History Characters / WildCards

* 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.