If You Want A Book Cancelled Use This Character....

[a0040pc]

Hi there

For the last 13 years I have been reading Marvel Comics religiously and particular the X-Titles. Now as some of you know I have read a lot of comics that came out before 2004 as well and there is one thing I've noticed. There is one character who when they're a mainstay on a team it either doesn't last very long or the book itself gets cancelled. And this character is........

Dazzler!!!!

Ok hear me out before I get any Dazzler haters.... A couple of years ago with my X-Men read through blog I read and reviewed every issue of the Dazzler series and I have been reading many comics after that. It seems to me that Dazzler doesn't stay long on a team or the book gets outright cancelled. I'm calling it the Dazzler curse and I'll go through why.

Ok with her introduction she was a disco era character who was being introduced just as disco died. I don't know about you but she couldn't have been introduced at a worst time. Ok her solo book did last 42 issues but the sales were never as high as other Marvel Books at the time. At first it was something different with a mutant trying to make ends meet and start her singing career. But it was revitalised into a typical superhero book. There was an OGN which was pretty decent but a subpar LS more or less killed the series and since then Marvel have not released another Dazzler solo series (besides a one shot in like 2009).

After that she joins the X-Men and although she stays with them for around 30 issues which is pretty decent run but compared to other mainstay X-Men characters this is hardly anything. She wasn't all that memorable with the team and to think that after this she didn't appear in monthly printing for 15 years.

Next came her tenure in New Excalibur which only lasted for 24 issues before she disappeared for a few years again. Then we had her in Uncanny X-Men around 2009 but this didn't last long either. Then we had the second volume of X-Treme X-Men which only lasted like 13 issues as well. Then she was in Uncanny X-Men and an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D for a while but once again this didn't last long.

More recently we had A-Force which did have some success but was cancelled after 10 issues due to relatively low sales and because of Civil War II.

All this makes me think that the character is toxic to use in a book. I'll even give you another example if you want... The failed X-Men Pilot 'Pryde Of The X-Men' had her as one of the core members of the team. I know it wasn't really her that caused the pilot to fail but in the future her appearances are extremely limited. She appeared in an episode or two of X-Men The Animated Series, didn't appear at all in X-Men Evolution, had a cameo in Wolverine and the X-Men. Even now she hasn't appeared in an X-Men film although she did have a cameo in a deleted scene from X-Men Apocalypse. Even Watchmojo.com placed her in the top 10 ridiculous superhero powers... that just says something.

Am I only with this thought or does anyone else agree with me?

[Digifiend]

Deleted scene? I thought she was only mentioned, being named on an album cover which used artwork instead of a picture of her.

A-Force's sales in print were always above 20k, so low sales didn't kill it at all - it could've easily supported another trade or two. Civil War II (which you mentioned) and IVX are to blame. They probably figured that there wasn't a lot of point replacing She-Hulk when Medusa was also about to bail.

The Agent of SHIELD thing didn't last long at all - and she'd been replaced by Mystique for most of it! SHIELD aren't having much luck with moles in the last few years, are they? Now their leader is one!

[a0040pc]

That's what I meant with the album cover. Still when you compare to other X-Men characters, hell even Darwin had a fairly big role in X-Men First Class.

That's why I said relative low sales and I do question why she was added to the team. I know that it was so that there could be a mutant and an inhuman character on the team. However why would they pair the most recognisable female inhuman character with a B-List X-Man? If they wanted to make them on even playing fields it should have been someone like Jean Grey or Storm.

Not too sure with that since I don't read SHIELD comics. I know that Dazzler was replaced by Mystique at some point.

[Digifiend]

Her role in SHIELD barely appeared outside the X books, if at all.

[Confuzzled]

Hi there

For the last 13 years I have been reading Marvel Comics religiously and particular the X-Titles. Now as some of you know I have read a lot of comics that came out before 2004 as well and there is one thing I've noticed. There is one character who when they're a mainstay on a team it either doesn't last very long or the book itself gets cancelled. And this character is........

Dazzler!!!!

Ok hear me out before I get any Dazzler haters.... A couple of years ago with my X-Men read through blog I read and reviewed every issue of the Dazzler series and I have been reading many comics after that. It seems to me that Dazzler doesn't stay long on a team or the book gets outright cancelled. I'm calling it the Dazzler curse and I'll go through why.

