Peter’s movie night to see Star Trek: The Motion Picture is interrupted by the arrival of…Dazzler! The X-Men’s resident Disco Queen is under attack by a mysterious orb of light. Will Spider-Man be able to protect the mutant songstress from this menace? Dazzler, under possession by Lightmaster!
Bewitched, Bothered and Be-Dazzled!
At the start of this issue, Spider-Man is web swinging when he notices a strange glowing ball chasing a girl. He immediately thinks that it's Will-O'-The-Wisp, somehow returned from their last fight, and so manages to save the girl, who faints. By the time she wakes up, Spider-Man has found out from posters advertising her that she's Dazzler. Spider-Man starts questioning her as to why Will-O'-The-Wisp is chasing her, but Dazzler is suspicious of Spider-Man and thinks she's in league with Will-O'-The-Wisp, and uses her powers to get away.
Peter returns to his apartment, where he is visited by Harry Osborn and Flash Thompson, who remind him that they all agreed to see Star Trek that night. Unknown to them, behind the movie theatre where they're seeing the film, Dazzler is once more attacked by the glowing ball of light, only this time it succeeds in attacking her. It then siphons energy from her and turns out not to be Will-O'-The-Wisp, but Lightmaster, returned from the dimension of light he had been banished to. Lightmaster explains to Dazzler that their powers are similar, and that he can use her as a battery so that he can always be close to unlimited energy. As Dazzler tries to escape, Lightmaster tries stopping her, but ends up destroying the wall of the cinema.
Peter Parker quickly changes to Spider-Man, and tries to fight Lightmaster. However, Lightmaster manages to knock him out temporarily, and then transports both himself and Dazzler to Empire State University. There, he explains that every time Dazzler played a concert, he managed to regain some energy, so that he could eventually escape. He now plans to absorb her energy using devices at the university. Fortunately, Spider-Man comes bursting in, having successfully guessed that Lightmaster would go to the university. Before he can do anything though, Lightmaster activates a switch, which sets the room on fire. Spider-Man manages to avoid being burned using his webbing, but after the fire's burned itself out, Spider-Man notices that Lightmaster's gone.
However, just as Spider-Man thinks the battle's over, he's attacked by Dazzler, who tries to kill him. Despite Dazzler's best efforts, Spider-Man manages to get webbing on her eyes, and changes to Peter Parker, deciding to fight her when he's at peak fighting capacity. After spending a day as Peter Parker, Spider-Man works out that the explosion caused by Lightmaster returned him to the dimension where he was banished during their last encounter, but managed to create a mental link with Dazzler that allowed him to control her. Spider-Man finds Dazzler, and then webs her up, so that she can't attack him. He then takes her to the university again, and uses a machine to reverse the process which Lightmaster used before, freeing Dazzler from Lightmaster's control.
Notes
- Features the Hostess Twinkies Cakes ad, The Human Torch In "A Hot Time In The Old Town"
- Mark Gruenwald was assistant editor on this issue.
- Peter Parker, Harry Osborn and Flash Thompson go to see Star Trek: The Motion Picture in this issue. Because Marvel just obtained the rights to Star Trek at the time, and began the movie adaptation also written by Marv Wolfman, there is a panel that depicts a scene from the film featuring Klingon Battle Cruisers.
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