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

X-ual Healing: No Trampy Iron Fist Costumes in Domino #4

Published Sun, 15 Jul 2018 15:30:54 -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 crankily read every new X-book that comes out, recap the events, provide some back-links to Marvel Unlimited, and wonder when Marvel will let Chris Claremont write something again. Seriously, how do you have the greatest writer in the history of comics on the payroll and just not use him for anything?

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 #4
GAIL SIMONE (W) • DAVID BALDEON (A)
Cover by GREG LAND
SOMEONE'S ABOUT TO GET LUCKY…
• …and it just might be Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu! If he plays his cards right, that is…
• Domino's search for answers about her past takes her to Hong Kong!
• Will she stay on the straight and narrow? Or go right for the seedy underbelly?
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99

After drawing out the suspense for the first three issues, Domino #4 starts off by giving us the definitive origin of Domino's new foes. In a flashback to Project Armageddon, where we saw Domino as a child last issue being experimented on by an evil scientist name Rossini, another child named Desmond is being held in the facility. Desmond is friends with a red-head girl named Cynthia who is the daughter of Rossini, and will grow up to become Topaz. Desmond was born on the same day as Domino, and has the reverse of her luck powers. Whenever anything good happens to her, he suffers physical pain and aging. Cynthia begs her father to help Desmond, but Rossini thinks mutants are monsters. Cynthia has other ideas about who the monsters are, and, unbeknownst to her father, powers of her own.

Now that that's all laid out, we check in on Outlaw and Diamondback, who are relaxing on the riverboat they and Domino own now. They're a little offended that Domino believes one of them betrayed her to Topaz, so they decide to get to the bottom of the whole thing and show Domino they're on her side. Meanwhile, on Lantau Island, Domino is seeking training from Shang Chi to learn to resist Topaz's powers, which can reverse Domino's own and cause her to have really bad luck instead of really good luck. Also, Domino really has the hots for Shang Chi. Shang Chi agrees to train her, which led her to shop for sexy karate outfits at a cosplay store.

Back in the USA, Topaz and Outlaw meet up with Deadpool at a Chimichanga stand. They can't bring him with them, since Topaz's powers could nullify his healing factor and kill him, but he provides them with information on where to go: to the Project Armageddon building. Back on the Island, Domino changes out of her "sexy" karate costume she bought from a cosplay store and into some cargo pants and a t-shirt. She trains with Shang Chi, who is out of her league in terms of hand-to-hand combat. However, when he agrees to take a break if she can land just one blow, Domino uses her luck powers to get one shot in, and she takes him Dancing.

Meanwhile, Diamondback and Outlaw break into Project Armageddon, where they find Rossini. But now he's old and senile. Topaz and Desmond are there too, and Desmond is younger, fitter, and wearing a supervillain costume. While Topaz and Desmond subdue Diamondback and Outlaw, Desmond reveals how his powers work to them and gives himself a codename: Prototype. At the club, Domino and Shang Chi make out.

They're interrupted by some Hong Kong villains who are after Shang Chi. Razorfist is there. Not sure about the others. Anyone want to take a stab at it in the comments? No pun intended.

We'll find out for sure next issue.

The Bottom Line

Domino is a better Deadpool comic than the current ongoing Deadpool comic. It's got humor and heart and it looks like next issue we can expect a lot of kung fu action. It's good that this series was recently confirmed to be moving into a second story arc with issue #7. Hopefully, it sticks around for a long time.