Warning: SPOILERS For Deadpool 2
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In Deadpool 2, X-Force is lucky to have Domino fighting on their side. The only female member of the derivative (but gender-neutral!) super-duper group that Deadpool assembles, Domino is also the only recruit lucky enough to survive their ill-fated but hilarious first mission. Luck, is of course, what the uber-cool Domino brings to the table, but it seems like her bizarre mutant power makes her practically unbeatable.
What kind of mutant power is luck, anyway? Deadpool calls this out as not being very cinematic, just as he mocks the imagination of Domino’s comic book creator Rob Liefeld. Like her movie counterpart played by Zazie Beetz, the Domino of the comics possesses tychokinesis, i.e. the mutant power to affect probability is a way that causes things to always turn out in her favor, however implausibly, with bad luck inflicted in turn upon her enemies. The movie wisely boiled it all down: she’s just really lucky.
Movies are about showing and not telling and Deadpool 2 made Domino’s powers cinematic by showing how obstacles simply tumble out of her way and enemies fall to favor her winning. In the truck chase where Deadpool stopped the time-traveling Cable from killing the young Russell, aka Firefist, Domino drove the vehicle in breakneck style while other cars crashed out of her way. Of course, in order to get to that truck, Domino’s luck allowed her to parachute and land without a scratch while the rest of X-Force were buffeted by the high winds and brutally killed.
Naturally, there are limits to Domino’s luck. Being able to favorably alter probability didn’t save her from having to share an awkward cab ride with Deadpool, Cable, and Dopinder. Domino’s powers also didn’t stop her failing to finish college - a decision her brief stint as part of X-Force has driven her to regret. Nor did Domino’s lucky nature prevent her from being placed in the Essex House orphanage as a child, where she suffered the same abuse as Firefist from Deadpool 2’s real villains.
In a fight, though, Domino’s mutant ability seems to make her rather overpowered. Compared to Cable (who takes a considerable beating but brushes it off with his robot arm) and Deadpool himself (whose healing factor has to compensate for all kinds of grotesque maimings), Domino is virtually untouchable. Unfortunately, the film sidelines her in the final fight; Deadpool, Cable, and Colossus had the displeasure of having to take down Juggernaut, while Domino pays off what little origin story the movie offered her by taking out her former abusers in the orphanage. This undercuts the tension in Domino’s fight scenes, since she’s mostly beating up villains who are no match for her. However, she’s so cool and fun to watch, it hardly matters.
Of course, there are plenty of mutants in the X-Men franchise who are ridiculously overpowered. Professor Charles Xavier’s ability to freeze dozens of people in their tracks has always been a bit frightening. Storm controls the weather, and the scope and ramifications of this awesome ability are rarely explored. Magneto is so powerful he can tear apart cities and potentially destroy the Earth by launching every nuclear missile all at once. Apocalypse was supposed to be the most powerful mutant of all, even if X-Men: Apocalypse never made clear just exactly what the first mutant ever could do. And lest fans forget, Jean Grey harbors the world-ending psychic power of the Dark Phoenix.
Compared to those heavy-hitters, a lady whose power is being really lucky all of the time doesn’t seem quite so unreasonable, but Domino’s probability manipulation may still top them all. Since Zazie Beetz has a three-picture deal to play the mutant bad-ass, fans may one day find out how the X-Men would fare in a fight against Domino. But it’s safe to say plenty of debate will be inspired about whether optic blasts, lightning strikes, and even the Phoenix Force would bend to the power of Domino’s luck.
Next: Deadpool 2’s Cable Is Nothing Like The Comics (And That’s A Good Thing)
- New Mutants Release Date: 2020-08-28 X-Men: Dark Phoenix Release Date: 2019-06-07
