Kindle Price: $10.99

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Sign up and save an extra 15% on this book
Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Paul Cornell
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Wisdom: Rudiments Of Wisdom Kindle & comiXology

by Paul Cornell (Author), Trevor Hairsine (Illustrator, Cover Art, Artist), Manuel Garcia (Illustrator, Artist) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 23 ratings
See all formats and editions
Collects Wisdom #1-6.

Pete Wisdom has a lot of fairies to kill. Yes, fairies are supposed to be nice and magical and charming, but they are currently attacking England. Hugo Award nominee Paul Cornell (BBC's Dr. Who and Robin Hood) brings you a sci-fi mini-series unlike anything you've seen before
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Part of Series
    Wisdom
  2. Print length
    146 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    Not Enabled
  5. Publisher
    MAX
  6. Publication date
    September 17, 2020
  7. File size
    516658 KB
  8. Page Flip
    Not Enabled
  9. Word Wise
    Not Enabled
  10. Enhanced typesetting
    Not Enabled
  11. See all details
Next page
  • Due to its large file size, this book may take longer to download
  • Read this book on comiXology. Learn more
Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card
More like Wisdom: Rudiments Of Wisdom
Page 1 of 1Start overPage 1 of 1
Previous page
  1. 1
    Wisdom: Rudiments Of Wisdom
    Kindle Edition
    $10.99
  2. Wisdom    1 book series
Next page
Loading...

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08G3PHWYX
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ MAX (September 17, 2020)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 17, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 516658 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Not enabled
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 146 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 23 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Paul Cornell

Paul Cornell

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

I'm a writer of Science Fiction and Fantasy in prose, comics and television, one of only two people to be Hugo Award-nominated in all three media. I've written Doctor Who for the BBC, Wolverine for Marvel Comics and Batman and Robin for DC. I've won the BSFA Award for my short fiction, an Eagle Award for my comics, and share in a Writer's Guild Award for my television scripts. My urban fantasy novels for Tor are London Falling and The Severed Streets.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
23 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Customer(1024)
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2018
Verified Purchase
Came on time and was exactly as described, thanks guys!
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
N. Durham
4.0 out of 5 stars Goofy, yet enjoyable
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2007
Verified Purchase
Interesting to say the least, Wisdom: Rudiments of Wisdom stars lower-tier mutant and former Excalibur member Pete Wisdom as his beloved Britain is under siege. Between hordes of murderous fairies, insane telepaths, and invading martians (yes, you read that right); Pete has his hands full to say the least. In between all the mayhem, Pete and his team (including Captain Midlands, the British version of Captain America, and a shape changing Skrull in the guise of John Lennon) make for easy laughs and thrills as the carnage piles upward. British writer Paul Cornell (writer of BBC's Doctor Who) churns everything along with a goofy rhythm that will leave you laughing out loud at some spots, while Trevor Hairsine provides some solid pencil work. Wisdom is good for what it is (and more enjoyable than many MAX mini's usually turn out being) and doesn't try to be anything more than that either. All in all, Wisdom: Rudiments of Wisdom is one of the goofier, and enjoyable, MAX mini's to come along in a while; and is definitely worth checking out for X-Men fans and MAX fans alike.
7 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Cozzster
3.0 out of 5 stars Good concept, but not well executed...
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2011
Verified Purchase
For the most part, this is a series of stand alone stories following Pete Widsom, an agent of a secret British superhero team that responds to disturbances that include fairies, dragons, martians, and jack the ripper. Pete must dispose of these baddies with his corny gang of superheroes who range from a skrull beatle to a fairy. Cornell tries to make the book humorous along the way with Pete's exploits, but it does not catch with me. I found the concept of the story to be a neat idea, but did not feel the book was written well and fell flat after issue 1. It is definitely written with a British vibe and not Americanized at all, so for those who are not used to that type of comic, as I was not, I would not recommend this book.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Sean Curley
4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting piece of work.
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2008
Pete Wisdom was created in the mid-90s by Warren Ellis during his acclaimed run on "Excalibur v.1", one of several Ellis characters who function as versions of Ellis' own public persona (see also: Elijah Snow). Wisdom was an antisocial rogue, unpopular with his teammates but popular with readers. After the end of "Excalibur", he was included in Elllis' "Counter-X" revamp, and then, after a period in limbo, on Chris Claremont's revived "Excalibur" (Claremont's grasp of the character could be said to be equal to his grasp on most other characters these days). And then, for some reason, Marvel greenlit a MAX miniseries on Wisdom by British sci-fi author Paul Cornell, with art by Trevor Hairsine (issues 1 and 2) and Manuel Garcia (issues 3 through 6, after Hairsine was removed either for slowness or because of poor sales).

Cornell's story is initially primarily a series of standalone tales following Wisdom and his team a low-rent British superheroes investigating various mystical disturbances throughout the British Isles; along for the ride are Tink, a fairy dissident; Maureen, a clairvoyant; John the Skrull, a member of the "Skrull Beatles" who were assigned to take over the world, but decided not to ("Lads, I've found that I like money and power."); and Captain Midlands, a parody of Ultimate Captain America. Together, they raid the Otherworld to rescue a kidnapped baby, deal with awakened giants, a Welsh Dragon, an army of Jack the Rippers, and, finally, the Martians, those classic British sci-fi villains. Woven throught his are Cornell's ideas about British identity, and Wisdom's disdain for its trappings, trappings his villains often exemplify; and ideas about Wisdom's corrosive karma.

