Wild At Heart: A Wild Cards Retrospective- Book VIII: One Eyed Jacks

This is where things started to go off the rails. The Wild Cards series went through two long hiatuses. This was partially due to internal dynamics with the publishers of the books but, at least for the first hiatus, it was also due to a subplot that got out of hand, a plot that would dominate the next four books and that would not be fully resolved for several books after that. This is the beginning of the "Rox Triad", a storyline that makes Wild Cards fans inwardly wince whenever the word "Jumper" is mentioned.

After the events of the last two books, Wild Cards was starting to run low on villains. The Astronomer, Puppetman, Ti Malice, the Mafia -- by Book Nine, the only major villains left standing were the Shadow Fist Society.You know, the massive criminal organization with multiple super-powered members that had been built up as a looming threat since the second book. Logically, they would be the next major antagonists.

Unfortunately, as well see that's not the way the series ended up going --- mostly. The new villains, a street gang called the Jumpers, had some ties to the Shadow Fists but they quickly overshadowed that organization. The members of the Jumpers all have the same ability: They can swap bodies with anybody they make eye contact with. Since the Wild Card virus affects everyone differently, the central mystery of this book becomes why everyone in this new groups seems to share the same ability.

The interstitial story this time is "Nobody's Girl" by Walton Simons featuring the shape shifting ace Jeremiah Strauss a.k.a. Mr. Nobody.  Each chapter of the story has a different title like  “Nobody Knows Me Like My Baby”, “Mr. Nobody Goes to Town”--- you get the general idea. Strauss has been a minor character in Wild Cards since the first book but here he takes center stage. Recovering from a nervous breakdown,  the wealthy Strauss has become fixated on Veronica, a prostitute he frequents. When she goes missing, Strauss investigates her disappearance which leads him to the Jumpers and their connection to the Shadow Fists lawyer, St John "Loophole" Latham.

The story is another dive into the noir mystery genre for the series. All the elements are there: the femme fatale, the detective, the shadowy criminal conspiracy behind everything.  Strauss plays the role of investigative well and the story is at its best when it focuses on his investigation of the Jumpers.  Unfortunately, his fixation on Veronica, while clearly meant to be kind of pathetic, just comes off as creepy when read by a modern audience. Still, it's one of the better stories in the book and given what's to come that's enough for a 4/5 rating.

The other stories are, as follows:

Luck Be a Lady (by Chris Claremont, introducing Dr. Cody Havero, Guest-Starring Dr. Tachyon): The story that opens this volume is most notable for being the sole Wild Cards story written by Chris Claremont, the comic book writer most known for his lengthy run on Marvel's X-Men. I will go on record saying that I am not the biggest fan of the man's work: He created a lot of what I enjoy about the X-Men but his refusal to resolve subplots, along with a penchant for weird BDSM subtexts in his stories, ultimately left the series kind of a mess. However, this story which focuses on new character Dr. Cody Havero, a potential love interest for Dr. Tachyon, is surprisingly good perhaps because Claremont wasn't given any ongoing subplots to tackle. Aside from introducing Dr. Havero, the story has nothing to do with the overarching plot except for a vague thematic connection to the Jumpers (the central antagonist of the story is a Wild Card who can spread his abilities to others). Its just a nice little adventure story which allows for a break from the main storyline. Rating: 4/5.

Horses ( by Lewis Shiner, starring Veronica):  A counterpart to "Nobody's Girl", this story story focuses on Mr. Nobody's crush, Veronica. A supporting cast member since Book III, Veronica is sent to therapy to overcome her addiction to heroin and winds up falling in love with her therapist, Dr. Hannah Jorde. The story gets points for portraying an LGBTQ romance in a positive fashion (issues of professional ethics aside). Unfortunately, the characters are flat and I had trouble connecting with them on an emotional level. Furthermore, the brutal twist ending where the story connects with the book's overarching plot undoes any goodwill that the central romance earns. Rating: 2/5.

