PETE WISDOM: Page 3 of 3

Publication Date: 23rd Dec 2016
Written By: Monolith.
Image Work: Dean Clayton.


After the Decimation, Pete Wisdom's value as an agent increased dramatically, as he remained one of the few hundred mutants still powered. [House of M: Decimation - The Day After #1] Intelligence reports came in that Pryde and several X-Men associates were in England visiting Captain Britain after M-Day. When Dazzler was attacked in London, Pete took it as an excuse to see Kitty and informed the X-Men on behalf of MI-13. What followed was a battle with the Shadow King and his latest puppets, corrupted Shadow X-Men from another dimension who crossed over during the Decimation. In the aftermath, Pryde and most of the X-Men returned to the States, but Wisdom attempted to get Captain Britain and the remaining heroes together as a new Excalibur. [New Excalibur #1-3] He fought hard to ensure their interest, personally pitching the idea to Sage and working through the Crown to get criminal charges against Juggernaut dropped. Eventually, Braddock gave a speech about Excalibur's necessity after a fight with the Warwolves and the team came together. Wisdom got his field agents, although he grumbled a bit about Captain Britain's speech being basically what he said earlier. [New Excalibur #4-5]

Excalibur was provided funding and a headquarters on the London docks by MI-13. In addition to the Shadow-X incursion, the new team also was threatened by the revival of Black Air and a warrior-conqueror version of Captain Britain called Albion. As the "purse strings" and only officially recognized MI-13 officer on the team, Pete declared himself team leader, although no one else took that very seriously. Wisdom and Braddock nearly came to blows on more than one occasion over who was in charge in the field. Pete also carried on an extremely one-sided flirtation with Sage. His drunken attempts at seduction during a time travel adventure may in fact have inadvertently sent Lady Guinevere into the arms of Sir Lancelot for the first time, bringing about the fall of Camelot. [New Excalibur #6-15]

Despite his almost comical reputation among the "skintights," Pete Wisdom remained a ruthlessly effective intelligence agent. As senior officer of MI-13, Wisdom was answerable only to JIC Chair Grimsdale, who reported directly to the Prime Minister. While Excalibur remained an asset of MI-13, Pete also ran missions of a less "colorful" nature with other MI-13 operatives like the foul-mouthed fairy princess Tink, Captain Midlands and an expatriated Skrull impersonator of John Lennon. MI-13 had the chance to secure their reputation in the intelligence community when a cabinet minister's son was kidnapped by Oberon the Fairy-King to Avalon, the mystical realm representing the collective subconscious of the British people. Wisdom's team performed admirably by securing the child's safe return and establishing a non-aggression and mutual protection treaty with Avalon. Talk of war was halted thanks to the consummation of Wisdom's arranged marriage to Oberon's daughter, Tink. [Wisdom #1]

As successful as that mission was, Pete Wisdom's capacity for self-sabotage was near miraculous. Inter-agency rivalry heated up again after MI-13 recruited the clair-sentient Maureen Raven over MI-6. Pete found her to be a bit all right and, even though it risked war between England and Avalon, began an affair with Maureen outside of his marriage to Tink. (On top of that, Maureen once remarked on how Pete was self-recriminating even while unconscious. He talked in his sleep, repeating one word... "pride.") Pete and Maureen hid their indiscretions from Tink, but she realized what was going on anyway. Tink was furious with Pete when she confronted him: for the affair, yes, but also for assuming she would be so selfish as to tell her father, revoke the treaty and send their two innocent lands to war over it. Wisdom assuming she was that petty was what hurt Tink the most. She promised to be horribly snarky and insubordinate to Pete and Maureen, but otherwise remained with MI-13. [Wisdom #2-3]

Happiness continued to prove elusive for Wisdom, however. As his relationship with Maureen grew more serious, she was targeted by Martian invaders from a parallel Earth. A paranormal "Jack the Ripper" tour guide had been allowing variant "Jolly Jacks" through into London from the dimensional nexus in his mind. Maureen mentally interacted with the guide to close the nexus, but the Martians had planned for her and set a psychic trap that bound her mind to the nexus. Maureen was now the link that allowed the Martians to send their invasion force through from parallel London to MI-13's London.

This was exactly the threat Alistair Stuart learned about before dissolving the Department -- a Martian scout ship came through the nexus months earlier, and Stuart agreed to use MI-6 and their greater resources to combat the threat. However, when Pete's personal grudge against Alistair for leaving led to the Department remaining separate from MI-6 as MI-13, MI-6's "need-to-know" protocols and lack of serious respect for Pete kept Wisdom and Maureen in the dark about the Martian threat and their plans for Maureen.

