Merge:Quicksilver

Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff) is a Marvel Comics superhero/supervillain, associated with the X-Men and Avengers. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, he first appeared in Uncanny X-Men  (March 1964).

A mutant, Quicksilver originally possessed the superhuman ability to move and think at great speeds, making him Marvel's counterpart to DC Comics' The Flash. He often commented that the rest of the world seemed to him to operate in slow motion, which may explain his impatient, arrogant temper.

Quicksilver and his twin sister the Scarlet Witch were originally members of their father Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (though none of the three knew until later of their relation), the main adversaries of the X-Men. Both rejected their father's terroristic methods and left the Brotherhood to join the Avengers. Quicksilver eventually married his teammate Crystal, who later gave birth to their daughter Luna, making him one of the few superheroes to have a family.

Quicksilver also starred in a short-lived 1997-98 solo series and had a sizable role as a villain in the 2000s animated series X-Men: Evolution.

Birth
The man who would become Magneto revealed his mutant powers by killing the villagers who had killed his first daughter, Anya. His wife Magda fled from him in fear; unbeknownst to Magneto, Magda was pregnant with twins at the time. She arrived at Mount Wundagore, the home of the High Evolutionary, and gave birth to twins, who were named Pietro and Wanda. Magda died soon after. Madeline Joyce Frank, formerly the superhero Miss America, was also staying in the area at the time. Madeline had also recently given birth, but her child was stillborn due to the high levels of radiation in her body. At the time, Magda's midwife Bova (a cow transformed by the High Evolutionary into a humanoid creature with human-level intelligence) did not know if Magda had any family, so she gave the twins to Madeline's husband, the Whizzer. Distraught, he believed that he could not raise the children himself and in turn gave the children to the gypsy Django Maximoff, who raised the twins as his own children.

The Brotherhood
When they reached adulthood, the twins discovered that they were mutants. Pietro (now called Quicksilver) discovered that he possessed superhuman speed, while Wanda (now the Scarlet Witch) found that she could influence probability (though her powers were at this point limited to bringing about "bad luck"). The pair were attacked by an angry mob when they displayed their powers, only to be rescued by their father, who was now the supervillain Magneto. Although neither Magneto nor his children were aware of their connection, he nevertheless recruited them into the first incarnation of his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

Pietro became intensely protective of his sister, often attacking those who threatened her, and displayed arrogant behavior towards anyone save for his sister and Magneto. The Brotherhood fought the X-Men several times, although the twins were somewhat reluctant and only remained because they felt that they owed a debt to Magneto for saving their lives. When Magneto and his lackey the Toad were abducted by the alien Stranger, the Brotherhood dissolved and the twins declared their debt to Magneto to have been paid.

Avengers
Not long after, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were recruited by Iron Man to join the Avengers. All of the team's founding members wanted a break, leaving Iron Man to organize a new team, one which was organized of reformed supervillains: Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, and the archer Hawkeye and the newly found Captain America. This group, sometimes dubbed "Cap's Kooky Quartet", was soon rejoined by other founding Avengers, but the three new recruits became longtime members of the organization in its many incarnations.

The twins would eventually learn that the Whizzer had left them to be raised by Django, and believed the Whizzer to be their father for several years, even serving alongside him when he briefly joined the Avengers. Wanda became romantically involved with their teammate, the android Vision, which Pietro initially disapproved of, although he ultimately gave his blessing to their marriage.

Quicksilver himself became romantically involved with Crystal, a member of the Royal Family of the hidden race called the Inhumans. The pair eventually married and had a daughter, Luna. Upon Luna's birth, Magneto revealed to Pietro and Wanda that he was their father, having learned of this himself only recently. When he tried reaching out to them, they pushed him away, saying they couldn't forgive him for his past actions and being related wouldn't change that. Magneto would later try redeeming himself, and would later lead the X-Men when a dying Professor Xavier needed medical attention and asked him to lead the team in his absence. Seeing him try to reform, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch later tried accepting him as their father.

X-Factor
Quicksilver eventually learned that his wife had had an affair with another man, and the couple became estranged. Much later, he joined the U.S. government-sponsored superhero team X-Factor. During this period of their estrangement, Crystal was herself a member of the Avengers and was romantically involved with still another man: her teammate Dane Whitman, the Black Knight.

When Luna was kidnapped by the mutant terrorist Fabian Cortez and his Magneto-worshipping Acolytes, the Avengers, X-Factor and the X-Men teamed up to stop him from killing her and to end the civil war that he had sparked in the island nation of Genosha. Although Pietro and Crystal were reunited after rescuing Luna, he learned of her relationship with Whitman and again left her, resigning from X-Factor as well.

