Luck Be A Lady: Domino Appreciation...

[CraigTheCylon]

Well, Bea is back! Maybe now she'll be in X-Force full-time. I expect her to be there for the time being, at least, due to Hope being in her noggin. Wonder if she's stuck?

See why I keep going on and on about how Spurrier plans for everything? KEEP THE FAITH.

I'm a little skeptical of whether or not Hope is actively inside Dom's head, as I think was brought up in the X-Force discussion thread; the MeMe powers don't seem to affect biology, just mechanics, and unless Spurrier throws a curveball Dom's not sporting any kind of subcutaneous hardware for her to hack. It would admittedly be interesting if this did happen, though.

But I'm mostly just caught up on YAY MORE DOMZ~ feelings to worry about that right now.

[CraigTheCylon]

Fellow soldiers of fortune, join me on the scan march once again. We return to Cable & Deadpool at the tail end - literally the last page - of #27, after some typically weird gumf about Apocalypse, for a shady meeting in a shady bar, with a dude who's painted a yellow monobrow and matching 'stache on his ski mask.



That...sure is an interesting way to sit at a table, girl. 0_0 I mostly include this here because it's the only time Lan Medina drew Dom in the series. This leads into an arc titled 'The Domino Principle', drawn by Reilly Brown, wherein there's revolution afoot amidst the made-up country of Rumekistan. Sidenote: the Marvel U really needs to step up how silly its made-up countries are named. Look at Hama's G.I. Joe run, featuring the varied climes of Darklonia, Trans-Carpathia and Wolkekuckukkland. Much better.

But first, it's time for the debut appearance of THE NITECAP~ and its original special guest!



For those not in the know: most issues of C&D started with a recap page wherein Deadpool - along with Cable or someone else involved in the story - would address the reader directly and both fill in the plot up to that point AND make fun of it for being too stupidly complicated. From #28 onwards, they shook it up a bit as you see, by treating it like a late-night comedy interview show a la David Letterman. Nicieza spawned a lot of the more out-there concepts we associate with Wade nowadays (though sadly most writers don't wield said ideas with quite the same skill). Anyway, Domino seems understandably freaked about Wade's uncanny knowledge, but not to worry, it has no bearing on the actual story. Also, she's wearing a slightly different costume here than in the rest of the issue; the shoulderpads and head-framer disappear after this page.

Also also, assume that a sneaky stage-hand stole the sniper rifle off her back between panels 2 and 3.

TBC in next post.

[CraigTheCylon]

With the story properly underway, we find Domino indulging in some prime Joss Whedon vampirism, i.e. standing around on a rooftop musing about lost loves.



Also running across said rooftops after an idiot.



For whatever reason, I greatly prefer this outfit being drawn by Brown than by Zircher, even though Zircher is likely the better artist on the whole. Maybe it's just that the details on the tactical gear get more care, so I don't notice the deeply silly volume of extraneous buckles so much.

But yeah, Domino is stuck at a crossroads here. She's been hired to put a stop to the rebels' plans - plans she is certain were put in motion by Cable, whom she cares for but doesn't trust. On the other hand, sticking up for the regime means sticking up for the completely bonkers border-hating supervillain Flag-Smasher and his Ultimatum thugs, and despite being a mercenary with generally flexible loyalties, those guys are leaving a bad taste in Neena's mouth. What to do, what to do?

The answer, of course, is pick a fight with Deadpool, because who care about moral complexity, that dude is super annoying and deserves to be stabbed.



TBC in next post.

[CraigTheCylon]

FIGHTY TIIIIIIIIME





That line about his mouth being a weapon seems to crop up a lot, I've noticed. It's certainly true.

