Monday, March 16, 2009

Beauty and the Beast


When Marvel came out with the Beauty and the Beast limited series in 1984, the Beast had already been a member of pretty much every super-team out there (except maybe the Fantastic Four), while Dazzler was finishing up a failed solo series and had just appeared in a graphic novel in which her mutant powers have been revealed to the world and her singing career was in the skids. She decides to head out to L.A. and gets enmeshed in an underground mutant gladiator ring (don't ask why or how), which leads the Beast to go after her for some reason. The two characters hardly have any connection before this series, fall madly in love after about the first issue, and then (as far as I can tell) we never hear about their relationship again after the series is over. Anyway, there's also something to do with a character named Poltergeist who appeared in two issues of the old Spider-Woman series (who is never seen again) and an alleged son of Doctor Doom (but not the alleged son Kristoff who was a major character in 80s Fantastic Four). There's also weird characterization (Dazzler is always in tears, the Beast is neither intelligent nor clever), a clown with telekinetic powers, and one of those endings that involves slowly pulling back the camera higher and higher until the earth is a mere speck in outer space.

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