I graduated Suma Cum Laude in pre-law at NYU, and had been accepted to Columbia for post-grad… and I told them and Dad to stick it. I grabbed life by the horns, left home, and started a band. I'd had enough living for other people and decided to follow my dream - I was gonna be a ROCK STAR!

Yeah, it's even harder than it sounds. I worked odd jobs, scraped by on ramen noodles and Saltines (because dad refused to help me financially - and I wouldn't have accepted it anyway) and had gigs in one crummy club after another. I worked on a stage identity - kind of a Disco KISS, a female Aladdin Sane if you will, shiny jumpsuit, facepaint, the works. I slaved in the gym and in all kinds of classes to be able to put on a kickass show - I even started using my powers to amp up the production values. In time, as Dazzler, I became kind of an underground indy hit. Go figure, right? Anyway, I FINALLY get booked at a popular club as a headlining performer, not just some small-print opening gig. And it's going GREAT.

And then people start trying to KILL ME. And then X-Men are there telling me they're looking for me. And so because the gig is ruined ANYWAY, I helped them. We rescued Logan and Storm and Kitty from the Hellfire Club, and they invited me to join — and I took a pass. 'No thanks, gonna see the world and be a rock star!' This became a normal thing. I'd be doing my own thing, trouble would break out, other heroes would be there and help, and they'd either offer me training or to join their teams. I told 'em all 'No thanks! Bigger and better things! I'm gonna be a star!' I even moved to LA, got involved with a big-name movie star… and for a while, I WAS a star! It was awesome. I even made a MOVIE - an only somewhat fictionalized account of my life.

Then someone got the bright idea that to promote the movie, I should reveal to the whole world that the 'trade secret' behind my VERY AWESOME lightshows was that I was a mutant. This didn't seem like a great idea to me, but in the end I went with it. And it went about as well as I expected. The rest of the filming was plagued by protests and attacks, though we DID finish and get it in the can, and my music career went in the toilet. And then more people than usual started TRYING to KILL ME.

Had a few adventures on the road, met my half-sister and my mother, was a Herald of Galactus (why doesn't anyone BELIEVE me when I tell them that?), got arrested for killing Klaw, found innocent, ended up in an underground mutant 'Fight Club', hooked up with Warren, hooked up with Hank, and ended up after a LONG, LONG TIME of putting it off, joining the X-Men.

Insert a lot of adventures here, including letting Forge kill me (everyone else did, too) on national TV to kill a demon, being brought back to life in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, being teleported around by a creepy Aborigine who doesn't talk, being killed by Juggernaut, and nearly getting killed by a bunch of psychotic cyborgs, and meeting the love of my life before being pushed through a giant jewel and turning up in Malibu with no memory. I did, eventually, get my memories back. And then I got possessed, and then aforementioned love of my life turned up and we went back to his home dimension to Fight the Good Fight and Live Happily Ever After. In that order.

And it worked, for a while. We liberated the Mojoverse (or so we thought) and then Longshot lost his memories (for the second time since I'd known him, the first since we were an item) and vanished for a while. I managed to keep it together long enough for him to come to his senses and find his way back. We even adopted the X-Babies - it seemed like the right thing to do; I had recently miscarried and the thought of taking care of a bunch of toddler-sized versions of my best friends sounded like a good idea at the time. Except, not so much. 'Age of Apocalypse' X-Babies showed up, destroyed the dimension (most of it, at any rate), and killed Longshot (or so I thought). I went to the X-Men for help - and ended up helping them with Magneto; who Wolverine killed (or at least seemed to).

They were busy - plus, Jean was being way weird at the time, and no one seemed to be in any kind of condition to help anyone. So I told 'em all 'Nevermind, I can help myself. Peace out.' and took off to do just that. Which has… worked out about as well as expected. With no leads, and no way to actually TRACK DOWN Longshot, I … ended up pretty much wandering around. I fell back into music, working small clubs - found out that not only were there a bunch of residuals waiting for me once I cleared up the fact that I wasn't actually dead, there were also people who'd been sampling my old stuff forever. Even the MOVIE got released, tanked for being dated (but not actually sucking. I promise you, people, YES it's a little silly, but it does NOT. SUCK!), and went right to DVD. I don't get anything from that because I got shafted in the contracting, but hey - If you wave a copy at me, I'll sign it.

