History Characters / WildCards

%%* HumanAliens: All Takisians are.

* AuraVision: His detection and manipulation of emotions is often described through color.

* HumanAliens: All Takisians are.

* InterspeciesRomance: See TheCasanova, above.

* PsychicPowers: As a Takisian Psi Lord, he is a powerful [[{{Telepathy}} telepath]] as well as a [[MindControl mind-controller]] and possesses elaborate [[PsychicBlockDefense mental shields]].

* TraumaCongaLine: Tachyon's stories tend to be this. Exaggerated after ''Ace in the Hole''.

* TheBully: A textbook example.

* CreepyChild: In his first couple of appearances, bordering on EnfantTerrible. Becomes even worse as an adult.

* EvilRedhead: Inherited Tachyon's red hair, though Blaise's is a more common shade than Tachyon's metallic red.

* BeastMan: Looks like an humanoid walrus.

* WarmHeartedWalrus: Of course.

* ArchEnemy: He starts out as this for Tachyon, especially in the second book. Later Blaise takes this spot and in ''Double Solitaire'' he falls more into [[EnemyMine Enemy Mine]] territory.

* PsychoactivePowers: A feature of a lot of aces.

* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: Gray-skinned.

* SuperSpeed: For swimming only.
* SuperStrength: even outside of animal form.

* {{Telepathy}}: Only with marine mammals.

* AboveGoodAndEvil: Fond of using this justification in his Hannibal Lectures.

* AstralProjection: One of the Astronomer's many abilities.

* NoNameGiven: Always refered to by titles or nicknames. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], in that not even the Astronomer knows his real name, since his memories were wiped when he first acquired his superhuman powers.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Calls Fortunato the n-word a couple of times.
* PsychicPowers: Possess pretty much all of them and some.

* CrazyCatLady: The superheroic version of this trope.

* HomelessHero: Though she is more in the anti-hero category.

* PlatonicLifePartners: With Sewer Jack, after a brief little bit of IncompatibleOrientation.
* [[spoiler: PutOnABus: After the events of Book 5, ''Down and Dirty'', she moves to Central America. However, she [[TheBusCameBack appears one more time]] in Book 14, ''Marked Cards''.]]

* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Doesn't actually talk to them, it's all telepathic.
* ToxicFriendInfluence: Rosemary Muldoon ultimately proves to be very bad news for Bagabond.

* [[spoiler: BlackDudeDiesFirst: Sort of. Chronologically, he is not the first of the Four Aces to die (that is Brain Trust). However, he is the first to have been revealed to die in the novel. Also partially averted in that his ruin and death isn't a cannon fodder sacrifice, but arguably the main and saddest event in ''Witness'']]
* BrokenAce: Becomes one after 1950.

* FlawlessToken: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]]. Black Eagle initially appears to be perfect: an African-American that is a great husband, a brilliant lawyer, a war hero, and a superpowered ace. It's gradually revealed that he is very much a flesh-and-blood human being, though [[WartsAndAll still heroic]].

* CoolBike: A Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle, naturally.

* DarkIsNotEvil: Though he can get very ruthless at times.

* IncompatibleOrientation: With fellow contestant Tiffani in the American Hero TV show in the novel ''Inside Straight''. It doesn't help that Tiffani is also a BitchInSheepsClothing.

* AddictionPowered: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]], in that Mark isn't actually addicted to the special powders he uses to transform, or to any other drugs in fact. However, he is a very frequent user of marijuana.

* CaptainSuperhero: Nothing to do with a military rank, though. It's based on Music/TheGratefulDead's Jerry Garcia.
* ClassicAntiHero: A shy, clumsy, eccentric nerd, even after he becomes a hippie.

* DaddysGirl: Sprout, his mentally disabled daughter.
* DemotedToComicRelief: Captain Trips' appearance in Book 3, ''Jokers Wild''.

* HeroicBSOD: Mark is prone to this, particularly as his stories in later volumes become progressively darker.

* SexierAlterEgo: J. J. Flash, Moonchild, and the Radical.

* SuperpoweredAlterEgo: A whole collection of them, in fact!

