BIOGRAPHY
Burtram Worthington was the bad seed of the esteemed Worthington family from Centerport, Long Island, son of Warren Kenneth Worthington the First and younger brother to Warren “W.K.” Worthington, Jr. Burtram was highly intelligent and a talented engineer, who created many of the weapons and tech he later employed as a super-villain. It’s not entirely clear what drove Burt to illegal activities. As the second son, he likely would have had a substantially smaller inheritance than W.K., and he also once claimed to have loved his brother’s eventual wife Kathryn first, although that may have been a ruse. Whatever the cause, Burt turned his brilliant mind towards crime, becoming a robber and a smuggler as he even dreamed of world domination.
After a stint in prison, Burt feigned being contrite and reconnected with his brother W.K. Worthington. He received a second chance working with the family business of Worthington Enterprises but used it as an opportunity to mix his diamond smuggling operation with W.K.’s legitimate business. Burt embezzled funds to support his criminal endeavors, establishing himself as the super-villain the Dazzler and building a secret base under the Statue of Liberty for his gang of thieves. The Dazzler took no chances and ruthlessly integrated chemoid particles into his men’s suits. This allowed him to zero in on his men at a distance, eavesdrop and, if necessary, turn the chemoid particles into anti-matter in order to disintegrate his henchmen in case of betrayal.
W.K. eventually discovered his brother’s illicit activities and told Burt he would be reporting him to the authorities. Instead, Dazzler arranged for his men to break into the Worthington estate and murder his brother. As fate would have it, earlier that evening, some of Dazzler’s men were 
robbing a bank when they encountered the high-flying crime-fighter known as the Angel, secretly Burt’s nephew Warren Worthington III. Angel was out on a date with Candy Southern when the radio reported his father’s murder by two masked men who fled by air using sky sleds. Warren intercepted the murderers as the Angel and brought them to Fred Duncan and the FBI. Once they were identified as the Dazzler’s men, the Avenging Angel swore to hunt down the criminal responsible for his father’s death. [Ka-Zar (1st series) #2]
[Note: Many years later, the mutant werewolf Maximus Lobo of the Dominant Species claimed responsibility for murdering Warren Jr. in Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #420. If true, it’s uncertain if Lobo was meant to be one of these two thugs, or if he was a higher authority in the criminal hierarchy, directing Dazzler to direct W.K.’s death.]
With W.K. out of the way, Dazzler plotted to incriminate Warren Worthington III in his crimes as well. First, his men kidnapped Candy Southern to use as leverage against his nephew’s good behavior. Next, the Dazzler teleported young Warren into his hide-out, unaware he was bringing a 
fighting mad super-hero into his midst. Warren’s combat training allowed him to break free from Dazzler’s goons long enough to change into the Angel and let his wings unfurl. Once Angel confronted Dazzler, however, he was forced to relent when he saw Candy under the villain’s control. Angel submitted to Dazzler’s men, removing his mask and exposing his identity. [Ka-Zar (1st series) #3]
Burt Worthington laughed at the discovery and revealed his own face to Warren for his amusement. He explained why he had his brother killed, and showcased a powerful disintegrator of his own design called a spatial destructor. This device was potent enough to strike from the blue from continents away, devastating entire cities. The doomsday weapon would be powered by the world’s largest diamond, and Dazzler charged Warren with acting as his courier to retrieve the gem. Angel pretended to go along with Dazzler’s plan, but he exchanged the diamond for a piece of polished glass before returning to the lair.
Dazzler loaded the faux gem into his weapon and planned to activate the spatial destructor to 
destroy Paris remotely as proof of his power. Instead, the device blew up in his face. As a chain reaction started to build in Dazzler’s equipment, Angel grabbed Candy and his uncle to flee into the skies before the bigger explosion went off. Dazzler was hardly thankful, and he struck at Warren while struggling in his arms. The X-Man dropped his two passengers, and only had time to swoop down and recover one of them. Warren saved Candy’s life, and Burt Worthington seemingly fell to his death above the streets of Manhattan. [Marvel Tales (2nd series) #30]
Thanks to an unexplained but presumably brilliant contingency plan, Dazzler survived the fall. With his brother now out of the way, Burtram devised a new plot to seize control of the Worthington fortune for his own future criminal ends. Angel believed his uncle died in the fall, and so he chose not to disclose information about Burtram’s criminal activity or his involvement in W.K.’s death to his mother or the authorities. This unfortunate oversight, combined with Warren’s frequent absences from Long Island due to his adventures with the X-Men, allowed Burt to return to the Worthington estate unmolested. He began to take emotional advantage of Kathryn during her mourning period. Kathryn accepted Burt first as a shoulder to cry on after her husband's passing. And, after a whirlwind romance, she was ready to marry Burt so she wouldn’t be alone after the loss of Warren, Jr.
