Origin
Peter Paul Wisdom was born to Harold Wisdom and his wife in London, England. He has an older sister named Romany. His parents are divorced. His father is a retired detective sergeant and criminal profiler for New Scotland Yard. His mother was later killed by a spree killer named Michael Ryan who shot Peteâs mother while she waited for her son at the window.
Creation
Pete Wisdom was created by Warren Ellis and Ken Lashley, and first appeared in Excalibur #86 (1995).
Major Story Arcs
Excalibur
Black Air sent Wisdom to investigate an uprising of free mutates in the island nation of Genosha as a representative of the British government along with the mutant team Excalibur. After the conflict, Wisdom returned to Muir Island after he was injured during the uprising by a newly developed type of ammunition. To investigate the source of this ammunition, Wisdom traveled back to London with Kitty Pryde to infiltrate a Black Air facility.
In the facility, Wisdom discovered that Black Air was collecting alien artifacts for use in combat and cross-genetic experiments on human subjects, which were performed in conjunction with the London branch of the Hellfire Club. During the investigation, Pryde and Wisdom encountered the alien race who referred to themselves as the Uncreated. After defeating the aliens and destroying the Black Air facility, Wisdom returned to Muir Island with Pryde, with whom a mutual attraction was beginning to develop.
After his London experience, Wisdom left the Black Air organization and was admitted as a member of Excalibur. Wisdom was also instrumental in bringing Black Air down when, in concert with the Hellfire Club, the corrupt organization captured the techno-organic entity known as Douglock and used him as a living conduit to a demon that resided under the streets of London.
X-Force
Shortly before Excalibur disbanded, Wisdom ended his relationship with Shadowcat and left the team. Wisdom later resurfaced in Genosha where he was attempting to retrieve a CPU from a satellite that had crashed on the island. The CPU was, in fact, the disembodied brain of Archie Fogg, an old friend of Wisdom’s, with the ability to remotely link to and control any sort of machinery. Aided by X-Force, Wisdom opposed Magneto and managed to download Archie into an android body.
Six months later, Wisdom reappeared again, this time as leader of X-Force. Wisdom utilized the team as a strikeforce against Black Ops organizations and establishments. He also helped members such as Jesse Bedlam, Boom Boom, and Warpath advance upon their powers and abilities.
Wisdom was seemingly shot and killed by Doctor Niles Roman during X-Forces’ attempt to stop Romans bio-slaves from destroying San Francisco. It later turned out this was all a hoax, to try and keep enemies of his back.
New Excalibur and MI:13
Wisdom later joined some of the X-Men to form the newest incarnation of the British super-team Excalibur. Consisting of Juggernaut, Captain Britain, Dazzler, Nocturne, Sage, Pete Wisdom and for a while the Black Knight
After M-Day, Wisdom was forced into an arranged marriage with a fairy named Tink to prevent a fairy invasion of Earth. Tink was a part of the original line up of the government team lead by Wisdom to counteract supernatural, alien and other strange happenings that threatened Britain, known as MI: 13.
Pete Wisdom and his team defended Britain from threats such as interdimensional aliens, re-awoken giants and the Welsh Dragon before the beginning of the Skrull Invasion of Earth. Pete’s MI: 13 team joined forces with Captain Britain and Spitfire to fight off the invading Skrulls. In the end, Pete was responsible for banishing the invading Skrulls from Britain and it’s magical counterpart, Avalon but as a result he released all the magical and supernatural evil that had been imprisoned in Avalon.
MI: 13
Now Pete is the director of MI: 13. Directly reporting to only the Prime Minister himself, Pete has the authority to request help from every super powered individual in the United Kingdom. At the moment, the core MI: 13 team is made up of Captain Britain, Spitfire, the Black Knight, Faiza Hussain, Blade and Wisdom himself. Pete Wisdom continues to lead MI: 13 against the magic evils that threaten Britain. Pete has lost many friends and allies, always making the difficult choices that others don’t want to make. This has had a huge effect on his psyche and he feels responsible for the pain and suffering of all those he comes into contact with.
Still reeling from the betrayal of Captain Midlands Pete was attacked by the forces of Dracula and is now beginning the job of leading Britain and MI: 13 in a war against the deadly vampire commander in which he was successful and saved Britain.
Pete helped out the new X-Force some months later, still working for MI: 13.
Krakoa: Pete stays Home
When the mutant Island Nation of Krakoa was established, most of the mutant population traveled toward the new nation, but Pete remained in London, doing his usuall work for the British Secret Service and MI-13. He also assists the new Excalibur team, led by Betsy Braddock as the new Captain Britain, but refuses to remain on the island, thinking it more like a cult.
Powers and Abilities
Pete Wisdom has the mutant ability to absorb solar radiation, and use this stored energy to create “hot knives”.
His hot knives are solid constructs made of pure thermal energy, in his own words ‘hotter then the surface of the sun’, which he can either throw as projectiles or use anchored to his fingertips for close range combat. While he seems to prefer using his hand, he can shoot these ‘knives’ from any part of his body.
He can also create a thermal updraft to slow his fall. Wisdom is highly intelligent and is a skilled leader and tactician, as well as an experienced fighter.
Alternate Earths
Earth-1610
In the Ultimate Universe, Pete Wisdom is known as the Leader. As an agent of British Intelligence, Wisdom was obsessed with the recent influx of super powered heroes in the United States. He was convinced that it was in Great Britain’s best interests to have their own team of super soldiers and he continually fought to have this team officially sanctioned by his department head. Finally, being given a short window of time to complete the super soldier process Wisdom uses himself as the first test subject, injecting himself with a combination of Tony Stark’s DNA and Bruce Banner’s super soldier stack. This results in his cranium and brain matter growing to a size so larger that he is no longer able to support his own head. From this point on he is in a wheel chair and has to have his head supported by metal brackets that rest on his shoulders.. He soon comes into conflict against Iron Man and the Hulk.
In the ensuing battle he is crushed by a remote control Iron Man suit and then pummeled by the Hulk. A missile intended to stop the Hulk instead destroys The Leader while the Hulk leaves the scene.