Snow Dragon (by William F. Wu, starring Ben Choy/Lazy Dragon): Another long-time character to getting their first shot at the spotlight is Lazy Dragon, an ace member of the Shadow Fists, who is dispatched to deliver a message to Ellis Island. This is no easy feat as the Island has been occupied by Joker terrorists. This story is a character piece which winds up working to its detriment. The problem with a lot of the books in this section of the series was that Wild Cards would soon undergo the first of two long hiatuses resulting in a lot of subplots being dropped. For instance, the twist ending of this story was clearly supposed to set up subsequent stories starring Lazy Dragon's more heroic sister, Tienyu. Unfortunately, this never happened, meaning this story is mostly a lot of set-up that is never paid off. Rating: 3/5.

Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing (Written by Victor Milan, starring Mark Meadows/Captain Trips): Despite begin an important character in the first two books, Victor Milan's hero, the transforming ace Captain Trips hadn't had much more than a cameo since Book Three. Milan decides to rectify that in a big way, putting his hero through the ringer for the next several books. It begins in Book Nine as Trips' ex-wife sues him for custody of their daughter Sprout. As Trip's life get thrown into disarray, it becomes clear that his ex's attorney, "Loophole" Latham has an unpleasant agenda of his own for the hero. This story is less a stand-alone story and more about setting up Captain Trips' new status quo for later books in the series. Still, Trips and his alter egos are fun characters and it's good to spend more time with them even if the story feels incomplete. Rating: 4/5.



Sixteen Candles (Written by Stephen Leigh, starring the Oddity): After appearing in several books, Joker vigilante the Oddity finally gets a story to themselves. A rather unique character, the Oddity is a fusion of three people into one horrifically deformed being. After sixteen years of this, one of the Oddity's composite selves is considering suicide much to the consternation of the other two. The story is a by-the-numbers superhero tale: the Oddity is ultimately forced between a potential cure for their condition and doing the right thing with relatively little suspense about which they'll choose. However, the Oddity's unique nature makes the story fun to read and keeps it from being too predictable. Overall, one of the better reads in this book. Rating: 4/5.

The Devil's Triangle (Written by Melinda Snodgrass, staring Dr. Tachyon):. It's been clear since he first appeared that Dr. Tachyon's grandson, Blaise, is a deeply troubled child. This finally boils over to a head when Blaise's crush on Tachyon's new love interest, Dr. Havero, takes a turn into violent obsession. Soon, Tachyon finds that his newest mortal enemy is his own grandson. Blaise's turn to the dark side has been foreshadowed since he first appeared so it's good to see some movement on that plot but, alas, this is another story where I have a problem with the ending. We find out how the Jumpers are created and unfortunately, the way the story handles it is in poor taste, I like to keep this blog free of spoilers, as well as mostly PG-13, so I will say only that this story, unfortunately serves as an unpleasant sample of what is to come in the next book.  Rating: 1/5.

Dead Heart Beating (Written by John Jos. Miller, starring Phillip Cunningham/Fadeout): The story begins when Kien Phuc, the leader of the Shadow Fist Society, is found dead by his lieutenant Fadeout, an ace gifted with the power of invisibility.  This is a problem for Fadeout as he was planning to kill Kien and seize control of the Shadow Fists for himself. Instead, he finds himself having to find the killer. This villain centric story is one of the last good showings of the Shadow Fists. It makes a major change to their status quo and reestablishes them as a credible group of villains. It's a shame that all this promise is squandered in the very next book. Rating: 4/5.

As with Books 1 and 2, when the series was reprinted two new stories were added. They are as follows:

The Tower of Gold and Amber (Written by Kevin Andrew Murphy, starring / Trudy Parindell/Magpie): If there's one thing to take away from this story it's that Kevin Andrew Murphy does not like Donald Trump. Actually, it's a fictional Trump stand-in named Desmond Towers, but it's pretty obvious who he's supposed to be from the tiny hands to the tendency to name everything after himself. He's giving an exhibition of the forgotten treasures of  Catherine the Great which prove too tempting a target for several Ace criminals, including Trudy Pirandello, the 60 year old teleporting thief know as the Magpie. Magpie was actually introduced in a later book but this little insert story shows what she and several other characters was up to during the earlier portions of the series. The story also give us more background and information about several  of the more interesting minor characters who unfortunately never really had much development in the original run of the books which is an unexpected treat. With only a few allusions to the main plot, it's a fun little self-contained heist story that whose appeal largely depends on your side of the political spectrum. Rating: 5/5.

