Wisdom

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Spiffingly phantasmogorical graphic novel - Rated
Wisdom is a freewheeling modern fantasy comic with an overtly British flavour. Although the debt to Grant Morrison's Invisibles is plain, Paul Cornell has produced an original take on the oddball-super-team-fights-multi-dimensional-foes trope. Its USP is the mashup of British elements: the secret service, folklore and literature, Ripper mythology and, oh gosh, even the embarrassment that is Captain Britain. This is all accomplished in a way that doesn't insult the reader's intelligence and which throws in multiple references and humourous asides that anyone versed in UK culture (highbrow and lowbrow) will appreciate and which combine to lift this comic well above the average fare. Given the fantastical basis, most of the characters also have some depth and interact and talk in a recognisable manner. Excellent artwork by Hairsine, Garcia and Neary adds real dynamism and detail to the tale, as well as graphically depicted violence.