Saturday, April 12, 2008

Take a bet on Wild Cards #1


Viruses, in general, are pretty bad news. At best, they give you a nasty case of the sniffles and totally ruin your day. At worst, they can kill you. Worst of all, there's not much you can really do about a virus. Once the little buggers get their claws into you, you just have to take your vitamins and try to ride it out. Regular old Earth viruses are bad enough, just imagine what could happen if aliens started dumping their viruses on us. Yikes!

That nightmare scenario is just the starting point for George R.R. Martin's Wild Cards #1: The Hard Call from Dabel Brothers Publishing. Over six decades ago, aliens from the planet Takis decided to test out a horrible little virus/weapon on the inhabitants of New York. Most victims of this Wild Card virus drew the Black Queen, an instant, horrible, death. Some became Jokers, disfigured freaks whose lives would never be the same. A tiny, tiny, percentage become Aces, gaining amazing powers and abilities.

The Dabel Brothers have become well-known for creating comic series based on highly respected and loved literary works. Wild Cards began life as a series of "mosaic novels" created and edited by George R.R. Martin. Many authors contributed stories to the Wild Cards books, and a complex mythology built up around this world and its characters. Sounds a lot like the way the DC and Marvel Universes were formed, doesn't it? Wild Cards is really a perfect concept for translation to comics. Writer Daniel Abraham and artist Eric Battle are off to a great start with this first issue.

This issue starts off with two main plot lines. One follows the Croyd "The Sleeper" Crenson as he struggles to survive, and solve a murder, in the slum known as Jokertown. The other deals with a high school student who gets caught up in a new Wild Card outbreak, and finds out that maybe drawing an Ace isn't as great as he imagined. If you've never heard of the book series, you can jump in here, without feeling the least bit lost. If you are already a fan of the books, you will definitely love this comic. It lets the Wild Card universe grow in new directions, and offers up a new way of looking at your old favorites.

So wipe your nose, take a cough drop, and head over to Four Color Fantasies to pick up this guaranteed Book of the Week. This series has the potential to become the next big thing, so don't miss out on your chance to get in at the beginning!

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