A Broken Thread in a Dark Room (Written by Carrie Vaughn, Starring Joann Jefferson/ Lady Black): The story begins with energy absorbing ace known as Lady Black, an agent of the government Wild Cards task force SCARE, investigating a series of animal mutilations. This brings her into contact with the vampiric joker ace Vlad who is obsessed with entering the Rox, a separatist community set up by disgruntled jokers on Ellis Island. In the introduction to this review, I mentioned that this arc of the series is called the "Rox Triad" but in the original edition of Book Nine, the jokers of the Rox only plays a major role in a few of the stories with the decision to focus more on the Jumpers. "A Broken Thread" helps foreshadow the Rox's importance in the later books while also serving as a poignant character peace. Deconstructing superheroes has always been a core part of Wild Cards and the ending shows how often times, despite all their powers, heroes ultimately can't save people from themselves. Rating: 4/5.

Overall, this book was not the series at it's best. To damn with faint praise, it's also not the series at its worst. It's simply a mediocre book. The stuff that works is good enough and the stuff that doesn't isn't bad enough to merit too much in the way of outrage. If the next book was good, perhaps, the "Rox Triad" could have been saved. Unfortunately, as we will see in our next post, the series was heading to its lowest point.

Addenda: This introduces the Jumpers who will be around for some time to come.  The Jumper's leader, the mysterious Prime, is introduced, although in fact he is an old character in a new guise. Zelda, a jumper introduced in this book, will be a point of view character in later volumes. The book also introduces Bloat, the teenage leader of the Joker terrorists that have taken over Ellis Island.  Gigantic and immobile, (think Jabba the Hutt's larger younger brother), he is also blessed with telepathic abilities. He doesn't get to do much in this book but will become one of the more nuanced Wild Cards antagonists by the time the story is over.

Wild At Heart: A Wild Cards Retrospective- Book VII: Dead Man's Hand

As I discussed in my last post, both "Wild Cards Book VI: Ace in the Hole" and "Wild Cards Book VII: Dead Man's Hand" began life as part of one single book. The original idea was that this book would have six plot threads devoted to wrapping up the long running storyline involving Wild Cards' first major villain, Greg Hartman, a.k.a. Puppetman and two plot threads involving a murder mystery story that would also wrap up other long running storylines. When the two writers working on the murder mystery plot line wrote so much material that it would not fit in Book VI, a decision was made to spin the murder mystery story into it's own separate book.

Thus, while most of the Wild Cards books proceed chronologically, "Dead Man''s Hand" and "Ace in the Hole" take place about the same time. While most of the Wild Card Character's are occupied with the event of the Democratic primary chronicled in "Dead Man's Hand", long time supporting cast member, the joker information broker, Chrysalis is found murdered. Her bodyguard, private detective Jay Ackroyd, known to his chagrin as Poppinjay (written by George R.R. Martin) for the distinctive popping sound that occurs when he uses his ability to teleport the objects he points at, finds the body and take it upon himself to catch the killer. Meanwhile, Chrysalis' former lover, the non-powered vigilante, Yeoman (written by John Jos. Miller) finds himself implicated in the killing and comes out of hiding to catch the real killer.

Naturally, the two cross paths alternately as adversaries and allies. Interestingly, Ackroyd never seriously considers the possibility that Yeoman might be the killer. Instead, Ackroyd's strong moral code and dislike of violence clashes with Yeoman's use of lethal force to deal with his enemies. In the meantime, the two cross paths with almost every major antagonist in the series. Bludgeon, the Shadow Fist Society, Ti Malice, and the Shadow Fist Society all put in appearances.

