Sunday, December 30, 2012

12 Days of X-Mas: Pryde & Wisdom (1996)



I’m not sure why college-Timbotron picked this up. I must have just bought everything with an X on it back in 1996. I’m not a fan of either Shadowcat or Pete Wisdom, so a limited series focusing on the two of them would always be a hard sell. I remember loving the art back in the day, but now that I’ve seen Terry Dodson’s more impressive modern work, I can’t get too worked up over this. 

This is typical Warren Ellis, full of crazy ideas like skeletons used as alchemical stones, England’s Charles Xavier, and more. My issue is that there are simply too many characters running around in this thing. This is a three-issue limited series. We meet a whole new British police department, Wisdom’s family, a murderer, a slumming reporter, her father, and a mutant expert. That’s a lot of people! They all have names and witty personalities! Perhaps Ellis was setting up an ongoing series. 

I never liked Kitty and Wisdom as a couple, either. The transient nature of their relationship makes this even harder to connect to. Kitty has gone back to Colossus as her true love, and is now dating Iceman, so I can’t get into the playful flirting, either. Wisdom always did feel too old for her! 

Can anyone tell me exactly what “hot knives” are? Is that just a new sci-fi type mutant power Ellis thought up, or is it based on something? 

This is probably a better fit for a big Ellis fan, or someone who wants to compare Dodson’s early work to his masterful present. Its fine for what it is, but I don’t think I loved the book in 1996 and I still don’t now. 

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