Knights of Wundagore
When the Avengers, including Crystal, were presumed deceased following the battle with the psychic entity Onslaught, Quicksilver took Luna and joined the High Evolutionary's Knights of Wundagore. He assisted them in fighting off Exodus and the Acolytes. Crystal and the other "casualties" of Onslaught were eventually revealed to have survived, but once she was reunited with her husband, Crystal returned to live with the Inhumans with Luna.

The High Evolutionary later used the experimental Isotope E to augment Quicksilver's powers to allow him to move at greater supersonic speeds. Following the defeat of the Acolytes by the Knights of Wundagore and the new Heroes for Hire team, Quicksilver rejoined the Avengers alongside his sister.

House of M
Wanda suffered a mental breakdown over the loss of her children and started to warp reality in order to recreate them, inadvertently resulting in random attacks on the Avengers. The Avengers confronted the mentally unstable Wanda, and Doctor Strange put her in a coma.

Magneto rescued Wanda and asked his friend Professor Xavier to help her. Xavier agreed to try, but was unable to help her. Worried, he arranged a meeting for the X-Men and the Avengers to decide what should be done. Some of the members said that the only option was to kill Wanda. Quicksilver rushed to Magneto and told him that the two groups were planning on killing Wanda.

When an ashamed Magneto admitted that he didn't know what to do anymore, and that the groups may be right, Quicksilver convinced Wanda that she could undo her wrongs by using her powers to turn the world into a world of peace. Using her powers, Wanda warped reality into the House of M, a world where mutants were the majority, humans the minority, and Magneto the ruler.

A young mutant named Layla Miller was able to use her mutant abilities to restore several of the heroes' memories. They headed over to Genosha to attack Magneto, believing him to be the one responsible for the change. During the battle between Magneto's forces and the others, Layla was able to restore Magneto's memories as well.

Enraged, Magneto confronted Quicksilver, angry that Quicksilver had done all of this in his name. Quicksilver told Magneto that he would have let Wanda die, but Magneto replied that he had only used him and Wanda. Furious, Magneto crushed a Sentinel over Quicksilver, killing him.

Wanda revived her brother, telling Magneto that Quicksilver had only wanted him to be happy, and that Magneto had ruined them, choosing the mutants over his own children. Saying "No more mutants", Wanda changed the world back to its original form and caused ninety-eight percent of the mutant population to lose their powers (known as the Decimation), leaving the mutant race on the brink of extinction.

Son of M
After the fall out of the Decimation, Quicksilver was one of the many mutants to lose his powers. As a result, Pietro fell into a deep depression over his loss of powers and betrayal of mutantkind.

When an angry Spider-Man confronted Quicksilver (angry with the fact that he still has memories of being married to Gwen Stacy and having a child together from the House of M reality), Quicksilver jumped off a roof, seriously injuring himself and possibly breaking his spine. Crystal, whom Quicksilver had tried to contact earlier, teleported in to find her ex-husband lying hurt, and attacked Spider-Man, until Quicksilver told her that he had jumped off the roof. Crystal teleported him to the Inhumans for medical attention, believing he had become suicidal upon the loss of his powers and unaware of his true connection to the events.

After treatment by an Inhuman healer, Quicksilver woke up and was reunited with his daughter Luna. Deciding that he can not stand life as a human, Pietro asked Black Bolt for permission to undergo Terrigenesis. Quicksilver's request was denied since he is of human blood, and Terrigenesis is reserved only for those of pure Inhuman stock to decrease the chance of a detrimental mutation.

Luna introduced Quicksilver to a "communicator" who tells Pietro much about the process of Terrigenesis, leading to Quicksilver breaking into the sacred Terragen Caves and knocking out a guard so he could dive into the misty waters of the Terragen Cave. Quicksilver returned to his room, thinking that the exposure had no effect on him, only to be greeted by an older looking Quicksilver.

The older Quicksilver explained the nature of his new powers, and of the plan that has come to pass. Quicksilver began working with his older selves to set forward a plan to take the Terrigen Crystals back to Earth and restore the mutant population. He set about gaining Luna's loyalties, and promises to bring her to Earth with him, as well as learn of Lockjaw's loyalties to Luna. Eventually, Quicksilver managed to get a container full of Terrigen Crystals to the past, and used Lockjaw to take him and Luna back to his apartment in New York.

Luna instructed Lockjaw not to let Crystal find them before he heads back to the Inhumans. Quicksilver explains the basis of his plan concerning the Terrigen Crystals, and told her he was going to give back her birthright and exposed her to his Terrigen Mist, giving her the ability to "see" souls and emotions. After gaining some funds by jumping to the future and using winning lottery numbers, he then travled to Genosha and convinced Callisto to sample some of the Terrigen Mist herself, which promptly restored her heightened senses to the ultimate degree. Quicksilver told Callisto to gather up the remaining de-powered mutants so that he could restore their powers. Callisto went to find other depowered mutants, and it began to rain, which caused her intense pain, as each rain drop felt like a hot burning needle. Each sense was amped to levels not able for her to withstand, such as feeling her fingernails grow or listening to millions of insects underneath the ground. However, Magneto came across her, and confronted her about who had done this to her, and he was told that it was his son's doing.

