In order to highlight a distinctive Marvel character deserving of notice, Tristan Palmgren uses action-packed and witty text. Ideal for comic book aficionados, this book offers a thoroughly delightful reading experience with the humorous language and interesting narrative lines. I loved the way the three timelines intertwined with one another, though I have to say Domino's was my favorite.
Overall a fun read, perfect for any Marvel fan.

Loved this one. Rich illustrations and Domino is such a bad ass! I can't wait for more. Loved the storyline and character development.

The story in and of itself was fine, Domino is a great heroine.

The multiple storylines were very confusing, at times it was very hard keeping track of which timeline I am actually reading about. .

Domino is an amazing fun and characterful mercenary. Tristan creates a compelling story set across 3 times in her life, allowing the reader to find out more about Domino. Excellent use of footnotes as well.

Aconyte Books’ Marvel: Heroines range – one of several new series of Marvel prose novels – kicks off with Domino: Strays by Tristan Palmgren, an action-packed blast of balletic violence and snappy dialogue with an unexpectedly thoughtful, psychological core. Mercenary Domino, otherwise known as Neena Thurman, has a history with cults and dangerous idealogues, so when she’s offered a job to extract a pair of twins from a dubious religious sect in Chicago, she takes it on despite all of her concerns. With the aid of a few fellow mercs she sets out to get the job done, but she can’t help to draw parallels between the task at hand and the lasting impact of her own painful upbringing as part of the secret genetics experiment known as Project Armageddon.

A trio of interlinked timelines cleverly illustrate these parallels, related in a deliberately jumbled fashion via Domino’s characterful first-person narration (“You expected me to maybe tell this story in order? That’s now how I operate”). The present-day mission forms the core of the ongoing narrative, as Domino and her badass team of all-female mercenaries – close friends Outlaw and Diamondback, along with White Fox and Black Widow – set out to infiltrate the secure compound of paranoid cult leader Dallas Bader Pearson and extract the Munoz twins. As she muses on the realities of this job, however, Domino’s reflections on two earlier points in her life add context to her choices and emotions. An earlier mission to the Florida Everglades sees her confront the shadowy character who’s haunted her memory for years, and looking even further back she tells of her unhappy youth in a dark cell as an unwilling subject of Project Armageddon.

It’s a pacy, snappy sort of story, with a style that’s light on description and heavy on narration, and that might take a little bit of getting used to but which works well to give a great sense of this character having jumped straight out of a page of her comic book. Domino’s internal voice is the defining characteristic of the novel, with her bluntly honest demeanour and willingness to talk openly about her past mistakes nicely balanced by wonderfully sharp, snarky dialogue – at this point in her life she knows exactly who she is and how to get what she wants, but she’s not afraid to admit where she went wrong in the past in the process of finding her way to this point. Palmgren packs in lots of action as you’d expect, but as superhero stories go this is actually quite grounded; Domino’s luck-based powers aren’t flashy, but they make for entertaining fight scenes as she pinballs from action to reaction, always looking for opportunities to manipulate her luck and her surroundings.

This is a novel which could have ended up as simply an entertaining series of set-pieces – and would have probably been a lot of fun – but which instead manages to balance all the action with an emotional core exploring how Domino’s horrifying childhood has influenced her decision-making, and continues to echo on through her adult life. You might not expect a superhero story to dig deep into themes of trauma, vulnerability and identity, or to include a thoughtful reflection on the danger of cults, how charismatic figures can dominate those they hold power over, and the impact this sort of manipulation can have on people around them, but that’s what you get here. It’s all cleverly folded into a three-part story that serves beautifully as either an introduction to Domino for anyone new to her, or a characterful development for those wanting to know more. All told it’s tremendously entertaining and compulsively readable, with a wonderfully strong voice and a fresh identity all of its own.

Rep: korean minor side character, african minor side character (wakandan)

CW: violence, gun usage, references to sexual assault, loss of bodily autonomy, child abuse, child experimentation, child murder, cults, mass cult ‘suicide’, fantasy bigotry/othering

I didn’t hate my time reading this, which I’m aware doesn’t sound like a particularly thrilling endorsement. This book wasn’t bad by any means, and I’m sure that lots of people will love it! The action segments were well described and exciting, and the perspective of a character whose actions invariably end up being more heroic than she’s interested in being is always a fun time. The nods to the wider Marvel universe were also good, and for the most part they were minor enough that they didn’t feel like they were overtaking the story itself.

Unfortunately I was hoping for a lot more.