* UnluckyChildHoodFriend: [[DoubleSubversion Double Subverted]]. He eventually marries Sunflower, the girl he's loved since forever. But their marriage is not a happy one.

* WellDoneSonGuy: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. It's mentioned a few times that Mark's father is a General in the United States Air Force, and that the shy, peaceful Mark Meadows always craved the approval of his military manly man father, but this story element is mostly kept in the background.

* BadassInANiceSuit: Whenever he isn't wearing his superhero tights.
* BattleCouple: With the Midnight Angel.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Surprisingly becomes this in the later novels.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Like most of the other personas he loves and is protective of Sprout.

* {{Intangibility}}: One of his powers.
* {{Invisibility}}: Ditto.
** This seems to be a bit of an InformedAbility. The RPG mentions it, but Traveler never becomes invisible in the novels, even when it would be very useful to do so.

* CameBackStrong: The whole premise of his ace.
* TheDragon: To George G. Battle.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler: By tge Black Trump Virus]].

* UndyingLoyalty: To the U.S. government.

* TheDragon: He is this for the Astronomer in ''Aces High''.

* LeanAndMean: Often described as unnaturally skinny.

* ArchEnemy: The Radical.

* TheChessmaster: One of his defining characteristics.

* FemmeFatale: [[spoiler: As Lilith.]]

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: His mindset.

* StageMagician: His other job and cover.
* Teleportation: One of his power, although [[spoiler: he is limited to the places where it is day as a male and to places where it is night as Lilith.]]

* FriendlyEnemy: With Yeoman.

* AstralProjection: One of Fortunato's many abilities.

* MindControl: A combination of CompellingVoice and HypnoticEyes.

* TheBigGuy: He is often this for any group of aces he's hanging around with.

* MyGreatestFailure: His testimony before HUAC that doomed his friends.
* NighInvulnerability: One of the toughest aces around.
* NostalgicNarrator: In his origin story, "Witness".
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Golden Boy gets this. Since his betrayal of his friends became sort of a foundational legend of the first generation of aces, people still remember him as the Judas Ace 40 years later. It's also [[DiscussedTrope discussed]] in ''Aces Abroad'', where Xavier Desmond notes that the world is too eager to read cowardice, weakness, and betrayal in everything Jack Braun does and says. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that his testimony really had a disastrous effect in his friends' lives. However, his bad reputation seems to finally have faded in the later novels set in the 21st century.

* VitriolicBestBuds: Golden Boy and Tachyon, after their reconciliation in ''Aces Abroad''.

* RagtagBunchofMisfits: Zoe's Escorts, a gang of five joker street kids that become intensely loyal to her.
* RedOniBlueOni: She is very much the Blue Oni to Croyd Crenson's Red Oni in their interactions.

* TeamMom: Pretty much assumes this role for a gang of joker children, her Escorts.

* AllMythsAreTrue: Not really, but the [[DoingInTheWizard Wild Card virus can make it so]].
* TheBigGuy: Xbalanque.
* BloodKnight: Hunapu.

* NighInvulnerable: Xbalanque, along with the obrigatory SuperStrength.

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Both of them, but specially Hunapu.

* TeleportersAndTransporters: Hunapu can pop in and out fairly quickly, unleashing mayhem in combat.

* StraightManAndWiseGuy: Lohengrin and Jonathan Hive have this dynamic going on.

* CatchPhrase: "It's a gas-gas-gas!"

* FieryRedhead: Both literally and figuratively.

* KillItWithWater: His obvious [[WeaksauceWeakness weakness]].
* PersonalityPowers: Like all of Captain Trips's alter egos.

* SexierAlterEgo: He is mostly this for Mark Meadows.
* ShoutOut: To Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}.

* TheDragon: He becomes this for Senator Hartmann after ''Aces Abroad''.
* EvilVersusEvil: His climatic and gory fight with Demise in ''Ace in the Hole''.

* MayDecemberRomance: Hooks up with Mistral as she's searching for Mark Meadows in order to capture him. He also covertly keeps her from finding him.
* MistakenForPedophile: Happens in ''Marked Cards'', and tragically ends his friendship with Mark Meadows.

* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: Before he gets CharacterDevelopment.

* UncannyValley: Modular Man largely avoids this by looking almost 100% human.

