After looking through all the available "X Ladies" on their books, 2 other contenders came up for consideration.
Angelica Jones, aka Firestar..... and Alison Blair, aka Dazzler. Both relatively "New" heroes. Both not without issues to consider.
Firestar had originally been a Character that had been specially designed to be part of the Saturday Morning Cartoon Series Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends.
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| Firestar's Original look from the TV series Spiderman and his Amazing Friends. |
Her hair and costume were drawn symmetrical, to allow for easier animation.
Firestar proved popular, and would later end up as a real character in the Marvel Comic Universe, with connections to the Hellfire Club and Emma Frost the White Queen. She even had her own mini series.
The Fun fact was that in the Cartoon the line up was supposed to be Spiderman, Iceman and the Human Torch. However, as Marvel had temporarily signed over the Tv and Film rights at the time to Universal Studios who had plans for the Human Torch, but never did anything about it. Thus Herbie the Robot replaced Johnny in the FF Cartoon.
As Marvel wanted their Cartoon series to have Spiderman teamed up two other characters , one with the Power over Ice and the other with Fire based abilities it made sense to cast Bobby Drake aka Ice-Man from the X-Men and Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch from the Fantastic Four. As mentioned The Human Torch could not be used, so a new character was designed to fulfil the Flaming Hero roll.. Angelica Jones aka Heatwave, that name later changed to Firestar
She like Ice-man she would be a mutant. Where Johnny Storm had obtained his powers from Cosmic Ray, Angelica Jones would be a Mutant who could generate heat via omitting self generated Micro Waves. This was the early 1980's after all, and the must have gadget of the time was the Micro Wave Oven, with their invisible beams that heated things. So a hero with Micro Wave abilities made sense at the time. The fact that Micro Waves are dangerous would later be dealt with in the comics when it was found that the radiation emitted when Angelica Jones used her powers was killing her.
Another Fun fact was Firestar was designed to be a Redhead, a nod to Peter Parkers' Girl Friend Mary Jane Watson who was originally going to be the alias of Firestar. This idea was quickly dropped, and the name Angelica Jones substituted. If you view the cartoon series, you can see that when Firestar was seen in her civilian guise of Angelica Jones, she looks very much like Mary Jane Watson was depicted in the pages of Marvel Comics.
A slight new look, less symmetrical, and a little bit more "flame - boyant"
After reviewing the matter, Firestar was rejected. Too New, Not a Team Player and as she was a teen ager, was far to young. Years later Angelica "Angel" Jones would prove she was a real team player when she became a foundering member of the New Warriors and after that an Avenger.
Alison Blare aka Dazzler was also considered for a roll in the new line up that would consist of the four original X-Men. Dazzler had been around since X-Men 130#, when she had been introduced and had played a part in what would been called The Dark Phoenix Saga. At the end of the part she played in the Dark Phoenix Saga, Dazzler was invited to join the X-Men. This offer she declined at the time, as she felt that she was not really fit for the Super Hero business.
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| Alison Blare the Disco Queen that became DAZZLER |
Alison was a Mutant, who could generate light based powers from absorbing sound. Being a singer, she used these powers initially to entertain the audience of hers concerts with spectacular light shows.
She debuted in the 1980, and was dressed a bit like a Disco Diva, all Glittery Jumpsuits, Farrah Fawcett Hair, Kiss looking Face Makeup and Roller Skates. Before the Name Dazzler was agreed on, the Caracter was going to be called "The Disco Queen".
This look was a little bit old fashioned at the time if you look back on it, but Marvel invested a lot into this new Heroine. After a popular first appearance, Marvel gave her her own Comic Book series that ran for 42 issues before being cancelled. Her own series these days not now seen as anything special, as at times had over tones of her being more Soap Opera Star that a true Super Hero. She was basically a stage performer who played hero when she had too. In the early run of the series she teamed up with the Crème du la crème of the Marvel Universe, but this tailed off after a while. People seemed to only buy her book due to the guest stars appearing alongside her.
Like a lot of new Super Heroes and Villains that debuted in the in 1980's many had a major design flaws. They either looked outdated and old fashioned very quickly or the powers that they had been given gave no scope to evolve. which basically summed up Dazzler.
Dazzler, Marvel's own Disco Queen already looked dated when she first appeared in 1979 in Uncanny X-Men 130#. A year after cancellation Dazzler joined the Uncanny X-Men in issue 214 # in 1987, where she has stayed as a team member off and on ever since.
A few issues before cancelation, Dazzler did get a make over, and started wearing more modest Blue Jumpsuits. With her own book cancelled in 1986 around the time the "New" X-Men team book was due to go into production, it seemed she was ideal for the 5th Member of the Team.
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| No More Roller-skates for the Disco Queen. |
However, her powers did seem a little lame, and they only worked if she either had sound to convert to light in the first place. In her own series, Dazzler had used a portable "Walkman" to help provide her with the musical sound track and boost she needed.
Also, although she had spent most of the issues of her own series working along side most of the big named heroes in the Marvel Universe, Dazzler was not really a team player at that point. No Alison Blare was not right for this new team, but would later find her place with the X-MEN.
Without a suitable replacement for Jean Grey on the team, the Guys at Marvel looked again at the original problem. This was how could they bring Jean back from the dead ?
The answer was easy ..... What if Jean had never really died ? What if Phoenix had died on the moon, but Jean had somehow survived ?
Next Time the return of Jean Grey, but at what cost to Maddie ?
Until then ENOY.
