[7] A mutant with the ability to convert sound vibrations into light and energy beams, Dazzler was developed as a cross-promotional, multi-media creation between Casablanca Records and Marvel Comics until the tie-ins were dropped in 1980.

Dazzler was conceived in early 1979[12] as a joint venture between Marvel Comics and Casablanca Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group[13] that had achieved considerable success with notable disco acts including Donna Summer and Village People.

Instead filmmaker John Derek showed interest in Dazzler as a potential film vehicle for his wife Bo, who were looking to build on the success of 10 with studio Filmworks.

In order to make the debut still something of an event, Shooter decided it would be Marvel's first ongoing series that was exclusive to the direct market - i.e. sold only to specialist comic stores, rather than also to newsstands - a model used by several smaller independent publishers.

Given a healthy promotional push, the first issue - dated May 1981 - was a resounding commercial success for Marvel, with around 400,000 copies sold to stores - around double the number of most of the company's best-selling titles.

[18][19][20] With the Romita Jr. material running out midway through the third issue (which also featured work from Alan Kupperberg), Frank Springer became the title's new regular artist.

Issue #17 saw the start of a short stint by the X-Men team-member Angel as a suitor; Fingeroth would admit this was an attempt to draw readers to the series, which had not kept up its early sales.

[14] In the regular series, Dazzler #33 featured a Sienkiewicz cover closely referencing Michael Jackson's hugely popular Thriller music video, and cameos by long-dormant Marvel humour characters Millie the Model and Chili Storm.

The series was written by Ann Nocenti, and along with Louise Simonson's Power Pack and Trina Robbins' fashion comic Misty was an attempt by Marvel to find the female audience the publisher had lost over the previous decade.

To this end Nocenti attempted to write Beauty and the Beast as a romance comic, though she would later reflect it was a "tough assignment" pairing a "blonde airhead" with a "deep intellectual".

[citation needed] Beginning in May 2015, Dazzler appeared as one of the main characters in A-Force, an all-female Avengers launched by G. Willow Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, and Jorge Molina during Marvel's "Secret Wars" storyline.

[33][34][35] and received positive reviews, with Mike Fugere of CBR.com referring to it as "the most important X-story Marvel has published in years", noting "Maybe Dazzler isn’t the beckon [sic] of social progress we were looking for, but it seems she has become the one we have.

She had always assumed that life as a disco queen would be exciting but finds the fight with the X-Men's enemies going a bit too far, and turns down their offer to join the team.

After acquainting herself with the various Marvel Comics superheroes, Alison finds herself continually using her abilities to fight both ordinary criminals and rogue superhumans—often at the expense of her career ambitions.

[50] Dazzler moved to Los Angeles in a fruitless attempt to help her half-sister Lois London, who has the mutant power to kill anyone with a touch, but has little to no control over the ability.

[53] A covert anti-mutant army unit accidentally transformed one of its own members, a latent mutant named Zalme, into a creature called Dinosaur Man, who attacked Dazzler.

[62] Devastated by the loss of her career in the interim, Alison ventured to Longshot's native dimension Mojoworld, joining her lover and Lila in rebellion against the tyrant Mojo.

Exhausted from her ordeal, Dazzler passed out, and Shatterstar revealed the necessity of wiping both her and Longshot's memories of the event, and taking his infant self a century into Mojoworld's future, to be raised as a warrior away from his birth parents.

[79] Dazzler was later summoned to Utopia to help Cyclops and Danger with a Ghost Box; when opened it showed several alternate reality X-Men fighting an evil version of Professor X.

[82] Her leadership skills and abilities impressed both Cyclops[83] and Wolverine, the latter of whom offered her a position at the Jean Grey School, believing she would be an invaluable resource to the students.

Reluctant to accept the invitation after having spent a year traversing and saving the multiverse as well as witnessing the death of some of her friends, Dazzler opted instead to make a decision at a later time; Wolverine advises the offer still stands and to contact when she figures things out.

Thanks to Professor X, Dazzler's costume contains devices that enable her to store sonic energy more efficiently and to gauge and focus the light she generates with greater skill.

"[119] In November 2005, during an interview with Newsarama, writer Brian K. Vaughan asserted, "Ultimate Dazzler, on the other hand, may very well be Bendis' single greatest contribution to the free world, so I use her way too much.

[...] Even though her stories were never tied to the disco scene at large, her journey of struggling for acceptance from a dismissive father and longing for the love of her missing mother was something that queer readers, who only years earlier could have been arrested for showing signs of affection toward a member of the same sex in public, connected with.

"[8] Jerry Stanford of CBR.com asserted, "Almost since the beginning, the story of mutants in the Marvel Universe has been an allegory for the civil rights of marginalized groups... Dazzler strives for unity and her words mirror things said in the LGBTQ community.

"[113] Andrew Wheeler of ComicsAlliance stated, "Ideas of self-ownership occur again and again in Claremont's stories and characters... Dazzler is mutantdom's first drag performer, using stage theatrics to present her true self to the world.

"[11] Hayden Manders of Nylon wrote, "All socio-political commentary aside, superhero narratives are filled with strong female characters, which we know makes up a huge percentage of queer icons.

[140] The House of M newsprint special featured a tabloid-esque blind article, indicating that Alison's signature lightshow was fading due to a rare blood disorder, which was causing her to lose her mutation.

[144] A version of Dazzler appeared during the 2015 "Secret Wars" storyline as part of the Thor Corps, a paramilitary organization charged with policing Battleworld and enforcing the will of God Emperor Doom.

She often shows a lack of enthusiasm for the X-Men and their endeavors, but after learning of a proposed public execution of a mutant, she convinces a group of teammates to go on a rescue mission.