Gwenpool Stikes Back

By Leah Williams, Jesus Abertov, David Baldeón, Joe Caramagna
collects Gwenpool Strikes Back #1-5
original series: volumes one | two | three | four | five [complete]

Gwenpool is an anomaly in superhero comics. She’s originally from our world, and that makes her irreverent, nerdy, over the top meta, and nihilistic all at the same time; her “powers” include her comics knowledge and traversing the white space between panels. What made her special in her debut run, to me, wasn’t breaking the fourth wall; it was the way she poked fun at comics and pushed a very particular satire and commentary, as a character who understands both worlds. While Hastings’ run had its ups and downs, he managed to create some emotional resonance with Gwenpool, especially when she realized her series was coming to an end.

Instead of building on what made Gwen’s original series great, Williams rehashes Hastings’ last volume (which had major problems of its own). Gwen’s manic strategies to save her readership and continue existing in the Marvel universe are basically the same: she tries to be a villain, then switches to “sex sells” (swapping Batroc for Deadpool, and resulting in a very strange trip to the Fantastic Four home), and then she organizes a Battle Royale with other superheroes that dragged on far too long. This was already overdone last time, so the rehash was unoriginal, exhausting, and frankly, artificial. Just like Hastings’ finale, we know things will end positively for Gwen, so when Williams tries to eke out something emotional, it falls flat. And very ironic that Gwen lamented the loss of her original secondary characters in volume five, knowing they wouldn’t exist outside her series, yet here they only make one nonessential appearance. Gwen did have a sweet moment with Kamala Khan towards the end of the book which was nice, since she is so often paired with male characters (even on West Coast Avengers, Gwen was almost immediately and exclusively paired with Quinten).

Compounding these problems is the humor, a staple in Gwen’s series. In Strikes Back, the humor was pretty forced. As a millennial, I’m probably no longer allowed to comment on what is cool anymore, but it often didn’t land. The slang, use of emojis and so on felt artificial and very time specific. I chuckled maybe once or twice the whole book.

I loved David Baldeón’s work on Domino and most recently Storm (two Baldeón books in a row!), and his expressive, slick style really lends itself to Gwenpool. I love how he visualized her white space-jumping, and the artist himself has a fun cameo too. The one thing that really bothered me was giving Gwen a gap, or at least a line, between her teeth. It’s a small detail but really changed her look and I wasn’t a fan.

Gwen is all about taking risks and I wish Williams had gone in a bolder new direction with her character instead of largely repeating her former arc.

Domino: Soldier of Fortune

by Gail Simone, David Baldeón, Michael Shelfer, and Jesus Aburtov
collects Domino #7-10 and Annual #1
volume one | two |three – complete

What a disappointing second volume. Instead of a witty, fun and explosions-happy friendship story with Domino and her partners Outlaw and Diamondback – what the first volume did best – this was all over the place with a completely ridiculous story and secondary characters I couldn’t care less about.

The first issue of this volume is Domino’s annual, and it was very meh. The opening story was cute – how our three mercenaries all met – but the rest were too short vignettes not written tightly enough to be meaningful (the Cable one isn’t even about Domino at all). Leading a support group with Nightcrawler for X-Men with physical differences, setting them apart from mutants who can pass, was a great idea, but it was full of words and zero impact. (Also, if anyone is grateful for voice to text messaging, it’s Kurt Wagner.)

The main arc was convoluted and confusing to the point that I struggled through the last few issues. Domino, Outlaw and Diamondback are hired by Shoon’kwa, an exiled Wakandan general, to find a box and bring it back; simple enough until they find Morbius (meh) inside and a vampire virus threat that barely makes sense, then they fight an underwater vampire king (huh?) and at some point Longshot (who?) shows up and everyone goes to the Mojoverse (what, and also why?)…all of this due to Shoon’kwa’s visions of potential futures, shaky logic at best (especially being this close to Dr Strange’s multiple futures logic in Infinity War/Endgame), plus it seemed very unlike our heroines to just go along with it.

Gail Simone’s usual talent for memorable secondary characters evaporates here too, as Shoon’kwa seemed cool but had zero personality. Diamondback and Outlaw had their usual quippy lines, but they were basically along for the ride. There was a missed opportunity to have some subplot or personal struggle that focused on one or both of them. The strongest part of volume one was their friendship with Domino and it was completely lost here.

Baldeón’s work continues to be a fantastic match with Domino. I love his cartoony style, particularly when characters are wide-eyed in shock or disgust – it’s the style of an animated series I would love to watch, along with Jesus Aburtov’s punchy colors. Things get less pleasant when Michael Shelfer joins in for issue nine, just as I was getting fed up with the story – and then a total of eight more artists, colorists and inkers join in the last issue. Eight! Like an annual squeezed into two issues but way worse. Instead of a smooth transition, characters change drastically and even start to look distorted. It was jarring for multiple styles to constantly shift back and forth, and the artist with clearly higher quality work was almost completely absent.