Even Puppetman casts his shadow over this book. One of my few complaints about "Ace in the Hole" was that Jay Ackroyd was kind of a deus ex machina: He shows up out of nowhere with damning evidence of Greg Harman's crimes in his possession.  This book has the opposite problem. Here, we see Ackroyd find the evidence and we see a few scenes from the previous book from his perspective but the thread just kind of ends. The book does everything but outright say "Read the last book to find out how all this turned out." It serves as a distraction from the mystery at the center of the book especially since "Ace in the Hole" already established that Hartman is not the killer.

Of course, villains like Puppetman are not the book's sole concern. The final confrontation is ultimately between the two leads and their wildly different visions of justice with both sides bringing up valid points. Yeoman and Ackroyd are both heroes, yes, but they are too different to ever really be on the same side. Like "Ace in the Hole" before it, the ending is more nuanced the hero beats villain (though there is some of that too) and the story is better for it. I would recommend reading "Ace in the Hole" and "Dead Man's Hand" together. The stories are really two halves of a whole: exploring what it means to do the right thing and be a hero when confronted with complex moral choices. Although individually both books have their flaws, together, they are my favorite books in the series.

Wild At Heart: A Wild Cards Retrospective- Book VI: Ace in the Hole

"Wild Cards Book VI: Ace in the Hole" and it follow-up, "Wild Cards Book VII: Dead Man's Hand", are the series at its best. To talk about why, we need to talk a little bit about the history of the book. The original plan with Wild Cards Book VI was to structure it much like Book III: As a novel with multiple POV characters whose stories would intersect rather then the anthology format of the previous two books.

Book VII was conceived as a much more complex novel: with eight characters and seven writers divided up into two major plot arcs. Six of the stories would primarily deal with  the first major plot arc which would see Greg Hartman, the evil ace known as Puppetman, attempt to become the Democratic nominee for president. Two of the stories would deal with the second plot arc, a murder mystery of sorts where the heroes investigated the death of long time supporting cast member, Chrysalis.

It was, ultimately, to much to contain in a single book. (The original manuscript was supposedly over 1,000 pages long.) Fortunately, the two writers handling the murder mystery story had written enough material to fill a book on its own. And thus, what was one once one book became two.

This means that, unlike Book III, Book VI has the benefit of a singular focus: the heroes and villains of Wild Cards attending the 1988 Democratic Convention. Gregg Hartman, the emotion manipulating Puppetman, (written by Stephen Leigh) is finally making his play for the Democratic nomination. His public commitment to jokers' rights and his public persona as a compassionate politician have duped the heroic aces and convention delegates Jack Braun, aka, Golden Boy (written by Walter John Williams) and Dr. Tachyon (written by Melinda Snodgrass) into supporting him. Meanwhile, Hartman has sent his henchman, the intangible killer who calls himself Mackie Messer (written by Victor Milan) to tie up any loose ends that can expose his alter-ego. Unfortunately, he also has to deal with Sarah Morganstern (also written by Milan), a reporter who is one of the last living people to know his secret, and Demise (written by Walton Simons), an ace assassin who has been hired to kill him.

This book manges to effectively combine political thriller with superhero story, a combination that yields excellent results. It is the perhaps the only superhero book to take an in-depth look at the back room deals and compromises that go into selecting a presidential nominee. However, the book also doesn't skimp on the superhero action with multiple great fight scenes and an unconventional ending thats a little more nuanced then the usual "hero beats villain."

This is not to say that everything is great. Dr. Tachyon is at his worst here, willfully ignoring signs that Hartman is evil including several characters outright telling him so until you want to reach into the book and slap him. (His treatment of women, while never great also reaches an all time low here). Furthermore, the decision to split one book into two has an impact on the narrative structure: The discovery of key evidence against Hartman occurs during the murder mystery plot line which means that it is covered in the next book. In practical terms, that means that Book VI has a deus ex machina where a character who has not previously been in the book suddenly appears with an important plot device.


