"The End" Week: Dazzler #42!

Alison Blaire spends a good chunk of her last issue a prisoner; but I suppose there's every chance she spent long stretches of her book captured, a hostage, or unconscious. From 1986, Dazzler #42, "Curtain!" Written by Archie Goodwin, pencils by Paul Chadwick, inks by Romeo Tanghal, cover by Chadwick and Bill Sienkiewicz.

Ali's friends Beast, bounty hunter O.Z. Chase, and his cranky ex-smoker dog Cerberus have been following her trail back to Camp Silence; former home of a drug cult on the verge of gaining super-powers. They're attacked by a couple who remind me of the Dreadnoks, except maybe less entertaining or effective; while Dazzler is the unwilling guest of the cult leader Silence, who has Dazzler's mom to leverage into using her light--and her life--to finish giving the cultists powers. Silence's husband Dust had faced Dazzler before, taking over the body of her father; and Dazzler had left Dust to die as she raced to get to her mom.

Silence wasn't just her name, it was also an imperative: her own body only held together by will, she couldn't stand noise. Dazzler is forced to absorb noise and give her light to the cultists, one of whom recognizes her from seeing her open for a band. Oddly, the young man, Arthur Allan Smith, seemed to pick up a minor superpower after her show: he could make himself unnoticed and hide in plain sight. He was the child of a cult member, which gave him the potential for powers activated by Dazzler, but had a troubled life: he idolized her to a worrying degree, and worried even if Alison got out of this one, mutants were still feared and hated. What to do...

At what could be her final concert, Dazzler channels all her light into her mom in an attempt to save her. Beast, O.Z. and Cerberus fight the powered cultists; and Dazzler pulls out a trick she may not have used before or since: releasing sound contained within her as sound, not light. Silence, unable to hold herself together, dies; but Dust then reveals himself, having saved himself by taking over the body of one of his cultists. Now, he could take Alison's mom; or Dazzler herself. Or, he could if Dazzler's light didn't cleanse him. Dust makes a final grab at her, but Smith opens fire; later telling the police "I killed her to save her!"

The whole issue seemed to be building to deranged fan kills female star; but Smith had shot Dust, and took the rap for her 'death' to give her a chance at a clean start. (Prison didn't bother him, and he knows with his powers he could leave whenever.) Dazzler thanks them all, and Beast suggests maybe X-Factor...? Nah, I think she would next appear in Uncanny X-Men #214 and begin her stint there. Beast may or may not have been smitten with her, but it did not appear to work out.