You know, thanks to Walt Disney and Tinkerbell, everyone thinks fairies are adorable little winged darlings, flitting about the English countryside. However, if you read your folklore, fairies are usually portrayed as manipulative, angry, hateful little buggers. Given half a chance, they'll steal your crops and kidnap your babies. Bloody fairies.
In the England of the marvel Universe, fairies really exist in the Otherworld. The Otherworld is essentially the collective unconcious of the English people. It exists alongside the "real" world and is teeming with fairies, monsters, knights, kings, swords in stones, and all that other great stuff from your English Lit class. Unfortunately, sometimes the residents of the Otherworld collide with modern day England, and that makes trouble. When a bunch of wild fairies start waging war on humans, it's time to call in Pete Wisdom.
Wisdom is the head of MI-13, a secret government team that deals with "weird happenings." Pete's team is, honestly, a pretty weird bunch too. Wisdom himself is a mutant (he was in the best ever Excalibur run, back when Warren Ellis wrote it), and he leads a group with a rogue fairy, a hippy Skrull, Captain Midlands, and a woman who is "clairsentient" but NOT a telepath. A strange team to deal with strange stuff.
Wisdom is a Marvel Max limited series written by Paul Cornell, with art by Trevor Hairsine. Cornell has long been a favorite writer of mine. He has written some excellent Doctor Who novels, an acclaimed episode of the new Doctor Who TV series, some original sci-fi novels, and some great comics for 2000 AD. This is his first work for American comics, and I have a feeling Paul Cornell will become a beloved import like fellow Brits Garth Ennis and Warren Ellis. In the first issue alone, Wisdom manages to be original, funny, and scary, packed with great moments and clever ideas. Trevor Hairsine, another former 2000 AD artist, is no slouch either. His detailed, dark, and gorgeous art is a perfect fit for the book.
With great art and a great story, there is no excuse for you to miss out on Wisdom #1. If you enjoy the modern take on folklore in Fables, you should definitely give Wisdom a try. Of course, the fairies might try to steal your copy, so be careful! Bloody fairies.
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