If you’ve seen Deadpool 2, you probably got a great taste of Zazzie Beets, the actress who many thought couldn’t pull off the role of the comic book anti-hero Domino. You can check out my review of it here. Many thought that race-bending Domino would be a bad idea, but at the end of the day, Beets pulled it off just like The Ancient One. Spoiler alert, there’s this great action sequence where Domino showcases her superpower while Deadpool tries to dismiss luck as a superpower in a background voice-over. Hilarious. It turns out, there are five characters in the Marvel Universe that can alter probabilities of events and turn those events in their favor. In the simplest of terms, they can generate good luck. Here are the top five Marvel characters that have lady luck on their side.
Shamrock – aka Molly Fitzgerald is a minor hero in the Marvel Universe who first appeared in the 80s. She’s a bit of a stereotype being Irish born in Dunshaughlin, Ireland. Luck of the Irish and all that. Her powers are mystical in nature as she is helped by benevolent spirits which causes her good luck and bad luck for the bad guys. She appears a few times in the Marvel Universe as she’s rarely used because of her stereotypical nature. She’s semi-retired and works in a bar in New York. She could someday cameo in a Netflix series. While we’re on the Deadpool subject, Deadpool kills a zombie version of Shamrock in an alternate universe by turning her own good luck against her.
Black Cat – aka Felicia Hardy. Soon to star in her own film along with another mercenary, Silver Sable in a Sony-produced Spider-Man spin-off Silver and Black. Sounds silly but possible if Sony could pull Venom off. Anyway, Felicia Hardy is a Spider-Man character. She’s a villain and sometimes anti-hero and sometimes love-interest for Peter Parker. What does luck have to do with her? Duh, her Black Cat name isn’t just to advertise her cat burglar skills. We all know the superstition regarding black cats. Black Cat can cause bad luck to her foes. Her power is initially artificial by using various traps until one day she’s granted probability affecting powers by the Kingpin. She can subconsciously give anyone around her whom she perceives as a threat, bad luck.
Scarlet Witch – is perhaps one of the most powerful female characters in Marvel comics and is the first to have the power of luck. Unlike the MCU where the character uses powerful telekinesis, her ‘hex’ powers in comic books affect probabilities. She can alter probabilities to favor herself and her teammates. At first, her powers seem laughable but is actually the tip of the iceberg. Her true power later in the new millennium was the ability to alter reality. Who needs luck when one can actually alter reality, but only when she goes insane. Aside from her mutant power, she can actually perform real magic. Who knows, that might someday play out in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Longshot – is the first Marvel character I knew that has the power of luck when I first read it on a collectible card. My opinion is the same as Deadpool’s long rant about the absurdity of luck as a superpower. Longshot was a member of the X-Men during the 80s and 90s. He’s not actually from Earth but from another universe called Mojoverse where couch potato takes on a different meaning. If you’ve seen Deadpool 2, his son, (minor spoiler) Shatterstar becomes a member of X-Force who says he’s better than Deadpool at swordplay but is not as lucky as his father. What puzzles me to this day is why an artificial being from a different universe is classified as a mutant. Sorry for sounding racist.
Domino – we save Domino for last because she’s in the Deadpool movie and not these unlucky losers. Her real name is Neena Thurman and believe it or not, her first appearance in The New Mutants Comics in 1991 was an impersonation of her character by none other than Vanessa Carlysle aka Copycat, Wade Wilson’s girlfriend. Domino is also a mutant with the power of luck through minor subconscious psionic and telekinetic nudges to things around her that results in good luck for her and bad luck for her enemies. She took on the alias Domino because things always fall into place for her. Since she herself may not know of her own powers, her power counts as luck.