Michael Komarck

I read the first 17 Wild Cards, but I logged that last one eighteen years ago, so I've missed a bunch in the meantime. Unfortunately, the characters in this graphic novel are from books 21-23 and 31, and the author assumes I've been keeping up, leaving me a bit lost in the finer points of this police procedural graphic novel.

Wild Cards is set in a world shaped by a cataclysmic event in the 1940s that released a virus over New York City that gruesomely kills most of the people it infects, but show more leaves a small number with body-deforming mutations, gives a smaller number powers that amount to useless parlor tricks, and grants the smallest number full-blown super powers. Those with the worse luck live in a slum neighborhood of New York City called Jokertown.

The lead character is Francis "Frank" Black, a legacy police detective with daddy issues who was never infected by the virus. Assigned to Jokertown, he wants to find who removed the skeleton from the pile of skin and muscle that's been found in an alley. But when that case starts to reveal secrets the powers that be would prefer uncovered, he finds himself offered with a distracting high profile operation against Russian mobsters. The various plots get all muddled and I lost interest long before a cheesy showdown tried to tie it all together.

The story is narrated by a character whose identity is not immediately revealed, though it is pretty easy to guess very early on. But the story makes no attempt to justify why or how this character could be the narrator, so the identity reveal feels like only half of a payoff, with a second shoe left undropped.

The other side characters are barely introduced, lowering the stakes considerably when bad things happen to some of them. One character has a ridiculous Barbie doll figure that is unexplained in the book, but some research revealed she is a Joker whose body has the characteristics of a greyhound dog. The artists failed to show the exaggerated canine teeth her prose appearances describe.

The art, by the way, is going for an Alex Ross painted realism that does look pretty good most of the time, but it has a stiffness that fails to convey action sequences well. show less

While browsing at 2nd and Charles and looking through their comic collection, I saw the title. I saw the picture. I thought - Well? Why not? I bought it and took it home and read it.

And I liked it. Well enough to want to read the next installment. I didn't love it but I felt it had promise.

I haven't read a lot of Marvel comics and I don't know a lot about the Marvel universe. I was more of a DC kind of girl in the 1990's and early 21st century. I had no idea who Agent Carter was. I got the show more impression she used to date Captain America. I was thinking Howard Stark must be Tony Stark's father.

I liked her boots in the beginning - kick ass boots for a kick ass lady.

Russia was interesting and the end - well, I decided I'd buy the second issue and see how it was going. show less

No cover picture yet! I hope that gets fixed. . .

Just read this last night. Made another visit to 2nd and Charles to see if #2 was available.

I told my husband I was reading this series about some spy and she used to date Captain America and she has this relationship with Howard Stark and they don't really seem to like each other but they're kind of friends. . . Mike said - Agent Carter? The one on the TV series? That's what you're reading?

Oh. There's a TV series? I don't pay attention to show more TV. Too much time spent with my nose in a book or (sadly) reading emails. I googled this and the first issue coincided with the series premiere.

I'll watch one of the shows. I'm curious. I was just interested in the story for the story's sake, not for any history or TV show.

The story line continues in Russia. It's still okay, but I hope it gets better. I will go find #3 when it is out, though. Have to find out about the bear - the big, bad, Russian bear. show less