Domino’s relation to Deadpool, explained

Atlanta’s Zazie Beetz will play the role of the mutant mercenary Domino in Deadpool 2, immense popularity of Deadpool, you might be easily wondering: Who the heck is Domino?

Allow me to explain

Neena Thurman is a mutant weapons expert and mercenary who is often linked to Wade Wilson through a mutual acquaintance: Nathan Christopher Charles Summers, or Cable.

Which is to say that Deadpool and Cable have a classic Odd Couple superhero teamup relationship — the grizzled time-displaced commando, and the equally competent fourth-wall breaking fool — and that Domino and Cable are long-time love interests.

OK, but you’re here to hear about her powers, right?

Like a lot of her peers, Domino is the only survivor of a scientific experiment that was attempting to create the perfect weapon. As an adult, she became a mercenary, a career that eventually put her in contact with Cable, who frankly deserves an entire very confusing episode of Issue at Hand all of his own, the time-traveling secret son of Cyclops and Jean Grey.

Domino has all the talents and skills you would expect of an expert mercenary or secret agent. But she also has mutant probability powers.

David López/Marvel Comics

She exudes, at all times, a subconsciously activated field that alters the probability of occurrences in her line of sight in her favor. In text, this means that whenever she is stressed, excited or particularly engaged in an activity, things will go inexplicably (though not impossibly) well for her, and inexplicably poorly for her opponents.

In practice, as with many of Marvel’s luck-powered superheroes, like Longshot, this means whatever a writer wants it to mean.

Domino is also one of the central team-members of X-Force, the mutant paramilitary group that Cable created when he took mentorship over the New Mutants. An X-Force movie is currently in development at 20th Century Fox, with Cable and Deadpool expected to feature in it. Domino’s costumes have varied over the years, but have all included the characteristic black diamond over her left eye.

Domino’s inclusion in Deadpool 2 bodes well for her appearance in the X-Force film as well — provided, of course, that it makes it out of pre-production purgatory.