There are three timelines followed through this book. There’s Neena’s childhood, an incident from when she was ~21, and the present day when she’s ~27. I didn’t mind the switching between the three periods too much, but I did mind the overall effect this had, that being that none of the storylines or any of the characters had any real depth to them. Neena tells us that she had friends at first as a kid, but there’s no time for us to learn any of their names, let alone truly examine how Neena herself felt at the time. Neena tells us that she’s close with her teammates in the present, but all I can tell you about those teammates is their names and that one of them is also a mutant, they didn’t seem to have any personality for themselves. Neena’s own personality is pretty flimsy, too. She’s a typical snarky protagonist who tries to live in the moment but, despite herself, ends up helping other people, especially when children are involved. That’s it. There just wasn’t enough room to develop the plots and characters well and have three different timelines going at once. Something had to give, and it’s a shame that development and depth was sacrificed.

Also, footnotes in prose fiction are a tricky thing to get right. They’re rarely used because they rarely work. They don’t work here. There wasn’t a single time that a footnote was used where what was said couldn’t have just been put in the prose itself, and the book would’ve been better for it. In fact, at one point near the end Neena’s narration mentions that she’d told the reader something already, when that specific thing had only been mentioned in a footnote! I was making sure to read all the footnotes, which made reading this take longer than I would’ve liked it to, but there are definitely readers out there who will assume that there isn’t anything overly important in the footnotes and so won’t bother.

I was really looking forward to this, and I’m disappointed that it missed the mark. If you’re looking for a fast paced book full of action then there’s every possibility that you’ll enjoy this one! As someone who cares a lot about characters in what they read, it just didn’t end up being for me.

Full review on my blog October 26th.

tw: human experimentation, othering (mutants seen as lesser), psychological and emotional abuse/torture, death, gore, mentions of mass suicide, religious cult control.

I loved this book and its entangled plots. There were three separate timelines running concurrently and while I absolutely adored the parallels between the timelines, and the way they interconnected, I would have liked to see them as two separate books. One with Domino's childhood and the Everglades storylines and one with the cult storyline. That's not even *slightly* a criticism of Domino: Strays, I just loved what Tristan Palmgren was doing so much that I wanted to read more of all of it instead of it being constrained to a third of the book. If Palmgren writes more Domino, I'm going to be on it in a heartbeat. Especially if it's in this timeline, where Domino raids the compound of a twisted cult with Black Widow and a squad of powerful superhero mercenaries. I liked Domino's character a lot, particularly the way that she was torn between mercenary and hero, 'good' and neutral and all the spaces in between. I've got a huge soft spot for morally grey characters and the way that they struggle with people's moral expectations on them. Getting a whole superhero team of characters on a scale from 'hero' to 'merc' is a lot of fun and made for interesting interactions.

I also loved the way Domino's luck was used in the narrative. It made sense, was surprisingly balanced and it never felt like a cheap deus ex machina to miraculously save the day. It had rules and constraints and meant that Domino was still the clever, creative mercenary survivor type - just with a little lucky advantage. It was well balanced, with the negative side of Domino's powers shown too. Not that those would stop me from taking her powers in a heart beat.

*Review will also be posted on Instagram*
To be honest, at first I was not sure about this book, but as the story unfolded I found myself sucked in and wanting to know what the hell was happening. I don't think most people know who Domino is, and I was a little surprised to see that she got her own book, but I am glad she did. The book was a little hard to start as it felt like Domino mostly rambled on to me , but eventually I got used to Palmgren's Domino voice and story rhythm.

This book is like three stories in one. The stories are interconnected and adds alot to Domino as a character. While the story does jump around a lot there was never a moment for me, where I felt confused but rather it kep me reading like breadcrumbs leading me to the ending. I do wish we got to see more od Fomino interacting with her team. Despite this being a standalone, it reads like a second book in a series and I have a feeling it probably ties in to the Black Widow book which I have not read.

Overall, a great book about a character that needs more love.

Why I requested this: I have some familiarity with Domino, but add in a cult. I had to know more.

Pros:
Domino. I know, she’s the star of the book, but listen. Part of the draw was learning about her dark past. Plus, it was fun being in her head.
The action. When you write about a comic-book character, you run the risk of being too action-packed or not filled with enough action; however, Tristan Palmgren manages to find a good balance between the two.
The development of the cult that’s part of Domino’s job. What can I say, I love a good well-developed cult.

Cons:
Multiple story-lines. Sometimes the story-lines in this are a bit harder to follow.

