I knew I remembered a scene from an issue of Dazzler, but I thought it was from the first one. Nope! From 1981, Dazzler #2, "Where Demons Fear to Dwell!" Written by Tom DeFalco, pencils by John Romita Jr, inks by Alfredo Alcala. (Pages 3, 11-13 are from an uncredited Walt Simonson! Page 12 is very much his, that got me to look that up!)
I think I conflated the first and second issues, since I thought this whole story was part of the premiere. Dazzler had outsung the Enchantress for a headlining gig at the disco Numero Uno, but was starting to feel a bit of stage fright. Still, her fans were excited to see her--namely the Thing and the Torch, the Avengers, the X-Men, and Spider-Man! It's a pretty good turnout, although the Enchantress comes back for her revenge, aging Dazzler decades in seconds! Only a frantic light-blast at the disco ball saves her. The assorted heroes get changed out of their party clothes to help out, as the Enchantress summons a pile of demons to help her.
Enchantress seems to be on the verge of summoning some giant ugly that will give her even more power, with only Dazzler close enough to stop her. Which she does. Still, it's an empty victory for her, as the disco is trashed, and she's worried she'll never get another gig when that might happen again. Still, a music publisher had liked her show, and gives her a card for an interview with an agent. The Avengers give her a lift in a quinjet, and they and the other heroes cajole the agent into giving Dazzler a chance. She gets signed...but would face Doctor Doom next month!
Yeah, so I didn't remember any of that. The only scene that made an impression? Steve Rogers getting ready to go out--and wearing his shield under his suit jacket! Even with Cap's shoulders, that would ruin the lines of his outfit.
Those Acala inks seem to agree with JRJR's work, but those other 3 pages you posted seem to look A LOT better to me overall. Just goes to show you how much JRJR's style fluctuated a lot back then until about '86/'87, and finally settling in by the end of the decade and start of the 90's in the style of drawing he'd become famous for.
ReplyDeleteMan, looking back Marvel really did strap a rocket up Dazzler's ass back then. I mean look at all the big name Marvel villains that got jobbed out to her to make her seem like a big deal; The Enchantress, Doom, Galactus, the names go on.