Ok with her introduction she was a disco era character who was being introduced just as disco died. I don't know about you but she couldn't have been introduced at a worst time. Ok her solo book did last 42 issues but the sales were never as high as other Marvel Books at the time. At first it was something different with a mutant trying to make ends meet and start her singing career. But it was revitalised into a typical superhero book. There was an OGN which was pretty decent but a subpar LS more or less killed the series and since then Marvel have not released another Dazzler solo series (besides a one shot in like 2009).

After that she joins the X-Men and although she stays with them for around 30 issues which is pretty decent run but compared to other mainstay X-Men characters this is hardly anything. She wasn't all that memorable with the team and to think that after this she didn't appear in monthly printing for 15 years.

Next came her tenure in New Excalibur which only lasted for 24 issues before she disappeared for a few years again. Then we had her in Uncanny X-Men around 2009 but this didn't last long either. Then we had the second volume of X-Treme X-Men which only lasted like 13 issues as well. Then she was in Uncanny X-Men and an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D for a while but once again this didn't last long.

More recently we had A-Force which did have some success but was cancelled after 10 issues due to relatively low sales and because of Civil War II.

All this makes me think that the character is toxic to use in a book. I'll even give you another example if you want... The failed X-Men Pilot 'Pryde Of The X-Men' had her as one of the core members of the team. I know it wasn't really her that caused the pilot to fail but in the future her appearances are extremely limited. She appeared in an episode or two of X-Men The Animated Series, didn't appear at all in X-Men Evolution, had a cameo in Wolverine and the X-Men. Even now she hasn't appeared in an X-Men film although she did have a cameo in a deleted scene from X-Men Apocalypse. Even Watchmojo.com placed her in the top 10 ridiculous superhero powers... that just says something.

Am I only with this thought or does anyone else agree with me?

[a0040pc]

Is that about Dazzler?

[berserkerclaw]

No i do not agree. theres nothing wrong with Dazzler IMO. i like her. and i do not think its her that killed books. it depends on how shes written and the story as a whole.

[a0040pc]

I don't know, I don't know any other characters that have killed books or runs more than her.

[Filthy Mutie]

It's also worth noting that when she shows up in adjective-less X-Men ~#10, 1992, it then enters its notoriously worst era (Soul Skinner, Hazard, Revanche, etc.). When she shows up in that book again for 'Eve of Destruction', they have to actually relaunch the series as New X-Men under Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly.

[Filthy Mutie]

I suddenly remembered that time Dazzler showed up in Nation X: X-Factor, a famous issue that prompted a lot of spirited dialog between its writer, Peter David, and the community of CBR.

Where did that appearance happen in relation to the long, barreling decline of that X-Factor book? Beginning? Middle? End? Did the steepness of the decline increase with her appearance?

[donpricetag]

Oh Lawdy, it's gon be a fiya...

People don't respond well to analytics round these parts. May the force be with you... And protect you.

[akiresu_]

When I read that title I thought this thread was going to be about Gambit. What with Astonishing, several solos and ANXF under his belt.

((i should probably take a moment to clarify that i like gambit. a lot))

[Filthy Mutie]

When I read that title I thought this thread was going to be about Gambit. What with Astonishing, several solos and ANXF under his belt.

((i should probably take a moment to clarify that i like gambit. a lot))

You raise a good point.

Is Gambit a post-2000 X-Book liability?

[DDM]

lol. I love this thread.

[bigstupidjellyfish]

You raise a good point.

Is Gambit a post-2000 X-Book liability?

Depends. Astonishing wasn't Gambit's fault, it was mostly Marvel making space for Amazing X-Men. It could've gone on longer, but sales had dropped and it was probably time to retire the title.

The Asmus run would've lasted a lot longer if Marvel had let him do the things he wanted (Black Cat was supposed to appear and he was interested in having Remy be bisexual). But, also the fill in artists were so bad. The issue where he helps Pete Wisdom out with a magic problem has some of the worst art I've seen.

All-New X-Factor is a good mess. Starts slow, but good, rushes to the end because PAD couldn't find a way to dismount.

The Layman run just wasn't good. Art was bad.

The problem was that for years every X-Men writer would be someone that read Claremont, stopped in the nineties, then came back for Morrison. Only recently do we have writers who either grew up in the nineties or just like everything (Bunn is the best example of one of these writers and Guggenheim likes the Kelly/Segal era as well as Lobdell's run). Nobody writing the big books wanted him, now they do.