Burtram found a willing collaborator in Doctor Stuart, a long-time family friend to the Worthingtons. Dr. Stuart delivered Warren the 3rd as a child and was one of the few people outside the X-Men who knew he was a mutant. Warren considered Doctor Stuart a confidante after his wings first emerged and Stuart helped him learn to conceal them. Unknown to Warren, Stuart held rabid anti-mutant beliefs and regretted not smothering Warren in infancy as the “monster” he was. Kathryn was a frail, possibly anemic woman whose health took an even poorer turn after her husband’s death. With Stuart as a trusted voice subtly supporting Burt’s return, Kathryn accepted their advice to replace all the household staff with new faces. This gave the conspirators control over her correspondence and kept Angel from learning of his uncle’s return. Stuart also oversaw a slow poisoning of Kathryn, calculated to bring about her death shortly after the wedding so Burt could fully inherit W.K.’s estate. Stuart’s racism and blue blood views helped him justify a criminal like Burtram carrying on the Worthington name, rather than a filthy mutant.
Despite Burtram and Stuart’s efforts, Warren’s girlfriend and family friend Candy Southern discovered the upcoming nuptials and reached out to warn Angel. When Warren and the X-Men arrived in Centerport, Dr. Stuart played the role of concerned family friend and warned Warren that the shock of learning the truth might kill Kathryn in her frail state. Warren and his friends 
struggled with indecision, and so Kathryn and Burtram moved forward with their wedding plans for that afternoon. When Kathryn had a fainting spell, however, Doctor Stuart ignored telltale signs of oxygen narcosis during his examination, which Hank McCoy nevertheless picked up on. This oversight alerted the X-Men that Stuart’s word could not be trusted.
Seeing his control of the situation slipping away, Burt donned his full Dazzler gear to incapacitate the X-Men before they caused further harm to his plans. Cyclops saw the dazzle flash coming and 
dove out of sight, however, emerging only to blast Dazzler with his optic blast and shake his concentration. This gave Angel the opportunity to gain the upper hand against his uncle. Fiendish and cunning, the Dazzler still had never seen the inside of a Danger Room. A furious Angel easily outmatched his uncle in hand-to-hand combat, beating him into submission so that Burt couldn’t concentrate enough to dazzle them again.
Once Dazzler was down, Jean Grey took advantage of his distraction to implant mental blocks in his mind telepathically, leaving him incapable of accessing his powers. Tragically, Kathryn’s poisoning was too far along for her to be saved. Warren carried his mother into the setting sun, letting her fly like an angel with her son before her life finally winked out. Warren and his friends turned Dazzler and Doctor Stuart over to the police for murder, and both men found another mental block in their minds, courtesy of Jean Grey, which prohibited them from revealing any of the X-Men’s secrets. [X-Men: The Hidden Years #13-16]
In a matter of months, Warren’s parents’ estates were finalized and he inherited controlling interest in Worthington Enterprises. [Champions (1st series) #5] In the years since, Warren has been declared dead or incompetent on several occasions, yet Uncle Burt never emerged from the 
woodwork to reclaim Worthington Enterprises. It seems justice may have actually been served, and Burt Worthington is still serving life in prison for the murder of his own family. That said, at one point he also corresponded with Maximus Lobo, whose company Lobo Tech was a subsidiary of Worthington Enterprises, which continued Burt’s smuggling operation. What ultimately became of this is unknown. [Exiles (1st series) #28]
[Note: The nature of Dazzler’s abilities is a little vague. In his original arc, he appeared to be a standard tech villain using gimmicks and themed equipment of his own design. In X-Men: The Hidden Years, though, his light-projection powers seemed to be natural – he employed them while out of costume and Jean prevented him from using them later with a psychic block. Dr. Stuart was adamant that Burt was not a mutant but created his powers through science. Ergo, his light powers may mark him as a mutate like Electro.]