UNCANNY X-MEN #217: Folly's Gambit

Dazzler takes on Juggernaut!

Originally Published May 1987

We begin on Muir Isle, where Psylocke, the newly-inducted member of the X-Men is on the run... from her own teammates!

Yes, Dazzler and Rogue are bearing down on Betsy as part of what we quickly come to realize is one of the X-Men's famous unorthodox training sessions. Unfortunately, Dazzler's attempts to blind Psylocke prove to be for nothing thanks to her famous bionic eyes, and attacking stealthily proves difficult given that she can hear the singer's every thought with her famous telepathy!

Betsy plays some psychic shenanigans on Rogue, then lures Dazzler in by playing possum after a Dazzle-blast, but is ensnared by the lucky Longshot. Ultimately, Banshee, who is overseeing the exercise, calls it and ushers the team inside for the results over breakfast, which new-to-your-Earth-ways Longshot refers to comedically as "Dead, burned animal flesh and unborn baby birds!"

Banshee's verdict on the new team: They stink.

It's a tale as old as the series itself: these new X-Men aren't a team yet, just a group of individuals who just as often as not don't know their own strengths or their enemies, and certainly don't know how to back each other up. It's going to take a lot of work to get these new recruits in shape -- time they might not have.

Down the road from the house at the island's research facility, Moira tends to the wounded while Callisto exercises. She is the lone ambulatory Morlock present (the fates of Sunder, Masque, Caliban and The Healer [Dave Stevenson] are all unknown, apparently.) She expresses some harsh attitudes toward some of her people who might note have the will to survive the night -- if they don't have the fight left in them, let them go.

Moira wonders about Wolverine and Storm, who seem spiritually broken from the experience. What if they never recover? Can the X-Men survive?

Later, the X-Men join the workout. Callisto goads Dazzler, mocking her for being too soft, her pretty and delicate exterior exemplifying exactly the kind of person she feels doesn't have what it takes to fight to survive the way she has her whole life. The encounter causes Dazzler to storm off in a huff.

Heading to the mainland to clear her head, she sulks, wondering if it would be easier just to walk away and leave the world of the X-Men behind despite being permanently marked as a mutant by her powers. But in her dregs, she is uplifted when she hears music from a nearby pub. 

She must really be down if it's the sound of bagpipes that cheer her up.

The songbird wanders in and is soon enrapt by the first signs of familiar civilization since joining the X-person life.

As the night draws to a close, Ali is ready to say goodbye to her new friends when she spots a face familiar to her from skimming the Xavier Files:

Yes, driving this extremely out-of-place Corvette through the northwest-Scottish fishing village of Ullpool is none other than the Marvel Universe's answer to Biff Tannen, Cain Marko aka the Unstoppable Juggernaut.

Immediately sensing that this is the sort of problem that X-Men are supposed to take care of, Dazzler speeds off on her motorbike after him. As she races into action, she thinks to herself how great an opportunity this will be to prove herself to her new teammates, and Callisto, and symbolically, her father. Unfortunately, things get off to an inauspicious start.

Juggernaut is unimpressed, and quite frankly miffed that his sweet ride is dented. He demands to know who this person is who is so intent on wrecking his night, since he has a job to get to. When he learns that he is, in fact, facing the mutant disco diva Dazzler, he acts appropriately.

That's right, Cain is a Dazzler Stan.

Dazzler is unmoved by Juggernaut's praise, however, since he's still a villain and she's still supposed to be a hero. so she uses her powers to flatten his tires. She also plays a neat trick where she creates little bubbles of light that hypnotize him. It's a great ploy but it doesn't end well.

Around this time, Dazzler starts to regret this entire endeavor, as she comes to realize that the word "Unstoppable" isn't usually slotted next to the Juggernaut's name for melodramatic effect. Dazz runs for the hills but "The Jugs" (as she affectionately calls him) gives chase. Cornered, she wonders whether he would be so bold if the other X-Men were here, and only too late realizing the meaning and concept of teamwork that Banshee was blathering on about tbis morning, and as he advances, she unloads everything she has into him.

And I do mean everything as she collapses into his arms, seemingly dead.