Overall: Multiple story-lines can bring down the enjoyment, but Domino shines in this story.

As a superhero fan, the last couple of decades have been fantastic. The comics have had countless film adaptations and prose novels. This abundance of content has allowed content creators to explore the idea of superpowers more. We are no longer in the age of Gods, when Superman fought other improbably enemies above our heads. Now there are those with powers that are not so different from us. Are we good or bad? Most of us are a bit of both and given an ability we may decide to look after ourselves, rather than others. With luck, our skills would be useful when working as a mercenary.

Domino cannot control her luck, but she can rely on it to help should she find herself in a tricky situation. Whilst you and I would fall of a building and die, she would luckily land on a tarpaulin – hurt, but alive. With this luck she has become successful mercenary and the latest job is to rescue a brother and sister from a cult. The mission brings back memories of why Domino became a gun for hire, but these memories are spotty. Is this due to the trauma she suffered or a deliberate act by enemies unknown?

The Marvel X-Men universe is an expansive one and has room for all types of mutants, plenty of which have no interest in being a member of the X-Men. Domino is one such mutant who lives on the fringes of society applying her skills to those willing to pay. Being able to explore the grey areas of mutant life is what makes Domino a joy and Domino: Strays by Tristan Palmgren acts like a primer for the character. She may not be the best-known character in the Marvel Universe, but rest assured that by the end of this title you will have a good sense of her motivations.

Strays is told from the perspective of Domino herself and jumps between three distinct timelines; her present mission, her time in an experimental laboratory and its aftermath, and a mission some years earlier that did not go quite to plan. All three storyline elements play into one another and give you a real sense of why Domino ended as she did. As she is narrating the tale, the book leaps into the past when it makes the most sense as her current situation causes her to reflect.

Leaping around narratively in time and sticking to a single perspective means that Strays is very character driven. The book becomes an origins story and acts as the perfect starting point for any other novels in the series that may come out. As someone who has seen countless origin movies and read a few books about beginnings, they can be a little formulaic. Strays avoids this as Domino is more from the irreverent Deadpool school of story taking. The book may be an origins story, but the tone is that of a confident mutant who is more settled in their skin.

The balance of proceedings leans more towards character development than action, but there are thrills to be had. There are some set pieces that showcase Domino’s mutant power of luck and they are unlike any other power in the Marvelverse. Also refreshing was the down to Earth missions that Domino undertakes. She leaves alien invasions to The Avengers and is intent to settle on more human nemeses. This gives both the character and book a far more grounded feel and Domino is a lot more relatable than most superheroes/mutants.

With its strong emphasis on developing Domino’s backstory, Strays is a book that origin fans will enjoy the most. Those that like to leap straight into the action may have to wait until book two, but they will benefit greatly from knowing more about the character. This is a flawed hero that every reader can get behind.

Domino: Strays is a prose novel featuring, unsurprisingly, Domino, one of Marvel's many merry mutants. Best known these days for appearing in the film Deadpool 2 (where she was played by Zazie Beetz), I must admit that I am both old and geeky enough to remember her first appearing (sort of) in 1991 near the end of the original 100-issue run of New Mutants, after Cable showed up and just before the X-universe was reorganized and the New Mutants became the original X-Force (OK, technically that was a shapeshifter and the real Domino showed up a little later, but close enough). As a creation of Rob Liefeld and the 90s, Domino was originally associated with "edginess," time-traveling mercenary Cable, giant guns, shoulder pads, tiny feet, and lots and lots of pouches. None of which, thankfully appear in Domino: Strays. Although she is still a mercenary and name-drops Cable and/or Deadpool a lot (you're the star of the show here, Domino, you don't need to convince us you're worth paying attention to).

Domino: Strays weaves together narratives from three different time periods - events from Domino's childhood, a raid where an adult Domino seeks (and finds) answers about her childhood and family, and a present-day mercenary mission to retrieve the employer's children who have become members/victims of a cult. The former two are retellings of existing stories (with a lot of references to the applicable comic runs for those who are familiar, although not anything you'll feel like you're missing if you haven't read them), while the third is (I believe) a creation of author Tristan Palmgren. Domino was herself originally raised as a test subject in a government program (Project Armageddon) that was later taken over by a semi-religious paramilitary group, and then in an orphanage, which Palmgren uses to emotionally tie together the third time frame with the earlier two. Palmgren's writing is sharp and witty, although perhaps not as keen as they had hoped - I am highly open to the notion of using footnotes for clever asides in a work of fiction, but the payoff for the technique was rarely there in Domino: Strays.

