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

X-ual Healing: Lots of Origins and a Final Page Surprise in Domino #3

Published Mon, 18 Jun 2018 15:00:49 -0500

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DOMINO #3
GAIL SIMONE (W) • DAVID BALDEON (A)
Cover by GREG LAND GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS!
• DOMINO's luck is running out, and not just figuratively: Her powers are fading away! What good is our favorite soldier of fortune without the good fortune?
• She's got her back against the wall, but that doesn't mean nobody's got her back: OUTLAW, DIAMONDBACK and a VERY SPECIAL (VERY SECRET) GUEST are in Dom's corner!
• PLUS: Domino's mysterious archnemesis strikes!
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99

Domino's solo adventure continues in Domino #3, with Domino laid out on the desk of a riverboat casino after watching her friends, Outlaw, Diamondback, and Totally Awesome Hulk, blown up at the end of the previous issue. She didn't actually see them die, so they're probably fine, this being comics, but she's still afraid to look over the railing to where their escape boat was parked. Rather than face the music, Domino decides to have a flashback.

It's Florida, in an unspecified time, but it must be a long time ago because the flashback is in black and white. Domino is ten years old, and she's a prisoner to be experimented on in some kind of lab run by Halcyon Electives. Captions tell us all of Domino's friends have just died in this flashback as well. Two scientists, Dr. Rossini and Dr. Corando, have brought Domino a birthday cake and a mysterious box. They want Domino to show them her luck powers. They'll torture if they have to. Corando is allergic to something in the mysterious box, which will surely play a role later. Rossini looks a lot like the Professor from Barry Windsor Smith's Weapon X.

Are they the same person? Maybe they're related. Domino wants to know what happened to the eleven other kids that were held here with her. Rossini zaps her a little bit with a shock device. Then he gives her a pet kitten. Talk about mixed signals. It's at this point that we realize his glasses don't have arms to hold them on his head. They just kind of float there on his face.

Well he can't be the same professor then, because that guy clearly had arms on his glasses. Oh, Domino names the cat "Christmas."

Back in the present, Domino gathers up the courage to look over the ledge. Nothing but flaming wreckage (but no bodies, so…). Domino swears revenge on Topaz. She grabs her gun and chases down Topaz and her companion, the anti-Domino, who gains vitality the more Domino has bad luck. A battle ensues between Domino and Topaz, and Topaz is clearly very angry at Domino for… something.

Topaz says it all conveniently links back to that flashback from earlier. What a coincidence! She uses her mutant power on Domino, turning Domino's own powers up to such a limit that her body begins rejecting them. Side effect: a headache. Topaz says that next she'll kill Domino's brother and then teleports away.

Domino is pretty upset now, but Outlaw taps her on the shoulder. Her friends are wet, but they're okay. A group hug happens. Later, Domino and Amadeus Cho watch the sunrise while Cho tells her how they survived. Diamondback somehow realized the boat was rigged with an explosive and he hulked out and stomped the bottom of the boat, saving them. That might mean Diamondback has been selling Domino out to Topaz. But more on that later. It's time for another flashback.

This one is taking place in the relatively more recent past, with Domino on a job guarding a gem and Diamondback coming to steal it. Domino was so impressed with Diamondback, she offered to team up with her instead. That's the origin of Domino's best friends trio with Diamondback and Outlaw. Cho tells Domino that he knows someone who can help her learn to resist Topaz's ability to turn Domino's powers on and off.

Later, back in San Francisco at Domino's apartment, Domino is heading out to meet with the person Cho told her about, but she's not taking Diamondback and Outlaw with her. Instead, she lies and says she's got a solo job. They're a little insulted that she's lying to them. Domino feels bad about that, but she hops on a plane anyway. Rather than watch the in-flight movie, to pass the time, she has another flashback. She's standing in front of a vault labeled "prototype" with her pet kitten. Then she's back in the examining room with the two doctors. Rossini threatens to electrocute the cat while Corando holds it unless Domino uses her powers to turn off the device.

She does use her powers, but not in the way Rossini wants. Just as he's about to electrocute Christmas, Corando sneezes and Rossini electrocutes him instead. She threatens Rossini. Rossini orders a guard to… brand her?

So this is the origin of Domino's face mark then.

Domino arrives on Lantau Island and travels to a remote cottage where a group of aspiring martial artists are waiting outside a master's house, hoping he'll train them if they wait long enough. You know, that old gag. Domino doesn't have time for that, so she shoves past them. A fight breaks out, and she kicks their asses. The man inside the cottage comes out, and Domino thinks he's sexy. It's Shang @#$%ing Chi, the Master of Kung Fu! But we'll have to wait until next issue for more of that.

The Bottom Line

Domino is awesome. This book never skimps on the X-position, taking the remarkable position in this day and age that actual new comic book readers might be checking out this comic and that they might like to know what's going on. And things are about to get even more interesting with Shang Chi guest starring. And might we get a romance?

Domino is this week's Wolverine's Weiner X-Pick of the Week!