Friday, December 9, 2022

Book Review: Sound of Light


When rock star Dazzler walked out on S.H.I.E.L.D., she hoped she’d seen the last of the clandestine organization. But when a rogue agent drops in after a sold-out gig, she must decide whether to work with them again or stick to her solo career. The agent links Mutant Growth Hormone – a dangerous biochemical that wildly enhances mutant powers – with the disappearance of Magneto and Cyclops. Reluctantly, Dazzler takes the case and unfolds a mystery greater than she anticipated. In need of a new team, she recruits the extraordinary mutants Emma Frost, Polaris, and Rachel Grey on a mission to foil a plot to remove mutantkind forever, which blasts them from Earth into a whole new dimension.

Sound of Light by Amanda Bridgeman was released from Aconyte Books in November of 2022. It is the latest in the Mutant School of X series from the publisher.

I remember the first appearances of Dazzler in 1980 (guesting in X-Men and Spider-Man) before she launched into her own solo title. I enjoyed getting in on the ground floor of a brand new heroine. Her journey with the merry Marvel mutants has been long and varied. Bridgeman takes all that into account, even tapping into her brief time with S.H.I.E.L.D. from 2013 (which is a period which I am not so familiar). Of course, my continuity brain wants to figure out how much time has passed in the character's life to account for 42 years of publishing; I can't help putting her into her late 30's at least. Though comic book time can be really wonky.

But the story has no time for that because there are former allies to find and threat to be stopped. That leads to an expected "find some uneasy allies" and "learn to trust one another and work together" situations. It's a formula but it is also reliable; it gets the job done. Of course, there are plenty of speed bumps along the way which keeps the story on ever-shifting ground.

There is a wealth of X-Men history to draw upon, and Bridgeman does a solid job weaving elements into her story. While I was not familiar with some of the last couple decades of it, she conveys the details needed to keep the story moving. I definitely want to go delve back into some of those older storylines now to catch up.


About Marvel Entertainment

Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.

For more information visit marvel.com. © 2022 MARVEL

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