This isn't the greatest fight Dom's been in by a fair margin, but I'm really digging the weapon choices they went with here. Katanas are kinda overexposed in comics, to the point where they don't really mean anything - I mean, why does Wade use classically Japanese blades when he's got no links to or love for that country? Instead, Dom combines a nightstick with...well, I don't really know what sort of blade it is. I tried googling for relevant searches but couldn't find a good match. But I love the wicked curve of her sword, the serrated edge, and the way it looks like modern military tech rather than some antique or replica throwback. Plus, these days I can't help but feel some writers forget that Dom can throw down with the best of them in a melee, in favour of just making her good with guns. She's both, guys. In fact there's likely very few ways she can't kill you.

...having said that, she can't kill Wade here because A) healing factor and B) it's, uh, kinda his series. So some nearby rebellious Rumeki cits guilt-trip her into backing off.

TBC in next post.

[CraigTheCylon]

The next day, Flag-Smasher's having a rally so he can yell some rhetoric at the masses, and the rebels make their move, hijacking the mic while Deadpool gets into position to take down Smashy. Domino's there to stop him...in theory...



Ah, by the way, this Michael fellow - Michael Straka - is introduced on a couple earlier pages I didn't scan. He was a merc before joining Ultimatum, and a friend to Domino. She always considered him too soft for the job. Which probably made it a lot easier for her to do this:



Probably not gonna get the paycheck now, girl.

After that, Cable shows up in full messianic glowy mode to fill the power vacuum, and Domino? Well, she's still feeling uneasy...and we'll pick up that story in a little bit, once I get around to scanning in some of #29.

[Bl00dwerK]

Good to see some new scans. It's like Neena's Greatest Hits in here...

[Rickbarry]

Stick Neena in Amazing. I crave a reunion.

[Bl00dwerK]

Stick Neena in Amazing. I crave a reunion.

I take it you mean with Colossus. That would be awesome!

[CraigTheCylon]

Onwards to Cable & Deadpool #29, with art handled by Ron Lim, who, uh, gets the piss taken out of him in the 'next time' blurb for being good at hitting deadlines and little else. Nice one, editors. To be fair to Lim, I think he does well here, even if he's not doing as much detail work as Brown and his feet sometimes take a turn for The Rob. Lots of Domino here, though.

So we open to Cable smiling gently and making a calm celebratory speech over some dude's cooling corpse. Epic dick move. I think Domino is justified here for thinking what she's thinking.





Spoiler: she doesn't actually shoot him. The crowd just kinda goes "hurray for assassination as a means to an end!" and disperses, leaving Cable to start dealing with the logistics of fixing a dying country, which seems...really easy, it must be said. Then, while Deadpool runs off to punch an Englishman (we'll come back to that), Cable starts having an attack of the feels.



More feels in next post.

[CraigTheCylon]

Continuing:



"GOD WOMAN, YOU MAKE ME SO MAD I COULD TECHNO-ORGANICALLY PUNCH A TABLE!"

Neena continues to mooch around in that same office while Nate does the PR thing, until Deadpool drops by and delivers a dude in a flag-suit with a pointy Cobra Commander mask. As you do.





Annnnnd now I have to explain what Citizen V is. Sigh. Short version: It's the shared name for a series of masked nationalistic spy-types that first represented the Allies in WW2. Baron Helmut Zemo took on the identity to set up his Thunderbolts squad, then the name and costume were passed on to some redhead girl called Dallas Riordan for...reasons I don't know because I only read the Thunderbolts issues that got packaged into the hardback collections of Busiek's Avengers run. And now it's this English guy. As to why he's here, well, probably because Fabian Nicieza really wanted to use every damn character he helped create during this run, possibly figuring that no-one else ever would (seen Irene Merryweather recently...?). Whatever. His outfit's cool.

To be continued in STILL THE SAME DAMN OFFICE in next post.

[CraigTheCylon]

And finally, something cool actually happens! I mean, cooler than Citizen V having a hoverboard shaped like his own face. Which is kinda cool.

But this is 'Domino being cool' so that's better by default.



Oh hey, Michael's still around! But where's that babbling idiot got to - oh.





Admit it, that was awesome.

