Wildbow is ‘Wildbow’, and they write web serials. They wrote Worm, Worm’s sequel Ward, Pact and Twig. They’re currently working on Pale, a shorter serial. It’s part of a series of (somewhat) shorter, more experimental works they’re doing. Their first series, Worm, was something of a sleeper hit. Word spread, and is still spreading, about the story, which features a teenager with a superpower that lets them control bugs. They are mistaken for a supervillain on an early outing, and are thrust into a world where hero, villain and good and evil don’t always match up. In Pact, our protagonist inherits their grandmother’s house in a small town and their trove of diabolic tomes, along with all of the enemies and negative attention that come with being a diabolist. Allies are few and far between, and the best weapons at their disposal have consequences for use that could readily surpass whatever their enemies have in store for them. Twig featured a small group of protagonists, and they’re small in more ways than one. In a world where biology is a plaything of scientists and great mysteries and challenges of life are being solved and ticked off one by one, we see a group of eerily competent children taking a hand in events. The genre is biopunk – it is bent to the science of biology much as the Matrix is bent to the cybernetic, and our characters are investigators and saboteurs. Ward continued from two years after Worm left off. We follow one of the side characters from Worm as they find their way through a fragile climate where public perception of the superheroes and supervillains has changed, and where the ‘game’ and cape politics have taken on a new dynamic.
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