fajrdrako | Domino

I read a comic today. Okay, no big news flash: I read comics with obsessive gluttony and more frequency than is good for my bank account. Always have. Everyone who knows me knows that. Carrying right on....

I read a new comic, Domino #1. There was actually another comic called Domino #1 a few years ago, when Domino got a rather lacklustre 3-part miniseries. Less said the better.

Domino was created by Rob Liefeld for X-Force - ah, those were the days, and what a great comic that was. Domino was tough and snappy and smart and she carried a humungous gun. She was just what a woman in a comic book ought to be. Now, sadly, though Liefeld can and did write "sexy" very well, he couldn't draw sexy, and it wasn't until she was drawn by Ian Churchill that I really fell in love with her. Churchill made everyone look beautiful and I'll never forget his heartrending Shatterstar/Rictor sequences.

In intervening years Domino has been a much-abused and neglected character (like Cable) and I'm delighted to see her back. The action is fast and the intrigue is intriguing and the dialogue is snappy - looks as if writer Joe Pruett can handle this just fine, though that's giving him a slight benefit of a doubt: it's a first issue, introductory, warming up - not really high-powered yet. There's not a lot of sense of what Domino is like. But the plot is about her search for her mother, and presumably for her own identity. Cool.

The artist, Brian Stelfreeze, does great layouts and his action scenes are like watching a movie. Superb movement. Sadly, he doesn't do 'sexy' very well either. In fact, Domino looks like Hopey from Love and Rockets only not nearly as cute. Except that she waves her arms around a lot - reinforcing the Hopey impression - hey, I wonder if she'll turn out to be bi like Hopey was? I like that. Yeah, this Domino may not be beautiful, but she's endearing. The blue running shoes with red laces are a good touch.

I'll buy #2.