Dark Phoenix Characters With More Meaning Than You Realize

Dark Phoenix continues a long X-Men franchise tradition by bringing in heroes and villains familiar to the comics fans as well as referencing classic stories. It's easy to miss them all, so here's a look at some of the Dark Phoenix characters who are more important than you realized.

If you haven't seen the movie, here's your warning that spoilers are ahead.

The X-Men throw an outdoor party after they save the endangered astronauts early on in Dark Phoenix, where a young woman with long blonde hair and striking blue eye markings sings as a cloud of sparkling lights spins in the air around and above her, choreographed by an unseen source. The singer is Alison Blaire, codename Dazzler, a mutant who can transform sound into light. As a member of the X-Men, she uses her powers to blind enemies or to attack with bolts of hard light. It's fitting Dark Phoenix is the film that introduces her, given that the X-Men attempt to recruit her in 1980's Uncanny X-Men #130, just five issues before the "Dark Phoenix" story officially kicked off.

Initially named "The Disco Queen," Dazzler would appear in Marvel Comics, and then Casablanca Records would find a singer who would take on the persona of the hero and produce an actual record. A lot of things went wrong, though, and Dazzler went from being an interesting media experiment to a D-lister mostly on the periphery of Marvel's narrative.

Watch the video for more about Dark Phoenix characters with more meaning than you realize!

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Dazzler | 0:21
The Genoshans | 1:17
Ariki | 2:03
The writer | 2:47
Vuk | 3:31
Dark Nightcrawler | 4:17
Selene, the Black Queen | 5:12
The manipulator | 5:53