Further Thoughts:

What could possibly be the thinking behind introducing a character and immediately showing them to be cocky, aloof, and overestimating of their own abilities? And why does it make for such a good issue?

The reason is, it's enjoyable to feel like you know a character, and to feel like you are seeing a character behave as themself. That's why we complain about two-dimensional characterizations when we see them, when these fictional figures don't get to distinguish themselves and drive a story with their own unique persona. Like it or not this is exactly what's happening here. 

This issue, and the addition of Dazzler to the lineup in general, speaks a lot to Chris Claremont's waste-not-want-not concept of filling out his book. The three new recruits are all pre-existing characters with some kind of tie to the X-office -- Claremont's Marvel UK fave Psylocke, Ann Nocenti's creation Longshot, and now Dazzler, who was created by committee and made her first appearance in Uncanny X-Men #130 before embarking on her own solo series. It's telling that Claremont should snap Dazzler back up as her series was ending, even though he never had much of a chance to make his mark on her. Where others might see a trend that had passed and was ready to be jettisoned, Claremont and his collaborators saw an engine to drive stories -- you know, a character. I don't know whether this version of the character has anything to do with her depiction in her own series, but this is the new status quo one way or the other.

This story isn't any marketing exec's idea of how to make us love the Dazzler character, showing her to be hyper competent, whipsmart and resourceful and powerful enough to take on one of the X-Men's legendary foes on her own. No, instead she's churlish, hotheaded and shortsighted, and her powers, while impressive in their own right, are still only meant to be part of the whole of the X-Men -- which, garsh it all -- is the whole point of being on a team.

In this issue we get to fully encounter Dazzler's personality and inner life, and how it might fit, or not fit, with the X-Men, as well as her powers and abilities as a superhero, including several uses for her light powers and the rules they go by (she has to absorb sound to turn it into light, which fails her when she finds herself in the quiet hills.) In a way it's the inverse of the way we were introduced to Psylocke, who has similar problems: a high estimation of her value and abilities coupled with something of a lack of practical experience. Both characters are desperate for the others to see in them what they see in theirselves. Only for Betsy, it manifested as a burning desire to be part of the team and accepted as such, to the point where she was willing to let a serial killer chase her through the house if that was what was required, knowing she was in no position to put him down for good. For Dazzler, it's about making everyone else see that she is a star, that she's not just one of a crowd -- that she may be with the X-Men, but she is not just one of them. She was a solo recording artist after all, a star in her own right, and by extension the lead character in her own series. She's not used to this and resents being retrofitted into this group dynamic. And the strength of this book is that it engages with that, at risk of making Dazzler look bad (and she doesn't look great!) rather than wallpaper over it and have her "instantly" get the teamwork thing.

As I mentioned, the X-Men have been playing this dysfunctional team angle for years now, through many permutations, whether it's members who don't do what they're told, or leaders who don't know if they have what it takes to lead, or people grappling with their own issues too much to integrate. And it still doesn't feel old, it feels authentic and right.

It's also amazing that this happens to involve the Juggernaut, who has been one of my very favourite X-Men villains since this whole thing began. Reading about him is honestly a joy and the way Chris Claremont handles him is above and beyond. He could easily be the most one-note villain out there -- he's big and unstoppable, yeah, and he's got a personal grudge against Xavier which extends to the X-Men. But half the time we see him now, he's literally just trying to live his life. He's had fights picked with him in bars and at the bank. And yes, he was on his way "to a job" in this case, and we can assume that means something illegal, but Dazzler didn't know that! She just saw him passing by and profiled him as someone who was up to no good! Juggernaut is a rare villain who is more sinned-against than sinning, and his persona is coloured by this, as much as it is by his affection for his "friend" Black Tom Cassidy, or his newly-revealed love of disco. When we talk about the X-Men as a concept being Queer-coded, one wouldn't think of incorporating that innocently into a villain like Cain. Typically, Queer-coded villains will be depicted as mincing, perverse stereotypes, not earnest prople just trying to live their best, albeit scofflaw, life. Shine on, Juggs.

(...Bitch!)