Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Domino, marvel, x-men, X-ual Healing - The Weekly X-Men Recap Column

X-ual Healing: It's a Riverboat Rampage in Domino #2

Published Mon, 14 May 2018 11:30:01 -0500

Sworn to sell comics for Marvel executives who feared and hated the fact that Fox owned their movie rights, The Uncanny X-Men suffered great indignities, but with a corporate merger on the way, the X-Men can finally get back to doing what they do best: being objectively the best franchise in comics.

Each week, armed with the joy, heartbreak, and frustration of 30+ years of reading X-Men comics, we read every new X-book that comes out, recap the events, provide the historical context so you can read it on Marvel Unlimited, and wonder when Marvel will let Chris Claremont write something again.

It's the way X-Men comics were meant to be read! It's the column that can only be known as…

For more about the column, check out the reboot issue here.

DOMINO #2
GAIL SIMONE (W) • DAVID BALDEON (A)
Cover by GREG LAND
UNLUCKY STARS
• Marvel's #1 soldier of fortune's luck has finally gone south… turning her life as a mercenary upside down!
• Plus: Who is Domino's evil counterpart?
• Guest-starring AMADEUS CHO!
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99

Domino #2 opens where the previous issue left off, with Domino tossed out of an upper story window, falling to her doom in nothing but her underwear. Despite this, she still takes time to X-plain how her luck powers work because Domino knows that X-position is important, maybe even more important than dying. Topaz, the mysterious new villain who tossed Domino out said window, has taken away her luck powers. Topaz's companion, an old man with a walker, tells Topaz to give the powers back before Domino hits the ground. Domino's friends — Outlaw, Diamondback, and Deadpool — bust into Domino's bedroom to confront the villains.

Just as Domino is about to die, she feels her luck powers return. At that moment, Spider-Man happens to be swinging by and catches her. How lucky!

Back in Domino's apartment, there's still a party going on (see last issue), and our heroes introduce the attempted murderers to the guests. Deadpool tells the old man that all the mutants and mercenaries at the party will be very angry with them if Domino isn't okay. The old guy, however, responds by explaining how Topaz's powers work:

Of course, as Diamondback points out, most of the guests are also heavily armed. Across the city, Spider-Man and Domino are chilling on a rooftop, enjoying the view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Wait, what is Spider-Man doing in San Francisco? Spider-Man is here chasing a clone-related villain, X-pository dialogue reveals. He offers to make Domino a dress out of webs, seeing as how she is still in her underwear (wouldn't that be pretty cold on a San Francisco rooftop?). Domino tells Spider-Man that his greatest superpower is being a nice guy, but Domino has bigger problems that he can't solve.

Back at the party, the old man appears to be getting younger somehow. As the heroes/anti-heroes/d-list mercenaries move in to attack,old guy and Topaz teleport away. Meanwhile, up on the roof, Outlaw and Diamondback locate Domino and sit down for a chat. Domino doesn't want her friends to see her like this, defeated and moping. The girls sent everyone home though, so Domino can safely head back downstairs. Well, almost everyone.

Domino got a puppy last issue.

The next day, in Golden Gate park, Domino is jogging with Amadeus Cho. She wants to know if the nanites Cho uses to give him Hulk powers can also prevent Topaz from shutting off Domino's powers, but Cho says it doesn't work like that. At that point, a gang of street thugs wearing outdated fashions tries to mug them. Cho is about to Hulk out, but Domino tells him to relax while she takes care of it. Domino makes quick work of them, which is a perfect opportunity to illustrate how skilled she is at combat. She tells Cho that she was sold out on her last job (last issue), but the only people who knew where she was going were her client, herself, and her two partners, Diamondback and Outlaw. She asks Cho to watch her back by joining them on another job tonight.

Later, at said job, Domino, Cho, Outlaw, and Diamondback board a casino riverboat on the Mississippi River. The client, who owns this establishment, is afraid of some "creditors" coming to collect, and he needs Domino and company to protect him and the boat. They take their posts, consummate professionals, despite the racially offensive slot machines.

Domino's luck powers, however, begin to spin out of control, causing everyone around her to start winning at gambling. The Casino staff all pull out guns, and Domino realizes this is an inside job. She heads off to rescue the owner while Diamondback, Outlaw, and the Totally Awesome Hulk beat up grunts. On the deck, Domino saves the unnamed boat-owner from the unnamed bad guys.

After a brief time jump, Cho apologizes to Domino for wrecking the boat with his Hulk powers. X-pository dialogue reveals that the owner actually probably deserved it, as he really did welch on his debts, including paying Domino for this job. They own the riverboat now. Domino's crew gets on their transport boat to depart, but before Domino can join them, the old man (looking much younger now) and Topaz show up, and it's time for some more X-position.

Well, that's an interesting twist. He also tells Domino that he's not there to kill her. He's there to kill her friends. Their boat explodes. See you next issue!

While it's no surprise given the creative team involved, Domino is really on point with the fundamentals of comic booking, with everything you need to know to follow the story included in the story. Additionally, each issue (of the two so far) has felt "worth it" as a single-issue purchase, advancing an overarching plot while at the same time containing a fully completed "mission" of sorts so you don't feel like you're paying $4 for 1/5 of a story that would read better as a trade paperback. It's single-issue comic booking at its best.