A break from the deluge this week, with only two X-books.  And we start with an oddity.

Joe Pruett and Brian Stelfreeze's Domino miniseries might at first glance seem to be a spin-off from Weapon X, where she's now a supporting character.  Clearly this is a horrible thought.  The last thing the world needs is a Weapon X spin-off.  Weapon X is a book that should be contained by the World Health Organisation and scientifically eradicated.  If it is spreading, then some sort of quarantine arrangement is plainly required. 

However, the history of this project is rather more convoluted.  It long predates Weapon X.  Three editors are credited with this book.  One of them, John Miesegaes, still works in Marvel editorial.  Andrew Lis left a few months back.  But the real tip-off that something has gone horribly wrong with this comic is the presence of an editorial credit for Lysa Hawkins, the original editor on this project.  Hawkins hasn't worked for Marvel since September 2001, when she left to join DC.

Domino has been floating around for ages.  It was originally announced for autumn 2001.  I have a feeling it made it as far as being solicited, in fact.  The book was then pulled from the schedules, allegedly due to "editorial shuffling."  In January 2002, in an interview with Silver Bullet Comics, Andrew Lis assured readers that the series was already fully pencilled and Brian Stelfreeze was setting down to work on colouring issue #1.

And now, eighteen months late, the first issue finally hits the stand.  Given that it emerged with minimal publicity and a quarter-page solicitation sharing space with three cancelled titles, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that Marvel have completely lost interest.  The X-Men Icons line has been mercy-killed, and Marvel's change of heart on that imprint might explain their change of heart on Domino.  When a clearly troubled comic stumbles onto the shelves with a delay of this magnitude and no publicity, it's hard to avoid concluding that the only reason it's being published at all is to try and recoup the production costs.

Of course, that doesn't automatically mean it's going to be bad.  For all that the book has had a troubled gestation, it remains a Brian Stelfreeze comic.  Stelfreeze is a stylish artist whose work is reliably pleasing to the eye.  His take on Domino is a little questionable, admittedly.  This is a character who was generally used as a surrogate mother-figure in X-Force, and here she seems too young and girlish for that.  Nonetheless, if you can live with that, it's a nicely choreographed and attractive book.  Stelfreeze colours his own work, and if it wasn't for those bloody adverts on almost every facing page (I'm going to start reading books folded over to avoid seeing them, I think), his slightly offbeat colour choices would give the story a distinctive look.  If it ever makes it to TPB, I suppose that'll be fixed.

Anyhow: sure, it's a nice looking book.  Unfortunately, it's not such a great story.  There are some decent ideas in here, such as the angle that Domino is recklessly overconfident in battle because she knows her powers will sort things out for her.  But the overly convoluted plotting lets things down.  The basic conceit - if it's deliberate - is that the story is largely played from Domino's perspective.  But since the readers are never given the back story, we're unable to properly identify with the character and her motivations; key exposition is, presumably deliberately, omitted.

This is all very well if you happen to be David Lynch and are deliberately using devices to distance and alienate the audience from your characters.  But in the context of a Domino miniseries, it smacks of the creators taking a wrong turn, and creating a deliberate obfuscation of the plot on the assumption that this somehow made the story better.

Let's not exaggerate; it's alright.  Visually, it's got a lot going for it.  But as a story, it falls short.

Rating: B-

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