The art is excellent, from both artists, bringing a realistic feel to the proceedings. Cornell's writing is quite inventive, with an odd sense of humour, and very quirky ideas. It is especially interesting, as a Canadian, to read something so obviously written for a non-North American audience, unlike most North American comics (of course, this may have contributed to its poor American sales). Occasionally, Cornell gets a bit too obscure for my tastes (one issue has a bunch of British songs mentioned as being the soundtrack for particular scenes, but the bands in question are all utterly unknown to me, so it comes as rather pretentious), but on the whole it's a winning piece of work. Marvel was obviously interested enough to put Cornell in charge of a relaunched "Excalibur" title, where hopefully we will see Wisdom and his cohorts continue their adventures.
10 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Eric Louie
2.0 out of 5 stars Could be better.
Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2008
Verified Purchase
A single story line based on Pete Wisdom. Since it was written by the Doctor Who guy, the book comes off alot like Torchwood. Too abstract for me to get into. You got fairy/human relationship problems, than there is an alien invasion. Overall I found this book kinda boring.
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Guitar Fan
3.0 out of 5 stars Neutral review here
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 8, 2009
Verified Purchase
I'm not the world's biggest reader of comics by a long, long way, so it's only through some unusual circumstances that I won't go into except to say that being British and fascinated by Marvel's stable of characters and their usual bias toward American national characters was interested to see if this could buck the trend.
On first read through I was left slightly unfulfilled and disappointed. Toward the beginning of the collection here, particular the first two issues I struggled to actually follow what was going on and by the time I figured it out was left disappointed by how simple the initial solution seems to be.

Wisdom being issued under Marvel's MAX imprint there are gratuitous references to sex actually quite frequently that rarely ever seem very natural. Often the storyline seems to have been deliberately shifted to try and meet the requirements of the MAX classification which seems to me to be of detriment to the series, but then I suppose that may be overreaction on the part of someone who has become accustomed to the opposite effect on the main imprints.

Titular central character Pete Wisdom is just about the only cast member to appear regularly here and more than a handful of times outside of this mini-series but does so with extremely inconsistent art, appearing to have noticeably different hair colours and styles almost every issue as well as consistently seeming to be a different character to the usual chain smoker we're used to. Paul Cornell's Pete Wisdom seems to be relatively successful with the fairer sex and very unnaturally forced into the role of title hero, oh yeah and (from memory anyway) he only references the fact that he's a chain-smoker once. Perhaps most surprisingly Cornell's Wisdom appears to be a generous character who thinks of others before himself in ways that most other portrayals of the character would never dream of.

So, what of Marvel Britain in Cornell's series? All I'm going to say is, if you don't want to accept that in Marvel's world all supernatural occurences is Britain are 'magic', while the rest of the world gets vaguely plausible pseudo-scientific back-stories to everything and anything.

It's not bad overall though, once you've gotten comfortable with the idea of Britain being a scientific joke in the Marvel world and just having 'magic' then it's rather enjoyable, but it does best in its comedy aspect. The highlights are the references to popular culture, particularly in the Welsh issue that dictates its soundtrack and any scene that involves John (Lennon) the Skrull. Actually, by the end I was hoping for a solo series for John the Skrull, shame that didn't happen. How about a John the Skrull: First Class? Even with the series' comedy angle and references factored in though, I can't bring myself to review this mini series as anything other than neutral. It's definitely a series that improves a little on the second read through as the reader becomes more in tune with the mood and new characters and takes time to appreciates the art more. Also, the latter half is much better than the first half, probably partly because of the same reasons, but I wouldn't describe this series as 'essential' by any means.

Probably best suited to die-hard fans of Pete Wisdom and Paul Cornell only with the possible addition of the contingent of people who long to discover what Marvel Britain would be like if written by an actual Brit (but I can save those people some time by telling you everything is 'magic', inspired by literature or historical events/personalities and that there's apparently a total void of technology in Britain).
3 people found this helpful
 Report
Joe
4.0 out of 5 stars Very episodic, but still great.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 22, 2012
Verified Purchase
Like the title says, this series was a little more episodic than I expected, with each issue telling a self-contained mini story, with only few tiny links between them. Nonetheless, it's great to see a British style comic book adventure like this, and if you're a fan of Captain Britain, then Wisdom is a cool expansion upon that whole series.
2 people found this helpful
 Report
James OLeary
4.0 out of 5 stars Good writer who should be allowed by Marvel to work ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 27, 2016
Verified Purchase
Bought it and completed my Mi-13 collection. Good writer who should be allowed by Marvel to work on Captain Britain and the mi-13 team again
Report
Martin
4.0 out of 5 stars Good fun, if somewhat episodic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 12, 2014
Verified Purchase
Good fun, if somewhat episodic. Pete Wisdom's appearance was annoyingly inconsistent at times, and the sexual content felt gratuitous and a bit tacky. Other than that very enjoyable.
Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report