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.