(Oh, thing I forgot to mention - at this point of the story, Cable had of course healed from his Silver Surfer encounter, but his powers were still dead. To counter this, he stole some fancy tech that lets him mentally hack and read any electronic data transmission on Earth, and create a 'gravimetric' force-field he can shape at will.)

And again, we're coming back to Neena having a lot of pent-up bitterness over her past work with Cable. I'm still reading through those back-issues so I don't know the whole story, but yeah, Nate has a pretty bad track record for starting a promising idea then giving up on it halfway for one reason or another. Not to mention leading his closest friends and allies into the headquarters of his worst enemy then teleporting out and leaving them to deal with the whole place expoding and falling on their heads. But we'll get to that in due time.

Dom leaves peaceably enough after that, and Cable sheds a single tear because he's too manly to cry like the rest of us do. The series then takes a detour into a shockingly good Civil War tie-in that Dom has no part in (remember, we already covered her actions in that event a few pages back?) but she - and the scan parade - will be back in #33.

[Drakeon]

I need to get a scanner. I own every appearence of Domino. I could be adding to this fine collection.

Cable and Domino were getting real close but seperated due to her conflict with the Gryphon in Operation Zero Tolerance. She needed space. When she tried coming back she found Cable living in Hell's Kitchen and he was so wrapped up in his Apocalypse melodrama that he couldnt be there for her emotionally. She was in pain from losing her powers and walked out on him and Cable didnt follow her. It was a well done scene giving thier respective characters. Both too stuborn and headstrong to meet each other halfway.

She was then attacked by an assassin named Blockade and put into the hospital. And in a moment that truly showed how much he cares for her Cable avenged her by mind wiping Blockade and making him catatonic. Good stuff.

[CraigTheCylon]

Cable and Domino were getting real close but seperated due to her conflict with the Gryphon in Operation Zero Tolerance. She needed space. When she tried coming back she found Cable living in Hell's Kitchen and he was so wrapped up in his Apocalypse melodrama that he couldnt be there for her emotionally. She was in pain from losing her powers and walked out on him and Cable didnt follow her. It was a well done scene giving thier respective characters. Both too stuborn and headstrong to meet each other halfway.

She was then attacked by an assassin named Blockade and put into the hospital. And in a moment that truly showed how much he cares for her Cable avenged her by mind wiping Blockade and making him catatonic. Good stuff.

^ Stuff I only know happened through Wikipedia.

How far do I have to go through old-school X-Force to get to that point? I only just got the Omnibus vol.1 but that only goes to #16 or so (because why bother fitting in more issues of the titular series when we can dick around with New Warriors crossovers and Cable's solo book, right?) (angry now).

[Bl00dwerK]

Admit it, that was awesome.

Absolutely. Also, love Dom's look in this series. Her hair's great...

[CraigTheCylon]

First things first, X-Force #12 preview is up, containing some worthy Dom material. Here's the thread if you ain't seen it yet.

Secondly, we're onto #33-34 of Cable & Deadpool, a story arc that doesn't seem to have an actual name to it but what the hell. Some mysterious sabotage causes a waste fusion reactor on Cable's island sanctuary Providence to go nuclear, and stopping the blast from hurting anyone knocks Cable out (and Deadpool to, bodyslid into the middle of it against his will). This was only step one of a broader plan though, to keep Nate tied up at home while the Six Pack head for Rumekistan...



For the record, this is what Anaconda plans to listen to. That's terrible theme music for wetwork. Domino Is Right, again.

Anyway, what the team are doing is distributing a bunch of EMP emitter gadgets through the sewers that will sporadically trigger at irregular intervals and cause a lot of the new facilities Cable's put in place since taking over to malfunction, thus "making life annoying for people who have endured hardship for decades" as Domino sarcastically puts it, plus the more valuable goal of making Cable look like a bit of a putz.

Think that's an incredibly small-minded, childish thing to do? So does Neena.





Well that looks like game over. So why'd Bridge so darn cocky all of a sudden?

TBC in next post.