George R.R. Martin teaming up with Marvel for Wild Cards comics

George R.R. Martin, the master scribe behind A Song of Ice and Fire, Fire & Blood, and numerous other books we all know and love has just announced a new partnership with Marvel. This isn’t for any Westeros-themed project however, but one of Martin’s other works: Wild Cards.

The Wild Cards books are shared universe anthology novels, with various authors contributing chapters that add up to make a grander storytelling mosaic. Over the years these books have had a veritable who’s who of famous fantasy and sci-fi authors involved, including Mark Lawrence, Walter Jon Williams, Melinda Snodgrass, Victor Mílan, Daniel Abraham, Howard Waldrop, Roger Zelazny, and far too many others to go about naming here. Martin is the creator and longtime editor of the series, though of course he’s penned his fair share of Wild Cards stories as well. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel will be adapting the original 1987 Wild Cards book from which the series takes its name.

“As my fans may already know, the Wild Cards World holds a special place in my heart,” Martin said. “So to have the privilege of announcing that an industry titan like Marvel is going to produce the narrative from the beginning as a comic book brings me no end of joy.”

George R.R. Martin and Marvel team up for Wild Cards comic

As creative partnerships go, this is one that makes a whole lot of sense and is really exciting to actually see happen. Wild Cards is Martin’s take on the superhero genre; he’s talked plenty of times over the years about how it was inspired by his love of superhero comics as a kid, so pairing up with Marvel seems like a natural fit.

Wild Cards takes place on an alternate Earth where a space virus crashes into the planet and spreads across the globe. It soon infects an enormous amount of the human population, and is so virulent that 90% of the people exposed to it die. Of those who remain, 9% suffer horrible physical mutations and come to be known as “jokers.” The remaining 1% develop supernatural powers, becoming “aces” that are paragons of justice and virtue. Just kidding–this is George R.R. Martin, after all. You’d better bet that some of those aces are great, and others are as morally gray as we’d expect from the mind behind A Game of Thrones.

Paul Cornell will be writing the Wild Cards comic for Marvel, with Mike Hawthorne serving as the series’ artist.

“Wild Cards is still a unique take on superheroes, a creation story that’s influenced everything since, but still maintains its power,” Cornell said. “It’s an honor and a pleasure to bring all these wonderful stories to their natural home at Marvel, and I hope to give George, Melinda and the rest of the Wild Cards Collective the credit they deserve for making the superhero myth new again. Plus: just look at that art!”

The first issue of Marvel’s Wild Cards: The Drawing of the Cards is due to hit the shelves at your local comic shop on June 1.

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h/t The Hollywood Reporter