This is the character page for the comic book Domino.
Domino
Neena Thurman / Domino
Known Aliases: Neena Beatrice Thurman, Beatrice Thurman, Samantha Wu, Tamara Winter, Elena Vladescu, Jessica Marie Costello, Luisa Mendoza, Christina Elizabeth Alioso, Priscilla Sutherland, Hope Eldridge
Species: Human Mutant
Group Affiliations: X-Men, X-Force, The 198, X-Corporation, Underground, Six Pack, Weapon X, Weapon X-Force
First Appearance: New Mutants Vol. 1 #98 (February 1991) note ; X-Force Vol. 1 #8 (March 1992) note ; X-Force Vol. 1 #11 (June 1992) note
Bred to be the ultimate weapon by a top-secret government facility, Domino's mutant ability — probability manipulation — was actually seen as a flaw. Fearing they'd kill her as a result, Domino's birth mother whisked her away to a church in Chicago, where she'd continue to live until becoming a mercenary in her adult years.
Now working for the NSA, Domino fell in love with (and married) Dr. Milo Thurman, a scientist she was assigned to protect. Their union didn't last long; they were separated by a raid that led Milo to assume his wife had been killed.
Domino then met time-traveling mutant Cable when she was recruited to his strike team Six Pack, and the two quickly became an item. As with her estranged husband, however, Domino found herself pulled away from her lover yet again during a mission. They've since reconnected many times, sharing an on-off relationship over the years.
Sometime after Six Pack, Domino was kidnapped and replaced by an imposter: the shapeshifting mutant Copycat, real name Vanessa Carlysle. She was actually the first iteration of Domino that readers were introduced to; Vanessa's Domino first appeared in New Mutants #98, while Neena —the real Domino— didn't show up for more than a year later, in X-Force #8.
In the following years, Domino would serve as a frequent member of X-Force, and even joined the X-Men for a brief stint. She's also a common ally to both Cable and Deadpool, often showing up in their respective titles. For a brief period, she joined Deadpool's Mercs for Money & eventually she took his place as leader when he proved incompetent. She was a member of Old Man Logan's Weapon X team, which briefly fell under leadership of Sabretooth, of all people, before forming her own mercenary team known as the Posse with her friends Outlaw and Diamondback.
With the rise of the mutant nation of Krakoa, Domino once again joined X-Force alongside Wolverine and Quentin Quire to serve as the nation's spies and assassins against the threats seeking to bring down Krakoa.
Outside of comics, Domino has appeared in various cartoons and video games based on Marvel characters. In 2018, she made her cinematic debut in Deadpool 2, played by Zazie Beetz.
- '90s Anti-Hero: Downplayed, especially in later years, but her earliest incarnation could be considered an example of this.
- Action Girl: She is a superb markswoman with various firearms, highly skilled athlete, excellent swimmer, and adept in use of explosives. She has extensive training in various armed combat techniques and the martial arts, with Olympic-gold level athletic and acrobatic ability.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She's absolutely horrifying when threatened. You do NOT want to get on her bad side.
- Bizarre and Improbable Ballistics: Domino has the power to alter probability, and prefers to use that ability in conjunction with firearms. She can thus perform outstandingly improbable trick-shots, including multiple-ricochet bulls-eyes against moving targets.
- Bond One-Liner: Prone to delivering these in combat.
- Born Lucky: She has the ability to subliminally and psionically initiate random kinetic phenomena that affect probability in her favor by making improbable (but not impossible) things to occur within her line of sight, thus causing her to have "good luck" and her opponents to have "bad luck." For example, there was a time when somebody put a revolver to her head and pulled the trigger. Six times. All six bullets failed to fire. The odds of this actually happening are, needless to say, astronomically low.
- Boxing Lessons for Superman: After her powers fail and are turned against her in the 2018 series, she seeks martial arts training from Shang-Chi so she can learn to do without.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: This was how the weapons program she was under, tried to get her to use her power. That mark on her eye was from her getting branded with a hot iron for being stubborn.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Bred as a weapon, failed as a bodyguard to her eventual husband and was then captured and tortured by Bastion's sentinels.
- Deadpan Snarker: Has some overlap with Sad Clown and You Fight Like a Cow.
- Dodge the Bullet: Typically comes courtesy of her luck-warping mutation.
- Deadly Dodging: Does this to her enemies on occasion. In a fight against many of Shang-Chi's worst enemies, Domino's power goes up a level and she demolishes them by simply walking slowly past them while the villains ended up impaling and shooting each other.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: She has dark hair and literally white skin, which combined with a cheap Halloween costume made it fairly easy for her to safely navigate a monster-invaded Manhattan with the rest of the Mercs for Money.Domino: Well, apparently a vinyl cape is all that separates me from vampiredom, so...
- This gets further acknowledged when her adventures lead her into getting mixed up in a vampire revolution. A vampire hunter watching from the distance assumes she's one from her complexion and assumes that Diamondback and Outlaw are her thralls, making a plan to execute her when they catch up. Fortunately, the hunter seems to realise their mistake before they confront her so nothing bad happens.
- Fights Like a Normal: Domino has probability altering powers, but she mainly relies on her marksmanship and hand-to-hand abilities.
- Friendly Sniper: Despite being designed as a '90s Anti-Hero, she's Fun Personified to her teammates after her original 90s Grimdark incarnation. This is a Justified Trope as the original Domino was an impostor.
- Fun Personified: Despite how she started, Domino grew into a silly bantering gadfly and will be that on any mission.
- Gun Fu / Guns Akimbo: Domino, though her "luck" power also had a lot to do with it.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: As stated above, do NOT get on her bad side. While she's normally a reasonable mother figure, deciding to annoy her is a very, very bad idea. Deadpool manages to get under her skin more than anyone else.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: She's able to hold her liquor better than anyone without a healing factor.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Thanks to her powers.