Really, this book is the villain's show the whole way through. In some ways, Gregg Hartman's greatest ability is not his super-powers, bur rather his ability to make other people believe he is a good man. This actually leaves the heroes in the position of having to oppose a beloved public figure, one whose defeat may ironically cause irreparable damage to aces and jokers alike, but whose victory would be even worse. This leaves the heroes genuinely having to struggle with a genuinely impossible choice.

However, the real stand out character this time is Demise. The eternally put-upon ace assassin has never been more relatable, operating by a twisted code of honor which renders him somewhat sympathetic while still being a completely irredeemable lunatic. (The fact that, by this point in the series, he only kills irritating people helps. One of the best sequences involves him disposing of a street mime in a hilarious fashion). He also gets a few moments which provide some insight into who he was before he became a killer and give him an oddly touching motivation for his actions in the story.

All in all,  the weaker parts of the book are minor and the excellent parts are really excellent.  This book is definitely one of the strongest book in the series. Book VI is a good read but would Book VII be able to keep up the energy. To find out, read the next part.

Addendum: To say too much would count as a spoiler. Really the only major character introduction of note is the ace Topper who can pull any item she needs out of her top hat. She appear in later books and play a major role in a story in the later book "Deuces Down."

Wild at Heart: A Wild Cards Retrospective - Book V: Down and Dirty

Since the last Wild Cards book went all the way around the world, Wild Cards Book V: Down and Dirty returns the action to New York to check in with members of the cast who weren't in the last book. This means we get to check in on  long standing heroes like the Turtle, Yeoman, and the Sleeper, among others. We also get introduced to our first joker super-hero, Quasiman, and the events of this book would, for good or ill, change the direction of Wild Cards forever, setting up the long running "Rox" storyline that ended the series' initial run.

For now, however, the series was on the second part of the "Puppetman Quartet." Ironically, the villain this storyline was named after is barely in this book. Instead, the set-up this time is that a gang war has broken out between the super-powered Shadow Fist Society criminal organization and the Gambione crime family. When this war threatens the people of Jokertown, Dr. Tachyon assembles of group of joker-aces, jokers with super-powers, to fight off both gangs.

Or that would have been the plot if the publisher hadn't rejected it out of hand for being to derivative of similar plots in other works begin published at the time. Thus, George R.R. Martin amended the pitch to include a second overarching plot. In addition to the gang war, the new plot would see Croyd Crenson, the Sleeper, become a carrier for the Wild Card virus, infecting and re-infecting anyone he came into contact with. This causes a massive outbreak in the middle of the city that the aces have to deal with. These two plots come together with mixed results as we will see.

In a big change from previous books, the interstitial stories take up the bulk of the book this time. They are:

Only the Dead Know Jokertown (by John Joseph Miller, starring Daniel Brennan/Yeoman): The return to New York begins with the re-introduction of non-powered vigilante, Yeoman, as he goes undercover to takedown the Shadow Fists from within. The story has some questionable choices, most notably Yeoman's decision to impersonate an Asian man as part of his disguise. Still the question of how far Yeoman will go to get his vengeance on the Fists makes this story compelling. Furthermore, it is is the rare story that suggests that a vengeance-obsessed vigilante might be able to move past his trauma which makes the upbeat ending a welcome surprise especially given the grimness of the rest of the book. Rating: 4/5.

All the King's Horses (by George R.R. Martin, starring Thomas Tudbury/The Great and Powerful Turtle): The last time we saw the Turtle, at the end of Book III, he had barely survived the Astronomer's attack on New York's aces. With his armored shell destroyed, Thomas Tudbury, the Tutle's alter-ego has decided to retire. That is, of course, until he gets caught up in the Sleeper's Wild Card outbreak. This is, to put it bluntly, not George R.R. Martin's best work, which means it still a pretty good story if a bit predictable. If you read any comic book story where the hero decides to retire, you know how its going to end. Unfortunately, "All the King's Horses" never really lets us see the Turtle in action, saving that for later volumes, so his inevitable decision lacks even the emotional impact of the stories it emulates. Rating: 3/5.