Nevertheless Quicksilver continued his "mission", repowering the rest of Genosha's mutants. Confronted by Magneto, who verbally assaulted him showing to the other mutants the unconscious Callisto as a proof (in fact her growing pain has sent her in a comatose state). In retailation Quicksilver used his newfound power to pummel Magneto with the aid of two "temporal dupes", and only the sight of his crying daughter stopped him from killing his own father, who he blamed for having never acknowledged his presence and his love for him.

After a brief encounter with the Inhumans, U.S. government agents shot Quicksilver with a tranquilizer dart in an attempt to immobilize him. What they really sought, however, was the tank of Terrigen Mist. In an attempt to save his daughter, Pietro ordered Lockjaw to teleport her away from Genosha. This proved a fortutitous move. Despite a warning by the Inhumans to return the tank, the agents attempted to escape with their newly acquired cargo. Left to deal with situation on his own, Black Bolt whispered the word "war," preventing the agents from escaping and causing massive destruction to the surrounding area. As a result, this action was taken as a sign of open conflict between the Inhumans and the U.S. government. After escaping from the battle on Genosha, Quicksilver bathed himself in the Terrigen mists for what seemed to be weeks on end, going so far as to absorb the crystals into his own body. He used the Terrigen crystals to travel farther into the future than ever before, and upon his return spoke of a monstous disaster yet to come. Learning he gained the power to restore the super-human abilities of former mutants, Pietro "cured" a man on the street who turned out to be the villain known as Reaper. As he walked away, Quicksilver appeared more mentally unstable than ever before as he chose to accept the destruction that lay ahead.

Civil War
Quicksilver appeared in issue eight of X-Factor as part of the Civil War tie-in, at first off-panel, when several mutants repowered by him came in contact with Layla Miller, blaming her for their loss of power and the botched up attempt of the former speedster to repower them properly, and then on-panel, talking with the little girl. At first threatening the girl of an harsh revenge if she will ever mess with his plans, he discovered how similar they were, cursed to be unable to carry their plan to do the "right thing". Blamed by Layla to be her "evil nemesis", but still unwilling to carry out his threat, Quicksilver agreed with Layla to form a temporary truce, then took away.

Layla had also stated that at least one of the possible futures for Quicksilver, the best one due to her judgment, was to be pursued by former mutants, forced to jump in time and then simply hit by a truck and die. It was also hinted that this future has now no chance to be the "current" future, but it's also an hint of a critical, sinister role of Quicksilver in the current Civil War tie-in.

Super speed
With his original powers, his entire body was highly adapted to the rigors of high-speed running. His cardiovascular and respiratory systems were many times more efficient than those of normal humans. He metabolized about 95% of the caloric energy he consumed, whereas a normal human only uses about 25%.

The chemical processes of Quicksilver's musculature were so enhanced that his body did not generate fatigue poisons, the normal by-products of locomotion, which force the body to rest. Rather, his body constantly expelled waste products during his accelerated respiration through exhalation. His joints were smoother and lubricated more efficiently than those of a normal human. His tendons had the tensile strength of spring steel. His bones contained unknown materials significantly more durable than calcium to withstand the shock of his feet touching the ground at speeds of over 100 miles per hour.

His practical reaction was about 5 times faster than that of a normal human, and the speed at which his brain processed information was heightened to a level commensurate to his bodily speed, enabling him to perceive his surroundings while traveling at high velocities. His lachrymose fluids were more viscous than normal, thus preventing rapid evaporation of his eyeball fluids under the influence of high velocity wind.

He had been known to exceed speeds breaking the sound barrier, and has kept such speeds up for hundreds of miles, it is not known how long time wise he can keep these speeds up as he usually arrives at his destination relatively quickly. Quicksilver has used his powers of acceleration to perform various feats. He has plucked an arrow out of the air from a standing start, after it had already left the bow and traveled about 20 feet. He has dodged machine gun fire, but presumably he was able to see the path of the bullets change as his assailant was attempting to track him with a burst.

He has created cyclone-like gusts of wind, which are able to knock a man off his feet, by racing around in a ten-foot diameter circle. He has also been able to do so by whirling his arms in circles to blast opponents with air as well as use said wind gusts to fly for brief periods. With a 500-foot approach to gain momentum, Quicksilver could run approximately 300 feet up the side of a surface with a 90-degree inclination (such as a building) before gravity overtakes him. With a 100-foot approach to gain momentum, he can run across a body of water for approximately 1000 feet before beginning to sink.

