Eleven visionary authors tackle a single provocative theme: after the alien virus struck humanity in the wake of World War II, a handful of the survivors found they possessed superhuman powers. The Wild Cards shared-world volumes tell their story.
In City, California, Duggan Masters is a living legend. As the criminal Light Master, he has ascended the ranks to become the undisputed overlord of all crime in the city. Yet "the game" ceases to have meaning after City's greatest hero, Miracle Man, vanishes without a trace. Left with only the local police to foil his plots, Light Master grows increasingly lethal, and the joy of killing has been lost. So Duggan does what any criminal overlord would do: he kidnaps Dr. Wallace Cornwall, a famous "psychiatrist to the heroes" and writer of a best selling self help book for heroes, 'Our Masks, Our Selves'. Duggan introduces Wallace to Leona, a genetically engineered assassin who has turned to working part time as a "cat burglar," and part time as a serial killer. Wallace talks Duggan and Leona into retirement, but Duggan has one last plot to bring Miracle Man out of hiding. But really, how far is one deranged criminal overlord willing to go, for the love of his hero?
First published in 1930, Gladiator is the tale of Hugo Danner, a man endowed from birth with extraodinary strength and speed. But Danner is no altruist. He spends his life trying to cope with his abilities, becoming a sports hero in college, later a sideshow act, a war hero, never truly finding peace with himself. The character of Danner inspired both Superman's creators, and Lester Dent's Doc Savage. But Wylie, an editor with the New Yorker, sought to develop more than a pulp hero. His Gladiator provides surprising insights into the difficulties suffered by the truly gifted when born in our midst.