The novel is written as a monologue by Domino, with her running commentary on the situation interspersed with a more factual narrative. Domino directly addresses the reader on subjects such as how they shouldn't complain about her jumping between different time frames, but she hasn't yet spent enough time with Deadpool to engage in his clear fourth-wall breaking. Palmgren uses the distinction between Domino's actions and her subjective statements to the reader to good effect. Domino clearly likes to think of herself as much more chaotic than she really is, and more hardened than she really is. She will insist that her meticulously-planned operation is impromptu, and insists that she would never take a job like this one right up until she takes the job. Which is not to say that Domino is 'soft' - she carries (normal-sized) guns and uses them, and this is not a comic book where shooting and punching people somehow manages to never involve anyone actually getting hurt.

Domino is not alone in the present-day mission, instead acting as the leader of an all-female team that centers around her and a couple of her mercenary buddies, but also includes a few newcomers. The core is Domino, Outlaw, and Diamondback (referred to in comics as the Posse), while the expanded roster matches the lineup of 2019's Domino: Hotshots comic. Black Widow will likely be the only character familiar to those who aren't Domino diehards. Make no mistake, however - this is a book about Domino, not a team. The team only appears in the present-day time frame, not the time frames featuring a younger Domino. Outlaw and Diamondback (referred to by their given names of Inez and Rachel) primarily serve to give Domino people to talk about and to emphasize for the reader that she is not the detached loner she was in the early part of her career (that is, in the middle of the three time frames in the book). The other three are fairly peripheral.

Domino's superpower is to be very lucky, which leaves Palmgren in the position of having to write in prose form a superpower that is so hard to depict as a superpower that it gets made fun of in the aforementioned Deadpool 2. Palmgren tackles this by providing a lot of internal monologue where Domino explains something of how her power works and how she uses it to her advantage. Accurate shooting? Not a superpower. Having one opponent back away from the gunfire just in time to mess up the aim of another opponent such that their shot blasts off part of a fire suppression system, causing the alarm to go off and cover the sound of the gunfire? That's a superpower. Although Palmgren can't always escape the limitations placed on them by the subject - Domino can say that it's her luck powers that stop her from getting cut anywhere important when she jumps through a plate-glass window, but every action hero ever can do this. Palmgren places an emphasis on how Domino has to be actively doing something for her power to kick in - she can't just walk around oblivious and be saved. This has the salutary narrative effect of always forcing Domino to be very proactive - although it also sometimes gets ignored so Domino can luckily not be shot by that sniper she was entirely unaware of. Ultimately, Palmgren's depiction of her power is solid, if imperfect.

Overall, Domino: Strays provides a fun read for those who are new to the character, while providing a lot of unobtrusive shout-outs for long-time fans. Domino: Strays effectively deploys a casual, mouthy style that suits who the character has become in the comics, while not impeding the emotional impact of Domino's history.

Domino, the beloved mutant, is getting her own full-length novel! You read that right, novel, not graphic novel. Written by Tristan Palmgren, Domino: Strays is about to dive into Domino's past and present to bring a whole new story to the forefront.

There are two sides to the infamous Domino. There's her present, where she has worked so hard at creating a team of mercenaries and heroes that she can count on. Together, they take on the big cases, as well as the overlooked cases. Such as the case where two siblings could very well use some help escaping from a cult...

Then there's Domino's past. Her history with imprisonment, abuse, and experimentation. It's a history that many a mutant carries with them, even if the details alter slightly from one to another. Yet that side of her story unfolds as well, on these pages.

“I had known, at the time, that it was a mistake. But because I'm an idiot, that hadn't stopped me.”

Warnings: Domino: Strays portrays child abuse, experimentation (non-consensual), cults, and other similar subjects and themes.

First of all, can I just say that I absolutely adore that they've been making Marvel comics into novels? I adore the comics (obviously) but sometimes it's nice to have a bit more to sink my teeth into. Especially when it covers my favorite characters, such as Domino.

Domino: Strays is perfect for old and new fans alike. It pulls in themes and events that have happened in her recent series (including Domino: Hotshots). But it also takes the time to explain Domino's character, her past, and her connection to her friends, so a new fan could easily jump in here, if they so desired.

This was a surprisingly intense read, though perhaps it shouldn't have been. I know Domino's history, and I know how dark it gets. Yet the raw emotion in this novel, and the events that come alongside those emotions, cannot be avoided. Nor should it be.