An unfortunate side-effect of Quicksilver's powers and physiology caused him to perceive the rest of the world as moving at a notably slower rate than himself. As someone used to moving at fast rates even by his own perceptions, the perceived slowness of others was often intolerable for Pietro, and even though he often tried to moderate his own speed, it proved infuriating and challenging (for example, despite tiny bites and small sips, he once embarrassed himself by finishing his meal at a formal dinner before the other diners even began). This disconnect from the rest of society left Pietro arrogant and anti-social.

However, even this speed was dwarfed by his increases from the High Evolutionary's Isotope E, which unlocked Pietro's genetic potential, allowing for greater speeds than even those recorded by his Ultimate counterpart. Quicksilver was logged as faster than Mach 1, but it is stated on www.marvel.com/universe/Quicksilver that in this state, the limits of his speed were unknown.

Time travel and power reactivation
After exposure to the Terrigen Mists, Pietro gained the power to vibrate his atoms so quickly as to travel forward in time. The molecular speed he generates displaces him out of the mainstream time/space so that he is able to propel himself into the future. He could initially leap from an hour to up to twelve days and remain for several minutes to several hours before being recalled to his present time once his body tires. He could also return at will before his time was up. When returning from his trip, he arrives at the exact moment he left so as to appear that he has been gone for half a nano-second. He is able to bring inorganic objects from the future back to his correct time, although it has yet been shown what would happen if he attempted to bring organic objects with him. These new powers seem to have affected his physical health. Each time he meets up with the person claiming to be his future self, the future self looks more and more haggard.

With more practice, Quicksilver discovered new ways to use his newfound powers. By leaping only mere seconds in time, he learned to create an indefinite number of "temporal dupes" that could be controlled with a certain amount of coordination. No more a superpowered speedster, he has shown the ability to use his time-travel based power to mimic his lost speed, like the DC Comics supervillain Zoom.

After spending weeks in the presence of the stolen Terrigen crystals, relying solely upon them for sustenance, Pietro transformed even further. He is now able to make greater leaps into the future. Moreover, Terrigen crystal formations started to grow out of his body, granting him the ability to re-empower former mutants with their superhuman abilities. It is unknown as to whether or not he is able to permanently restore superhuman powers, or if the effects are merely temporary, albeit was since stated by Layla Miller that a "tiny fraction" of Wanda's genes still present into Quicksilver genetic code makes him unable to restore the lost powers without unpredictable side-effects. This new power, and a time hop very far into the future, seems to have further unbalanced his already fragile mental state.

Appearances in other media
Quicksilver appeared in Data East's 1991 arcade game, Captain America and the Avengers, as a supporting character.

In the animated television series X-Men: Evolution Quicksilver (voiced by Richard Ian Cox) had a prominent role as the manipulator and driving force of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, composed of himself, Avalanche, Blob, Toad and later his sister Wanda, the Scarlet Witch, who was one of the few people who could scare him. In this series, Quicksilver was aware that Magneto was his father from the beginning, even acting as Magneto's liaison to the Brotherhood when Mystique was in control.

At the end of the series, Quicksilver and the Brotherhood temporarily teamed up against Apocalypse, with Pietro and Wanda confronting their father, who was possessed. They saved him, and Magneto made up with his children. This version of Quicksilver is noteworthy for being outwardly similar to the original Quicksilver, though with darker motivations. Ironically, Quicksilver is the character among the teenaged Brotherhood who can truly be considered a villain (the role of 'conflicted villain' was instead given to Avalanche, who was hinted to become a hero sometime after the show's end).

Quicksilver also guest starred in a couple of episodes of the X-Men Animated Series. His most noticeable appearance is in the Season 4 story "Family Ties" where along with his sister, the Scarlet Witch, they look for their long lost father and discover that it is Magneto.

In X2, the name "Maximoff" appears on a computer screen in a list of mutant names.

In Marvel 1602, Quicksilver appears as Petros, the assistant (and secretly, son) of the High Inquisitor of the Spanish Catholic Church, Enrique (the 1602 version of Magneto).

Making a quick cameo in the video game X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, Quicksilver had been captured by the despotic mutant Apocalypse and his powers were used to amplify the villains. Quicksilver's capture is one of the few reasons that Magneto decided to fight along side Professor X.

Other characters by the same name
Quality Comics published a super-speedster named Quicksilver in National Comics, during the Golden Age of comic books; when he was revived by DC Comics in the pages of The Flash, he was renamed Max Mercury to avoid trademark confusion with Marvel's long-established character.