Wild Cards: Difference between revisions

{{tropework}}

''Wild Cards'' is a "shared universe" [[Superhero]] book series, originally conceived by [[George R. R. Martin|George R.R. Martin]] (''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'') as a spin-off from an [[Role -Playing Game|RPG]] organized by several Albuquerque-area authors. The world of ''Wild Cards'' is pretty much like ours, [[Alternate History|until 1946]]. That year, the government of a world of aliens physically quite similar to humans decides to use Earth as the testing ground for a bioweapon in the form of a virus, later called Xenovirus Takis-A, or the "wild card" virus. The test sample is stolen by a pulp-style Nazi villain calling himself "Dr. Tod", who releases the virus over [[Big Applesauce|New York City]].

''Wild Cards'' examines, [[Deconstruction|somewhat realistically]], the effects of a world where a small portion of the citizens have suddenly gained superpowers. But because the series is in part [[Homage|an homage]] to superhero genre, there are some tropes involved that one does not normally find [[Killed Off for Real|co-existing]] in the [[Back Fromfrom the Dead|same story]]. There aren't many masked vigilantes, as they eventually end up revealing their secret identities or have them discovered. The mutated victims, the "Jokers", are regularly treated like scum, strung along by the government, and end up developing their own subculture. The superpowered "[[Differently-Powered Individual|Aces]]" don't always go into crimefighting or villainy, either; [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check|some of them parlay their talents into fame or private industry]].

# ''[[Wild Cards: Ace in the Hole|Ace In The Hole]]''

# ''[[One-Eyed Jacks (novel)|One-Eyed Jacks]]''

# ''[[Turn Ofof Thethe Cards]]'' (Solo novel by Victor Milan)

# ''[[Wild Cards: Card Sharks|Card Sharks]]'' (First book published by Baen)

# ''[[Wild Cards: Suicide Kings|Suicide Kings]]''

# ''[[Wild Cards Lowball|Lowball]]'' (forthcoming)

There is also a comic book series, [[Wild Cards the Hard Call|Wild Cards: The Hard Call.]].

** Several Jokers and Joker-Aces (Jokers with powers) possess additional limbs of different usability.

*** And from the latest{{when}} novel {{spoiler|Cameo, Gardener, and The Radical}}

** Jonathan Hive

* [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]]

** Cameo, who can channel the spirits of the dead (and use their powers if they were psy-based Aces).

* [[Cluster F-Bomb]] - employed liberally by Hoodoo Mama.

** Sculptress, whose Ace was the power to shape solid materials on touch. After the Turtle brought her in, she started working for the government.

*** And from the latest book; Genetrix, whom after having any sort of sex gives birth to a clutch of eggs that hatch into super powered (sometimes) children {{spoiler|who die after a few days}}.

* [[Differently-Powered Individual]] - All based on card-playing terminologies:

** Aces - [[The Beautiful Elite]] who won the [[Superpower Lottery]]. Takisian psy-lords and warriors are technically Aces by breeding. There are telepaths among nats, so the Takisians have most probably developed from that potential, as {{spoiler|humans and Takisians are biologically the same species - they can mate and produce fertile offspring with partial psy-lord powers.}} <br /><br />The distinction between Ace and the following Deuce depends on circumstances and conditions to use the power, e.g. the ability to become a human puddle is a deuce - unless kidnapped or shot; the ability to change carpet ornaments is a deuce - unless you are a carpet seller.

** [[The Chick]] - Brain Trust

** [[The Big Guy]] - Golden Boy

* [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke]] - Takisian biotechnology

** Tachyon's Trump Card, the Xenovirus Takis-B, is in theory designed to turn any wildcarder back to nat. The Trump has to be developed on individual basis, but Tachyon has achieved some successes, although very few are named:

* [[Infant Immortality]]: Averted, as [[Anyone Can Die]], and that includes kids, small children, and babies. The [[Wild Cards]] universe is not a friendly place.

* [[Magic Feather]] - A ''lot'' of Ace powers need a specific "focus" to work. According to Tachyon, most or all of these limitations are purely psychosomatic.

* [[Parental Abandonment]] -

** The Amazing Bubbles parents also abandonded her when she sued them for spending her modelling money behind her back.

* [[Nightmare Sequence]]:

* [[Reed Richards Is Useless]] -- Subverted; the world is a lot like our own, but different in certain ways (Buddy Holly never died but became a washed-up has-been, Joseph McCarthy went after Aces <s>instead of</s> as well as Communists, the Arab-Israeli Wars are initially averted of a peace agreement secretly influenced by a powerful Ace).

** Only the latter is really an example of subverted RRIU. The others are just stuff that's different. The Gandhi example under [[For Want of a Nail]] above also qualifies, as it involves an Ace actively using his powers to change the world.

