The new Marvel series is George RR Martin’s answer to Watchmen
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Wild Cards, the long-running superhero anthology series recently adapted by Marvel Comics, is George RR Martin’s answer to Watchmen.
Although he is known for writing dark fantasy novels, George RR Martin has also applied this approach to superheroes, similar to works like watchmen. Martin’s superhero series is wildcardswhich has recently been adapted into a comic book series by Marvel Comics.
Beginning life as an RPG held between Martin and his sci-fi/fantasy author friends, wildcards is a long-running series of anthology stories that take place in a shared superhero universe. With over forty authors contributing to thirty books, the series has been in almost continuous publication since 1987. The setting by George RR Maritn wildcards depicts a world of superheroes where an airborne alien virus struck Earth in 1946. Most people infected with the virus die, although the survivors have superpowers. Those survivors who are left with debilitating physical conditions are called “Jokers”, while those who retain their human appearance but gain superhuman powers are called “Aces”. An alternate history of Earth spanning from the end of World War II to modern times, the world of wildcards consider what would actually happen if a random collection of people were suddenly given superpowers; giving a bigger, more grown-up look at what superheroes would be like in the real world. If it looks like a 1986 comic book series by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, it might not be entirely by chance.
In a 2013 interview with nerdy podcast, Martin talks about the origins of the series and also how he came to parallel watchmen. “Commodes arrived exactly at the same time as Watchmen,” says Martin, “Both were reinventing the superhero genre with a great cast of characters.Martin goes on to explain how each project tackled the concept of superheroes in the real world:
“Alan Moore and our writers took very different approaches to it…Moore basically threw out the superpowers; Dr. Manhattan was the only one (who had superpowers). We took a completely opposite approach. We kept the superpowers, but threw away the costumes… We decided that was the realistic approach.“
watchmen i wildcards they certainly share similar concepts, though wildcards it has recently been adapted for comics by Marvel. Both stories work from the assumption that if someone were suddenly gifted with superpowers, their first instinct wouldn’t necessarily be to go out and fight crime. But the approaches are different. watchmen looked at a world where an omnipotent being walked among mortals, making heroes in human disguise feel irrelevant. wildcards did away with costumes entirely, though many characters still adopted colorful names such as Jetboy, the Popinjay, and the Big and Mighty Turtle. The effect of having so many characters gain superpowers allowed the series to explore how they would affect the various social and political upheavals of the late 20th century.
It’s also interesting to compare how both series dealt with alien invasions. The superheroes of wildcards they all got their power from an alien virus unleashed on the population as an experimental biological weapon for a noble family from the planet Takis. On the other hand, watchmen famously ends with a fake alien invasion orchestrated by Ozymandias to gather humanity into a new, utopian society. Both rely on alien contact in relation to the tropes of superhero fiction, that’s all George RR Martin i watchmen he took different ways to get there. wildcards Issue 1 is available now from Marvel Comics.
Source: The ID10T/Nerdist podcast
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