Raybould Marsh is a British secret agent in the early days of the Second World War, haunted by something strange he saw on a mission during the Spanish Civil War: a German woman with wires going into her head who looked at him as if she knew him.

When the Nazis start running missions with people who have unnatural abilities—a woman who can turn invisible, a man who can walk through walls, and the woman Marsh saw in Spain who can use her knowledge of the future to twist the present—Marsh is the man who has to face them. He rallies the secret warlocks of Britain to hold the impending invasion at bay. But magic always exacts a price. Eventually, the sacrifice necessary to defeat the enemy will be as terrible as outright loss would be.

On September 15, 1946, an alien retrovirus was released in the skies over Manhattan. The Wild Card killed 90% of those infected, twisted 90% of the survivors into hideous Jokers, and imbued the final 10% -- the Aces -- with strange and profound abilities.

In 2008, mutants and superpowers are as commonplace as reality television.