* CoolOldGuy: Notably, he is one of the few people [[EnfantTerrible Blaise]] loved and respected.

* RogueAgent: Of the heroic variety.

* CatchPhrase: "Might as well, can't dance."

* DeadpanSnarker: The main example in Wild Cards, to the [[ToughRoom annoyance of his friends and allies]].

* PrivateEyeMonologue: [[ParodiedTrope Makes fun]] of this in ''Double Solitaire''.

* ThouShaltNotKill: Definitely a part of Jay's personal moral code. He also can be quite self-righteous about it.

* BigBad: For the second trilogy of novels.

* TheEmpath: A very evil version.

* EntitledToHaveYou: He feels like this with any woman that he becomes interested in.

* HumiliationConga: After his fall in ''Ace in the Hole''.

* MoralityChain: Hannah Davis is this for him in the Card Sharks novels.

* SexierAlterEgo: He is this for Mark Meadows in his origin story.

* SuperpoweredEvilSide: The second version of the Radical.
* VariableLengthChain: His peace medallion that works as an offensive and defensive weapon.

* BrokenBird: See below, under Dark and Troubled Past.

* FemmeFatale: Literally.

* PlatonicLifePartners: With Bagabond.

* RapeAsDrama: See above. His memories of the abuse are horrifically shown in ''Dealer's Choice''.

* DeadpanSnarker: He's created by Roger Zelazny, after all.

* JerkAss: He puts the "self-" in righteousness.

* DenOfIniquity: Wherever Ti Malice is, becomes one of these.

* ItIsDehumanizing: That's what he calls his mounts.

* ClassicAntiHero: A typical nerd. And no, not the attractive kind of nerd either.

* FlyingCar: The Turtle's Shell is actually this.

* ClosetKey: Hannah Jorde, Veronica's shrink.
* DeadLesbianSyndrome: [[spoiler:Hannah, Veronica's first real love.]]

* BreakTheCutie: So very, very much. Almost to CosmicPlaything levels.
* GirlNextDoor: The ultimate example in Wild Cards. Even her civilian name is a play on this.

* IncompatibleOrientation: With her childhood friend, Salvatore Carbonne

* TalkingToTheDead: Does this a lot with childhood friend Sal Carbonne.

* CampStraight: Not as much as Tachyon, but Hiram is quite flamboyant.

* FrameUp: Leaves an ace of spades on [[spoiler:Chrysalis's body]].

* BettyAndVeronica: She is Betty, Chrysalis is Veronica, Yeoman is Archie.

* HappilyMarried: [[spoiler: With Yeoman.]]

* MoralityChain: She's a bit of this to Yeoman.

* SecretIdentity: One of the few aces to have it, due to her double life.
* ThrillSeeker: One of the reasons for her criminal career.

* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: He is an homage to [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] comic book character ComicBook/{{Airboy}}.

* HeroicSacrifice: Legendary in the Wild Cards universe.
* JadeColoredGlasses: After he returns from the war.

* ShoutOut: His joker name is an obvious one to the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

* BreakoutCharacter: Very beloved of the fan base, even though he is as depraved as most Wild Cards villains.

* BreakoutCharacter: Croyd has appeared in more Wild Cards novels than any other character. Every Wild Cards fan has their favorites and unfavorites, but pretty much everybody loves the Sleeper.

* BetterWithNonHumanCompany: One of the reasons Bagabonds lives on the streets is that she abhors human society, much prefering the company of her animals.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Noel may be ruthless, pragmatic, cold and ever-scheming, but he genuinely cares for his father [[spoiler: and Niobe.]] At the end of ''Busted Flush'', he decides [[spoiler: to leave the Silver Helix after they use Little Fat Boy as an unwitting weapon.]]

* KilledOffForReal. [[spoiler: An [[IncrediblyLamePun odd]] version. In Fort Freak, it is revealed that John, one of the personalities controlling Oddity, has early-onset Alzheimer's. In order to stop this, Oddity takes the trump cure, which works -- to a point. Patti, who is controlling the body at that time, is ejected with her own mind and body fully intact from Oddity, while John and Evan's minds and bodies stay behind in the form of Oddity, who then die.]]