“To do what I do, always take the first marshmallow.”

Despite the heavy tones, Domino does have a way about her. As such, Domino: Strays is full of her sass and flair. Sometimes that means things blow up. Other times that means her besties come in and start breaking stuff. Either way, it's going to be a lot of fun.

There are plenty of laugh out loud moments to be found within these pages, lots of little references, sometimes even poking at the other characters involved. It's perfect, and really did read like a longer running Domino series. I would love more of this, if possible!

Another great essentionel book which every Marvel fan needs to have on there shelfs!
Not being familiar with Domino's story, despite what I have seen of her in the second Deadpool movie, this was a great introduction into a character who is more then just funny and followed by luck. You get a picture of who she is and where she comes from. I really liked the jumps between now and then to understand her behaviour better.
Also, here is the girl power we are asking for!
It is great to see comics to get novelizt and through which new audience will be drawn to.

Comics are a great medium, they're designed to be easy to read and to be accessible to readers of all ages, and they've evolved over the years to become a storytelling medium that's hard to translate to other formats. You only need to look at how many comic book films have been less than good to see that. Whilst comic book movies have become big business, one of the mediums where comics rarely make the leap is in prose novels. I've seen some people argue that comic characters and their stories just wouldn't work as prose, and I've always disagreed with that; and now I'll be able to point to Domino: Strays as a perfect example of how these characters and their stories not only work in this format, but excel at it.

Domino: Strays follows the mutant mercenary Domino as she's hired to rescue a pair of twins from the clutches of a cult leader by their desperate mother. Initially unwilling to take on a mission that's not her normal kind of thing, Domino eventually agrees, and sets out to infiltrate the cult's facility in order to rescue them. Whilst this story alone is interesting enough, and it's very entertaining to see Domino and her team infiltrating this compound in the middle of Chicago, where the book really shines is the other stories that play into this.

The book is written from Domino's point of view, and she makes it clear to the reader early on that her writing style is a bit hectic, and will jump around the place a little. As such, we get two other narratives weaving into the story of her infiltrating the cult's compound. One is Domino's childhood being raised as a subject in part of some shady experiment, and her eventual escape to a Chicago orphanage; and the other is her travelling to the Florida Everglades to track down a woman who might be her mother.

Now, on the surface these three narratives don't really have very much in common, but as these stories unravel we learn that not only is Domino's mission to Florida deeply connected with her own traumatic past, and her time in the orphanage, but is also one of the reasons why she chooses to take on her current assignment in the first place. Over the course of the book we get to see her past, the way her mind works, and how she has a great deal of empathy for people trapped in a prison by authorities out to control them.

I have to admit, I've not read massive amounts of comics with Domino in them, so only have a basic understanding of the character (and also understand that this isn't the same continuity as the Marvel 616 universe) but I felt like this book taught me so much more about her than any comic could. This isn't just because it went deep into her history and showed the reader parts of Domino's past that most comics don't, but because the whole thing is narrated by her, and as such we get to understand these events through her eyes, and understand the impact it has upon her.

Tristan Palmgren seems to really know the character well, and they've put a lot of effort into humanising her in new and interesting ways. Domino isn't just a mercenary out to make money, spending her time between missions partying and living life to the extreme because she's a wild person, but because her actions are influenced by the trauma that she's lived through.

Palmgren also makes a point to make Domino's powers interesting in some new ways. Much like was made a joke of in Deadpool 2, luck isn't very cinematic, and Tristan seems to want to make this a point. They have Domino explain more than once that she doesn't control how her luck works, and whilst it can ultimately help her out of some sticky situations, it isn't perfect. She describes times where her luck powers have had her leap from a vehicle to safety, but crash into a wall and nearly knock herself out; how does that help her? Well, the person chasing her doesn't see her laying on the floor and runs past her. It got the job done, but it doesn't make her untouchable. There's lots of little moments like this peppered throughout the narrative, where Domino is able to use her luck to her advantage, but still comes out of her adventures battered and bruised.

Domino: Strays is a really inventive and engaging dive into the character, one that puts her personal journey and growth at the forefront of the narrative, and manages to weave three connected stories together in ways where the jumps in time not only feel natural, but play into each other well. I really hope that this won't be the only time that Tristan gets to write the character, as I'd love to see more of her explored in this way. If this is the last time Tristan writes a Domino book, I at least hope that they get to write more adventures set in the Marvel Universe.

