Headscratchers / Wild Cards

• Why was Doctor Tachyon a case of Reed Richards Is Useless? In-universe, he had a need for money just like everybody else, both to sustain his own lifestyle as well as to fund the Jokertown clinic and his research into the Trump virus. This was emphasized repeatedly. Given that he was supposedly a brilliant biochemist even by the standards of an alien race that relies almost entirely on Organic Technology, it is never even suggested that he take a few weeks out of his regular schedule to cure Cancer, AIDS and other diseases, and then sell the patents and make a mountain of money. The cures for a lot of these kinds of conditions were probably things he was taught when he studied to be a biochemist in the first place!
  • The Wild Card is a greater issue than cancer and AIDS / HIV together - it has a virtually unlimited and uncontained reservoir in the atmosphere, 90% lethality, no known means to prolong life, and can be released by malevolent or ignorant Aces. And that is under the assumption that knowledge of Takisian genetics and the Wild Card is even useful when dealing with purely human diseases.
  • It is shown repeatedly that Tachyon is a fully-qualified medical doctor, including on his home planet. Also, at least some of his patients on Earth have suffered from mundane diseases such as AIDS, but he tends to get distracted by other issues rather than locking himself in a lab.
• Why didn't the Ilkazam researchers set their sights a little lower, especially after the debacle of their attempt to test the Enhancer on Earth? Instead of a virus designed to produce a potentially infinite variety of powers, wouldn't it have been easier to, for example, just engineer one that gave every subject telekinesis? While it could be argued that the concept of virtu drove them to try to create something that would give customized powers to everyone subjected to it, the simple fact is that most Psi Lords had roughly the same powers (Telepathy and Mind Control) for thousands of years. They are also depicted as being ruthlessly pragmatic. A version of the Enhancer that consistently gave the same set of augmented powers would surely have been better than an unusable virus that might take untold generations to work all the kinks out of.
  • They didn't know how to do that. The Wild Card virus was a first try, and the project was abandoned after what was perceived as its failure (and the disappearance of Prince Tisianne).
  • They were able to genetically engineer very precise telekinesis into their symbiont ships. To the extent that they have Artificial Gravity and Inertial Dampening when even the Network does not.
• Why did Tachyon come back to America after he was deported? It wasn't to work with the jokers as he had no interest in doing anything but drinking and whoring until Shellgames happened. He's has no patriotic connection to America, it's just one nation on Earth that the bomb happened to land in. Why would he have any desire to go back to the country that betrayed him so monstrously and forced him to do something he really regrets. It should be nothing but a load of bad memories and ill will for him.
  • It's implied that, much like his drinking, his return to America was driven by a desire - possibly subconscious - to punish himself. He gets the drinking under control again when he opens the clinic and starts working on the cure to expiate his guilt.
  • Also, although there are wildcards all around the world, the single largest concentration of them is in Jokertown. If you're looking to wallow in guilt, you're going to go where you get reminded of it every step.
  • He had to go through a very long string of lawsuits in order to regain custody of his symbiont ship Baby from the U.S. government. While Baby's sapience and telekinetic abilities enabled her to prevent the government from studying her, until her Ghost Drive healed she could not be used to return to Takis anyway.
• Takisians spent generations of highly regulated, highly selective interbreeding to produce a subspecies with psychic powers. Then Blaise, a quarter-Takisian and three-quarters vanilla human, winds up with psi powers far exceeding any Takisian we've seen. What's up with that?
  • Only in one very specific area — Mind Control. He actually lacks the rest of the telepathic abilities which are standard for Psi Lords, such as his inability to read minds or speak mind-to-mind. Even his Psychic Block Defense is mediocre and Bloat observes that Blaise's mind "leaks" thoughts all the time. It should be noted that Tachyon's bloodline is noted for being rather unpredictable.
• How has Hoodoo Mama not been arrested and charged with corpse desecration yet?