Wild Cards, Vol. 1 (The Legendary Series) (The Legendary Series, Volume 1)

I love the variety of characters, the complexity of their flaws and strengths. I DON'T love how the timeline inexplicably hews so closely to our own, as it gives so many touchstones of our public history a sense of inevitability, and that's just nuts.

I came intonation book with some expectations of "gritty" super hero stories...what I found was a sociological examination of recent American history through the lens of comic book mutant tales.

The overall idea is intriguing, following the development of mutant hero Aces and twisted Jokers through the heady days of post-war America, through the suspicion and paranoia of the Red Scare and on, but the actual stories can be very hit-and-miss. which is surprising, given the all star cast of writers, but then gain, no one iron all the time.

Standout stories include:
The Sleeper, a moving examination of an Ace whose powers strip himself family, morality and continuity.
Powers, a very subtly worked cold-war spy story.
Ghost Girl Takes Manhattan, a nice little story about a good girl on a big adventure in Jokertown.

Couldn't finish it. Some of the stories were good, but Melinda Snodgrass stopped me in my tracks.

Not a big fan of superhero fiction, comic books, but i did like this one. Is definitely a series i'll be following more. It's an alternative history of the world, after a virus hits the earth and renders powers/disfiguration to a portion of the inhabitants. How different people deal with these different powers is interesting, and is nothing like the Clarke Kent, Peter Parker treatments. Since it's a collection by different authors, it's a healthy mix and should probably have something for everyone. 'The sleeper' was my favourite of the lot.