Disney’s buyout of 21st Century Fox and all its assets won’t be finalized until some time in 2019. Disney subsidiary Marvel Studios is keeping its future under wraps, purportedly in order to not spoil ‘Avengers 4’, one of the most anticipated movies in years. Studio chief Kevin Feige has stated that Marvel Studios has no plans for the ‘X-Men’ or ‘Fantastic Four’, two properties licensed to 20th Century Fox, and won’t start making plans for those franchises until the deal is finalized. But is that really true?
I ask, only because I think there are plans underway for a certain sparkly mutant from the ‘X-Men’-verse, Dazzler. I noticed several years ago, that when Marvel plans to push a character or concept in a film, they suddenly start cranking out merchandise (often strange) bearing that character’s image or logo, even if they aren’t yet well-known to the general public. I first noticed this years ago when I saw socks and underwear at Walmart based on the ‘Inhumans’ back when Marvel Studios was going to make a movie of them. Who would have ever imagined that you could walk into Walmart and buy Black Bolt socks or Medusa panties?! (Both real products.)
Of course, after those products were manufactured, Marvel Studios broke away from Marvel Entertainment and scrapped the ‘Inhumans’ movie. Instead, Marvel Entertainment made the lackluster ‘Inhumans’ TV series and the less said about the better.
Then I saw that Marvel is releasing a replica of 1980s ‘Dazzler’ #1. This is in addition to last year’s ‘Dazzler’ #43 an official final issue to the original comic book series from the ’80s. In addition, Dazzler was a main character in the all-female ‘A-Force’ comic and has had a higher profile in the other X-books, recently.
Then I realized, Marvel has been cranking out a LOT of Dazzler merch over the past couple of years. There’s a new statue:
She was released as a Hasbro Marvel Legends action figure:
And she was recently released as a character in the Marvel Puzzle Quest phone app:
I play Puzzle Quest and in addition to Dazzler, the most recent characters added to the game include Cable and Domino, two characters that received a higher profile thanks to ‘Deadpool 2‘. Last year, the game introduced Black Bolt, Medusa, and Lockjaw of the ‘Inhumans’ around the time that the TV show was rolling out and they clearly planned to introduce Crystal and Karnak as they are pop-up characters that appear through the Lockjaw character. But when they show tanked, it looks as though the game dropped them.
I could be way off, but it seems that Dazzler is getting a lot of exposure for a character that isn’t highly visible outside of comics. Sure, many lower tier characters get statues, since those appeal to a niche audience, but the Marvel Legends are sold everywhere. And as for comics, even those are starting to skew closer to the films. Remember how the X-Men and Fantastic Four were essentially benched for a few years when Marvel didn’t have their film rights?
Fans have been buzzing about Dazzler appearing in an ‘X-Men’ film since the franchise launched in 2000. There have been “rumors” (i.e. lies) that everyone from Britney Spears to Taylor Swift was going to play her in a movie, but so far, Allison Blaire has yet to appear in live action, either in the films or the newer TV shows.
Are there plans to bring her to the forefront? Heck, even on a superficial level, pop music could use a dose of a flashier diva. Pop has been extremely low-key these past few years. (Gaga, Katy, somebody please come back!)
What do you think? Would you like to see this shiny mutant brought to life?
