BIOGRAPHY - Page 8
Dazzler also started expanding on her powers, using them in creative new ways to confuse her enemies in battle. She also regularly used her photon beams to propel herself through the air and fashioned her lights into swords as hard as steel. [New Excalibur #22]
Dazzler’s teammates eventually declared a truce with Shadow-X so they could stop Albion and his Shadow Corps. Although Alison felt uncomfortable teaming up with the very team of alternate X-Men that had once killed her, she put those reservations aside for the greater good. In a similar vein, despite her dislike of Shadow Beast, she was moved when he fell in battle and comforted him as the life left his body. This death renewed her resolve, and she went into the final battle against Albion with the intention of losing no more friends to battle. [New Excalibur #20-24]
After defeating Albion, New Excalibur had a party to celebrate, during which Dazzler decided to make a pass at Pete Wisdom. He ended up surprising her with a gift (a motorcycle) — and a kiss! At the same party, some of the dimension-hopping, worlds-saving mutants known as the Exiles 
arrived uninvited, as did a villainess known as Rouge Mort. Alison and Pete’s carnal encounter was interrupted by this ambush, during which Brian was injured. New Excalibur accompanied the Exiles to their headquarters in the Crystal Palace with the injured Brian in tow. There, Alison was reunited with her husband, Longshot, only to learn he had no memories of her at all. Devastated, Alison considered throwing herself off on of the towering ledges in the Crystal Palace, only to be talked down by one of the Exiles, who reminded her of her resilience.
Later, Alison put her life on the line to defend the goddess Roma from Rouge Mort and her allies. While she put up a good fight, she was ultimately betrayed by Roma’s father Merlyn, and killed once again — and resurrected, once again. This time, when she opened her eyes, Longshot was there waiting for her. This time, he remembered her name, and the two of them shared a kiss. However, Longshot’s memory hadn’t fully returned to him yet; he merely remembered that Alison was somehow important to him. [X-Men: Die By the Sword #1-5]
Unfortunately, Longshot’s amnesia proved to be a deal-breaker for Alison: she ended their relationship. [X-Factor (3rd series) #35]
After her stint with the Exiles, Alison resumed her musical act in England. However, her luck failed to improve. She never landed any good gigs, local music critics maligned her as a Madonna rip-off and, after a spat with her manager, she found herself not only without a record label but also without representation. Deciding that she’d overstayed her welcome, she spent all of her remaining money on a plane ticket to San Francisco, which the X-Men had recently made their base of operations, and hoped to start anew.
During the transatlantic flight, a passenger in business class — none other than the supervillain Man Mountain Marko — caused a scene and started threatening the passengers and crew. Dazzler used her talents, both mutant and musical, to subdue him and ended up impressing one of her fellow passengers so much that he offered her a residency at his club in San Francisco. Alison accepted the offer without hesitation. [X-Men: Manifest Destiny #5]
Dazzler’s gigs were a bit more lucrative once she made it to San Francisco. Her return to the United States garnered a lot of attention, and her shows became a huge draw. After one of her concerts, a young mutant girl associated with the X-Men named Pixie was beaten up by an anti-mutant hate group known as the Hellfire Cult. While Pixie was in recovery, Alison’s old friend Beast reached out to her and asked if she would visit her young fan in the hospital to cheer her up. Alison enthusiastically accepted, and not only visited Pixie in the hospital, but also offered her a role as a backup dancer during her concerts. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #500-503]
Alison slowly integrated herself back in with the X-Men and their now-expansive roster in San Francisco. When the Skrulls attempted to overtake the Earth, Dazzler helped them repel the invasion within her city. [Secret Invasion: X-Men #1-4] She also continued hanging out with Pixie outside of her shows, and she and the X-Man Northstar even took the young Welsh girl drinking on occasion. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #509]
As luck would have it, Alison’s old teammate Psylocke soon returned to the X-Men, albeit not intentionally. Madelyne Pryor and her Sisterhood had kidnapped Psylocke and brainwashed her into ambushing the X-Men with them. It was Dazzler who eventually dealt the coup de grace to her former teammate and snapped her out of her trance, allowing her to regain control of herself. After the X-Men defeated the Sisterhood, Psylocke rejoined the team, and she and Alison renewed their longstanding friendship. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #510-511, Psylocke #1]
