Dazzler helps out an old friend
Originally Published April 1988
We begin in Los Angeles, California, at 3 AM, where bounty hunter O.Z. Chase has received a letter from his old friend Alison Blaire - the Dazzler!
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| Ugh, nobody told me there was gonna be reading in this one |
Dazz describes her new life as an X-Man, hiding out at derelict prison Alcatraz, ironically given the X-Men are considered criminals but -- much like O.Z. "that time in Florida," they haven't done anything wrong.
As Dazzler's epistolary forms the narration, we see her working out in the Danger Room (this is beyfore they moved to Alcatraz.) When Wolverine arrives, Dazzler complains of the distraction, but Wolverine notes that in a fight, sometimes things do get a little distracting.
Later, Dazzler and Psylocke are reading the paper when they come across the story of the "Werewolf Killer" in Florida. Betsy wonders if this man could be a mutant with shapeshifting abilities a la Wolfsbane of the New Mutants, but Dazzler recognizes the man as her old friend O.Z.! And he's no more killer, or werewolf, than she is!
Dazzler decides she needs to go off on a solo mission, but, sensing she may need backup, Wolverine meets her there. Alison explains that Chase has a dog called Cerberus who can sometimes be a little vicious (you don't say?) and worries that maybe the sweet pupper is the one who did the crime.
Soon, Wolverine proves the value of his presence by catching a goon who had been tailing them, but they learn nothing from the man.
Dazzler has no luck getting in to the jail to see Chase, although they do liberate Cerberus from the impound lot. Wolverine gets himself arrested on a drunk & disorderly (which the story, sadly, declines to depict directly as I would love to see Logan drunkenly ranting about how "the gumm'int put metal in my bones") and finds himself in lockup with our man Chase.
Back at their motel base camp, Chase explains what he knows. A while back, he was hired to catch a big Colombian drug dealer who had been arrested in LA and skipped bail to Florida. But when he caught up with he guy, he found himself no match for his mutant powers.
Chase survived by the dint of his bulletproof vest, but while unconscious, his foe fried all the bodyguards and left Chase to take the rap. When Chase shows Wolverine a photo of the dealer, he recognizes the man.
As the trio considers next steps -- international intrigue is a little out of Chase's wheelhouse -- as well as unanswered questions regarding who might be after Zaitsev, there's a knock at the door. Imagine our surprise and delight when it turns out to be this guy:
Yes, it's Henry P. Gyrich, a former associate of Logan's from his years in the service, now part of the U.S. Department of Oppressing Mutants. He's arrived just in time to fill us in on the rest of the story.
Gyrich explains that Zaitsev was a Soviet defector, spying on the Russian Mutant Program (the what??! First I'm hearing of this) for the U.S. Government. He took his fee, double-crossed both the U.S. and the KGB, and ran down to Colombia to live as a drug kingpin. There, a rival drug-lord sold him out, but the arresting officers in L.A. didn't quite know who they had, so they let him slip. Now unable to return to Colombia, and with the Russians wanting him dead for his betrayal, his best option is probably to let Gyrich take him into custody to share what he knows.
Gyrich offers Logan a chance for the X-Men to curry favour with the Gov by helping them on this one.
While Dazzler ruminates in her letter -- largely telling O.Z. what he already knows since he was there for that part, but reflecting on how crime was going to pay bigtime for Zaitsev.
Logan -- joined by Dazzler and Chase, who have tagged along against Wolverine's wishes -- tracks Zaitsev to a swamp, where he makes short work of some of his Russian pursuers.
Zaitsev gets the better of Wolverine, paralyzing his arm. Dazzler interjects to stave off a killing blow with a disorienting Dazzle-Strobe, but Wolverine criticizes her for not going for a more punishing option, like a Dazzle-Blast or a Laser-Dazz, but Dazzler admits that the killer instinct doesn't come naturally to her, and she hopes it never does. The three of them (well, mostly Wolverine and Dazzler) fend the Russian off, causing him to run into the swamp, calling for Gyrich to execute his pursuers in exchange for his information.
Cerberus, naturally, takes exception.
