The Atonement Tango

Another enjoyable entry in this series of Wild Cards shorts (there's only been one so far that I wasn't keen on and even that was well-written). This time, it's the turn of Drummer Boy, whose band Joker Plague is now in the phase that all long-lasting groups go through of bringing out new material, but the fans only turning up to the concerts to hear the old classics. Then a catastrophe changes his life - and this being Wild Cards and not your typical superhero story, it's likely to be permanent.

The story probably works best if you're already invested in Drummer Boy and recognise some of the guest characters who turn up. But even so, it's a story about mortality and prejudice as Drummer Boy tries to track down the cause of his problem and tries to deal with the consequences of what it has wrought (and not doing so very well to begin with). It's more focussed on Jokers than Aces exploring some of the darker elements of the Wild Cards world.