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.
Many thanks to Aconyte Books and Tristan Palmgren for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
See also: my Rapid Fire interview with Tristan Palmgren
If you enjoyed this review, and can manage it, please consider leaving a tip on my Ko-fi page.
About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media. For more information visit marvel.com. © 2020 MARVEL