Gyrich reams the trio out for costing him a valuable asset. Dazzler, in narration, explains she had a beautiful speech prepared about ideals and aspirations, but that Wolverine had to remind her that Gyrich wouldn't care about any of that in the slightest. In the end she reflects that good and bad aren't always easily identifiable in this world, as that caper showed, but that everything worked out in the end, and she'll never stop fighting for the mutant dream, where she and others like her can pursue happiness and be judged by the content of their character, not the mutant powers they wield.
Back in the here and now, news has reached the L.A. dive bar Chase is sitting in, that the X-Men have died in the service of saving all of reality. Naturally, some of the locals -- you know, those famous conservative L.A. hicks -- think it's good riddance to bad mutants, but Chase is there to set them straight and pour one out for his friend.
Cheers!
Further Thoughts:
It's natural that this issue -- something of a palate-cleanser between the X-Men's "death" and their next adventure -- was going to feel a little different than your usual mutant fare, but if it feels even more differenter, it's because we get a Guest Plot credit for the new Marvel Editor-in-Chief and former Dazzler writer, Tom DeFalco. And listen, if this is the extent to which the new EiC imposes his own writing on the X-Men, then he's got one up on Secret Wars scribe Jim Shooter.
This issue manages to feel very much like a primetime cop show from the 80's, very Miami Vice, with Dazzler and Wolverine getting drawn into a caper involving drug dealers and Russian spies and all. I'm not necessarily opposed to that for a single outing, I'm a pretty open-minded guy but I'm sure this issue isn't treasured by a lot of longtime X-Men fans, eager to get going on this promised "new beginning Down Under." (I've been wrong before, though.) It was an amusing change of pace and a good opportunity to visit Rick Leonardi's rugged-looking guest pencils.
The actual contents of the story left me with a few questions. If there's a Russian Mutant program, where have they been all this time? Were they not interested at all in Colossus, or in wreaking revenge on Magneto for sinking their submarine, the Leningrad? This is an entire story avenue that goes virtually unexplored, despite seeming somewhat rich in potential, as the X-Men -- an international team with U.S. roots -- could come into conflict with a more nationalized team of mutants in defense of a homeland that largely disowns them. (For his part, Colossus has more value as the symbolic goodwill member of the X-Men during a time when there really were for-real tensions between the States and the USSR.) This is also the first we're hearing about a shared past between Gyrich and Wolverine, which you would think would be more of a going concern since Gyrich has identified his old co-worker Wolverine as a member of the outlaw mutants the X-Men, meaning his pursuit of them could have been a little more personal. Instead, he dropped completely off the radar after authorizing Storm's depowering and Val Cooper's incorporation of the Freedom Force, meaning we don't really know much of anything about what Gyrich does. He's here as a familiar face representing the U.S. Government, that's all.
We also never find out what is supposed to make Chase the "werewolf killer."
Despite being a bit of a filler issue (I hesitate to use the word but how else would you describe a flashback adventure between the characters' public death and new start with a guest plotter and total change of aesthetic?) the story isn't without value. It finds a lot to say about the nature of right and wrong -- how Zaitsev had value to the Government as an informer despite patently being a bad guy, and yet the X-Men are enemies of the state despite rarely breaking any serious laws (just forget about the time Rogue busted that guy out of SHIELD jail, okay?) There's absolutely a truth to the fact that the law doesn't work the same way for everybody, especially not at a high level.
That said, some of what Dazzler says gets a little treacly at times, as we've just invoked Martin Luther King Jr. last issue, and it was a little awkward then too. At least Wolverine has the sense to note "Gyrich knows what you have to say and he doesn't care."
And sadly, considering DeFalco's involvement, for a character study of Dazzler, it doesn't quite hold much. It's an all-action issue, your 44-minute primetime popcorn viewing, and as much as Claremont tries to tie it into Dazzler's difficulties integrating into the X-Men, it doesn't hit quite as well as it did during her last ill-fated solo outing. Dazzler is somewhat proud of the fact that she doesn't have Wolverine's killer instinct, but she doesn't think it's wrong to feed Zaitsev to the dog. It's that old "I can't kill you but I don't have to save you" cheat, the Disney Villain Death.
Oh well. If you don't think too hard about it (who, me?) and try to enjoy it as a one-off between big things, it's a fun little outing. Let's just please get on with the Down Under business already.
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