When anti-mutant sentiment reached a boiling point in San Francisco, Dazzler took to the streets with the rest of the X-Men to try to keep the peace. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work, and the entire mutant population in the city ended up migrating to a floating island in the bay built atop the remnants of Asteroid M. [Utopia crossover] The X-Men soon received a visit from their allies X-Factor, at which point Alison was once again reunited with her former lover, Longshot. This time, his memories were more intact and the two of them quickly fell back into their old habits with each other — albeit this time with no strings attached. [Nation X: X-Factor #1]
Not all of the visitors to the island were so pleasant, however. The X-Men soon came under attack by legions of undead mutants, who’d been resurrected by the mutant goddess Selene by way of the Techno-Organic Virus. Not only did Dazzler have to fight her old, deceased teammates, but the stakes were raised even further when Selene sent her Inner Circle to the island amidst the undead invasion to retrieve a relic one of the X-Men had taken. To Dazzler’s shock, this Inner Circle of death-dealing mutants included none other than her estranged sister, Lois. It seems Lois, now going by the moniker “Mortis,” had let her jealousy of her sister drive her into a murderous rage that Selene was able to use to her advantage. Alison had to watch in horror as her sister used her deadly powers to murder her teammate, Diamond Lil, and came face-to-face with her in battle as the X-Men fought off the deadly attack. Lois was one of only two members of Selene’s Inner Circle to survive the X-Men’s counterattack, and she went into hiding immediately thereafter. [Necrosha crossover]
Shortly thereafter, while visiting Los Angeles to meet with a label rep, Dazzler’s sister Lois contacted her and asked her to meet with her at a bar. Unsurprisingly, the meeting was an ambush, and Dazzler was knocked unconscious. She woke up inside Arcade’s Murderworld, where she was instructed to don her original disco uniform and prepare for one final show. Figuring “why not?” Dazzler put on her silver bodysuit, eye makeup and roller-skates, and took the stage. She was immediately attacked by Arcade’s robot versions of her rogues gallery from her early days as a reluctant superhero: the Grapplers, the White Queen, Doctor Doom, Enchantress, Galactus and, err, Rogue. After taking out all of Arcade’s bots, she had one more foe to face before her sister fought her: Klaw. Unlike the others, however, Klaw was no mere robot. He had connected with Mortis over their mutual hatred of Dazzler and eagerly jumped at the opportunity to get his revenge on her for “killing” him back in the day.
Dazzler was unprepared for some of the advanced tricks Klaw had prepared to neutralize her attacks on him, and was on the verge of losing the fight until Arcade, frustrated by how Lois had “cheated,” tipped the scales in Dazzler’s favor and gave her the chance to fight back. Dazzler quickly dispatched Klaw and took the fight to Lois. While arguing with her sister about the myriad ways she — and life — had wronged her, Alison managed to sneak in a punch that knocked the death-dealer unconscious. Afterward, when the medics arrived, Alison was able to get her sister the medical treatment she needed and had her transferred to Utopia for monitoring.
Once on Utopia, Psylocke placed Lois into a psychic coma at Dazzler’s request. Cyclops objected to Lois’s presence on the island after what she had done to the X-Men, but Alison pleaded with him, telling him that there was nowhere else for her to go and that Utopia was supposed to be a haven for ALL mutants. An angry Cyclops told her that Lois wouldn’t get the psychic therapy she needed from Emma, at which point Psylocke stepped up and volunteered to help repair Lois’s shattered psyche. After she received Cyclops’ reluctant permission to keep Lois on the island, Alison reached out to her mother, Barbara London, with whom she hadn’t talked in years. She told her everything Lois had done (including murdering her father, Nick), and owned up to her part 
in abandoning her when she needed her most. Barbara took responsibility for her part as well and, after a tearful conversation, assured Alison she would be there to help deal with her daughter. Over the course of the conversation, Alison learned that her mother was no longer going by Barbara and had reverted back to her original name, Katherine Blaire, as she realized she couldn’t run from her problems forever and at some point had to own up to who she was. Alison told her mother she loved her and hoped for the best with her estranged sister. [Dazzler one-shot]