Real name: Alison Blaire
Former aliases: The Disco Dazzler
Identity: Publicly known
Occupation: Singer, actress, dancer, gladiator
Legal status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record
Place of birth: Gardendale, Long Island, New York
Marital status: Single
Known relatives: Carter (father, deceased), Katherine (alias Barbara London, mother), Bella (grandmother), Lois London (step-sister), Nick Brown (step-father)
Base of operations: (current) United Kingdom, (former) "Mojoworld" (in another dimension), (former) New York City; or mobile, usually in Los Angeles, California; later Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York State
Group affiliation: (current) Excalibur, (former) Gladiators, X-Men
First appearance: X-MEN (first series) #130

History: Alison Blaire is a mutant whose superhuman powers first manifested themselves in her late adolescence. As an aspiring singer, Blaire was performing at a high school dance when her ability to transform sound into light first surfaced. Upon graduation she set out to make a name for herself in the entertainment world using her light powers to create spectacular effects as she sang. She used the stage name The Dazzler. Virtually no one knew that Blaire was a mutant; almost everyone in her audiences assumed that her lighting effects were created through technological means. Although Blaire had no intention of using her special powers to fight crime on a regular basis, time and again she found herself using them to thwart the criminal activities of gangsters and renegade superhumans.

Eventually Blaire moved to the Los Angeles area from New York City, and formed a romantic and professional relationship with Hollywood celebrity Roman Nekoboh. Nekoboh produced a motion picture (which was never released) featuring Blaire, and persuaded her to reveal publicly that she was a superhumanly powerful mutant. The revelation backfired, stirring up renewed public hostility against mutants. Blaire was virtually blacklisted in the entertainment industry, and had to take primarily low-paying obscure jobs in order to continue her singing career.

Blaire sought and received training in the use of her superhuman abilities from the mutant X-Men. As a result, she is now far more adept in the use of her powers than she was in the past. Dazzler has recently been spending her time in the Mojoverse with her companion Longshot. The two have been placed as the rulers there and are attempting to build their world into a much more fair and hospitable place. When last seen, Dazzler had decided to take care of the X-Babies, miniature versions of the X-Men created by Mojo.

Height: 5 ft. 8 in.
Weight: 115 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde

Stength level: The Dazzler possesses the normal human strength of a woman of her age, height, and build who engages in intensive regular exercise.

Known superhuman powers: The Dazzler is a mutant with the superhuman ability to transduce sonic vibrations which reach her body into various types of light. This ability seems to operate over a great range of frequencies, including the audible spectrum (35 to 16,500 cycles per second), and a great variation of sound pressure levels regardless of the complexity, dissonance, or randomness of the sound. For example, a car crash and a symphonic passage of equal duration will both produce usable incoming acoustic vibrations.

The Dazzler, however, prefers utilizing the sound of music, particularly that which is rhythmically sustained. Not only is music more pleasant to her ears, but the steady beat of contemporary popular provides a more constant source of sound to convert. The precise means by which this conversion process works is as yet unknown, but it must involve a body-wide energy field that controls the energy levels of the outer electron shells of her body in such a way as to cause the cascaded release of photons.

The field thus operates in a similar fashion as the process that creates a laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) and apparently has the same efficiency as a laser (99.9 percent). The released energy is far greater than the incoming kinetic energy and therefore must involve another, unknown energy source as well. Left undirected, the Dazzler's light will radiate from her body in all directions, producing regular flashes of white light (white light is a mixture of all portions of the visible spectrum). By conscious control over the light she produces, she can control its direction, frequency (color), amplitude (intensity), and duration.

Apparently the Dazzler must consciously or subconsciously will the light to leave her body. Otherwise, light would "leak" from her at all times, even when she was asleep or unconscious. The Dazzler can produce numerous effects with the light she converts from sonic vibrations. She can simply cause a bright glow all about her body. She can create very simple patterns out of rays of light like circles, squares, triangles, and stars. With effort, she can even create holograms of human beings and other three-dimensional beings and objects. She can create a pulse of light on the order of several thousand watts seconds of power, which temporarily blinds people with its brilliance. She can create a chaotic cascade of sparkling lights and colors that severely upsets other people's equilibrium, or a pulsating strobe-light effect. By concentrating, the Dazzler can generate a coherent beam of light, approximating a laser beam, with which she can cut through virtually anything.

Her training with the X-Men, especially with Cyclops, has taught her how to produce such laser-like beams with much less effort than it previously required of her. She generally directs the laser from a single finger when she requires precision in its use, since pointing aids her in defining its direction. But she can also direct laser blasts from both hands at once when she wishes, for example, to demolish a large structure.She most often uses her hands for directing her light effects, but she could also use other parts of her body.

Since studying with the X-Men, she has become adept at directing her blinding strobe light blast from her eyes. The Dazzler has also learned how to create a protective force field about herself with laser light that can deflect or vaporize oncoming projectiles. The Dazzler's potential to convert sound to light is unlimited. Curiously, she cannot use her own unamplified voice as a source of sound for her transduction abilities. The Dazzler's body, especially her eyes, shields itself against any injurious effects of her light transducing abilities, and against those of bright lights in general. Her ability to transduce sound also protects her from being deafened by loud noises.

Other abilities: The Dazzler is a highly skilled athlete, and has become a good hand-to-hand combatant thanks to her training with the X-Men; talented singer, actress, and dancer; highly accomplished roller skater.

Paraphernalia: The Dazzler used to carry a customized radio cassette tape-player to provide her with continuous sound until she learned to store sound in her costume. Professor Charles Xavier, the founder of the X-Men, conceived the idea for the special costume that the Dazzler now wears in battle. Devices within the costume enable the Dazzler to store sonic energy more efficiently and to gauge and focus the light she generates with greater skill. The Dazzler also occasionally wears a woman's size eight pair of roller skates which magnetically adhere to her boots. She is a highly accomplished roller skater, and can use the skates to move at high speed.