Domino Strays
Domino: Strays is the first in the new Marvel Heroines series from Aconyte books, written by Tristan Palmgren.
Up until now, Aconyte has been putting out titles that are set in worlds that started out as board/card games, where the only previous story content has been similar tie-in fiction. Moving to an IP which is known to millions globally as a comic series stretching back to the middle of the last century and probably the most successful film franchise in the world is a bold move. Did it work? Let’s find out!

Strays is a dark tale from the life of Mutant mercenary Neena Thurman, aka Domino. The book explores Domino’s origins (often unknown to even her), as well as a present-day run-in with a sinister cult. Domino’s comic-book story lines have often been at the gritty and disturbing end of the spectrum (last time I saw was in X-Force 2019 where she had been captured by a sinister organisation who had flayed half of her skin to use for cloning), and Palmgren really leans in to the darkness in their story. Anyone expecting the action-comedy vibe of the MCU is in for a shock when they encounter a thriller with some deeply psychological elements and, aside from the various mentions of Mutants, the overall vibe would feel a lot more at home alongside the Netflix Punisher or Jessica Jones series. Without wanting to go too far into spoilers, anyone who has had traumatic experiences with abusive, controlling relationships might want to go a little bit carefully as they decide to read this, as there’s definitely potential for being triggered here.

In terms of the wider Marvel continuity, the Aconyte Marvel titles seem to exist in their own universe but, for Strays at any rate, the starting point seems to be fairly close to the main 616 Universe. A lot of the supporting cast and themes share a lot with the 2018 Domino series, and 2019’s Domino: Hotshots, whilst the encounters with Project Armageddon and Domino’s family hark bark to the 2003 Domino series. Despite starting with so much familiar ground, Palmgren has produced a story that stands well on its own, taking the best of both worlds: there’s certainly no need to read the comics in order to enjoy Strays.

The story in Strays is carefully woven through three strands: the first narrating Domino’s childhood, the second recalling a botched mission six years ago, and the last one detailing a present-day rescue operation. Domino speaks directly to the reader, which can feel a bit confused at first, but gradually settles into a rhythm that gives you a nice insight into her frame of mind as well as her actions.
The story kicks off with Domino talking about her mother – an imperfectly remembered figure, clearly someone who was absent for much of Domino’s life. Domino tells you right at the start that her mother was a woman of anger and rage: a fanatic and a killer. With an opening like this, it’s no big surprise when, a bare chapter or two into the novel, Domino casually mentions that she had to kill her own mother! However, whilst Palmgren shows you the ending of that one little strand of the plot early on, the book is far more about the journey than the destination.
Whilst the middle strand of the story focuses around Domino’s search for her mother, it is preceded and followed by accounts of other sections of her life: the story of a miserable childhood in a research facility, followed by a slightly-less-miserable time as a teenager in a Chicago orphanage, under the care of over-worked Priest Father Boschelli. The third, “present day” strand involves Domino’s attempt to rescue a client’s grown-up children from a cult who have convinced them to lock themselves away from family and all other outsiders in the compound set up by the ‘father’ of the church. It’s no accident that each of the 3 time-lines has a “mother” or “father” figure in a key role, and Strays has a lot to say on the subjects of family and friendship, forcing Domino to really consider who she can trust, who she can rely on, and who is going to be able to forgive her for doing the things that need to be done.

