Quicksilver (comics)

Publication history

Quicksilver first appears in X-Men #4 (March 1964) and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby. The character initially appears as an antagonist to the X-Men, although before long he becomes a member of the Avengers and appears as a regular character in that title beginning with Avengers #16 in May 1965. He has made numerous other appearances in that title, and other related titles, sometimes as a member of the team, sometimes as an ally, and sometimes as an antagonist.

From 1991 to 1993 Quicksilver was a regular character in the first volume of X-Factor. The series emphasized the character's irritability and arrogance, which writer Peter David felt were a natural consequence of his powers, explaining:

Have you ever stood in the post office behind a woman with 20 packages who wants to know every single way she can send them to Africa? It drives you nuts! You think to yourself, "Why do I have to put up with this? These people are so slow, they're costing me time, and it's so damned irritating. I wish I didn't have to put up with this." Now—imagine that the entire world was like that... except for you. ... to Quicksilver, as he said in an issue of Amazing Spider-Man many, many moons ago, the rest of the world is moving in slow motion. That must really, really get on your nerves. Quicksilver lives in a world filled with people who don't know how to use cash machines, and want to know all the ways to send packages to Africa, and can never get your order right in a Burger King unless you repeat it several times. That would tend to make you feel very superior to everyone and very impatient with everyone.

Quicksilver also starred in Quicksilver, a regular ongoing eponymous series that began in November 1997 and ran for 13 issues. The character also played a pivotal role in the House of M and Avengers: The Children's Crusade

Quicksilver appeared as a supporting character in Avengers Academy from issue #1 (Aug 2010) through its final issue #39 (Jan 2013). He appears as one of the members of All-New X-Factor, which was launched in 2014 as part of the second Marvel NOW! wave. Writer Peter David's handling of the character in that book earned the character a 2014 @ssie award from Ain't It Cool News. AICN's Matt Adler commented that David writes the character best, and that the "arrogant, impatient speedster" made the title worth following.

Fictional character biography

Pietro and his twin sister, Wanda, were raised by Django and Marya Maximoff, a Roma couple. As adolescents Pietro and his sister Wanda discovered that they had peculiar talents. When Django began to steal food to feed his starving family, enraged villagers attacked the roma camp. Using his phenomenal speed, Pietro fled from the camp with his sister. Over the next few years, Wanda and Pietro wandered central Europe, living off the land. One day, Wanda accidentally caused a house to burst into flames with her uncontrollable hex powers and the pair was chased by superstitious townspeople. Despite Pietro's attempt to defend her, the twins were soon overpowered and were rescued by Magneto.

The character first appears with his twin sister, the Scarlet Witch, as a part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The siblings were originally presented as mutants, with Pietro possessing superhuman speed and Wanda able to control probability. The pair are recruited by their father Magneto after he saves Wanda from a mob after she accidentally causes a house to burst into flame. Quicksilver stays with her to protect her. He has Jewish ancestry, from his father. After several confrontations with the X-Men, they depart when Magneto and his lackey the Toad are abducted by the cosmic entity the Stranger. They then travel back to Europe. Pietro and his sister reform and are recruited by Iron Man to the superhero team the Avengers, after they discover they are advertising for new members and want to get support for themselves.

Together with leader Captain America and former villain Hawkeye, the four become the second generation of Avengers, and are later dubbed "Cap's Kooky Quartet". Quicksilver first thought he should be leader, though he is captured by the Mole Man on the first mission. He is rescued by the Avengers, who defeat the Minotaur without him, and would sometimes quarrel with the other members. The Scarlet Witch becomes close friends with Hawkeye and both become loyal members of the team until Wanda is accidentally shot on a mission against Magneto. Quicksilver then flees from the Avengers with his wounded sister. The pair accompany Magneto back to his mid-Atlantic base, where the character captures the X-Men and Pietro skirmishes with the X-Man Cyclops. After a solo appearance by Quicksilver in the title The Amazing Spider-Man, the twins finally realize that Magneto is actually the true villain. Pietro and Wanda reappear in the title X-Men and are then kidnapped along with several other mutants by the robot Sentinels, and are subsequently freed by the X-Men.

The character reappears in the title Avengers, and advises the team that Wanda has been kidnapped and taken to another dimension by the warlord Arkon. After Wanda is rescued, Pietro and his sister rejoin the team. During one mission Quicksilver is wounded by a Sentinel and is found by Crystal, a member of the Inhumans. Crystal nurses Pietro back to health, and the pair are eventually married. Pietro and Wanda also meet Robert Frank—formerly World War II hero, the Whizzer—who was present at Mount Wundagore (the birthplace of the siblings) with his wife at the time of their birth. Frank briefly joins the Avengers, believing Pietro and Wanda to be his children. The Scarlet Witch also becomes romantically involved with her Avengers teammate the android Vision. Although Pietro initially disapproves, he eventually gives his blessing to their marriage.