*** Tachyon is notable in that he is neither a world-saving superhero by nature, nor does he have a high opinion of the human race - especially after all the grief they've given despite all his efforts to fix what his family did. Upgrading humanity to Takisian biotechnology is very much not on his to-do list! One does wonder though why he doesn't apply his genetic engineering talents to solving diseases like Cancer or AIDS, which would presumably earn him a lot of kudos and money.

* [[Shout-Out]] -- The beginning of the "Wild Card era" in the wake of the battle between Jetboy and Dr. Tod is both a tribute to the pulp-era characters they represent, and their eventual replacement by superheroes and supervillains in pop culture.

*** Made even better by the fact that he really ''does'' look like an anthropoid walrus.

*** The Lizard King is Jim Morrison. He is reptilian-looking and projects collective hallucinations

** Several of the costumed Ace heroes are shout-outs to comic superheroes and/or real-life pop culture figures.

* [[Some Call Me... Tim]] - Tachyon's actual name is Prince Tisianne brant Ts'ara sek Halima sek Ragnar sek Omian of House Ilkazam (and that's just his first name; his full name would list his genealogy for the last thousand generations). The American scientists and military men he makes first contact with are endlessly corrected on how it's said, and mispronouncing it is quite the insult. So he is given the much-simpler nickname Dr. Tachyon in reference to his ship's tachyon engines. Ironically, those engines are busted, and he is a virologist.

** [[Bilingual Bonus]] - "Messer" is a German word for "knife". -- and "Mackie Messer" was originally the name of a fictional character better known as [[The Threepenny Opera|"Mack the Knife"]]. "Look out, ol' Mackie is back!"]]

* [[Stock Dinosaurs]]: <s>Dinosaur Kid</s> ''Kid Dinosaur'' is able to shapeshift into any dinosaur he knows. He knows a lot of them and is bugged by people who know only T-Rex and pteranodon.

* [[Stock Super Powers]]: - thisThis is a very, ''very'' long list. And not all the powers here have a trope because the [[Wild Cards]] authors were pretty inventive. Croyd Crenson, aka The Sleeper, is [[Blessed with Suck]], as he falls asleep, then wakes up having turned a different Wild Card every time, including Jokers, spending weeks to months in a coccoon-like metamorphosis. Said metamorphosis isn't painless and sometimes Croyd wakes up before completion. This is inverted into [[Cursed with Awesome]], as Croyd :

# chooses the life of a freelancer rogue

# is completely healed and has changed his appearance entirely after every new sleep

# has experienced and learned almost every Ace power (in criminal applications)

# artificially prolongs his time awake {{spoiler|by using amphetamines}}

# apparently doesn't age.

*** Lazy Dragon could bring soap carvings and/or origami (any representation he makes himself) to life as what they represented; he projects his own consciousness into that which he animates.

** [[Mind Control]]

*** Succubus (together with sex-based empathy)

*** Captain Trips -- a Hippie biochemist who has several blends of drugs he can take that turn him into a handful of different aces [or jokers] [[Theme Naming|all named after sixties songs]]. If his name appears beside someone else's name, they're one of Mark's "friends".

***** Incorrect. Mr. Nobody,while calling himself the Projectionist, had a sort of comedy act. Someone challenged him to do King Kong and he did; but when he gets larger than his own mass, he must draw in energy to do so. The Projectionist was responsible for a major blackout in New York City, and it is mentioned at the ape's first appearance that he first appeared the night of the blackout.

** Actually according to the [[All There in the Manual]] fan site for the [[Show Within a Show]] '''American Hero''', All of Rosa's forms have some useful power. (The afformentioned Cactus card turns her into a humanoid cactus Joker-ace, and the Cherry card gives her a hat with cherry bombs on it).

*** A common denominator of <s>all</s> many of the ace forms and several joker-ace forms of The Sleeper

*** The Maharajah can telekinetically animate clothing to act as his "servants".

*** The Mechanic, limited to [[Technopath|mechakinesis]], controlling machines. However, in order to use this ability he had to merge with the machine by cutting off a piece of himself and applying the bloody wound to it (for example, a finger to control a radio, a hand to control a car, etc.). Luckily, he had a Wolverine-like healing factor (see above) so this was only a minor inconvenience and allowed him to use his power with no lasting consequences.

*** Spasm can telekinetically induce involuntary reactions in the human body including hiccups and orgasms.

** [[Teleporters and Transporters|Teleportation]]

* [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]]

{{quote| ''If it's Demise / don't look in his eyes!''<br />

''Sleeper waking, meals taking / Sleeper speeding, people bleeding''<br />

''Golden Boy ain't got no joy''<br />

* [[Typhoid Mary]]:

** Croyd 'The Sleeper' Crenson wakes up in the middle of a gang war with the unprecedented ability to spread a new strain of the Wild Card virus; one where people who have aready been infected with Wild Card can be re-infected again. As he once again has super reflexes and his usual super strength, Croyd doesn't suspect anything. He keeps moving and spreading the virus because he had entered the paranoid stages of his meth addiction, and can't trust anyone. Named victims of his spree are: