'Wild Cards' - George R.R. Martin TV Series

Wild Cards is one of my favorite series. I've been reading it for decades. I hope they do it justice!

 

So after this virus, nobody is "normal", you're either a Joker or an Ace?

 

Joker, Ace, or dead. But only if you catch it. Most people don't.

 

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Gotcha

 

It's a retrovirus. Think AIDS. If you get it, you are definitely affected. But while it's a huge deal, affecting the population as a whole, most of us won't get it.

The Wild Card virus isn't spread via sexual contact, so you have a greater chance, but the principle is the same.

 

IIRC, the virus infected 10% of the population. Of that 10%, 90% died. Of the ones that survived, 90% were Jokers, and 10% were Aces. So, with a population of 290 million, that means 26,100,000 dead, 2,610,000 Jokers, and 290,000 Aces. I remember one of the Aces was called Popin' Jay. He could teleport himself and anyone he was touching to somewhere he had already been.

 

So if you're infected you basically have a 1% chance of becoming an ACE.

 

I know nothing about the books but this sounds really intriguing so I'll definitely tune in!

 

The books are a series of (mostly) shared-universe short-story collections (with a few novels sprinkled in). Back in the 80s, the hook was that it was super-hero stories by some of the top science fiction writers of the day, although I think over time the talent pool involved became smaller and more cliquish.

 

Sounds sort of like Heroes, but adding deformities too.

 

Sounds like a cool concept.

 

Has there been any mention on what network it might air on?

 

No, but the company that acquired the rights is part of NBCUniversal, so perhaps something under that umbrella.

 

Ok so most likely SyFy

 

The interesting thing about it, to my mind, was that because it was SF writers, it was more grounded. It was, yes, people with powers, but most of them didn't put on costumes and fight crime. They still behaved as people did. Some of them had very attractive results and they monetized that.

Jokers were shunned. People didn't want to even know they existed. "Pretend you don't notice the deformed man, honey..".

And it included an entire alternate history, including House Unamerican Activities Committee not being about Communists, but being about Wild Cards.

Some parts of it are most definitely "not safe for work" and thus "not safe for network television". If it winds up on network, those parts will probably simply be excised.

But we'll get to see The Great and Powerful Turtle, at least. I can't imagine doing Wild Cards without the Turtle.

 

I love the books!

Though, if they have 9X as many jokers as aces, that will make interesting visuals.

 

These sound really good! I am going to try and start reading them. Are they appropriate for young teenagers? Sounds like something my boys would like. Ereth's comment makes it sound like they're not.

 

There's overt sexuality in them. Are your kids old enough for that? It's not porn, but it's there, "on-screen" so to speak, not implied and "off-camera". It's not a major part of the books, except perhaps for the sequence for how Jumpers (people who can swap bodies with other people), which is rather extended.

Of course there's violence, too. And people aren't so much cartoon characters with strong right and wrong values. There's a lot of shades of gray, and there's a lot of people who do horrible things and there's a lot of discrimination, especially against Jokers.

And even The Great and Powerful Turtle, the most overt clear-cut "Superhero" in the book, swears at people he's dealing with and doesn't have the moral code of a Superman.

I suppose the thing it's most like is the movie version of "The Watchmen", though that's actually not a very good comparison. I just can't think of anything else comparable. It's real life, which is messy, and has people who hate, and people who kill (including terrorists), but also people who are wonderful and people who love and people in between. And an awful lot of people die.

The first book... or at least the first portion of the book, the story of "Jetboy" and how the Virus got here, is absolutely fine, the closest to a comic book of the entire series. And probably the most memorable ending of any of them.

The later books are more of a mix, and certainly darker (90% of the people who got the Virus died, how could it get darker than that? It does. Not because of death, but because of the people who survived, the "villains", who aren't cartoon characters with stupid plans.)

Oh yeah, there's also drug references, with Captain Trips being the most overt, but I think he's just fine. He's certainly not going to be as big a surprise in 2016 as he was in the 1980s (just say no!). And he's a really great character, your kids will probably love him.

Does that help, or muddy it worse?

 

That helps some. They read enough and play the video games, I am not so concerned about violence and darkness. I am still trying to shelter them from the sex a little. I am waiting to get it from the library and will check it out first.