Quicksilver features with the Inhumans and Fantastic Four against the villain the Sphinx in a Fantastic Four annual, and the siblings' origin is explored in the title Avengers when romani Django Maximoff kidnaps Pietro and Wanda and returns to Mount Wundagore in the country of Transia, where they were born. After a battle with the Avengers against the Elder God Chthon, the siblings learn from Bova, one of the New Men created by the character the High Evolutionary, that they are the children of Maximoff, and not Robert Frank. Quicksilver then returns to Attilan (city of the Inhumans) and in the title Fantastic Four is revealed to have had a daughter (Luna) with Crystal.

During the limited series Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Magneto forces Bova to reveal the truth about his missing children, who are revealed to be Pietro and Wanda. After their mother Magda dies in childbirth, the children are given by the High Evolutionary to Django Maximoff to raise as his own. Pietro and Wanda reject Magneto when told. His marriage to Crystal is also strained when she has an affair. Crystal's uncle Maximus the Mad uses technology to cause Quicksilver to become psychotic. This drove him to frame the Avengers for treason as his perceptions are twisted to perceive them as having 'betrayed' him, forcing them to escape the government-sponsored Freedom Force, and then deal with Quicksilver's new 'team' of LMD-based duplicates of the Zodiac, until the Vision convinces Pietro to stand down by showing him images of his newborn nephews.

Quicksilver battles the West Coast Avengers and is captured by the Inhumans and cured of his condition. In an effort to repent for his actions, Pietro aids the Avengers West Coast against Magneto and the villain Immortus, who has captured Wanda. Although successful, Pietro refuses to return to Crystal and joins the now U.S. government-sponsored superhero team X-Factor. The character and Crystal are reunited during the storyline "Bloodties" when the Avengers, X-Factor and X-Men team to stop a group of mutant terrorists who kidnap their daughter Luna, and are responsible for a civil war on the island nation of Genosha. After dealing with the threat, Quicksilver learns of Crystal's relationship with Avenger the Black Knight and leaves, also resigning from X-Factor.

The character also features in a self-titled limited series, with Quicksilver taking daughter Luna and traveling to Mt. Wundergore, aiding the High Evolutionary and his Knights of Wundagore against villains Exodus and the Man Beast. Quicksilver uses the experimental Isotope E to augment his powers, allowing him to move at greater supersonic speeds. A future version of Pietro called "Nestor" appears and reveals that his powers are not speed but rather temporal based. Quicksilver also rejoins a reformed Avengers and features briefly in the second volume of Heroes for Hire.

Descent and Rebirth

Quicksilver features in the limited series Magneto Rex, and with half-sister Polaris spies on their father Magneto, who is now the ruler of Genosha. Quicksilver is banished when he rallies the Avengers against Magneto. Quicksilver makes sporadic appearances in Avengers and the mutant titles Mutant X, X-Factor and X-Men until featuring in the limited series X-Men: Age of Apocalypse in a battle with the despot Apocalypse.

House of M

Quicksilver plays a pivotal role in the limited series House of M, convincing his now mentally unstable sister Wanda to use her abilities to warp reality and create a world where mutants are in a majority and humans are the minority—with Magneto established as absolute ruler—while also giving their fellow heroes their own greatest desires—having abducted Professor X to read the minds of the heroes—to discourage them from trying to restore history and stop them from killing Wanda. Thanks to Wolverine retaining his memories, along with the mysterious Layla Miller, many of Earth's heroes regain their memories and battle Magneto, who also remembers and realizes that Pietro is to blame for this mistake. Magneto kills Quicksilver (crushing his body with a robot Sentinel) in a rage at this perceived 'abuse' of his dream, although the character is resurrected and the normal reality restored when the Scarlet Witch witnesses this, telling Magneto he cares more for mutants than his own children. In retaliation the Scarlet Witch has also depowered 98% of the mutant population, which by accident includes Quicksilver.

Son of M

The story continues in the limited series Son of M, with Quicksilver, desperate to regain his powers, exposing himself to the Terrigen Mist (the source of the Inhumans' mutations and abilities) and inserts Terrigen crystals into his body—all without permission from Black Bolt. Courtesy of the Terrigen crystals, Quicksilver gains new "time jumping" powers and kidnaps his daughter Luna. Quicksilver discovers the crystals can restore mutant abilities but have an extreme effect on non-Inhuman physiology, causing several deaths. Quicksilver and Crystal meet again in the direct sequel, limited series Silent War, when Black Bolt demands the return of the crystals. When Crystal sees how he has mutated, she declares their marriage annulled according to Inhuman law.

