Peter Winston Wisdom was introduced in Excalibur 86. Pete Wisdom was a government assasin for Great Britian that was working on getting out of the business of killing when he finally burned out and got "shaky". He ended up killing an entire town for the "good of the country" and he just couldn't take it anymore. He stood there in the middle of the burning town and with tears running down his face decided that he wanted out. He made a deal with his superiors to do one last "mission" in which he'd take Excalibur to Genoshia and make sure that they didn't come back.

Pete wasn't exactly a ray of sunshine when Excalibur met him. He was bitter, would tell anyone off who even dared talk to him (which started a very interesting grudge match between Moira Mactaggert and Pete) and just wanted to get his assignment out of the way. Well, a couple of things stopped him from killing Excalibur on his mission. One, he ended up getting shot down with Excalibur and they all ended up fighting for their mutual survival together. Two, he started to fall for a small brunette full of spunk by the name of Kitty Pryde.

Pete and Kitty didn't hit it off right away. The two of them bashed heads and wills more than a couple of times. Once the team had returned from Genoshia though, Kitty found an opportunity to find out more about Wisdom. Pete's old partener from his days at Black Air called him begging for his help. Pete didn't know how to fly the Midnight Runner (an invention of Brian Braddock's) and Kitty agreed to fly Pete to London. The two of them ended up getting shot at, Pete got the holy heck beat out of him by Black Air goons, and the two of them ended up blowing up a military installation, but by the end of it Kitty and Pete had not only found mutal respect, but they had also found a mutual attraction. And both of them decided to see where that attraction would lead.

Kitty and Pete were involved in a relationship for a while before they admitted they loved one another. Kitty, Nightcrawler and Colossus got kidnapped by Belesco one night and transported to Limbo where they were put through various tests. In between, Pete was worried sick and chain smoking to try and relieve stress. Brian then told him (who was moonlighting as a character called "Britanic" for a few issues...long story) that he had been having flashes of the future and if Pete didn't admit to Kitty that he loved her a horrible horrible future would result. Pete either bought what Brian was telling him, or more likely, he finally found an excuse to tell Kitty how he felt without leaving himself too vunerable to the consequences of telling her. When Kitty and the others returned Pete told Kitty how he felt and Kitty, not surprisingly, returned his feelings.

While Kitty and Pete were two characters that were great apart, they were even better together as a couple. They became known as "Pryde and Wisdom" and were a very popular couple in X-mendom for a while. They even had their own limited series. The Pryde and Wisdom limited series was great. Pete and Kitty exchanged hysterical dialogue all through the issues and the two of them kept getting into bizarre situations and ended up playing the straight men in all of the lunacy. It worked very well and personally speaking, "Pryde and Wisdom" is still one of my all time favorite Limited Series.

Due to Excalibur being on the chopping block, among other factors (check out The Catbox...Home to All Things Kitty" in the FAQ section for further details), Pryde and Wisdom was split up and many fans (myself included) were seriously upset at Marvel for the break up. Pryde and Wisdom still to this day have a very loyal fan following and the two of them have an archive of fan fiction dedicated to them called Fonts of Wisdom which I would suggest visiting regularly.

One being that was not happy about Kitty and Pete dating, however, was Lockheed (see Lockheed section of Locked and Loaded for more details on him). Lockheed had a tendancy to be very jealous of Kitty and he didn't like Pete dating her, so started a huge war of wills between Lockheed and Pete. Lockheed took Pete's clothes, stole his cigarettes and proceeded to drive Pete insane. The two of them, after trying to kill one another for a while, finally called a truce, mainly for Kitty's sake. Lockheed actually ended up saving Pete's life and the two of them got along alright (not great but alright) after that.

Pete has two living relatives that we know of. He has a father Harold, who used to be a very great police detective before something happened to him to make him lose his mind (my personal theory is that he ended up recieving some type of head injury or the force wouldn't look on him with respect and overlook his paranoia the way they did). Harold was very paranoid after his incident in the past and Pete and he fought a lot, although Pete paid for his house and his care without Harold knowing about it. He also has a sister Romany who Pete considered a "space cadet". Romany was into all kinds of weird things, such as one incident Pete and her referred to in a conversation about her channeling an ancient priest that made her head spin around and such. Romany was an interesting character. Kitty and Romany got along pretty well. For more details on Pete's family, pick up the "Pryde and Wisdom" LS.

Pete's age as well as his middle name are targets of debate. While Ben Raab was writing the character he gave Pete the middle name of "Paul", but later his creator Warren Ellis stated his middle name as "Winston". Many people compromise by stating Pete's middle name as "Peter Paul Winston Wisdom", while me personally, I stick with the middle name his creator gave him. Pete's age is a matter of debate as well. In one issue and one issue only Pete refers to his age vaguely. He states that he is "at least ten years older" than Kitty Pryde. Since Warren Ellis states that he thought Kitty was 18, most people then assume that Pete is 28 years old. However, many people, myself included, believe that Pete would be in his mid-thirties for a couple of reasons. A big one is that if Pete was as high up in the military as he was when he met Kitty he would be older than 28 years of age. My husband and I are working on putting a realistic military history together for Pete to back up our theory, so when we get time to get it done I'll put it up here. Also, it would be very realistic for Pete to think that Kitty would be about ten years younger than him even if he was in his mid-thirties because Kitty never acted her actual age. She was always mature for her age and never got along with people her own age because of this. So, the "ten year" age difference, I believe, isn't a good reason for people to set in stone that Pete Wisdom is 28 years of age.

Pete, after leaving Excalibur, joined X-force after the very convoluted "six month gap" (thanks Claremont *sarcastically*) and led them for a while with an eyepatch. He then, supposedly, took a bullet to the back of the head (Warren Ellis later stated that he wrote X-force during this period just to kill Pete Wisdom). Warren Ellis though, didn't take into consideration that no one at Marvel stays dead and Pete was later seen talking to other "black ops" agents in another issue. So, where Pete is right now we do not know.

You will not, however, see much reference to Pete beyond his days when he was dating Kitty on this webpage. I like to live in my own little world where Kitty and Pete will eternally be together (as it should be) and Pete is alive, well, and acting sane.