List of Wild Cards characters
Characters from the Wild Cards book series.
- Aquarius - alter-ego of Cap'n Trips, a powerful Ace able to temporarily transform into a dolphin.
- The Astronomer – uses human sacrifice to energize his vast powers
- Bagabond – controls all the animals in Manhattan
- Black Dog – militant Joker terrorist
- Black Eagle – the first flying Ace—and the first to fall
- Blackhole - gravity manipulating ace who can make objects light or heavy and even bend light to make himself invisible.
- Black Shadow – vigilante identity of the Ace Shad, multi-powered ace
- Blaise Jeannot Andrieux – Tachyon's psychotic mind-controlling grandson
- Bloat – adolescent stuck in a monstrous body, with untapped mental powers
- The Bludgeon – A low rent ace thug with superhuman strength who will do just about anything for the right price
- Bradley Finn – Joker centaur, doctor at the Jokertown clinic
- Brain Trust – female ace, Tachyon's tragic lover, could absorb minds
- Broadcast - can transport himself between two electrically connected machines. "Extrudes" from machine smaller than he is before reforming.
- Bubbles - a former model who can absorb kinetic impact and store it as fat; she can later release this energy as destructive "bubbles."
- Burrowing Owl - ace who could tunnel and fly. Apparently able to sense location underground, demonstrated by his appearance from underneath combat scenes at opportune moments. Murdered by the Radical.
- Cameo – object reading ace with the power to channel the dead and their Wild Card abilities. Murdered by the Radical.
- Candle - generates various forms of "fire" - a cold version, a hot version and a version that can form solid "constructs."
- Captain Flint - flame-eyed giant made of stone who runs the Silver Helix, Britain's collection of federal aces.
- Captain Trips – hippie ace who turns into superheroes with each drug he takes
- Carnifex – fast-healing fighter who loves violence, and hates getting jerked around
- Chalktalk – mute, feral joker girl with the power to teleport through her chalk sketches
- Chrysalis – information broker, owner of the Crystal palace. Her Joker turned her skin and flesh crystal-clear
- Sharon Cream - strongest known female ace, murdered by The Righteous Djinn
- Cody Havero - former female battle medic, doctor at the Jokertown Clinic. Either very lucky or an ace
- Cosmic Traveler - alter-ego of Cap'n Trips, a flying Ace who can also shift his shape, desolidify and turn invisible.
- Crypt Kicker – an ace who is essentially a zombie; with superhuman strength, acid for blood that he can exude through his pores, and near limitless durability
- Curveball - a young woman who can control the flight of any object she throws, and detonate it on impact.
- The Darkness - child ace created by the Nshombo project. Could project a field of darkness only she could see through. Could confer on others the ability to see in this darkness by touching their eyes.
- Deadhead – mentally unstable ace with a taste for "brain food"
- Demise – undead assassin, Black Queen turned to ace, who kills with a glance
- Detroit Steel – Ace protected by a suit of armor built from old cars and scrap metal
- Digger Downs – nosy reporter who can "smell" Aces by his own ace
- Dr. Tachyon – eccentric alien telepath who helped create the Wild Card
- Dr. Maxim Travnicek - hyperinventive misanthropic ace, creator of Modular Man
- Drummer Boy - six armed, superstrong Joker whose elongated torso contains tympanic membranes; later revealed to be an Ace who can create powerful sonic attacks by drumming on himself and focusing the generated sound through his various throats.
- Durg at'Morakh bo'Zabb Vayawand'sa – genetically engineered Takisian warrior
- Earth Witch - possess a form of telekinesis limited to mud, earth and rock.
- Elephant Girl – she can turn into the ace equivalent of Dumbo
- Elmo – super strong dwarf framed for murder
- Envoy – his pheromones can turn foe into friend—as long as he stays near
- Fadeout – an ace gangster with the ability to turn invisible
- Father Squid – Joker with a past, started his own church for Jokers
- Fortunato – intellectual pimp who uses sex magic
- G. C. Jayewardene – sees the future, whether he wants to or not.
- Gardener (Jerusha Carter) - ace with the ability to vastly increase the growth rate of any plant, and direct the plant's form. Weakened by The Hunger and murdered by Wrecker.