In the title X-Factor, the crystals are removed from Quicksilver's body by another mutant, leaving him powerless once again. Destitute and jailed for vagrancy in the one-shot X-Factor: The Quick and the Dead, Quicksilver has a series of hallucinations and inexplicably regains his super speed. Escaping jail, Quicksilver rescues an innocent and rediscovers his desire to be a hero.

Mighty Avengers

Quicksilver appears in the title The Mighty Avengers and is used as a pawn by Elder God Chthon, with the character's spirit trapped in the arcane tome called the Darkhold. The Avengers defeat Chthon, and Quicksilver's consciousness is "downloaded" into the body of Vision, before being restored to his own body. Quicksilver joins the team after learning that it is Wanda (Asgardian god Loki in disguise) who brought the team together. After the events of the Secret Invasion storyline the character is publicly exonerated of former crimes, with an unknown Skrull being blamed (although Henry Pym, Maximoff's daughter Luna, and Avengers butler Jarvis are aware of the lie). Quicksilver also resumes wearing his original green costume. Quicksilver loses the respect of his daughter Luna when he lies to the Inhumans and claims that many of his past actions were actually perpetrated by a Skrull impostor, although Pym tolerates the lie as he feels that Quicksilver deserves a chance to redeem himself.

Quicksilver finally learns that the person he thought was his sister is actually Loki in disguise. Enraged, he and the rest of the team travel to the Isle of Silence to set a trap for the god of mischief. After imprisoning Loki in a device designed by Hank Pym, he begins torturing the god for information about Wanda's whereabouts. Loki offers no information about her and manages to contact Thor to beg for his help. Thor arrives and attacks Quicksilver for the way he is treating Loki. He is able to outrun the thunder god's lightning but is eventually overpowered. He is one of the Avengers who joins Hercules, Amadeus Cho and their allies in an assault on Olympus Group Headquarters. He battles Amazon warrior women alongside Zeus and helps a wounded Wolverine defeat the Huntsman, stabbing him through the chest with his own weapon.

Quicksilver is later summoned by the Ghost using Amadeus Cho's technology, to defend Asgard against the Thunderbolts. He single handedly defeats Mister X who is in possession of the Spear of Odin. Mr. X isn't able to react quickly enough despite his abilities and Quicksilver viciously beats him down with a piece of debris. He is seen alongside the other Avengers against the Void-possessed Sentry in the events of Siege.

Avengers: The Children's Crusade

Quicksilver is searching for his sister in Wundagore when Magneto and the Young Avengers go to find the Scarlet Witch. After trying to abduct his nephew Wiccan so he can assist him in finding his sister, he is stopped by his father and his other nephew, Speed. After Wiccan suggests that maybe Magneto actually did want to make up for his past, he became angry and said, "Nephew the last time I allowed myself to believe that..... My father tried to kill me". Quicksilver prepares to fight his father but when debris from his rampage strikes his sister it is found that the Scarlet Witch there is actually a Doombot in disguise. The journey takes Quicksilver and his comrades all the way to Latveria so they rescue the Scarlet Witch. After the Scarlet Witch turns herself in to the X-Men and the Avengers a fight breaks out between the two groups. After being knocked out along with all the other Avengers and X-Men by his sister, he is finally reunited with his sister.

Heroic Age

Quicksilver joins the teaching staff of Avengers Academy to teach young students how to become heroes. He does so in order to distance himself from the legacy of his father Magneto. One of the new students, Finesse, figures out that his story about being abducted by Skrulls is a lie. She blackmails him into giving her "private lessons" on everything he learned during his time with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Finesse convinces Quicksilver to help her search for the Taskmaster, who might be her biological father. After arriving at what they thought was an abandoned training camp, they found it still in use and quickly captured the criminals they found there. Quicksilver returned to the mansion and encountered Tigra, who was upset because some of the students assaulted the Hood on her behalf. During a heated exchange Quicksilver managed to convince her that kicking them out of the Academy for trying to help would only turn them against becoming heroes. At the new campus for the Avengers Academy (where the Faculty are offering to train other superpowered youths), Quicksilver is revealed to be mentoring Lightspeed as a teacher's assistant.

