Hero Profile: Quicksilver

Three things before we get started, one, welcome to my Avengers 2 Theme Week, two, happy anniversary to me, and three, Wooh over 1000 views in a month.  I’ve been doing this for a year, just days before the Avengers’ sequel. I couldn’t have planned this better if I tried.

An interesting trend with Mutants is that it seems the children of powerful Mutants are just as if not more powerful than their parents. Charles Xavier’s son David, aka Legion, is a prime example of this, being a Mutant with over a dozen powers at once. Though this does have a negative impact on David’s mental health, to say the very least. Nathanial Summers, son of Cyclops and Jean Grey, is one of the most powerful Mutant psychics ever and had been prophesized to be the one (and later shown to be the one) to kill Apocalypse. Son of two powerful Mutants > The First Mutant. Whoo! We see this tend continue with Magneto’s children, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, and his other daughter Lorna Dane. Of the three children to reach adulthood, Pietro is technically the weakest in terms of power. Despite this, I would never suggest you underestimate Pietro. Let’s get to it.

Pietro is not amused.

The last time that Max Eisenhardt saw his dear wife, Magda, she’d run off into the wilderness and presumably perished. Unbeknownst to Max, Magda survived the frigid cold long enough to reach Wundagore, a mountain stronghold in the middle of the fictional country of Transia. She’s saved by a humanoid cow named Bova, a servant of the lord of Wundagore the High Evolutionary. Bova cared for Magda until she gave birth to her twins. She named them Pietro and Wanda, before leaving them to Bova. Magda wandered out into the wilderness to die. Apparently the death of her oldest, Anya, and the destruction wrought by her beloved husband, Magneto. had been too much for Magda to take. Bova, feeling that a lady/bovine wasn’t the best choice in caregiver for two “humans” tried to pass them off to an acceptable caregiver. Her first choice, Robert and Madeline Frank, two WWII heroes that had come to Wundagore for assistance with the birth of their own child, didn’t work out. Madeline died from complications and their baby was stillborn. Bova still tried to give Robert the twins, claiming they were his, in the hopes of alleviating his grief. It didn’t work, Robert left Wundagore nearly insane with grief.

With her best choice gone, Bova had no choice but to present the babies to her master. The High Evolutionary, in a rare moment of kindness, gave the children to a gypsy couple that camped near Wundagore. Pietro and Wanda were raised as Maximoffs, and things were good for a time. That is until the family hit some hard times in the twins teens. They had the usual teen issues, along with the troubles that come with their Mutant powers manifesting, and that their poor family was starving. Their father was forced to steal food, which didn’t earn them any friends, but things really hit the fan when Wanda accidently used her powers in self-defense, setting their home on fire and killing their adoptive mother. A mob formed, as they tend to do in these circumstances, and attacked the twins. Fortunately, they are saved by dear Father, Magneto, who happened to be passing through the area. No, not one of the three realizes the genetic relation. Magneto offers the twins sanctuary and a place with his Brotherhood of Mutants. They accepted. They battle the X-Men a few times, but are less zealous in their hatred of humans than Magneto. When Magneto is kind of kidnapped by an alien being known as the Stranger the twins leave the Brotherhood and try to reform. They are later recruited to be a part of the Avengers. Over the next few years they flit back and forth on the hero/villain line, occasionally rejoining the Brotherhood. That is until they realize that Magneto is more villainous than virtuous. Around this time, Pietro is injured by a group of Sentinels, but is rescued by Crystal, an Inhuman and member of the Royal Family. The two hit it off and eventually get married and have a daughter, named Luna. Pietro and Wanda also meet Robert Frank, their supposed father, but later learn from Bova that this is not the case. They were at Wundagore to stop and evil Elder God, just another day at the office.

He always looks pissed. No idea why.

Things grow more difficult for Pietro after this. Being told by Magneto of their familial relation, and the emotional strain of marital problems left him open to some serious manipulations. Crystal’s insane uncle Maximus uses his own mental powers to make Pietro paranoid and traitorous. He frames the Avengers for Treason and nearly destroys them with a team of Life Model Duplicates. He’s only stopped when his brother-in-law, the Vision, shows Pietro pictures of his newborn nephews. Pietro is eventually cured of his insanity, and sets about making things right. He’s been a part of the Avengers, X-factor, and does his best to become a hero. Until, that is The House of M story. In it, Wanda is growing more and more unstable. Worried that the Avengers would hurt Wanda, Pietro convinces Wanda to use her powers to rewrite history, changing the world into a Mutant dominated planet with Magneto as the supreme leader. Things unravel as the world’s heroes regain their memories from the “real” timeline, and Pietro is actually killed by Magneto. Magneto flew into a rage when the truth comes to light and felt his son “perverted” his dream of a Mutant world. Wanda resets reality after this, and depowers 98% of Mutants, including her brother, to punish him and their father for their abuses.

Pietro, depressed at the loss of his powers, discovers that he can use Terrigen crystals and mist to give him a variation of his power. He could “jump” across time, and uses this power to take Luna from the Inhuman capital. She’s eventually reclaimed and Pietro’s marriage dissolved. He tries to encourage others to use this mix of Terrigen crystals and mist to reclaim their lost powers, but it becomes clear that this process is dangerous. Most Mutant’s die quickly after exposure. The crystals are eventually forcibly removed. Pietro is arrested and left to rot in prison. While in jail Pietro has some hallucinations. When he awakens, he discovers he has his powers again, uses them to escape prison, save a woman, and rediscover his desire to be a hero. Full circle, eh, Pietro?

