Digger Downs

Thomas "Digger" Downs, created by Steve Perrin, is a minor character from the Wild Cards series of anthology books.

Digger is an investgative reporter (some would say papparazzo) for Aces magazine, a periodical on the lives of the Wild Cards universe's more publicly known Aces. Journalistically, Aces lies somewhere between People Magazine and the National Enquirer, with Digger definitely toward the lower end of that scale. He constantly seeks to find juicy gossip about Aces as well as Earth's only extraterrestrial citizen, Dr. Tachyon, who despises Digger and, when confronted by him, often resorts to mind control to make Digger humiliate himself until he goes away. Most of their encounters end with Digger unwillingly pouring a drink over his own head, or something similar.

Digger's interest in Aces and their secrets seemingly stems from the fact that he is secretly an Ace himself; his power is the ability to detect the presence of other Wild Cards. Whether Aces or Jokers, anyone who has the alien virus entangled in their genes registers to his perception as having a sickly-sweet "odor", which is how his brain interprets the input of what is essentially an extrasensory ability. While he is careful to always hide his ability, making vague statements about his "sources" when asked how he found someone out, he is not exactly discreet when it comes to revealing others' Wild Card status.

In addition to his hidden Ace power, Digger is also skilled in the abilities of sneaking, dumpster diving, long-range photography, party-crashing, and taking statements out of context. In other aspects of journalism, such as research and fact-checking, however, he is woefully lacking.

Early life