- Genetrix - joker/ace with a strange tail-like ovipositor. Following sex, she lays clutches of 2-4 eggs that immediately hatch into miniature, short-lived homonculi/children who are aces, deuces or jokers.
- Gimli – angry, militant Jokers-rights protester. a Joker dwarf
- Golden Boy – strongest man in the world, the Judas Ace
- The Great and Powerful Turtle – world's most powerful telekinetic—as long as he's safe in his shell
- Hannah Davis – New York arson investigator with no special abilities, who uncovers the Card Sharks conspiracy
- Hardhat - construction worker; could create "I beam" constructs from energy. Missing and presumed dead following the second battle of Aswan Dam.
- Harlem Hammer – super strong African American ace with bones of steel and a fear of hospitals
- Hiram Worchester – formerly the gravity-controlling "Fatman", now runs a gourmet restaurant
- Holy Roller - a fundamentalist reverend of enormous size (around 600 pounds) who can roll himself into a ball and travel in that form.
- Hoodoo Mama - New Orleans based ace who can animate the dead, people and animals. She can control and perceive through any zombie and can communicate through human zombies.
- Howler – a high profile ace with the power to project a banshee's scream.
- The Hunger - child ace created by the Nshombo project. By biting, injected a toxin that boosted victims' metabolism while preventing absorption of nutrients, effectively starving them to death.
- Jetboy – a failed hero
- Imp - a minor ace, associated with The Astronomer. His ace allows him to produce an EMP around him.
- Insulin - female ace, associated with The Astronomer. Possesses the ability to reduce a person's blood sugar level in an instant.
- Jetman - claims to be "the man Jetboy would have grown up to be." A tinkerer who creates wonderful devices through some means even he doesn't fully understand, possibly an ace or deuce power.
- Jonathan Hive - can split himself in millions of wasps, forming a gestalt mind; can manage partial splits (shedding a finger, for example, as a collection of wasps through which he can see).
- Jube the Walrus – alien spy and xenologist, hiding in plain sight
- Judas - minor ace, associated with The Astronomer, capable of finding aces and deducing their powers
- The Jumpers – vicious teen gang-bangers who can steal your body
- Jumpin' Jack Flash - alter-ego of Cap'n Trips, a flying Ace able to create, manipulate and extinguish fire.
- Kafka – cockroach-like germ-phobic Joker genius
- Kelly Jenkins – Nat girl who gets caught up in Blaise's madness
- Kid Dinosaur – his dreams have come true, he's an ace and a dinosaur!
- Kien Phuc – traitorous Vietnamese general turned American gangster
- Lazy Dragon – sends his mind into origami or soap carving animal bodies he creates
- Legion – one woman in six sexy bodies
- Leo Barnett – charismatic faith healer turned politician, who just knows in his heart the Wild Card is the mark of Satan
- Little Fat Boy - pudgy kid whose deadly ace causes him to explode like a small nuclear bomb when stressed.
- Lohengrin - German ace who can materialize a protective energy that manifests as armor, and weapons (made of the same energy) that can cut nearly anything. Disfigured and nearly killed by The Radical.
- Loophole – either the Wild Card removed all his empathy, or he's just a lawyer.
- Lucien (last name unknown) - pen pal of Rustbelt whose plight induced the American ace to visit Africa in an attempt to rescue him. Inducted into the Nshombo project where he drew the black queen before Rusty could save him. This motivated Rusty towards destroying the project.
- Mackie Messer – psycho killer who walks through walls and has buzzsaw hands. Casual killer.
- Maharajah - wheelchair-using ace (missing both legs and one arm) who can create "servants" that appear to be invisible telekinetic constructs wearing clothing
- The Midnight Angel - A soldier of the Lord, armed with Ace strength and a flaming sword
- Modular Man – android created by an Ace's power, but he longs for freedom
- Monster - alter-ego of Cap'n Trips, a raging giant horned joker with fangs, scaled skin, inhuman strength, and a destructive energy blast.
- Moonchild - alter-ego of Cap'n Trips. A master martial artist, stronger than a normal human and much faster, can become nearly invisible and teleport in the dark and accelerate her body's healing in moonlight.
