After a period in virtual abeyance, Marvel seem to have rediscovered their adults-only Max imprint.  It would be interesting to know what prompted this change of heart.  It seems like only a few months ago that Marvel were shifting Supreme Power out of the Max imprint, with veiled mutterings that Marvel simply didn't intend to support its mature readers titles.

Well, despite Marvel's assumptions, the relaunch of Supreme Power didn't do much to help sales at all.  Perhaps that contributed to their rethink.  In any event, we now have a range of new Max miniseries, among them Paul Cornell and Trevor Hairsine's Wisdom.

This isn't the first time we've had a mature-readers X-book.  The late-eighties curio Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown got there first.  But Wisdom is the first book to do it in many years.  Frankly, on reading it, it's hard to see quite why it's come out under a mature readers banner.  A bit of inessential swearing aside, there's really nothing here that would seem out of place in a mainstream title.  If you're looking for a Vertigo type of book... well, this isn't it.

But let's not hold that against it.  Ignoring the mature readers banner (or more accurately, the "Explicit Content" warning), what's it like as a series?  Pretty darned good, actually.

Writer Paul Cornell is best known as a contributor to Doctor Who, particularly during the lengthy stretch when the show was off the air but the BBC were producing incredibly convoluted and continuity-laden tie-in novels aimed at the hardcore fanbase.  On art, we've got Trevor Hairsine, a surprisingly high-profile artist for such an oddball project.  The big problem with Hairsine is that his Bryan Hitch influence extends beyond the art, which is very good indeed, to his scheduling - issue #2 has already been rescheduled to January 2007, and issue #3 hasn't even been solicited yet.  Oh dear.

Fortunately, issue #1 holds up quite nicely as a story in its own right, so the wait won't be too disruptive.  Cheerfully ignoring Excalibur altogether, Cornell has Wisdom as the leader of the in-house superhumans of British intelligence's MI-13, leading them into battle against invading fairies from Otherworld.  If you're worried about the continuity, this would fit nicely enough before M-Day, but it's really not the sort of book where you should be worrying about that kind of thing.

Basically, it's Pete Wisdom and a gang of oddballs beating up fairies in a retaliatory strike - "We will show the little gossamer bastards we will respond to aggression" - and it's great fun.  It's witty, it's got beautiful art, it's clearly not taking itself at all seriously, and it's still remembered to throw in a couple of interesting ideas about how the UK relates to its past (although why American readers should be expected to care, I have no clue).  It's tremendously entertaining stuff.  Oh, and it has a sensible quantity of adverts.

Now, a couple of weeks back, I observed that Frank Tieri's take on Pete Wisdom in the parent title, New Excalibur, had badly missed the mark.  To be honest, Cornell misses it just as badly, but in the opposite direction.  Somewhere along the line, Cornell seems to have lost the memo about Wisdom being a misanthropic git.  In this series, he's suave, endearing and beloved.

A strong case can be made that this is simply not the pre-established character, in any recognisable form.  I would have a lot of sympathy for that view.  But quite honestly I don't care, because I enjoyed this a hell of a lot more than I expected to.  And frankly, this version of Wisdom, plus his supporting cast, makes for a better team book than anything we've seen in New Excalibur itself.  It's the absurd details that make it shine, like Wisdom's team briefing on safety in Avalon.  ("Do not join the Round Table.  Don't eat anything.  Don't pull anything from anything.  Don't marry anything.")

Choice of imprint notwithstanding, this isn't especially grown-up stuff.  But it's enormously good fun, which is far more important.

Rating: A

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