By this point, it was too late to do anything else -- more Martian tripods were emerging over London every five minutes. Innocent people were dying and would continue to die so long as Maureen was alive and maintaining the link. Resigned to her fate, Maureen told Pete to meet her on the roof with his gun. She was ready to sacrifice her life to protect the country, but wished things had turned out differently. At the last moment, Pete told her the quartermaster had texted him they had a theory to save her and end the invasion. He told Maureen to have hope and hurry downstairs to get ready. However, as Maureen turned to go, Wisdom pulled the gun and shot her through the back of the head. The moment she died, the Martian invaders vanished, tumbling back down the dimensional corridors to their own world. London was safe, and Pete Wisdom was alone. [Wisdom #4-6]

Wisdom kept his duties compartmentalized, and pressed on with his work in Excalibur. Albion and Black Air made their move, but Excalibur managed to quell this invasion as well. Still, Sage had a very uncertain future with the British government, having lost herself to Albion's cause while on an undercover mission. She remembered her true loyalties in the end, but Wisdom still had the unenviable task of advising the Crown on whether she should be held accountable for her role in the attack. [New Excalibur #18-24] Things very briefly turned around for Pete when he started a dalliance with Dazzler at the celebration after Albion's defeat. Unfortunately, that party led directly into a team-up with the Exiles against Merlyn the Mad for the fate of Otherworld and the Omniverse, and Alison was reunited with her amnesiac husband Longshot. When Sage chose to remain with the Exiles at their extra-dimensional base, Pete's field operatives (and his love life) were at a loss. Excalibur effectively disbanded at the conclusion of that mission. [X-Men: Die by the Sword #1-5]

When the Skrull invasion began, John the Skrull saw the signs before most and alerted Pete Wisdom to the oncoming threat. With John as bait, they succeeded in luring out a highly-placed Skrull spy -- Mortimer Grimsdale, JIC chair for all of MI-5, MI-6 and MI-13. Although Grimsdale was killed and John proved his loyalty to England and Earth, the country was still in disarray for the coming attack. Wisdom, John and Captain Britain reported directly to the Prime Minister as he issued an order making all British super-heroes drafted agents of MI-13. Faced with invasions across Avalon and Earth, Pete's team flew to the Siege Perilous to access Avalon and hopefully reinforcements. Unfortunately, both Captain Britain and the Siege were apparently destroyed in a Skrull scorched earth assault.

Wisdom had been hearing a voice guiding him since the invasion began. He took its advice for an alternate route into Avalon and made an appeal to Tink for safe passage by sacrificing his pride in a gesture of humility. In Avalon, Oberon informed Pete that the magical creatures of England were under siege as well, and the dimensional doorways out from Avalon were being sealed, including one containing all that was dark and devilish in the collective subconscious. Pete realized that the voice in his head was that of Merlyn, escaped from Otherworld after the Fury debacle but imprisoned behind the doorway with the other creatures of the dark by Oberon. As the Skrulls invaded Avalon in earnest, transfiguring the British magicks to their own ends, and the sword Excalibur proved unable or unwilling to release itself from stone to the agents of MI-13, Wisdom finally gave in to Merlyn's prodding and opened the doorway to the dark, unleashing the evils of Avalon and Britain to strike back against the Skrulls. Although putting these genies back in their bottle would mean long term consequences for MI-13, Merlyn did repay this debt to Wisdom by resurrecting Captain Britain and turning him loose upon the magical Super-Skrull. [Captain Britain and MI-13 #1-4]

In the aftermath of the invasion, Wisdom kept MI-13 as a unique blend of super-heroes and secret agents, public and clandestine operations. Along with Captain Britain and the vampire Invader Spitfire, he recruited the Black Knight and his new steward Faisa Hussein, who had finally pulled Excalibur from its stone. MI-13 dealt with the Dream-Maker Plotka and a vampire invasion of London led by Count Dracula from his castle on the moon. [Captain Britain and MI-13 #5-15] Wisdom worked on building relationships with other superhuman communities on behalf of Great Britain. He smoothed out the necessary Public Relations when Captain America invited Captain Britain to join the mighty Avengers. Pete also used his intelligence network connections to advise Rogers, Wolverine and other super-heroes in exchange for future favors and consideration. [Age of Heroes #1, Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier #1, Fear Itself: Wolverine #2]

Wisdom was called in when a group of mercenaries apparently answering to the mutant thief Remy LeBeau were spotted converging on England. Sure enough, LeBeau turned up shortly at Buckingham Palace, trying to steal Excalibur from Faisa Hussain and making a pass at the Queen while doing so. LeBeau was captured by MI-13, and Wisdom tried to find out what his plans were. In actuality, LeBeau had an audio-rigged explosive and teleporter bracelet attached to his leg, making him an unwilling employee of the Russian mobster and curio dealer, Cich. Cich used Remy's bracelet as a transponder to teleport his men into MI-13's secret arms bunker and loot Wisdom's toys. LeBeau escaped with Cich, but left his bracelet behind so that Pete and MI-13 could track its transponder signal and bring in Cich. LeBeau was pretty pleased with himself for the double-cross, but Wisdom knew a dangerous element when he saw one. He made sure LeBeau knew he owed Wisdom a favor for not arresting him as well, then deported Remy from England as fast as possible. [Gambit (5th series) #5-7]

