Pete Wisdom has the unique mutant power of shooting "hot knives" that burn as hot as the sun. He usually shoots these hot knives from his hands, but it is unknown if he generates the heat internally or if he sets the air around himself on fire. It is not known by what means that Pete's powers work and so I am going to try and explain what I think makes his powers "tick" as it were. The hot knives that Pete generates can very easily kill or destroy things. He defended himself from a man in Genoshia and felt that the man was lucky to have survived the experience. The knives reach very high temperatures that burn as hot as the sun and therefore I can not formulate a reasonable hypothesis as to how Pete's powers could be generated internally and released from him. Skin pores and the human body would not work in that way, although it can only be assumed that Pete must be resistant to extreme heats or he would have killed himself with his powers a long time ago.

Pete can do some pretty cool things with his powers and I thought I'd just point out some of them in this section of the site. Pete was a character who when introduced had control over his powers and knew what he could do with them and so as writer's got used to writing him he did a lot of different things with them.

For instance, in one issue of Excalibur, Pete blows up a building with Kitty. Kitty phases down to a the main generators and other main equipment and Pete manages to generate enough heat and explosive power to blow up an entire building. Pete has such control over his powers that he can light a cigarette off of his hot knives, but is powerful enough that he can blow up a building. A lot of control to have for a mutant...any mutant. It shows glaringly how much control Pete has over himself mentally and how much of a control freak he is when it comes to being able to control all weapons at his disposal.

In another issue of Excalibur, Pete jumps out of an airplane without even thinking twice about it and uses his hot knives to create updrafts of air to slow his dissent to Earth. I always thought that was sort of a cool thing to do with your powers.

Due to the amount of power that Pete obviously possesses with what he can do with his powers, and the amount of control he has over those powers, I have to jump to the logical conclusion that his powers are a result of some form of telekinesis. Now for those of you who don't know, telekinesis is the power to control objects over distances with your mind, or more specifically, the power of thought. Now I know that a lot of people are thinking that "good lord it seems like every mutant power can come down to telekinesis" and in some cases that is true. Telekinesis is basically the power of the mind to influence the outside environment and the objects in that environment. So a lot of powers, even Shadowcat with her "phasing field" could be considered a form of telekinesis. Now in Pete's case his version of telekinesis would effect the air around him.

The telekinetic effect (as I'll call it), logically enough, would create molecular friction, and it might even create enough friction to cause atomic fission, in the air around Pete when Pete triggered it, making the air become supremely hot as the effect continued. He would then use these mental powers to force this heat into pockets in the air and then force these pockets/mental projectiles from him in the form of "hot knives" that he could aim and release at a target. His subconscious would control the amount of air that would be heated and to what degree and that is how he is able to light his cigarettes off of his hot knives but also have enough power to create a thermal layer and updrafts to stop himself from splattering himself on the pavement after jumping off of a building.

Now before people start laughing at me and saying that I'm a nerd for thinking of how his mutant powers would work because he's a comic book character and the reason that he shoots hot knives is because Warren Ellis thought it was a cool mutant power and that's it...well duh. I just thought I'd put this section on as something fun for you all to read and think about.

And if YOU have another theory as to how Pete's powers could work feel free to E-mail me and share it with me. If it makes sense I'll post that theory up here (with your permission of course) for the world to admire.