Concerto for Siren and Serotonin (by Roger Zelazny, starring Croyd Crenson/ The Sleeper): The hardest story to review and also my favorite in the volume. It starts of with Croyd Crenson, the Sleeper, the ace whose appearance and powers change every time he wakes up, being recruited by the Gambiones as muscle. Unfortunately, midway through the book, it becomes apparent that everyone Croyd is meeting is getting infected with the Wild Card. Even worse, by that point in the book, the narcotics that Croyd relies on to regulate his sleep habits have rendered him paranoid, causing him to rampage throughout the city when the authorities try to bring him in for treatment. This is Roger Zelazny's best Sleeper story perhaps because it is more central to the books main plot then Zelazny's other contributions. I've mentioned that I find that Zelazny had a habit to talking about, rather than showing, the deleterious effects of Croyd's drug use on his mental state. This story rectifies that, showing Croyd at his worst. In a way, the superhero the Sleeper owe the most to is the Hulk: Sometimes on the side of the angels but just as often a force of destruction. Rating: 4/5.



Breakdown, Takedown, and "What Rough Beast ---" (by Leanne C. Harper, starring Suzanne Melotti/Bagabond): Since Book IV took place outside of New York, it meant that we didn't get to see either of the sewer dwelling ace heroes, Bagabond and Sewer Jack. That was probably for the best as the two characters never really seemed to mesh well with the other Wild Cards characters, kind of occupying their  own corner of the universe. The three interconnected stories, "Breakdown", "Takedown", and "What Rough Beast ---",  focus on Bagabond, the ace who can talk to animals, as she must ultimately choose between her friendship with Rosemary Muldoon, the head of the Gambione crime family, and her friendship with Sewer Jack and his niece. This story had the potential to be the emotional core of the book when the war between the Gambiones and the Shadow Fists was the main plot. However, with the decision to include the Sleeper storyline, Bagabond and her problems seem low-stakes compared to what's going on in the rest of the book.  Rating: 2/5.

Blood Ties (by Melinda M. Snodgrass, starring Dr. Tachyon): A counterpart to "Concerto for Siren and Seratonin", this story shows Dr. Tachyon struggling to raise his newly-discovered grandson after Book IV. When the conflict between the Shadow Fists and the Gambiones spills into Jokertown, Tachyon assembles a group of joker-aces into a neighborhood watch to keep the peace.  Very quickly, however, this gets sidetracked by the new Wild Card outbreak and Tachyon's goal soon shifts to using the team to bring in the rampaging Sleeper. The story continues the unfortunate regression of Tachyon's character, including one ridiculous scene where he literally has a temper tantrum like a five-year old, making it hard to root for him. However, once the Wild Card outbreak plot kicks in the story picks up, with Tachyon's efforts to capture the Sleeper providing a good counterpoint to the Sleeper's misadventures in his own story. The two stories work together provide most of the narrative weight for this outing. Rating: 4/5.

As always, there are also stand-alone stories which focus on other characters in the Wild Cards universe:

Jesus Was an Ace (by Arthur Byron Cover, introducing Quasiman and the Reverend Leo Barnett): For the first time in Wild Cards (not counting stories retroactively inserted into older books), we get to see a Joker hero: the teleporting hunchback Quasiman. Quasiman's power's cause him to fluctuate in both time and space, meaning that he owes almost as much to Billy Pilgrim as to other monstrous heroes like the Hulk and the Thing or even even his obvious antecedent, the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Quasiman's deal is that, as the groundskeeper at the Jokertown church, he is often sent to use his abilities to help others at the behest of the joker priest, Father Squid. Sent to prevent an assassination that will escalate the war between the Shadow Fists and the Mafia, Quasiman comes into contact with radical anti-Wild Cards priest, Leo Barnett. Barnett crates an interesting counterpart to Quasiman. Even though he is prejudiced against joker's and is not at religious as her pretends to be, he's not mindlessly evil and genuinely thinks he's doing the right thing. Unfortunately, this was Arthur Byron Cover's only story for Wild Cards and all of  Barnett's character nuance was ignored by later writers in favor of a more outright villainous portrayal. It's a shame because the character we meet is interesting. Rating: 4/5.

