Issue(s): Dazzler #22, Dazzler #23, Dazzler #24
Cover Date: Dec 82 - Feb 83
Title: "The Sisterhood" / "Fire in the night!" / "A Rogue in the house"
Credits:
Danny Fingeroth - Writer
Frank Springer - Penciler
Vincent Colletta - Inker
Ralph Macchio - Assistant Editor
Denny O'Neil - Editor

Review/plot:
The Brotherhood (Or Sisterhood, because it's still just Mystique, Destiny, and Rogue.) of Evil decide to go after Angel, in theory because through him, they'll get their revenge on all the X-Men.

Revenge doesn't seem like the right motivation for Mystique, but that's the story.

Meanwhile, Dazzler and her band get into the recording studio to start recording on their first album, and later Alison gets into a fight with her Weird Al Yankovic-looking boyfriend.

She says he works too much; he retorts that it was his hard work that got her out of legal trouble back when they first met.

Since Weird Al won't take her dancing, Alison heads over to Angel's hotel room, where he's holed-up and paranoid...

...after an attack by Mystique's "anti-personnel hawks".

Angel offers to take Alison up to see Professor X to help her resolve the conflict she's feeling over her mutant powers and whether they require her to have any responsibility towards being a super-hero. (I think he just wants the X-Men's help against his mysterious attacker, personally).

The Sisterhood attack Angel and Dazzler en route to the X-Mansion.

I love that Dazzler has to put on her roller skates before fighting.

But it's clearly effective and allows her to Go For It!

They're able to escape, but they head back to Alison's apartment instead of going to see the X-Men.

Angel decides he's going to go underground and hide for a while, and he suggests that Dazzler do the same. Really weird characterization for Angel. Since Dazzler refuses to go underground, Angel suggests she hire Power Man & Iron Fist for protection. Before she can do so, however, her half-sister, Lois London, shows up at her apartment.

By the beginning of the next issue, Angel is gone. Some hero. We've jumped ahead a bit in time, and Lois is sleeping at Alison's apartment, but they wake up because the building is on fire. The fire is caused by an arsonist-for-hire called Flame. He dresses in a super-villain outfit but it's not clear he actually has any powers.

Dazzler assumes he's working for the Sisterhood, but that's not really the case. Mystique has decided to hold off on any more attacks, to let Angel stew for a bit.

Rogue, however, is unhappy with that decision and she decides to pursue a personal vendetta against Dazzler.

Flame is actually working for Alison's landlord. With help from Power Man & Iron Fist...

...they're able to put a stop to him. The fight against Rogue is much more difficult.

Love this crazy abstract panel:

Rogue really only backs off when she hears that the X-Men are all dead (as assumed by Xavier).

And where's Angel? Renting a gym so he can stretch his wings a bit.

Meanwhile, Alison' sister Lois figures out that Alison is Dazzler. She's also been getting headaches and fainting spells.

The introduction of Flame and Alison's sister in the middle of the Sisterhood of Evil Mutants plot made things a little muddled, and Angel's characterization was pretty crappy, and Rogue is played a straight ahead villain (unlike her last appearance in ROM, for example, where she showed some hope for redemption), and Alison's relationship with her goofy lawyer boyfriend is terrible...

...but despite it all, i still find myself enjoying this series on some basic guilty level.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Lois London (later Mortis)

Chronological Placement Considerations: Takes place while the X-Men are still in space and Professor Xavier is still not feeling well. Power Man & Iron Fist's appearance is context free.

References:

• The Brotherhood wants revenge on the X-Men because of their defeats in Uncany X-Men #141-142, and Uncanny X-Men #158.
  
• Weird Al Yankovic helped Dazzler with her legal problems in Dazzler #13.
  
• Professor Xavier is too 'dispirited' to help Angel, as shown in Uncanny X-Men #161.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The Rogue Vs. Dazzler plot goes on for way too many issues and is just plain silly. I have to wonder how Chris Claremont agreed to let the female members of the Brotherhood loose for this title anyway; it's not like other villains would have fit any worse.

This title was announced in late 1982 as going bimonthly "so that(the creators) could do a better job on it" despite the fact that the book was actually selling quite well.

Weird characterization of the non-Dazzler people, across the board. Even if we go with Mystique being motivated by revenge, and even if we go with her deciding to target the Angel to achieve it, I don't think a Claremont would have written it this way. He wouldn't have Mystique sending hawks after Angel, alerting him that someone is after him, and then ambushing him with the other Sisters and beating him up. She's a finesse character. She changes shape. Wouldn't she just use his love for the ladies and pose as an attractive strange woman, or Candy, or Dazzler, get him in a room somewhere, drug him, and then bring Rogue to do the memory-siphon trick when he's unconscious?

I know, I'm overthinking bad comics from 30 years ago. The above scenario would have made it harder to have Dazzler roller skating on the grass by a waterfall with a helicopter running. I always wanted this title to be better than it was. It often seemed they worked backward from the idea of Dazzler interacting with the Guest Star Du Jour. ("How can we get Spider-Woman/Power Man & Iron Fist/Galactus in here this month? And let's not spend much time on it.")

"Rogue is played a straight ahead villain (unlike her last appearance in ROM, for example, where she showed some hope for redemption)"

According to your site, her last appearance was in UXM 158, when she's facing off against Danvers, Wolvie and Storm in the Pentagon, where she was still played as a straightforward villain (though, admittedly, ROM #32 was published a month later than her X-Men appearance)

I love that panel where Iron Fist literally kicks Rogue's butt with his oddly elongated and thin legs. It's so sloppily drawn it looks almost like surrealist art or something.

Sheet music panel is great!

Sad, you didn't show such cheerful panels like Rogue's walnut cracking, while her "Vigil of vengeance" had begun.

And absolutely insane page of #24 with frantic 2nd floor jump of Dazz using "stage acrobatic skills", people in campus who flee in pure panic, just seeing flying Rogue (ok, somehow they know who she is and screaming her name). This trashy page also contains unclear panel of emphasized Lois-Rogue eye contact. Moment of regret?