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.
Like in Book II, there are two interstitial stories that serve as the spine of the book. These are:
The Journal of Xavier Desmond (by George R.R. Martin, starring Xavier Desmond): This story is written as the journal of jokers right advocate, Xavier Desmond, as he comments on the events of the tour, while also coming to terms with a diagnosis of terminal cancer. This story has the thankless task of providing both exposition without losing site of its main character. Fortunately, it rises to the occasion. Desmond is a tragic hero, trying to wrap up a life with some dignity, in a world where he will always be considered an outcast. Martin does such a great job making us feel for the character that the world building aspects of the story never seem forced, making this the stand out in this volume. Rating: 5/5.
The Tint of Hatred (by Stephen Leigh, starring Senator Greg Hartman/ Puppetman): This story sees Senator Greg Hartman, and his psychotic alter ego, Puppetman, dealing with a reporter out to expose his secret. Hartman must also deal with a physical threat in the form of fundamentalist Muslim ace, the Nur-Al-Allah, who has plans to put a violent stop to the WHO tour. This story differs from Puppetman's outing in Book I in that it gives us more than brief glimpses into the head of the psychopath, making the character into a sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. (Here both personas are evil, but with very different motivations and goals). The new villain, the Nur is a bit of a cliche terrorist, by today's standards, but he does the job of setting up a threat and adding some action to the story. Rating: 4/5.
The one shot stories, as in the first volume, are largely stand alone bits focusing on a single character. These include:
Beasts of Burden (by John J. Miller, starring Chrysalis): Here the cast of Wild Cards visits Haiti where the joker members of the WHO tour are taken prisoner by parasitic joker Ti Malice and his voodoo cult. The only escapee, the translucent skinned joker Chrysalis, must use her wits to free her fellow jokers. "Beasts of Burden" suffer from what could be called a dated view of Haitian culture and people. If your thinking voodoo and zombies, you would be right. The only thing that really resonates about this story is Ti Malice, who may be the first joker character in Wild Cards who is completely unsympathetic. Truly a villain you root to see get what is coming to him which is unfortunate because he will be hanging around for a bit more. Rating: 2.5/5.
Blood Rites (by Leanne C. Harper, introducing the Hero Twins) : Taking a different tack for her story, Leanne C. Harper introduces a pari of Thor analogues, writing an origin story for the Hero Twins, two indigenous Mayans in Guatemala transformed by the Wild Card virus into incarnations of the mythical heroes, Hunapu and Xbalanque. Only tangentially related to the main plot of the book, the story is ultimately hampered by its setting. Because the Hero Twins are based in Guatemala, and the rest of Wild Cards generally takes place in the United States ,means that they don't get a lot of screen time in future books. This makes it frustrating that the story spends a lot of time setting up more stories with the characters that never came to pass. There are hints that Hunapu and Xbalanque will ultimately come into conflict over their differing views on Mayan tradition but since they don't make another appearance until a cameo in book 13, the hints go nowhere. This makes the story come off as pointless and disconnected from the rest of the book and, indeed, the series as a whole. Rating: 3/5.
Down by the Nile (by Gail Gerstner-Miller, starring Amari Sweet/Peregrine): Finally, the Wild Card Universe's premier supeheroine gets her own story. It's a shame she doesn't get to do much in it. One of the aces on the tour, celebrity talk show host Peregrine, has finally entered into a stable relationship with her new boyfriend. Unfortunately, in the previous book, Peregrine slept with the ace Fortunato and that comes back to haunt her in the form of an unplanned pregnancy. Really, this is another story that is more about setting up future plot threads including a subplot about Peregrine's and Fortunato's future child being an object of worship to an Egyptian cult. Unfortunately, as a result of this, Peregrine doesn't get to do much in her own story. In fact, she is sidelined by her pregnancy during the story's big action sequence. This is rendered more egregious by the fact that this was the only story Peregrine would ever get in the books. Rating: 2/5.
The Teardrop of India (by Walton Simons, introducing J.C Jayewardene, gust-starring Dr. Tachyon): Book IV can be credited with an increased focus on the "supporting cast", characters who aren't really superheroes or villains but get caught up in the madness anyway. J.C. Jayewardene is one such character, a Sri Lankan government official with precognitive abilities. When his powers reveal a secret about a recurring Wild Card character, he has to enlist the help of Dr Tachyon and the other aces on the WHO tour before tragedy strikes. This is one of the most accessible stories in the book. It's heavy on the superhero action and ends with the introduction of a "new" hero who will appear in later books while also being a relatively self-contained adventure. This story is just good fun. Rating: 4/5.
Down in the Dreamtime (by Edward Bryant, starring Cordelia Chaisson, introducing Wareen/Wyungare): Oh God, this story. The story has the least to do with the overarching plot of the book other then a tenuous mention. Instead, it features Cordelia Chaisson, niece of the ace Sewer Jack, as she is sent on a business trip to Australia by the toy company she works for. There, she gets pulled into an adventure with the Aboriginal revolutionary ace, Wyungare, as she is targeted for assassination by his rival. Aboriginal Australians are an underrepresented group in superhero stories but the handful that do exist are often stereotypical mystics who can enter the mystical realm of Dreamtime because this is all white people know about Aboriginal Australians. Wyungare does not exactly break from tradition. This story is so disconnected from the main narrative that it feels like there is no real reason for it to be in the book. It comes of as padding and is easily my least favorite story in the book. Rating: 1/5.