They're not as close in this go round.

Quicksilver is capable of moving and thinking at superhuman speeds. His powers allow him to run at Mach 10, and is immune to the effects of friction, less oxygen, and kinetic impact while moving at super-speed. He can run across water and up the side of buildings. For a short time he was able at “jumping” across time. Pietro’s impatient personality is explained as a side effect of his powers, he thinks so quickly that the world, to him, is moving in slow motion. If I had to wait for the entire world to catch up with me, I’d be an impatient jerk too.

Quicksilver has appeared in several Marvel series, typically in his villainous early days. Really, there is only one instance where we see the Heroic version of Quicksilver. Kind of sucks for Pietro, but hey, there’s always next show.

Quicksilver appeared three times in X-Men: The Animated Series.  He’s introduced as a member of X-Factor in “Cold Comfort.” He and his team battle the X-Men, but are defeated when the X-Men swap opponents. He returns with sister Scarlet Witch, they’re kidnapped by the High Evolutionary, who was planning to use their powers to help augment his experiments. Using Scarlet Witch’s powers over probability to increase the odds of success of his experiments, and Quicksilver’s speed to, well, speed things up. They learn Magneto’s their Dad, and he helps save them. He appears one more time in “The Phalanx Covenant” two parter where the alien Phalanx attack Earth. It’s Pietro’s capture that motivates Magneto to get involved.

Hate the look, but still a fun character.

He was a recurring character in X-Men: Evolution. In it, he’s a childhood rival of Ororo Monroe’s nephew Evan. When Evan is recruited by the X-Men, he’s recruited by the Brotherhood. This version differs from the comics in that he isn’t fiercely protective of Wanda. This is because his sister in this version is SCARY. It’s implied that the twins had some relationship with Magneto in their developing years, we see Pietro standing with his dad looking depressed as Wanda is forced into a mental institution. And Pietro was more than willing to speed in and save Magneto from being crushed by a Sentinel in another episode. You don’t do that for a dad that you don’t really know. He becomes the official leader of the Brotherhood when Magneto decides the team needs to be whipped into shape. This doesn’t stop Wanda from doing whatever the heck she wants, though. He and the rest of the Brotherhood (except Wanda) initially choose to stay out of the final confrontation with Apocalypse and his horsemen. They apparently change their mind shortly after Wanda leaves, as Pietro speeds in to protect her from the Apocalypse controlled Magneto. So, yeah, he’s still a good brother.

In Wolverine and the X-Men he’s the leader of the Brotherhood and agent of Magneto. He was kicked out of the Mutant nation Genosha at some point before the show began. He tried to reclaim his place in Genosha for most of the shows run, but his plans just keep getting him in more trouble with dear old Dad. Trying to bring a literal human bomb into your home country will do that. At the series end, however, he chooses to remain in exile with Magneto rather than be a part of Genosha without him. So, again, his heart is more or less in the right place.

A better look, hopefully he'll be a better character.

Two distinctly different versions of Quicksilver have appeared in film. The first movie was Days of Future Past, portrayed by Evan Peters. In it, the time displaced Wolverine, and Prof. X and Beast, recruit the “teenage” Peter Maximoff to help them get Magneto out of prison at the heart of the Pentagon. Small digression, why the heck did some idiot decide to change his name to Peter? This is the second or third time this has happened. STOP DOING THAT! Back on task, Quicksilver gets Magneto out of prison, has a faint hint at their familial relationship, and then saves everyone from Pentagon security in one of the best scenes I’ve seen. The movie is good by itself, but seeing Quicksilver racing around and causing mischief while simultaneously saving the day made it excellent. Why they didn’t bring him along for the rest of the movie is anyone’s guess. No sign of Wanda, very odd.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron. From what I’ve gathered from the promos, Ultron is going to use Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch to mess with the Avengers before striking at them personally. Odds are that part way through the film they’ll see the error of their ways and team up with the Avengers. As they can’t use the X-Men and Mutant stuff, movie rights owned by Fox, I believe that the twins are being retooled as Inhumans. Cant’ save I’m all for that, I’d rather everything be as close to the source material as possible, but given the film rights issue it’s at least a decent solution. I’ll probably update this section after seeing the movie.

Quicksilver is a decent character. His powers are a bit more believable than the speedster from DC, the Flash, which is nice. He’s a bit of a jerk, but his primary motivation is always the protection of his sister and other family. Which is something I’m all for. Family is a pretty big deal for me, so it’s nice to see a superhero with a similar focus. And, again, while he’s technically the least powerful of Magneto’s children he’s not someone to underestimate. Just watch the Days of Future Past scene I was talking about early, if you don’t completely agree. He’s the smug, smartass, silver speedster, Quicksilver. Next time, the more dangerous of the Maximoff’s Wanda, the Scarlet Witch.

 http://marvelanimated.wikia.com/wiki/Quicksilver
 http://xmenmovies.wikia.com/wiki/Quicksilver_%28Yost_series%29
 http://x-menevolution.wikia.com/wiki/File:Hex_Factor_41_SW_n_Quicksilver.png
 http://marvel-movies.wikia.com/wiki/File:Quicksilver_talking_to_the_X-Men.png
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicksilver_%28comics%29#/media/File:Aaron_Taylor-Johnson_and_Elizabeth_Olsen_as_Quicksilver_and_Scarlet_Witch.jpg