This isnt exactly a cheat, as Martin isnt the sole writer of the long-running Wild Cards superhero series. They represent collaborative fiction set in a shared world, consisting of books with interconnected short stories, entirely unconnected short stories, and on several occasions mosaic novels constructed in the editing process by the contributions of several writers. The first book was published in 1987, and the twenty-third will be published next year. Much like the Watchmen comics series, the Wild Cards world is our own world, but one that diverged at a key historical point to allow the existence of people with strange and exotic powers. In this case, the catalytic event release of an alien retrovirus nicknamed the Wild Card virus into the earths atmosphere in 1946, which horribly kills 90% of people it contacts (called drawing the Black Queen); 9% are mutated into other forms entirely, often with hideous deformities (referred to as jokers); and 1% get lucky, and develop fantastic abilities and powers (called aces). Theres also those amusingly unfortunate few who develop ace powers that are almost entirely pointless, like the ability to grow body hair at will (known as deuces). The first few books follow a largely historical perspective: we get to see how the presence of superpowered people would have affected the Cold War, for example. Book six, Ace In The Hole, features a psychopathic ace US senator with mind control powers who is intent on running for president. Martin and Melinda M. Snodgrass do a fine job of editing all of the contributions, but its inevitable that there are disparate storytelling voices, and not every character and every story works as well as others do. A television adaptation would go some way towards fixing that minor niggle, and with the popularity of superhero adaptations to TV and film showing no sign of abating, and Martins own notoriety probably at its peak, the time is perfect to give Wild Cards a proper cable television adaptation.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
