34 years old heat-based projectiles
citizen of the United Kingdom member of Excalibur
permanent opposite-sex partnership
Pete's reputation precedes him. Bastard, spy, and the man who corrupted Shadowcat. He's the member of Excalibur who has the least contact with the X-Men, and he bears not the slightest resemblance to anything I would describe as a superhero. Nor to James Bond, no matter how many times he suggests it to me. He refuses the uniform and most of the ideology of the alpha mutant teams and somehow still stands on the same battlefields with them.He's built a fairly successful espionage career on being unpleasant and unremarkable, and it's only my inability to quit smoking that made us friends. Pete apparently appreciated my addiction, and recognized that he'd found a fellow-traveller in the misery of smoking in the Scottish rain. And so I got the occasional light and the occasional smoke when I was out, and a set of conversations with a man whose bluntness is most of his charm. He's offensive and smart and too competent not to be taken seriously.
Since I was never in combat with Excalibur, I've never seen Pete's mutation in action. I'm told he produces what he calls "hot knives" from his fingertips, and that they range in size from needle-thin to the size of swords. It suits him.
I took this picture of Excalibur's "man in black" in his bedroom on Muir Island. Kitty Pryde described him as living like a bear with furniture, which is more or less accurate. Fumigation would have been in order before anyone else could live there, but the rest of the team seems to take it as a sign that Pete's not leaving in the near future.
There are something like two or three dozen good pictures from that shoot. It was one of my most successful of the whole project, and it was horribly frustrating, because it left me with no idea which shot to use. Pete Wisdom's a twisted man, though, and this is the proof: the picture that appears here is the one that he chose himself.
Sinclair: Pete, what in the name of God are you doing out here?
Wisdom: Smoking.
Sinclair: On the island.
Wisdom: Chasing Pryde.
Sinclair: I hate you Wisdom.
Wisdom: You and all this mad army.
Sinclair: Going to answer the question now?
Wisdom: Better than the alternative, isn't it?
Sinclair: House in the suburbs, two point two kids?
Wisdom: Bugger that. I'm a spy, love. Have been since I was out of school. And most of what I learned is that I was doing dirty work, and since the Cold War ended, it didn't even seem to be for anything. Bit harder to justify the damage without clear and present danger.
Sinclair: Mr Wisdom, I'd almost think you didn't like governments.
Wisdom: Don't join me up with the anarchist league yet. I don't like black ops so much, but there's order for good reason. Only sometimes that order lets sick bastards keep doing what they're doing.
Sinclair: So why Excalibur?
Wisdom: Pryde.
Sinclair: Do you like the team?
Wisdom: We work. That tosser Wagner [Kurt Wagner -- "Nightcrawler" -- declined to be part of the project] likes to send me in the line of fire. His idea of a joke, I expect.
Sinclair: And the other teams?
Wisdom: Think a lot of themselves. Aren't careful. Prance around in fruit-coloured body-condoms. Answer your question?
Sinclair: [laughing] I think so. So would you quit?
Wisdom: Probably someday. This is idiot work, except that somebody needs to do it. And I'm not leaving Pryde. If she wanted to come, I'd go tomorrow, but she grew up with this lot, and she's about as likely to leave them as I am to give these up. [waving his cigarette pack] So I'm in until she's out, I suppose.