Cover: Paul Chadwick & Butch Guice

Dazzler #41

Jan 1986 · Marvel · 0.65 USD; 0.30 GBP; 0.75 CAD

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“Revelations”

★ 1st appearance — Silence

About this Issue

Dazzler #41 serves as the narrative engine for the series' swan-song arc, introducing the New Wave — a cult of latent super-humans whose abilities were inadvertently triggered by Dazzler's own mutant light show — along with their handlers Dust and Silence, and the obsessive fan Arthur Allan Smith, all in a single issue. It also delivers a gut-punch to Alison Blaire's personal history: her father Carter Blaire, possessed by the body-hopping Dust, is killed, raising the emotional stakes heading into the book's final chapter. Published just two issues from cancellation, the story reflects Archie Goodwin's attempt to give the long-troubled series a proper villain mythology before the curtain fell. Rachel Summers makes a brief cameo appearance, tying the book to the broader X-Men universe in its closing days.

writer Archie Goodwin · artist Paul Chadwick · inker Jackson Guice · colorist Petra Scotese · letterer Jim Novak · cover Paul Chadwick, Butch Guice

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (VF) $5

CGC 9.8 · 7 in census $85*

CGC 9.6 · 2 in census $39

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

More listings for this title

VG $2.9 FN $2.99 VG $3 VG $3 VF $3.25 VF+ $3.31 FN/VF $3.5 FN $3.7

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History

Archie Goodwin and artist Paul Chadwick took over the Dazzler series with issue #38 in a last-ditch editorial effort to restore the book to superhero footing after years of singer-soap-opera storytelling; Goodwin openly admitted he inherited the assignment largely because no one else wanted it. Chadwick, whom Goodwin had noticed through his creator-owned pitch for Concrete at Epic Comics, supplied cleaner and more dynamic art than the series had seen in years, but the boost came too late: after issue #40 tied into the Secret Wars II crossover, the creative team was told the book would wrap with #42. Issue #41 — titled 'Revelations' and inked by Jackson Guice, who also drew the cover — was produced within that compressed end-of-run context, making it the penultimate chapter of the entire Dazzler Vol. 1 run.

Trivia · 8 facts

Issue titled 'Revelations'; cover date January 1986, released October 1, 1985 (Week 40, 1985).
Creative team: writer Archie Goodwin, penciler Paul Chadwick, inker/cover artist Jackson (Butch) Guice, colorist Petra Scotese, letterer Jim Novak, editor-in-chief Jim Shooter.
First appearance of the New Wave as a group, and first individual appearances of Jared and Arthur Allan Smith (an imprisoned, obsessive Dazzler superfan who breaks out of the Chanute, Kansas penitentiary).
First full appearance of Silence, previously seen in earlier issues but fleshed out here with her origin as a CIA-drug-experiment victim who developed sound-muting powers.
Death of Carter Blaire: Dazzler's father is revealed to have been the latest host body seized by Dust, and he perishes in this issue — a major character loss for Alison's supporting cast.
The New Wave's origin is disclosed: Dust and Silence were scientists on whom a CIA-developed drug was tested; their offspring inherited traces of the drug, and Dazzler's public use of her light powers inadvertently activated the descendants' latent abilities, making her the unwitting creator of the cult.
Rachel Summers (Earth-811) appears in cameo, one of several X-Men universe touchpoints woven into the Goodwin/Chadwick closing arc.
The penultimate issue of the entire 42-issue Dazzler Vol. 1 run (1981–1986); the series was canceled due to poor sales after Goodwin and Chadwick were brought on starting with issue #38.