- The Lancer: To Cable in the X-Force.
- Likes Older Men: Has dated Wolverine and Cable.
- Money Fetish: Especially when written by Greg Pak. When she's not working or partying, her hobby is treasure hunting (which her power makes easy — she even found a fortune in gold coins inside a bed of oysters). If she's not under attack, she will search out safes/lockers and loot anything valuable in enemy territory.
- Most Common Superpower: Acknowledged both in and out of universe. She is never portrayed with anything less than D-cups, and, Depending on the Artist can far exceed even those generous features. Doesn't hurt that she rarely zips up her Spy Catsuit.
- In one Deadpool story, Deadpool, who is narrating, claims that this is why she shows up in his books so much.
- Odd Friendship: Working in the grey areas of the law and being the friendly kind of gal she is, she's made a ton of oddball frienships (and slept with many of them too). In the Gail Simone run, her best friends are Outlaw and Diamondback of the Serpent Society and at her birthday party, Taskmaster and Bullseye were there along with Amadeus Cho.
- Older Than They Look: Going by her backstory alone, she seems to be at least 40. She doesn't look it. Even possibly aging backwards thanks to Comic-Book Time and Retcons. Maybe the white skin and the spot over her eye come with extended youth?
- Omniglot: She seems to be fluent in multiple languages.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: In her 2018 series it comes out that her luck powers are inversely connected to the health and wellbeing of another mutant who was experimented on in the same facility as her. Him being horribly tortured improved her luck whereas her physical and emotional suffering rejuvenates and empowers him.
- Power Incontinence: Sometimes her power just cuts out on her and in some writer's versions, her power doesn't work if she's not using it in battle (she'll get bad luck at a slot machine). In the Gail Simone run, this is because her power is linked to another mutant in the weapon program, but she gets over this with the help of Shang-Chi.
- Pragmatic Hero: Just because she's normally nice doesn't mean she won't shoot you in the face if you're a villain without any questions asked.
- Progressively Prettier: Started out looking worn out and emaciated, eventually became a candidate for Ms. Fanservice. It doesn't hurt that the original version with a man's hairline was really Copycat in disguise.
- Pun: Domino is a mercenary who has luck-based powers. She is literally a soldier of fortune.
- The Real Remington Steele: The "Domino" who was originally introduced was actually another character, Copycat, disguised as the real Domino, who officially showed up a year later.
- Really Gets Around: Often combined with Romancing the Widow. So far she's managed to conquer Cable, Wolverine and Colossus. Deadpool doesn't really count as a "conquest", since he'll openly try to score with anyone or anything. Recently, she's added Warpath to her list in Weapon X (2017)
- Shipper on Deck: She's a big supporter of Sabretooth x Monet in Weapon X. She was going to quit the team in issue 22, but stayed when the mission was to save Monet, whom Deathstrike describes as Victor's ex-girlfriend. Hearing this, Domino gushes, calling it adorable and saying she's in.
- Spy Catsuit: Most usually her typical attire.
- Superhero Packing Heat: Often seen firing off a gun of some sort.
- Ship Tease: Her 2018 series' first arc teases her with Shang-Chi of all people; as it turns out, Dom is a big fangirl of his and while seeking him out due to legitimately needing his help, she uses it as an opportunity to try and charm him. At first he's annoyed by her quirks but begins to come around, until she kills Topaz in front of him despite his protests that she should be the bigger woman.
- Squee: After beating up a line of would-be students, she does this in the presence of the handsome Shang-Chi. He's not impressed, even less so even she makes a fool of herself by fangirling even harder. He still takes her on as a student as she needed his help.
- Super-Reflexes: An odd case; as a byproduct of her probability abilities, Domino's cerebral cortex emits a current of bio-electric pulses down her spine to instinctively guide her movements during such situations, which has the added effect of augmenting her natural reflexes and agility to near-superhuman levels. Most superhumans react before their opponents can compensate; Domino starts dodging before her opponent even begins to attack.
- Trademark Favorite Drink: Neena really loves coffee.
- Tyke-Bomb: She was bred as a product of Weapon X. She later grew up to be a member of the X-Men.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Deadpool.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She's terrified of chickens.
- Winds of Destiny, Change!: Domino is often cited as well, but her powers are more Born Lucky than this trope, since she doesn't directly control what happens. Her training with Shang-Chi suggests this might not be the case, and that having intent behind her actions strengthens the outcome of her luck.
Allies
- Amazon Brigade: Three badass women (Domino, Outlaw, Diamondback) kicking ass and taking names. In Hotshots, they add more members, including Black Widow, White Fox, and Atlas Bear.
Inez Temple / Outlaw
Known Aliases: Crazy Inez
Species: Human Mutant
Group Affiliations: The 198, Agency X, the Posse
First Appearance: Deadpool Vol. 1 #65 (May 2002)
A cowgirl-styled mercenary and a close ally of Deadpool and Agent X (Alex Hayden). Her mutant powers are superhuman strength, stamina, and durability, and she is talented with marksmanship and combat. In Deadpool's marriage special, Outlaw marries him and repeatedly shatters his pelvis throughout their honeymoon.
Rachel Leighton / Diamondback
Notable Aliases: Ray, Snapdragon
First Appearance: Captain America #310 (October, 1985)
A former member of the Serpent Society, Diamondback is a villainess-turned-hero, a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative, and the former girlfriend of Captain America.
Shoon'Kwa / Atlas Bear
Appearances: Domino | Domino: HotshotsA rich sixteen-year-old exiled from Wakanda.
- Clairvoyance: She can see the future.
