A Sinister Connection

Nathaniel Essex is a guy with his fingers in everything, and I do mean everything. Add to that an unhealthy fascination with the Summers clan, and a furtive streak a mile wide, it's not exactly surprising that he and Domino have crossed paths. What's not so obvious is just what these encounters mean.

Domino's first encounter with the dubious geneticist occurred in Cable 6, during the Fathers and Sons story arc. While he mentions that he knows both Nathan and Domino, it's quite clear that Dom has never seen--or heard--of him before. There's not much more to the exchange, but it does establish a fairly good framework from which to analyze future meetings.

Sinister shows up again in Cable 28, during the tail end of the Genoshan storyline. Domino doesn't have a chance to do much more than point an accusing finger before tall, pale and gruesome renders her unconscious so he can have a heart to heart with Cable. True to character, though, he can't pass up the chance to make a cryptic remark. "...what do you really know about our enigmatic Domino anyway? You don't even know her real name..." The implications? Who knows. He could be eluding to the fact that he knows more about Cable's partner than Cable--and perhaps even Domino herself--knows. Oh, it could just be another example of Marvel waving their 'mysterious character here!' flag.

Third time's a charm right? Well, in this case, it's just an excuse for more vague commentary. In X-Force 57, Sinister shows up to take custody of Nate Gray, whom X-Force has been protecting. After rendering everyone else unconscious (I need to learn how to do that--it'd be damned useful at the DMV)Tosses out this little tidbit. "Don't you find it the least bit ironic? That you of all people would stand against me, Domino?" Okay. This can be explained two ways. Occam's Razor time. All things being equal, we go with the simpler explanation. Sinister played a major role in Cable's 'creation.' At the time, Dom was on rather...friendly terms with said creation. Thus, 'I made your boyfriend.' How this is supposed to inspire some sort of alliance on her part, I'm not sure, and Sinister isn't generally the kind of guy to make statements as exceedingly asinine as that one would be. He's more the type to go "Oh, did I say brother*s*... I meant that in the singular," and sit back to watch that one letter drive everyone insane...but I digress.
     Our other option here is to assume he means something else entirely. And by 'something else entirely,' I mean the fact that he has some close tie to Dom. A tie that would somehow make it ironic for her to be shooting at him. There are more than a few fans who, as far as I know, use this scene as the sole support of a 'Luke, I am your father'-esque theory. Wait, I take that back. They like to point out the 'resemblance' between them as well. If all it takes to be related to Sinister is dark hair and ungodly white skin, I have a new daddy.
      The other point against this theory is that we know (at least as far as Marvel has implied) each and every time they've crossed paths, to Domino's recollection. I'm sure Sinister remembers this. And so, if that's the case, why is he asking her if she thinks it's ironic? Obviously, she wouldn't as she's seen the man twice before in her life. Which leaves us with one solution to the whole mess--he said that just to f*ck with her head.
As this is Sinister, I can't really disprove that.

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