It’s also worth thinking about the unique mutant power that makes Domino who she is: in layman’s terms, she can manipulate “luck” and alter probability, which has historically been used in a fairly vague way to do whatever the plot requires at that moment. Palmgrem does a good job with the unenviable task of trying to define these slippery qualities into something a little less nebulous. The end result is not only understandable for the reader, but it also enables an engaging narrative that undercuts the “it’ll be fine, somehow” vibe that can often creep into a Domino story.
Domino direct address to the reader provides a running commentary on how her luck is – or isn’t - able to help her in any given situation. One point she makes multiple times is that her luck might generally save her – at least in a life-or-death situation - but it certainly doesn’t care about anyone who isn’t Domino, a responsibility that falls entirely on Domino herself.
Whilst the characterisation of Domino herself is very well done, the supporting cast are a bit more variable. Father Boschelli, head of the orphanage where she lived as a teenager, provides some insightful moments (and is a lot more developed than his comic-book counterpart who only ever featured on a single page of a 2003 comic), but Inez Temple (Outlaw) and Rachel Leighton (Diamondback) feel a little underused, reduced to little more than Muscle and Tech-Support for a major mission.
The main saving grace as far as the supporting cast go, is the lack of knowledge that you need to have of all things Marvel to make sense of the plot in Strays. There’s a brief Black Widow Cameo, and Wolverine, Cable, Deadpool, and the Avengers are all name-checked, but provided you can grasp the basic concepts of Mutants (they exist, they have all sorts of powers, lots of people fear and/or hate them), then you aren’t going to be feeling too lost just because you didn’t have time to memorise a hundred or so back-issues of X-Force. Domino is primarily telling her own story and, to a lesser-extent those of her sisters-in-arms, and she tells you all you need to know about who they are to her, without burdening you with their place in the overall Marvel canon.
As the three strands of Domino’s story weave together, the result is something that is interesting, often compelling, a story that carefully keeps you on the hook whilst it segues off to another time-period, forcing you to read on, but fully knowing that by the time you return you’ll be just as reluctant to leave that plot-thread as you were in this.
My biggest relief when reading Strays, was that we get a satisfying ending. Domino is not Captain America, she is not here to be a paragon of selflessness and virtue, she is a mercenary with a traumatised past. In embracing that reality, Palmgren is able to really dig into the question of what it means to be a hero – not just making physical sacrifices, but showing Domino willing to sacrifice how she appears in the eyes of others, if that’s what it takes to finish the job.
Ultimately, the ending for Strays is a bittersweet one, and it feels fitting for the characters we’ve seen, and the stories we’ve watched unfold. Domino’s life as a sometimes mercenary, sometimes hero doesn’t allow for “happily ever afters,” but it shows a group of women making a difference, able to sleep at night, and move on to the next job.

I received an advance copy of this book from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.

After learning about this character from 'Deadpool 2' , I knew that I needed to learn more about Neena aka Domino. She seemed so sassy, sarcastic and I honestly wanted to know why. I never thought that she had had such a difficult life growing up. I know that most Marvel characters have traumatic childhoods but this really was something.

Not only was she experimented on for Project Armageddon to become the perfect soldier, but she was emotionally/physically tortured. The idea of this happening to even a fictional child was difficult to read! Domino developed a mutant power where luck was on her side. The way she explained it was that she could survive life-and-death situations but that her power had a sense of humour. She could jump from high up without serious injury and yet sprain both of her ankles.

The time-line skips took me a while to get into. One minute you were in present day, then during her captivity and then when she'd escaped. I was trying to keep track of everything that was going on! Once I got the hang of it, I really appreciated how well-written everything was from the action-packed fights (a staple in the Marvel Universe), the dramatic moments when she discovered who was in charge of Project Armageddon and then how she tackled present day.

She was hired by a distraught mother whose twins had gone missing. She believed that they had been enticed into a dangerous cult and she needed Domino to find them. What I loved about Domino was that she was brutally honest about a situation. If it didn't meet her expectations, she flat-out denied. It wasn't until she learned more about the cult leader from her friends that she took the job.

If you're a fan of the Marvel Universe, then you will love the mentions of familiar characters! You have Deadpool (of course!), Charles Xavier, The Avengers and Black Widow. The latter actually joins in with the rescue mission!

The only thing that I didn't like about this book were the footnotes. I appreciated them explained a little of Domino's thought process but they were always at the end of a chapter. You literally had to look for each number and skip to the end to see what she was saying. Other than that, a book for every mutant to adore!!

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Marvel Heroines book Domino Strays by Tristan Palmgren published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let these things cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

So lets get in to it, the book as the title suggests concentrates on Domino, the mutant whose power is luck, if you are familiar with the comics, this is set in the current timeline with her being the leader of the Hotshots and contains the rest of the team in supporting roles. If you are less familiar, she was played wonderfully by Zazie Beetz in Deadpool 2.

The story revolves around the Hotshots infiltrating the compound of a cult leader in Chicago to save her clients two children. It skips between three different time periods, giving us the reasons why Domino hates the idea of people being held in cages, and why she has a particular thing for crazy zealots.

Its told from a second person point of view with Domino telling the reader the story, given how closely Domino is associated with Deadpool, I think it would have been very easy for this to go down the route of breaking the fourth wall, but I think this works way better, because they didn’t do that. Honestly it feels like we are holed up in some seedy bar as Domino relates the story to us over drinks.

You get a fantastic inside look at the Hotshots, how they work and the relationship dynamic between them, especially between the closest three of them, those being Domino, Diamondback and Outlaw.

My favourite parts of the story were those that covered Dominos infiltration of the Project Armageddon compound in the Everglades and those about her childhood in a church orphanage. The present days story for me was more of a device to tie it all together, and it was really good at that.