In the miniseries "Magneto: Not a Hero", Joseph is resurrected under unknown circumstances and forms a new Brotherhood of Mutants with Astra and mutated deformed versions of Blob, Mastermind, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Toad. It is soon revealed that the mutated versions of Blob, Mastermind, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Toad are clones created by Joseph.

Quicksilver has joined the privately owned superhero team X-Factor. When confronted during a press conference by Fatale over his actions meant to repower mutants and his lying about a Skrull having been responsible, Pietro finally admitted in public that he had been responsible and had tried to avoid facing the consequences; by doing this, he earned his daughter's respect back, and the two reconciled.

Wanda and other heroes and villains experienced a moral inversion during a clash with the Red Onslaught. Quicksilver and Magneto try to talk the inverted Wanda down, but when Wanda attacks them with a curse designed to punish her blood relatives that only affects Quicksilver, Wanda realizes that Magneto is not their biological father.

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch later take a trip to Counter-Earth. After being tracked down and defeated by Luminous (a female who was created by the genetic material of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver), Pietro and Wanda were brought to the High Evolutionary himself. He revealed to them that they are actually the long thought deceased children of Django and Marya Maximoff, Anna and Mateo. He also told them the truth where they were not mutants at all, but they had been experimented on by the High Evolutionary. After escaping from the High Evolutionary's experimentations, Pietro and Wanda located the Avengers Unity Division (who had traveled to the Counter-Earth looking for the twins) and helped the inhabitants of Lowtown (a refuge for the High Evolutionary's rejects) from their creator's assault. After the High Evolutionary is defeated and he escapes into a portal with Luminous, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch return to Earth with the Avengers Unity Division.

All-New, All-Different Marvel

When the second superhero Civil War began, Pietro came to ask Wanda for help, but Wanda refused, because she and Pietro disagreed on which side was right - Pietro not liking the idea of profiling people based on what they might do and Wanda feeling that thinking about the future would have prevented many of their more dangerous mistakes in the past - past precedent made Wanda feel that introducing her powers to a conflict of this nature could be more dangerous than the existing situation, and she resented Pietro still trying to tell her what to do as though she was a child, bluntly informing him that his refusal to learn from his mistakes marked him as a sociopath. He has also been revealed to have fallen under the telepathic control of the Red Skull, acting as a 'sleeper agent' in the Avengers as part of the Skull's current campaign.

Powers and abilities

Quicksilver was originally presented as a mutant capable of moving and thinking at superhuman speeds. Originally capable of running at the speed of sound, exposure to the High Evolutionary's Isotope E made it possible for the character to run at supersonic speeds of up to Mach 10 and resist the effects of friction, reduced oxygen, and kinetic impact while moving at super-speeds. Also, he has a fast metabolism and can heal more rapidly than the average human. The character's speed allows him to perform such feats as creating cyclone-strength winds and running up walls or across bodies of water. Pietro's mind can perceive information with a photographic memory short term, becoming faster than the speed of thought, because he can shift his thoughts at a speed faster than normal thought. Also, he can cause vibrations in his body to transfer to solid material, and has superior agility and reflexes compared to other mutants. It has been revealed that one of the reasons for his abrasive and impatient personality is that it seems to him that the rest of the world is moving in slow motion and that he is constantly waiting for it to catch up. As he once explained, "Have you ever had a day where you are at the ATM and you are in a hurry because you're running late but the person in front of you doesn't know how to use the ATM and they're taking forever? Now imagine what it must be like to spend every day surrounded by people who don't know how to use the ATM."

Quicksilver loses his powers of speed when his sister removes most of his mutant powers, but gains new powers courtesy of the Inhumans' Terrigen Mist. The mist gives Quicksilver the ability to displace himself out of mainstream time and space and "jump" into the future. The character can summon several time-displaced duplicates of himself and appear to teleport by "jumping" into the future and then returning to the present at a new location. By voluntarily embedding fragments of the Terrigen Crystals into his own body, the character could empower former mutants with extreme versions of their superhuman abilities. However, the effect was usually fatal. The crystals are subsequently forced from the character's body by the mutant Rictor, leaving him without these abilities. After having a series of hallucinations, Quicksilver saw a woman in mortal danger and felt a desire to be a hero then regains his mutant powers in order to save the woman's life.

It was later revealed that he actually was a normal child that was put through several experiments by the High Evolutionary which granted his powers.

