The Non-Team Of Mercs And Spies In Domino: Hotshots #1
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
An alien artifact lands on the Antarctic coast, and an expedition party arrives at the crater to investigate. One of the scientists investigating gets close to the artifact, and it transforms him into something new and dangerous. Later, Black Widow contacts Domino, offering Neena a job in tracking down the artifact in Argentina. Neena agrees, but White Fox of South Korea and Atlas Bear of Wakanda are coming along for the ride–along with Diamondback and Outlaw of course. The five women make their way to Argentina, but Neena is worried that Black Widow, White Fox, and/or Atlas Bear will betray the others to take the artifact back to their respective countries.
Domino: Hotshots #1 brings Domino together with a disparate group of mercenaries and spies for an adventure cosmic in scale.
Trust is in short supply, with Neena only being able to truly rely upon Diamondback and Outlaw. This is one of the baselines of tension running through the comic.
The Gail Simone trademark witty dialogue and ample humor is present, and that is one of the greatest selling points of the book. Her take on Domino is highly charismatic, entertaining, and just a little awkward. Neena comes close to swooning upon meeting Black Widow, and her handling of the ad hoc team can be summed up with, “I hope this works out.”
David Baldeon joins up for this ride too, and he does some exceptional work here. The alien artifact attaches itself to hosts, and the design and art style is classic Jack Kirby in a fantastic way (as you can see in the above image). The fight scene that takes place near the end looks great and is very visually creative. Jim Charalampidis’ color work is quite strong too, bringing this quirky cosmic aesthetic together well.
Domino: Hotshots #1 is an entertaining and fun first step for this spin-off miniseries. Domino finds herself on a team of dangerous and distrusting spies, and she can only hope they don’t all kill each other–or die at the hands of something godlike. In any case, this one gets a recommendation. Check it out.
Domino: Hotshots #1 comes to us from writer Gail Simone, artist David Baldeon, color artist Jim Charalampidis, letterer VC’s Clayton Cowles, cover artist R.B. Silva with Nolan Woodard, and variant cover artists Rian Gonzales and J. Scott Campbell with Sabine Rich.