- Mother – joker/ace hybrid – a doughy mass that can create fully functional homunculi, sheltered by Chrysalis
- Mr. Nobody – neurotic shapeshifter who uses movies as a refuge
- Mummy - child ace created by the Nshombo project. Could draw the water from any living being into herself, a usually fatal experience. Killed by Bubbles in self-defense.
- Mushroom Daddy - A hippie with the Ace ability to grow the most delicious, nutritious vegetables
- Nshombo, Alicia - a were-jaguar who can confer this power on others through a sadistic/sexual ritual. With her death at the hands of Hoodoo Mama, her "jaguar men" lost their ability to transform. Half of the ruling authority of the "People's Paradise of Africa."
- Oddity – a menage a trois that never ended—now it/they would do anything to separate
- Patchwork – young woman with the power to disassemble her body into remote-controlled parts
- Peanut – hapless but well-meaning crusty-skinned joker who never quite catches a break
- Peregrine – sexy winged ace celebrity who thinks herself a Joker
- Peter Pann – Dutch private dick with a youthful face and a swarm of glowing "tinks" to do his spying for him
- Popinjay – private detective who can teleport others
- Pulse – middle-class ace with the power to become a living laser
- Puppetman – crusading politician is secretly a monster who feeds on fear
- Quasiman – hunchbacked caretaker for Father Squid, sometimes he's not all there (literally)
- Quinn the Eskimo – dreams up new addictive drugs and injects them through the hypodermic needles in his fingers
- The Racist - thoroughly unpleasant racist who has ace-powered speed.
- The Radical - alter-ego of Cap'n Trips possessed of all the powers of his other alter-egos Aquarius, Cosmic Traveler, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Moonchild and Starshine. Immensely strong, hard to hurt, can fly and project powerful energy beams. Dangerously insane mass-murderer.
- Reflector - formerly Snotman, became an ace following a second exposure to the virus. Can absorb energy.
- The Righteous Djinn - "inhales" the powers of other Aces, killing them and conferring their powers on himself.
- Rosemary Muldoon, AKA Rosa Maria Gambione – Mafia princess who leads a double life
- Roulette – she kills with intimacy. former associate of The Astronomer
- Rustbelt, AKA Wally "Rusty" Gunderson-Iron-skinned joker who can rust through metal with a touch
- "Sewer" Jack Robicheaux – subway worker and part-time alligator.
- Sharky - serial killer and cannibal, his joker is the form and personality of a shark.
- The Signal on Port 850 - joker/ace, looks like a man painted entirely grey, can take control of any computer as long as port 850 is listening.
- The Sleeper – wakes with a new face and power every time he sleeps.
- Slim Jim - excessively tall police officer at Fort Freak, the most three-dimensional of two-dimensional characters.
- Snotman – Jokertown's most pitiful resident, until he comes into power.
- Straight Arrow - bodyguard ace with the power to release fire from his hands.
- Starshine - alter-ego of Cap'n Trips, a flying Ace able to become a beam of light or manipulate light by generating bolts of energy or creating protective fields; able to survive in space.
- Stuntman - "bounces back" from almost any physical injury (a form of fast healing)
- Succubus - joker-ace. ace power to turn into the perfect lover for anybody, while aging 2.5 times faster than normal
- Tesseract - ace criminal-in-training who can open "fourth dimensional gateways" connecting points in space.
- Ti Malice – twisted vampiric parasite who gets pleasure from others' pain. Exiled from the universe by Popinjay.
- Tiffani - can transform herself into a diamond hard substance
- Tricolor - French ace who projected a powerful three-colored beam of destructive energy (red, blue, white) and could generate a protective energy field in the same colors, powerful enough to withstand The Radical's solar ray.
- Joe Twitch - hyperkinetic motion similar to The Flash
- Maxim Travnicek – Hyperinventive mad scientist ace who created Modular Man
- Troll – armor-plated Joker security guard at the Jokertown Clinic
- Water Lily – innocent girl with the power to control water
- Wraith – walks through walls and steals for thrills
- Wrecker - child ace created by the Nshombo project. Could detonate 1-2 kg quantity of anything inorganic by exercise of will.
- Wyungare – Australian aborigine who visits the Dreamtime
- Xavier Desmond – unofficial Joker "mayor of Jokertown"
- Yeoman – claims no superhuman abilities, but is a deadly fighter
- Zoe Harris – her breath makes molecules dance at her whim
This literature-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.