Wisdom #1

[fajrdrako]

I almost missed this comic; I hadn't put it on my subscription at the Silver Snail and they were sold out by the time I found out about it. Hate it when that happens.

But The Comic Book Shoppe came to my rescue and I read Wisdom #1 at lunchtime. It's a story about nasty fairies - a fine companion piece to last week's Torchwood episode, "Small Worlds".

Pete Wisdom is a character invented by Warren Ellis in Excalibur, and Ellis was in fine form that day. Wisdom is a mutant and British government operative whose sphere is the paranormal and the unexplained - MI-13. Wisdom was quite impressive when he joined Excalibur, which was pretty much a bunch of fresh-faced mutant teenagers at the time. He came into the comic and the team wearing a trench coat and a suit instead of a cape and a latex costume, chain-smoking, wise-cracking, arse-kicking, gun-waving, and he promptly seduced Kitty Pryde. I adored Pete Wisdom with a passion. One of my budgies is named after him.

But the years have not been kind to Pete Wisdom. Writers after Warren Ellis didn't know what to do with him, and floundered. He was in a brief, unfortunate run of X-Force, which he didn't survive. He came back recently, and Chris Claremont, who wrote him passably, seemed to have no idea what to do with him. In the hands of other writers he became a sleaze, a loser, and a nonentity. Parallels to DC's John Constantine come to mind, though Constantine has fared better in fits and starts, and has at least had his own comic for many years.

So now Pete Wisdom has his own miniseries, written by Paul Cornell and drawn (badly) by Trevor Hairsine. I can forgive the art; the writing is fine. I knew I'd heard Paul Cornell's name before, but it turns out it wasn't in connection with comics - it was in connection with Doctor Who. He wrote the wonderful episode Father's Day, and Bernice Summerfield and various Doctor Who novels and audioscripts. He's good.

In this story, Wisdom is sent to the Otherworld to deal with a fairy kidnapping of a human child. Wisdom instructs his team:

We will show the little gossamer bastards we will respond to aggression... You run into King Arthur: not not hurt him. Do not tell him we could do with him. Do not join the round table. Don't eat anything. Don't pull anything from anything. Don't marry anything. I don't want to hear about 'zapping' or 'tagging'. We are special forces, when we kill we say 'kill'. But we kill arms-bearers. You lay hands on a civilian, you're staying there.

And when they arrive at the Fairy Hill Fort, Wisdom announces himself: "Morning. We're MI-13 and we haven't had our breakfast."

I'm enjoying this. Too bad the art isn't better.

Comments

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, Paul Cornell is also implicated in the current abomination which is Robin Hood on BBC 1 on Saturdays...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh, no! I've been hearing terrible things about that show.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

...All of which are true.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

The King Arthur thing made me snort particularly hard. "Don't tell him we could do with him." And also taking a helicopter through a magic circle.

I didn't mind the art mostly, since a slightly grotty style seemed to fit the feel, but the full page naked shot was pretty ugly.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Sigh. I have fairly good memories of Robin of Sherwood, especially compared to the terrible Kevin Kostner movie, which at least had Alan Rickman. Kevin Kostner amazes me: an actor so totally unable to act.

As for this current Robin Hood, I can only imagine that Paul Cornell is slumming and not doing his best work on the show, savind all his talent and energy for Wisdom.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

also taking a helicopter through a magic circle.

Yes! I laughed.

A grotty feel is good, but Hairsine goes beyong grotty to ugly. Which would be okay, except that Wisdom ought to look sexy at least. The art reminded me of someone else's work but I couldn't place it till just now; it reminds me of the style of Alan Davis. I know Davis is very popular but I have always hated his art and I therefore avoid the comics he draws. Hairsine is only slightly more palatable, but I think the witty script will pull me through.

Bloody fairies.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

The only Hood movie I ever really liked was Robin and Marion (Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn, and Richard Harris, briefly, as possibly the best screen Richard ever). Robin of Sherwood got too wrapped up in New Age waffle for my liking.

I wish someone would look beyond John Mair and Walter Scott, and set it in the 14C...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Robin and Marion

I certainly liked Sean Connery in that. And Richard, yes. But I found the movie rather depressing.

I could ignore the new age stuff in Robin of Sherwood and quite liked Michael Praed. Sadly, Jason Connery was a bore. I liked him better in Smallville, where he played a rather effete thug working for Lionel Luthor. (Lex stuffed him in a trunk.)

[nishatalitha.livejournal.com]

The Paul Cornell connection almost makes me want to read it (not being a huge fan of comics other than Astro City) as I keep rereading British Summertime. I'm still not sure whether I like it yet, but I keep coming back to it for some reason...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I am a huge fan of comics, though I would add the disclaimer that comics vary a lot in quality and it's a good idea to learn who the good writers are. You can tell at a glance who the good artists are; picking authors is trickier.

British Summertime is new to me - I looked it up on amazon. Looks good. Unfortunately my local library doesn't have it. I wish!