The Second Coming of Buddy Holly (by Edward Bryant, introducing starring Jack Robicheaux/ Sewer Jack and Cordelia Chaisson): Edward Bryant is a fan of Buddy Holly. He really wants you to know how awesome Buddy Holly is. And that as far as I can tell is why Buddy Holly is alive in the Wild Cards universe for no adequately explained reason. He just is and no attempt is ever made to explain why. The plot theoretically centers on were-alligator Sewer Jack begin asked to work security at a comeback concert and there's some vague attempt to connect it to the rest of the book but mostly this story is there to remind of us how awesome Buddy Holly is. And then, for no reason, it ends with a brutal sexual assault scene that comes out of nowhere and is tonally at odds with rest of the story. This is not the worst Wild Cards story I have ever read but it is close. Rating: 1/5.

The Hue of the Mind (by Stephen Leigh, starring Misha/ the Kahina and Greg Hartman/Puppetman): This volume's Puppetman story is harder to judge. At the end of the previous book, several people had discovered the secret of Senator Greg Hartman's alter ego. In this story, he sets about dealing with that problem with the aid of his new henchman, the homicidal ace Mackie Messer. Despite this being a Puppetman story, the character appears only briefly and the story is primarily told from he perspective of the Kahina, a Muslim ace with precognitive powers. Thus, Puppetman is more of hidden presence who preys on the characters from off screen before appearing for a bloody climax. Like the previous story, this story does end with a rather brutal scene of sexual assault, a trope I must confess I am not fond of. Here, at least, it feels organic to the characters and not simply gratuitous violence for violence's sake. I'm docking it a point for that but its its not enough to ruin the story for me. Rating: 3/5.

Addicted to Love (by Pat Caddigan, starring Jane Lillian Dow/Water Lilly): This story is probably even more horrific than the "Hue of a Mind." The hydrokinetic ace Water Lill gets her first story since book two. Unfortunately, it sees her become a "mount" of the joker, Ti Malice. We got to see the revolting parasite in Book IV but here we get a better idea of how his powers work: the people he preys on literally become addicted to his vampiric kiss and, thus, essentially become his slaves. This is a fairly obvious metaphor for drug addiction but it's well done. The lengths that Water Lilly goes to under Ti Malice's influence are harrowing especially with a character who had been a hero in previous volumes. (Nor is she the only hero to suffer under Malice's ministrations). This is an upsetting story but it's supposed to be. My main complaint is that it ends by setting up plot threads that are never paid off because, like many other writers, Pat Caddigan never wrote another Wild Cards story. Rating: 3/5.

Mortality (by Walter John Williams, starring Modular Man):  Walter John William, in my opinion, is the MVP of the Wild Card writers. "Witness", from the first volume, remains my favorite Wild Cards story and his stories maintain a consistent quality.  Basically, I'm always glad to see his name in a book. In Book III, William's android hero, Modular Man was another hero who came out the worse from a fight with the Astronomer.  In Book V, the rebuilt Modular Man has to deal with the trauma of "dying" as events conspire to being him into conflict with the Sleeper. Of the one-shot stories, this one has most to do with the main plot and even contains the climax of the Sleeper arc. It's also the most straightforward superhero story in the book which is not a criticism. A good solid story in a wildly uneven book is nothing to sneeze at. Rating: 4/5.

Book V just has too much going on in it. The storyline about the gang war competes for space with the Wild Card outbreak which competes with all the writer's trying to advance the individual characters story which competes with a bizarre hagiography of Buddy Holly. It's far from the worst book in the series (that's Book IX)  but it is one of the most uneven.

Furthermore, there really should be some long term changes to the Sleeper's character as a result of this story, especially since a) the outbreak he inadvertently kills thousands of people, and b) his story ends on a bit of a cliff-hanger. Other characters in the series have to deal with the consequences of their actions, but next time we see the Sleeper, he's back to his old self and everyone seems to be fine with that. This creates a strange discontinuity in later books where  the  Wild Card outbreak and his role in it are constantly mentioned but no one actually seems to blame him for it. ("Hey, man, remember the time you literally unleashed an alien virus in the middle of New York?  Crazy times, right, man?")