* AscendedFanboy: A fan of comic books and aces even before he got his powers. Also, a [[RecursiveFiction wonderfully recursive example]], as he is seeing reading a Turtle comic book in his origin story, and the Turtle himself was also an Ascended Fanboy.

* JadeColoredGlasses: His long life and his own failures as a hero made him a very disillusioned individual.

* PopularityPolynomial: Golden Boy exemplifies this in-universe. He was a big hero in the 1940s, became a traitor in the 1950s, was mostly forgotten after the 1980s, and finally became cool again in the 21th century.

* {{Foil}}: He is one to Blaise and it's highlighted in their confrontation by the end of ''Double Solitaire''. They're both ambitious, bold, overflowing with "virtu", and rather obsessed with Tachyon. But while Zabb is an AffablyEvil AntiVillain who actually [[KissingCousins loves Tachyon]], Blaise is a CompleteMonster and a [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rapist]] that has [[AbusiveOffspring traumatized Tachyon]] in a way that Zabb finds disgusting and abhorrent.

* LoopholeAbuse: How he managed to become the Rayis. Tachyion is the righteous heir to the title, but Zabb objects that a Rayis can only be male and as Tachyon is trapped in a female body he cannot claim the title. Eventually the elders rule in Zabb's favour.

* BigBad: The Astronomer is the main villain of the first trilogy of books, and is obsessed with the accumulation of power.

* WalkingTechbane: Her power disrupts electrical currents. Presumably that's how it affects the brain to cause nausea. Why it only affects men is harder to say.
* WeaksauceWeakness: Her powers only work on males. She discovers it in a [[CurbStompBattle painful encounter with a female bodybuilding villain.]]

* ObliviouslySuperpowered: Has been an immensely powerful telekinetic since childhood. However, as a kid, he didn't realize there was anything special about himself, believing that his pet turtles could just fly on their own. He only figured out that he was a superhuman after a school bully's dog killed one of his turtles; one of his classmates saw him telekinetically throwing the dead turtle's body at said body, and asked him "How did you do that?"

* WildCard: The original intention of Carnifex's creator, John J. Miller, was to have Carnifex as this sort of character, someone that could as easily hinder as help the good guys. And he is mostly presented this way in the first two trilogies, as he is a BloodKnight, {{Jerkass}} government agent under [[BitchInSheepsClothing Senator Hartmann's]] orders. However, in Book 11 he is a viewpoint character for the first time, is free from Hartmann's influence, and is presented more sympathetically. From that point on in the series, he is undoubtedly a hero, even though [[AntiHero he retains most of his earlier characteristics]].

* WildCard: The original intention of Carnifex's creator, John J. Miller, was to have Carnifex as this sort of character, someone that could as easily hinder as help the good guys. And he is mostly presented this way in the first two trilogies, as he is a BloodKnight, {{Jerkass}} government agent under [[BitchInSheepsClothing Senator Hartmann's]] orders. However, in Book 11 he is a viewpoint character for the first time, is free from Hartmann's influence, and is presented more sympathetically, even though he retains all his earlier characteristics.

* WildCard: The original intention of Carnifex's creator, John J. Miller, was to have Carnifex as this sort of character, someone that could as easily hinder as help the good guys. And he is mostly presented this way in the first two trilogies, as he is a BloodKnight, {{Jerkass}} government agent under [BitchInSheepsClothing Senator Hartmann's] orders. However, in Book 11 he is a viewpoint character for the first time, is free from Hartmann's influence, and is presented more sympathetically, even though he retains all his earlier characteristics.

* ChivalrousPervert: The Sleeper has shades of this, since he [[JustForPun sleeps]] around a lot but is somewhat protective of women. Specifically, he was a long-time costumer of Veronica, one of Fortunato's prostitutes, and the two also had a warm friendship. He also was always hitting on Water Lily, but seemed genuinely disappointed and concerned when he discovered she was seemingly hooked up on drugs (she was actually addicted to Ti Malice).

* TheAtoner: Tried and failed to prevent the release of the Enhancer on Earth. Since he was one of its developers, he feels obligated to care for those affected and tries to find a way to cure it.

* SexierAlterEgo: Both J. J. Flash and the Radical.