Pete had the need to call in his favor with Remy LeBeau faster than he would've liked. One night, Wisdom got right pissed and brought a random bird back to his flat. His actual flat, not a safehouse or rented property, where he stored the Fairie Grimoire, a tome of mystical power bequeathed to him by Avalon under the peace accords and containing spells for commanding the various races of Avalon. Pete's one-nighter turned out to be a super-villainess named Death Reaper, who used tantric blood magic to power her spells, and wanted an upgrade. Hoping to recover the tome quickly and quietly, Wisdom recruited LeBeau to retrieve the book from Death Reaper before she acquired the necessary ingredients for her spells. Wisdom and LeBeau intercepted Death Reaper at a black market black magic dealer, where she pulled Remy into the realm of Fairie. Fortunately for Wisdom, LeBeau befriended the local populace and stranded Death Reaper in the realm before returning to Earth. With the tome recovered safely, Pete gave LeBeau some begrudging respect. [Gambit (5th series) #14]

When the incredibly powerful and incredibly unstable mutant David Haller (Legion) touched down in the UK the same day as an oil-rich anti-mutant foreign dictator, Wisdom expected trouble. He tracked Haller to a small pub where he had gathered a significant force of English, Irish and Welsh mutants for reasons unknown. Despite Pete's efforts, Legion managed to carry out his relatively benign plan for an "X-Day" celebration, British mutants using their powers for acts of good will around the country. He also positioned Pete to save the life of the visiting dictator from a third party assassin, showing off the inadequacy of the dictator's homegrown hero while making a public relations landslide in favor of British mutant heroes. It even triggered a coup back in the dictator's home country, overthrowing his regime and leaving his bigoted policies as yesterday's news. Despite his rousing success, Wisdom was pissed at being manipulated by anyone, so he alerted the office of the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Gabrielle Haller. In other words, he called Legion's mother on him. [X-Men: Legacy (2nd series) #13-14]

Wisdom learned there were secrets in British intelligence hidden even from him when Mys-Tech seemingly resurfaced. It was revealed that Captain Britain and a number of other British heroes fought at the Battle of London Bridge to vanquish the Faustian corporation Mys-Tech years ago, then sufficiently buried the whole affair from public knowledge.

Coordinating with their local SHIELD affiliates, Wisdom and the Captain attempted to round up the survivors of London Bridge, only to discover Mys-Tech's Psycho-Wraith Prime appeared to be doing the same thing. After the capture of Braddock and most of the main heroes of London Bridge, Wisdom used MI-13 resources to rally as many British heroes as he could find to oppose the Psycho-Wraiths and their true instigator, the former hero Killpower. The appropriated hordes of Mys-Tech were defeated, and British intelligence once again hid the true scope of evils perpetrated by Mys-Tech on the souls of the United Kingdom.  [Revolutionary War]

Wisdom remained tetchy about inter-agency competition, and monitored an MI-6 agent named Melanie Argyll when she acquired super-powered enhancements on the black market for some of her troops overseas. With "spandex stuff" being solely the province of MI-13, Wisdom interceded in a black ops mission in rural Wajikistan with Excalibur and Meggan to catch Argyll red-handed. Her super-soldiers were hunting insurgents called Quaddies that were interfering with British interests in the area. Unfortunately, Argyll had been sloppy with her paperwork and accepted falsified credentials to let a reporter onto her classified mission. Pete used a hot knife to reveal the "reporter" wasn't even human, but a collection of hologram-projecting metal drones. Worse still, the infiltration was done by Cable and his X-Force.

A brief skirmish between MI-13 and X-Force ended when Argyll was kidnapped by the Quaddies in the area. Information was exchanged, and Wisdom learned Cable's unit was hunting a bio-weapons dealer named Volga and his artificial mutation process. They believed Argyll had bought the process from Volga for her soldiers. Teaming up, X-Force, MI-13 and the soldiers tracked the Quaddies and learned Volga had sold super-powers to both sides in the battle. Upon infiltrating the Quaddie base, Psylocke located and telepathically read Argyll, learning not only that she knew nothing further of use about Volga, but had turned one of her own soldiers into an unwitting suicide bomber for the mission. The decision was made to leave Argyll to her fate, and the super-soldiers all died in a sacrifice play to secure MI-13 and X-Force's escape.

After learning of MI-6's experiments in artificial mutation, a hesitant Wisdom approached Cable and Psylocke. Typically comfortable being both a mutant and a patriot, Pete saw in Argyll how any government (even his own) would never stop trying to find ways to exploit mutants for their benefit. Feeling forced to pick a side, if just for a moment, Wisdom committed treason by revealing state secrets to Cable about an international surveillance program used by the British government and others to track all mutants on Earth at all times. The long term consequences that act may have for Pete's loyalties and conscience have yet to be explored. [X-Force (4th series) #8-9]