But that's all right as the next two books are the series at it's best. The end of the Puppetman storyline would begin in earnest with the next book, Ace in the Hole.

Addendum: The Sleeper outbreak affects several characters in different ways. Modular Man's creator, Dr. Trevnacek, gets turned into a joker and loses his intelligence. A minor character in this book, Shadow Fist lawyer, "Loophole" Latham, gets exposed to the virus, as does the protsitute Veronica. (This would be followed up on in the "Rox Triad" that begins with Book VIII).  As for important character introductions, in addition to Quasiman, the book introduces the Oddity, a joker-ace who is literally three people fused together, and Lazy Dragon, a Shadow Fist ace with the ability to animate carvings of animals that he makes himself. They'll each get a story later.  The book also introduces Mr. Gravemold, a joker-ace with cold powers, and the Wall Walker, a minor ace mentioned back in Book III, but quickly establishes that they are the same person. Why there is a new ace with multiple identities will be revealed in Book IX. We see more of Dr. Tachyon's grandson, Blaise, and get more confirmation that he's going to be a problem in the future. Finally, the book contains with Sewer Jack and Bagabond's last hurrah as viewpoint characters for a while.

Wild at Heart: A Wild Cards Retrospective - Book IV: Aces Abroad.

With the end of Book III, Wild Cards brought the original triad of books to a close.  Having spent the first three books in New York,  the writers decided that the next trilogy would open with a book focusing on how the virus had affected  the wider world. This would become "Aces Abroad", the first in what would be dubbed"The Puppetman Quartet" after the villain who is the connecting thread between the next four books.

Book IV has a the simple overarching plot: The US government, alongside the World Health Organization, has decided to send a delegation of famous politicians, aces and jokers on a world tour to observe the effects of the Wild Card virus worldwide, naturally having adventures along the way.  This allowed established characters like Dr. Tachyon, Puppetman, Golden Boy, et al. to play a major role in the book while at the same time introducing new characters to the Wild Cards universe.

Why there's more to "Escape Room" then you might think

By now, the reviews are in for Escape Room. This (relatively) gore-free Saw knock off was put out in January, the traditional dumping ground for movies the studios don't expect to make any money. It currently stands at only 52% on Rotten Tomatoes. That's basically an "F", for those keeping track.

I'm not here to say that those reviewers are wrong. Escape Room is dumb. It is unapologetic about what it is and really doesn't aspire to any great intellectual statements about the human condition. This is not exactly Get Out is what I'm saying.

And yet there's a bit of unexpected brilliance in the movie. Unfortunately, this is impossible to discuss without giving away the ending so SPOILERS.

The movie's heroine is Zoey, played by Taylor Russel. Zoey is a socially withdrawn college student, who is prefers to spend time thinking about physics in her room than partying with her school mates. By all genre conventions, Zoey falls into that category  of stock horror character known as the "Final Girl."

As most horror fans know, the "Final Girl" is generally the virginal innocent female character whose purity is rewarded by surviving the movie. The "Final Girl" lives: everybody else dies except, of course, for the killer who returns in innumerable sequels.

Except in this movie, it's different. Near the end of the film, there are only two survivors of the game Zooey and Ben, played by Logan Miller. Zooey is able to escape one of the rooms, not by following the clues, but by tricking the people behind the game into believing she is dead. Given an opportunity to escape, however, she chooses to rescue Ben from the game, resulting in two survivors instead of one.

Many horror films would just stop there. However, Zoey is not content to count merely escaping as a win. Instead, she ends the film convincing Ben to help her pursue and stop the people behind the game. She's not content merely to survive the game: She refuses to cower helplessly from her tormentors.

And that make her something more than just a "Final Girl", who often only survive through luck and the demands of the script.  (Indeed, the movie has her reject the label, in a scene where she explicitly states that she does not want to be a sole survivor.) It makes her a heroic female character with a sense of agency, a rarity in horror. That' something that should be elaborated, even in a cheesy film like Escape Room.