JLA/Avengers

In the DC/Marvel crossover JLA/Avengers, Pietro first appears being brainwashed by Starro when the Avengers battle him. Thanks to a combination of Wanda's magic and Ms. Marvel's powers, they manage to get Starro's probe off of him. When he and the other Avengers go to the DC Universe, he becomes interested in the Speed Force and becomes obsessed with defeating The Flash, but he fails twice. During the final battle in the Savage Land, he finally defeats the Flash, but only does so because there is no Speed Force in the Marvel Universe. He makes an appearance in the final battle with Krona, but it is very brief. He also appears at the end as one of the heroes that started out the entire event.

Marvel Zombies

In the limited series Marvel Zombies, Earth-2149 is contaminated with a virus that turns victims into flesh-eating zombies, with Quicksilver infected when bitten by a "zombified" Mystique (who at the time was impersonating his sister Wanda). This results in the rapid spread of the zombie virus, as Quicksilver is able to infect hundreds around the world in a short amount of time. The character reappears in the limited series Marvel Zombies 3, revealed to be working for a "zombified" Wilson Fisk. Quicksilver is eventually lured into a trap by the Earth-616 Machine Man and subsequently destroyed. The zombie virus spreads to a different Quicksilver in 'Earth Z', who is featured in the limited series Marvel Zombies Return. Here, his body is capable of operating independent of the head.

Marvel Zombies Return

When the zombies from Earth-2149 cross over into Earth-Z, Quicksilver is transformed into a zombie, and in Marvel Zombies Return #5 is one of the few remaining zombies left who fought against Spider-Man and his New Avengers, attempting to steal a canister containing the 'cure' that Spider-Man had developed, only for the wall-crawler to accidentally pull Quicksilver's head off when trying to catch him with his webbing. He was killed by a cyborg Iron Man.

Marvel 1602

Limited series Marvel 1602 depicts Quicksilver as Petros, the assistant (and secretly, son) of the High Inquisitor of the Spanish Catholic Church, Enrique.

Ultimate Marvel

Ultimate Marvel features a version of the character warped by constant abuse from Magneto. The character is faster than the Earth-616 version, stating that as a teenager he was already capable of reaching speeds of Mach 10.

After he and his sister, the Scarlet Witch, defected from their father's Brotherhood of Mutant Supremacy, they joined the Ultimates. The twin siblings also share an incestuous relationship. During the Ultimate X-Men's Magnetic North story arc, he watched over his father while he was imprisoned in the Triskelion, and threatened to kill him. In The Ultimates 3, he and his sister are apparently killed; however, Quicksilver later resurfaced at the end of the Absolute Power story arc, and killed Moira MacTaggert.

In Ultimatum #5, Quicksilver assassinated Cyclops as he is giving a speech at Washington DC, using the same bullet that was used to murder the Scarlet Witch.

Following the deaths of major characters of the X-Men and the Brotherhood, Pietro began to search for new Brotherhood team members. Mystique, Sabretooth and Teddy (the son of Blob) joined him in Wundagore, along with an apparently reborn Wanda.

Following his sister's orders, Quicksilver tried to help the White House, only resulting in the death of many mutants at the hands of Nimrod Model Sentinels, which were controlled by the Reverend Stryker before his death. When Pietro arrived in Egypt, he met his father, Erik, completely alive. However, this was revealed to be an illusion from Sinister. He attempts to manipulate his younger half-brother, Jimmy Hudson, but is defeated.

Later, he helps Reed Richards assemble some of the Infinity Gems and joins his team of Dark Ultimates. Quicksilver is fatally wounded after he turns against Richards and Kang, and chooses to die by Wanda's graveside.

What If?

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch appear in the What If? story "What If the X-Men Died on their First Mission?" as allies of Beast following the demise of the X-Men and upon the menace by Count Nefaria and his Ani-Men. Although invited to join the newly formed team upon the success of their mission, both decline in favor of their current commitments, although they promise their aid if they are needed.

X-Men Noir

In the one-shot X-Men Noir, Peter Magnus is a former college track star, and works in the Homicide Department of the NYPD with his father: Eric Magnus, Chief Detective and the leader of The Brotherhood.

Television

Film

Marvel licensed the filming rights of the X-Men and related concepts, such as mutants, to 20th Century Fox. Fox created a film series based on the franchise. Years later, Marvel started their own film franchise, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, focused on characters that they had not licensed to other studios, such as the Avengers. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were part of a dispute between the two studios. Fox would claim the rights over them because they were both mutants and children of Magneto, the villain of most of their films, while Marvel would also claim those rights because the editorial history of the characters in comic books is more associated with the Avengers rather than the X-Men. The studios came to an agreement allowing both to use the characters, with the condition that they cannot make reference to the other studio's properties. The Fox films cannot mention them as members of the Avengers, while the Marvel films cannot mention them as mutants or children of Magneto.

Video games