(WARNING: The following post contains graphic sexual language and may be NSFW.)
In 1986, a group of science fiction’s brightest authors collaborated to create Wild Cards, a series of shared universe, alternate history novels, edited by George R.R. Martin. In Wild Cards, history largely unfolded as we know it, until 1946, when aliens crash landed on Earth, bringing with them a terrifying biological weapon. The bio-weapon was a virus with a 90% mortality rate. However, those who survived the infection were changed forever. Nine out of ten of the survivors were mutated into bizarre, frightening parodies of humanity. These unfortunate beings were dubbed “Jokers.” The remaining 10% of infected survivors, called “Aces,” developed amazing abilities. Each Joker and Ace was unique. No mutation or ability was quite like another, hence the name “Wild Card virus.”
For a young Jay Potts, the concepts and ideas introduced in Wild Cards were mind-blowing. The first three books in the Wild Cards series covered forty years of history in this strange, new world. There must have been something in the water in the mid-late ’80s, because everybody was attempting to deconstruct the super-hero concept (a trend which continues today) but nobody did it quite like Wild Cards. In Wild Cards, Jokers were the new underclass, and even Aces had to endure the fickle moods and fears of normal people. Sometimes they were cheered and celebrated, and sometimes they became the victims of public scorn. For instance, in the Wild Cards universe, Joe McCarthy’s Commie-bashing, Red-baiting theatrics were instead used to exploit a growing fear of subversive Aces that might be hiding among the general population.
Despite the number of super-powered individuals running around, Wild Cards had very few costumed “super-heroes.” It did have a cast of deeply flawed, tragic individuals who nonetheless tried to do the right thing by making their little corner of the world a better, safer place. Fortunato was one of these characters.
Fortunato was intruduced in Wild Cards, Volume I in Lewis Shiner’s short story, “The Long, Dark Night of Fortunato.” The story is set in 1969, and Fortunato is a charming, but conflicted, biracial pimp who operates a stable of high-end escorts. Like Ron O’Neal’s “Priest” in Super Fly and Max Julien’s “Goldie” in The Mack, Fortunato is man who is coming to doubt the course of his life, despite his remarkable skill and success in his illict career, and spends much of time trying to convince himself he that he’s not trafficking in human flesh. The son of a Black G.I. and a Japanese mother, Fortunato trains his female recruits with elaborate, multi-year courses in etiquette, style, and seduction. He refers to them as “geishas,” and insists they do the same, but they know the score. They’re prostitutes, no matter what fancy name Fortunato wants to hang on them.
The story begins after the death of Fortunato’s third “employee” at the hands of a serial killer stalking the streets of New York. Feeling helpless, frightened, and angry, he is taken home by his latest recruit, Lenore, a redhead from West Virginia who dabbles in witchcraft. (Fortunato rescued her from a gorilla pimp with the great street name of “Ballpeen Willie.”) Lenore comforts him in the best way she knows how, but in the middle of the act, she experiments with a Tantric sex ritual. The ritual in question involves stopping him from ejaculating at the moment of orgasm. Doing so, she inadvertantly activates the Wild Card virus that was dormant within Fortunato.
One of the ideas behind the Wild Card virus, is that the subconscious desires or fears of its victims helps determine how it manifests itself. Surrounded by sex and magic and dealing with the helplessness after the deaths of three of his women, Fortunato becomes an extremely powerful sexual shaman. Fortunato’s abilities include energy projection, telekinesis, telepathy, the power to project his soul from his body and observe events like a Predator drone, slow down time itself, and even resurrect the dead. One character speculates that Fortunato may be the most powerful Ace on the planet, and could be capable of using his powers for interplanetary travel.
Like Green Lantern, Fortunato’s powers deplete the more he uses them, and he has to recharge. How? Sex. But each time, he must prevent himself from experiencing the “full release” to retain the power. The only outward sign of his abilities is that after he “recharges,” that his forehead bulges, like someone inflated a large balloon under his skin. At full strength, spectral rams’ horns may even appear.
At the end of “The Long, Dark Night of Fortunato,” Fortunato uses his newfound powers to track down the serial killer, but determines that the killer is part of a larger conspiracy involving the Freemasons. Unfortunately, in the ensuing scuffle, Fortunato accidently kills the man before he can learn more about the Freemasons’ plan. In one grisly, awful moment that would make Garth Ennis blush ( I won’t spoil it), Fortunato briefly brings the killer back to life. The dead-eyed corpse only rasps a single word, “TIAMAT,” before breaking his own neck and forever removing himself from Fortunato’s grasp.
Throughout the next two volumes of the Wild Cards series, Aces High and Joker’s Wild, Fortunato finds new purpose in his life by working to unravel the Freemasons’ plot. In the story, “Pennies From Hell,” Fortunato works with a female scholar named Eleanor to determine the source of the mysterious blood-red pennies that seem to connect all the players in the conspiracy. Despite having access to the most stunning women on the planet, it is Eleanor, an overripe, middle-aged academic, that Fortunato falls in love with, because of her understated, unassuming beauty and candor. Their love affair has tragic results that haunt Fortunato throughout the rest of the series.
Also in Volume 2, Aces High, Fortunato finally learns what ‘TIAMAT” is and joins a small strike force of Aces to confront it high above Earth’s orbit. In the same book, he also assists a larger contingent of Aces in storming the Freemasons’ base of operations. These two events are the high points in the book and the closest the series comes to full-scale superhero action a la The Justice League or The Avengers. However, the fallout of the Aces’ moment of glory begins in the next book, Joker’s Wild, when the surviving members of the Freemasons exact their revenge against the Aces. They are led by a mysterious old man known only as The Astronomer. He is Fortunato’s opposite in every way. Whereas Fortunato gains his power from the ultimate life-affirming act, The Astronomer gains his power through killing, and is vastly more powerful. In the end, it is Fortunato is the only one left who can stop The Astronomer.
As the Wild Card series continued, Fortunato took a lesser role, eventually giving up his business and retreating to a quiet life of contemplation at a Buddhist monastery, but the consequences of his actions continue to ripple throughout the books. Lewis Shiner created a fascinating character study in Fortunato. He wasn’t a stereotypical, brightly costumed, jive-talking pimp. He dressed in understated, but expensive clothes. He was self-centered and self-deluded about what he was doing to the women who worked for him, but he craved their love, approval, and valued their safety. The extent of his abilities disturbed even Fortunato, so he applied them judiciously, but ruthlessly, to get what he wanted.
I would highly recommend you track down at least the first three Wild Card books. Fortunato is only one of a treasure trove of amazing and complex characters in a fully-realized world.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Wild Cards Online – The Online Guide To George R.R. Martin’s series
- JEP