After a very strong start I wish I could say I enjoyed this more. Domino will be put on hold for the miniseries Hotshots, which will be a team book including our three merc ladies as well as Black Widow, Shoon’kwa, White Fox and others. (More info here – issues are out now, the trade will be released in September.) Seems that Domino’s fate depends on how well Hotshots does. We’ll see.

Domino: Killer Instinct

by Gail Simone, David Baldeón, Michael Shelfer, and Jesus Aburtov
collects Domino #1-6
volume one | two |three – complete

I absolutely loved this! Domino has everything going for her in this six-issue arc, which I recommend not only for fans of Deadpool 2, but anyone who likes a kickass woman with a dark past and awesome power, a solid mutant (but non-X-Men) story, heaps of witty humor, and bug eyed pugs.

No offense to all dog lovers everywhere (I’m one myself), but if Domino’s gone all the time and needs an animal with innate luck…. maybe Outlaw should have given her a cat?

Domino’s luck powers just might have been at work here, because who better to write her than Gail Simone! I mean, there are lots of awesome female writers, but Domino (aka Neena Thurman) is such a natural character for Simone, you could probably convince someone that she created Domino herself. The elements of Domino’s abusive past and her dark character; her all-female team and relationships with Outlaw and Diamondback; the sarcastic and witty humor – it all felt like the best of Secret Six, Birds of Prey, and Deadpool, and by the way, does anything feel more right than Gail Simone writing Deadpool again?

Maybe Simone writing Outlaw. Simone is a master of memorable secondary or minor characters with big doses of personality – King Shark and Ragdoll from Secret Six, Misfit and Barda from Birds, Alysia from Batgirl, and Maizy in Crosswind. Outlaw is one of Simone’s best original characters, whom she created in her Deadpool series. Outlaw’s a mercenary who leans hard into the cowgirl routine, but it absolutely works for her, as does her fierce BFF love of Domino. Diamondback had a little less of a strong personality but she was still great, and I have no doubt we’ll see more of them in the next volume.

Cherrybomb is the perfect theme song for Domino, end of sentence.

The Domino of the comics is very different than her film adaptation, so have that expectation going in. But you don’t need an encyclopedic knowledge of her history: Simone highlights Domino’s backstory without spending too much time in exposition, and also establishes her team with Outlaw and Diamondback, who are just so, so much fun together.

The story grounds itself in Domino better understanding and controlling her abilities – which she describes as a mouse walking along her spine, cringingly perfect. The power of luck translated very well onto the big screen, but it also made Domino seem invincible. Not so here – we see Domino’s powers taken away from her, and even on contagious overdrive (not great in a casino), often threatening her and her friend’s lives. Connecting her abilities to her focus and emotions allowed for a lot of great character growth without relying too much on her powers for a perfect ending. Domino’s villains are also connected to her powers and her awful childhood, and Simone does an excellent job of pacing with flashbacks, the Topaz reveal, and their violent, very satisfying final confrontation.

minor spoilers. I only wish Domino was also able to interact with Desmond, especially with their connection – which seems pretty unique along the spectrum of mutant powers. How often is one mutant’s powers directly affected by another? It was a little disappointing that Domino only learned about Desmond through Topaz, but at the same time, it also heightens the tragedy that they never met each other but had a huge impact on the other’s life. It also makes perfect sense that, had she met Desmond, Domino might have been emotionally crippled by the guilt of it and walked away from her life entirely.

Baldeón’s fantastic art is cartoony and very expressive – very often it allowed for scenes full of movement, action and comedy that worked well alongside Simone’s writing (see some great examples of this above). He pays great attention to detail too. Other times it felt like a little much, especially with some of the darker material. I was also sort of disappointed that Domino is attacked and pushed through a window while in her underwear, and Simone/Baldeón chose to do a full spread page of…Neena fully spread…with an angle that I thought we had firmly left behind in comics. Shelfer was a guest artist for issue #5 and it was my least favorite art in the book – he lacked the movement and creative angles that made a big fight scene feel slower and less climactic.

Speaking of which, I was pleasantly surprised that there was also a romantic element to Domino’s story, and I 100% wanted more of it. I won’t spoil who the lucky person is – somehow I’d completely missed him in comics but apparently he’s been around since the 70’s and is getting his own MCU movie too! However, the romance moved too quickly for me to be completely convinced (not necessarily from Domino’s side, but the guy’s feelings seemed rather fast) – and only afterwards do they suddenly become more comfortable with “master” and “pupil” titles, which is…weird? Maybe it was all meant in a Simone-y bantering tone and I just read it wrong. Regardless, it was giving me serious Catman/Huntress feels (damn you Simone with your amazing but ill fated couple pairings!!) and I hope we see those two cross paths again.

I am thrilled that Domino has received all the praise it deserves, and that luck strikes again for her and all of us – not only is volume 2 of Domino being released this month, but Simone and Baldeón are also beginning an all-new Hotshots series, an all-female featuring Domino, Outlaw, Diamondback and others.