Longshot even turned up again — I only saw him for a couple of minutes, and there were some way-weird looking people with him, including someone I'm PRETTY SURE is a SUPERVILLAIN, but he didn't recognize me. Not even a little. AGAIN. And there's only so much of that I can take - I'm always going to love him and I will probably not find anyone quite like him, but I can't keep doing the Amnesia Dance. I am not Adam Sandler, and Longshot is not Drew Barrymore, and I got no first dates left that aren't actually first dates.

Using up all the money I had at the time (I don't get a whole lot from residuals/royalties, so there was pretty much just enough) I decided to go to London and give reinvention another go. I did okay there, worked some clubs, lived in a crap apartment… and figured I could just as easily do it in a place where I could UNDERSTAND people when they spoke fast.

Hello, New York!

Timeline

April 2009

April 3, 2009	Alison lets someone at the Mansion know she's back.	Old Friends, New Faces
April 3, 2009	After her date with Erik, Ali meets some of the kids.	Normal Friday
April 5, 2009	Out on the town, Ali tangles with Bloodbath.	Collecting
April 6, 2009	On yet another visit to the Mansion, Ali meets another fan!	Living Room Gathering
April 6, 2009	Tired of waiting for him to find her, Ali instead finds a very tired Scott.	Caught Off-Guard
April 7, 2009	Ali meets her neighbor, Tanner. Who's… a little creepy.	Neighboring the Enemy

Quotes

• "Real enough for you now, Logan… or should I have shaved your chest?" - Dazzler #38
• "BAH! Bested by the Dazzler? Doom refuses to COMMENT!" - X-Men Unlimited #32

Trivia

• Alison was the first mutant to willingly reveal her identity to the public.
• "Dazzler: the Movie!" doesn't suck. Honestly!
• Dazzler was a Herald of Galactus!

Powers

Sound-to-Light Transducer

Sound-to-Light Transducer - Alison has the ability to absorb an unlimited amount of sonic energy, store it, and change it into light for various applications. Most commonly, this is expressed in the form of light shows and lasers, though depending on how much energy she has stored she can create solid light holograms, form defensive shields capable of vaporizing bullets, and even fly. She was not originally able to store sonic energy, but has been able to ever since the publicity stunt that she and Roman Nekoboh pulled to reveal her as a mutant to the world - when she absorbed so much sound and channeled it as a light bright enough to be seen from SPACE. Though she originally relied on a suit made by Professor Xavier to help her gauge how much sound energy she had stored, she's since learned to keep tabs of it on her own.

Sound Absorption

Sound Absorption - Though Alison subconsciously absorbs snatches of sound hear and there pretty much constantly, she can actively absorb sound at a range of about a mile. By focusing, she can hear - and absorb - every single sound that comes within that range, and effectively create a complete dead-zone of silence while she gathers energy for her powers. She can also expunge the stored sound from her body in its unchanged state in an area-effect blast of white noise - though this leaves her exhausted. The only sound she can't absorb is that of her own, un-amplified voice.

Standard Light Applications

Standard Light Applications - On average, Dazzler is capable of firing off a laser that can cut through a couple inches of steel. Her light shows, aside from being pretty, can also be used to sway people's emotions or put them into mild hypnotic states, or create a 'light fog' that messes with surveillance equipment and can obscure identities. She can also bombard a person with so much rapid-changing light and color that she can cause sensory overload, essentially forcing them into a catatonic state.

High Energy Output Applications

High Energy Applications - When she has enough sonic energy stored, Dazzler is capable of creating realistic holograms, shields that can vaporize bullets, and laser blasts strong enough to get Galactus' attention. Provided she has enough energy, she can even use photons to cancel out her personal gravity and fly at superluminal speeds like Quasar.

Adapted Physical Mutations

Adapted Physical Mutations - Alison's eyes are completely undamaged by bright lights, she can even look right into the sun with no ill effects. She's never seen spots from flashes of light, and can, in fact, see perfectly well where anyone else would be shielding their eyes. Because of her ability to absorb sound, Alison is also protected from the damaging effects of decibel levels above 75db - She can deal with and process sound the sheer force of which would liquefy someone with normal hearing.

Self-Resurrection

Self-Resurrection - Dazzler's been killed a couple of times and, with the exception of the one time Roma brought her (and the rest of the X-Men) back to life, self-resuscitated. This has never been explained, explored, or really resolved - it's just weird, and leads to a lot of 'See, Disco NEVER dies!' jokes. Even she's not sure if she's actually some kind of immortal, since living in the Mojoverse for … who knows how long in subjective time, her physical age is impossible to pinpoint.

Gallery