Another positive was that they didn’t overly play on her superpower, she rarely relied on it, and as she points out, its not something that makes her invulnerable and isn’t very cinematic, she has to rely on honed skills and experience, only relying on her superpower when she absolutely needs to.

The only real issue I have with the story is the footnotes, which are in themselves great, but they are all at the end of the chapters, which are in themselves, not that long, but its a pain to have to keep flipping through to make sure you read them when you are supposed to. I would much rather they be at the end of the page they belong with, but I wonder if this is a limitation of the ePub format.

I was a big fan of the Domino: Hotshots series by Gail Simone and this was a fantastic deep dive into that team. You don’t need to have any background in the characters as the book does a great job of giving you all the background you need, but in a natural very easy flowing way. The dynamic between the team was just perfect, with the characters balancing each other out just like they do in the comics. The relationship between the core of Domino, Diamondback and Outlaw, with the other members was just perfect, especially with Atlas Bear, who is only reluctantly a member of the team.

Footnotes aside, this is a very good read and given that the characters are very much Marvel B-List characters (Other than Black Widow), means that its accessible to those who only really know Marvel from the MCU.

In short you have a great book looking at one of Marvels more interesting characters and its really enjoyable.

Domino Strays is going to be released on October 6th

Domino: Strays is perfect for longtime fans and brand new fans of Domino alike....I loved this book, and I can’t recommend Domino: Strays enough. I was a huge fan of Simone’s Domino and Domino: Hotshots runs, and I especially loved how she made Domino, Outlaw, and Diamondback a team. Getting to read more about that team in an entire book was an absolute delight. Read my entire review at https://butwhythopodcast.com/2020/09/05/advanced-review-domino-strays/

I received an advance copy of this book from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.
I have to admit to being a little disappointed when I realised this was an actual novel rather than a graphic novel. It had been filed as a graphic novel on netgalley and I was looking forward to my first reading of a Domino comic. However, once I started this disappointment evaporated. This is a wonderfully told and thrilling, charming book.
The story switches from different times through Domino's life so is very much an origin story. We have when Domino was growing up in a variation of Wolverine's Weapon X programme, as Project Armageddon sought to create the perfect soldier. Domino was one output from that programme, as she developed the mutant ability to have luck on her side. Then we have her time in an orphanage, having escaped the programme. Then her mission to track down the person who might have been responsible for her upbringing and finally her present mission, to rescue two adolescents who have been brainwashed by a cult leader. These different time periods are covered throughout the book, layering up her back story as we follow her on her current mission. This is superbly woven together, and we have almost parallel storylines near the end, her infiltrating Project Armageddon and her sneaking into the cult's base. A few times this got a little muddled in my head, but served to wonderfully draw a parallel between her upbringing and that of the non-mutant, more traditional cult.
Domino is accompanied on her later mission by Black Widow amongst others (the characters' real names are generally used, so it was fun to try and track down which Marvel characters they actually were), but she is very much the leader of her merc crew.
The storyline is good, combining plenty of backstory and exciting missions, with excellently narrated action sequences. I don't tend to like first person books as much as third person, but this angle gave Domino a much more likable personality, having a fair chunk of her friend Deadpool's humour, mixed with Rogue's childhood trauma and Wolverine's anger at experimentation.
As noted in Deadpool 2, having luck on your side isn't a superpower, and it isn't very cinematic. Domino's power is not overly laboured in the book, and it isn't used to make her seen completely invulnerable to injury. She uses it sparingly because luck going her way in a fight (bullets being deflected etc) can have adverse consequences for those around her. It was used when absolutely needed, but she has so many capabilities that she barely did.
This is a really great book that gives so much more backstory to a lesser-known Marvel character than could have been achieved in a graphic novel. A very strong female cast of role models.
The only downside was the overuse of footnotes which didn't tend to add much to the story, other than witty asides, and are quite frustrating on a kindle.

This book is okay. It's not bad but it's also not great. At times it's interesting and wicked me in but at other times I was bored to tears.

There was too much exposition. We didn't need the whole background of the chilly leader whose name I couldn't care to remember. We get out, it's basically low key Scientology, now move on. The exposition killed the passing of the story.

Seeing other Marvel characters was nice and all the X-Factor references were fun, but not fun enough to affect my enjoyment.

This book is just okay. If you're a fan of Domino then this could be for you. But the pacing issues and lack of any character development kept this from being anything other than meh,

Either way, thanks to Net Galley for the opportunity to read this for an honest review.