Zero Hour (by Lewis Shiner, staring Fortunato): As the end of the last book, Fortunato (Wild Card's resident pimp and mystic) decided to leave New York and head to Japan to find himself. When the WHO tour comes to Japan, he finds himself crossing paths with old friends, including his former lover, Peregrine, and gravity controlling ace Hiram Worchester. When Hiram is targeted by the Yakuza, Fortunato finds himself drawn back into the violence he left New York to escape. This story itself is decent but it primarily serves as an epilogue for Fortunato, wrapping up the character's arc that began back in book one. This will be the last book where he get his own story for quite some time. One of Wild Card's strengths is its willingness to let old characters slide out of focus to make room for new characters, which is on display here. Rating: 3/5.
Puppets (by Victor Milan, staring Greg Hartman/Puppetman, introducing Mackie Messer/ Mack the Knife): Author Victor Milan takes a break from his usual character, Captain Trips, to focus on a new villain, Mackie "Mack the Knife" Messer. A psychotic ace with the ability to walk though walls, Mackie is part of a Communist revolutionary group sent to kidnap Greg Hartman when the WHO tour goes through Berlin. This does not go well. The story alternates between Hartman and Mackie's point of view and is genuinely suspenseful. However, Mackie as a character, is an unfortunate stereotype: A killer who murders due to repressed homosexuality. The first few books have done a decent if not perfect job of dealing with LGBT content. Mackie is an unfortunate step back in a lot of respects.Rating: 3/5.
Mirrors of the Soul (by Melinda Snodgrass, starting Dr. Tachyon, guest staring Jack Braun/ Golden Boy): When the WHO tour arrives in Paris, Dr. Tachyon discovers, much to his shock, that thanks to a dalliance during his exile in Paris in the 1950s, he has a grandson he has never met. Unfortunately, the grandson has been raised by a group of radical terrorists, forcing Tachyon to team up with Golden Boy, the man responsible for his Paris exile, to recover the boy. This story would generally be good if it wasn't such a big step backwards for Dr. Tachyon. The last two books had implied that Tachyon was beginning to develop beyond his self-loathing and was even ready to give up womanizing and pursue a serious relationship. This story, and indeed the whole book, undoes that character development and turns him back into a chronically depressed womanizer. Indeed, in later books, the character would only regress, an unfortunate cycle that begins here. Rating: 2/5.
Legends (by Michael Cassutt, starring Polyakov): Michael Cassutt's stories in Wild Cards, tended to focus on hidden aces, who conceal their powers. This is best exemplified by his character, Georgy Vladimrovich Polyakov, a Russian intelligence official who is also a secret ace. Issues arise when he stumbles onto Greg Hartman's dark secret but finds himself disbelieved and on the run from his own government. This story would have been more interesting if it wasn't so similar to several earlier stories in the book, specifically "The Tint of Hatred" and "Puppets." As it stands, it seems like a little more could be done to make this story stand out. Rating: 3/5.
As with the first book, when Book IV was republished in 2011, two new stories were added.
Warts and All (by Kevin Andrew Murphy, starring Howard Mueller/ Troll): This story follows a relatively underdeveloped character who appears several times throughout the book series, Dr. Tachyon's body guard, the super strong joker Troll. He shows up several times and is a hero in his own right but the books never delve to deeply into his motivation and backstory. This story rectifies that by developing Troll's character, revealing that the brawny joker also has a large brain and a love of folklore. It is also a good adventure story that expands on the backstory of characters that appear in more recent books. (The Messenger in Black, a joker literally made out of bugs, is a character I look forward to seeing more of). All in all, a good read. Rating: 4/5.It's Always Spring in Prague (by Carry Vaughn, starring Joann Jefferson/ Lady Black): This story focuses on Lady Black, a government Ace who is acting as a bodyguard on the WHO tour. A long running character in the book stories, like Troll, this is also the first time the character gets her own point of view story. The plot of this story sees Lady Black looking for the joker daughter of a wealthy family who has gone missing in Prague. The story is, however, mostly an exploration of Lady Black's inner life, as her ace ability literally renders her touch lethal, leaving her isolated from society. The story is fine enough but, unfortunately, it feels kind of low stakes. Like a lot of prequel stories in general, the story is hamstrung by the fact that we already know the main character will be fine in later volumes of series. Whereas "Warts and All" makes up for this by having some genuinely impressive action set pieces and memorable characters, unfortunately, with exception of the main character, the characters in this story are nowhere nears as memorable and the action is kind of bland. Priest will return to Lady Black with better results in later volumes. Rating: 3/5.
Like all anthology, this book was a mixed bag with some good stories, a few OK ones, and one truly bad story. Like Book I, each story in Book IV is more of an anthology with each story more or less standing on its own. It also served to expand the world of Wild Cards and give a sense of how the outbreak of the virus affected the global community. The book uses this opportunity to introduce a bunch of new characters, some of whom would be destined to fade into obscurity and some of whom would be major players in later books. Overall, the book is a good read with the good parts outweighing its bad.
Addendum: This book introduces several new characters, some of which I have already mentioned. The government ace Billy Ray is reintroduced and we finally learn his ace name "Carnifex". The malevolent joker Ti Malice will follow the WHO tour back to New York to become a major antagonist and Wyungare, the aboriginal Ace, will get a story of his own. More importantly, Dr. Tachyon gains custody of his grandson, Blaise Andreaux and its pretty clear right of the bat that the kid has some serous mental issues. We learn that Xavier Desmond dies shortly after the events of this book. The Joker priest, Father Squid, will take up the role of being Wild Cards Professor Xavier analogue. The new Magneto analogue, introduced in this group, will be the Black Dog and the Twisted Fists, a Israel-based international joker terrorist group. (This also confusingly enough, introduces a second antagonist group with the word Fist in their name.) We first hear mention of anti-Wild Card fundamentalist preacher, Leo Barnett, who will appear in later volumes. Jerry Strauss, the Projectionist, a shape-shifting ace with a cameo in book one, is reintroduced and will become a POV character in later volumes.
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