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.
-Peter David, expaining me-- I mean, Quicksilver
QUICKSILVER (Pietro Maximoff)
Created By: Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
First Appearance: The X-Men #4 (March 1964)
Role: The Speedster, The Jerkass
Group Affiliations: The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, The Avengers, X-Factor, The Avengers Academy
Avengers Grade: C-Level
PL 11 (160)
STRENGTH 2
STAMINA 3
AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 10/16
DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 1
AWARENESS 2
PRESENCE 0
Skills:
Acrobatics 4 (+8)
Athletics 3 (+5)
Deception 8 (+8)
Expertise (Current Events) 3 (+4)
Insight 3 (+5)
Intimidation 6 (+6)
Investigation 3 (+5)
Perception 5 (+7)
Stealth 3 (+7)
Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Improved Disarm, Set-Up, Teamwork
Powers:
"Super-Speed"
Enhanced Fighting 7 [14]
Enhanced Advantages 18: Agile Feint, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll 2, Evasion 2, Follow-Up Strike, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Improved Defense, Improved Initiative 4, Power Attack, Takedown 2, Uncanny Dodge [18]
Enhanced Dodge 7 [7]
Enhanced Parry 1 [1]
"Mach 5-ish" Speed 11 (4,000 mph) [11]
Quickness 7 [7]
"Super-Speed Feats"
"Wall & Water Run" Movement 2 (Wall-Crawling, Water-Walking) (Flaws: Limited to While Running) [2]
Immunity 1 (Friction Heat) [1]
"Cyclone Suffocation" Affliction 8 (Fort; Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated) (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst) (16) -- [20]
- AE: "Jetstream" Move Object 6 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Cone) (Flaws: Touch Range) (12)
- AE: "Rapid-Punches" Strength-Damage +3 (Extras: Multiattack 5) (8)
- AE: "Strike Everyone in Range" Strength-Damage +3 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst 5, Selective 5) (13)
- AE: "Catch Projectiles" Deflect 12 (12)
Offense:
Unarmed +11 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Super-Speed +17 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Rapid-Punches +17 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Suffocation +8 Area (+8 Affliction, DC 18)
Whirlwind Attack +5 Area (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +20
Defenses:
Dodge +8/+15 (DC 18-25), Parry +10/+17 (DC 20-27), Toughness +3 (+5 D.Roll), Fortitude +6, Will +7
Complications:
Reputation (Enormous Tool)- Pietro is a very unpleasant person to be around, even when he's a super-hero. He also does some very evil things- it was he who set of The House of M, by manipulating his sister.
Relationship (The Scarlet Witch)- Pietro is extremely overprotective of his sister, and doesn't like her hanging around with guys he doesn't approve of. It... can get creepy.
Relationship (Crystal- Ex-Wife)- Pietro married a member of the Inhuman Royal Family, but he neglected her for some Inhuman Militia because he's a tool, and so she cheated on him with A NORMAL HUMAN (the guy who sold Vision & The Scarlet Witch their house).
Relationship (Luna- Daughter)- Pietro rarely sees his human little girl, who usually stays with her mom.
Responsibility (Trapped in a Slow World)- Quicksilver is frequently annoyed by how slow everyone else around him moves. He says it's like constantly being stuck in line behind somebody who doesn't know how to use an ATM.
Secret (It Wasn't a Skrull)- Quicksilver used The Secret Invasion to blame a Skrull imposter for various illegal and immoral actions of his- only a few others know that this is a lie.
Relationship (Magneto- Father)- Quicksilver's father is the most infamous Mutant who has ever lived, and a notorious villain. Pietro was once beholden to him, but eventually rejected his father, only to fall victim to villainy's embrace himself.
Total: Abilities: 44 / Skills: 38--19 / Advantages: 4 / Powers: 81 / Defenses: 12 (160)
Quicksilver- Among the FIRST Asshole Heroes:
-Pietro's a weird thing in comics, representing Marvel's only full-fledged attempt at a super-speedster, yet he's at something like 1/200th of The Flash's capabilities, and has always been a second-stringer hero, the only one of the "New Avengers" line-up that DIDN'T go on to be a classic (Vision, Wanda & Hawkeye all made the grade from the late '60s era to become beloved long-running characters). Even his "I'm the son of Magneto" push never really amounts to much, leading to a few solo runs here and there (mostly lame or forgotten, like his post M-Day stuff), but ultimately, he's always too much of a dick to be likeable, and gets shunted to a team story here or there instead- runs in
Avengers Academy and whatever the hell, arguably peaking with Peter David's
X-Factor. Quicksilver's been through the ringer as a character, about half as much as his sister... which is about 20 times the amount almost any other character has been. Like Wanda, the Scarlet Witch, he was on the early Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, depicted as a somewhat unwilling villain (though much more fight-y than Wanda was), and then joined the Avengers and reformed. However, he's been all over the place since, bouncing around to whichever place he needed to be, as he was far less valuable to the Avengers overall.
-Quicksilver was only on the Brotherhood for a short while, wearing that ugly green shirt with the lightning bolt on it, and joined the "Cap's Kooky Quartet" fairly quickly, but his impatient, angry-young-man act made him a poor team player at times, often figuring HE should be the leader. As Hawkeye also specialized in being "That Guy", his role was a bit taken. Both he and his sister leave the book after Wanda is shot during a fight with Magneto, however, and they are taken by him back to one of his bases, finally realizing he's completely evil after a fight with the X-Men. The team later rejoined the Avengers when Wanda was kidnapped by Arkon, and underwent their next major stories- Roy Thomas had Wanda fall for the Vision, and Quicksilver ended up falling for Crystal of the Inhumans after she nursed him back to health following an injury against the Sentinels. This stole her away from the Human Torch (though to be fair, their coupling was ideally a "star-crossed lovers" situation), and would eventually result in the birth of a daughter. Finally, writer Bill Mantlo undid the "obvious", that the Maximoffs were the children of Magneto, and said that their parents were the Golden Age Whizzer & Miss America, with Robert "Whizzer" Frank having refused them at birth when his wife died in labor. Around this time, Pietro picks up his signature powder-blue uniform, making him one of the only heroes to dress like that.
Quicksilver Goes Crazy:
-Steve Englehart, of course, corrected this, and created the additional story that Robert's wife had died in labor, and so the cow midwife Bova (god I love comics) offered him the "orphaned" twins instead, but he rejected them. Instead, they were the children of Magda, who had fled her powerful mutant husband Magneto while pregnant, and gave birth by Mount Wundagore, soon dying to the elements. Vision and Wanda are soon engaged, with Pietro furiously disapproving, comparing the artificial man to a "toaster" and pitching a fit. This REALLY ramps up the "Pietro is an Asshole" thing which reverberates over the years. His relationship with Crystal proves a bit strained- she gives birth to their 100% human daughter Luna (OFF-PANEL, oddly- it's just revealed as having already happened), and he moves to Attilan to be with her (largely leaving the Avengers books for good as a result) and sometimes showing up in
The Fantastic Four, especially when she joins to cover for a pregnant Susan Richards. However, Englehart writes Pietro as weirdly obsessed with leading some Atillan Royal Guard, and Crystal, alone and needy, hooks up with a NORMAL HUMAN- the neighbor of Vision & Wanda. Yes, Quicksilver is one of the few heroes cheated on for a John Everyman.
-Quicksilver later befuddles the Avengers when Maximus the Mad controls his mind and makes him go nuts. The Avengers are framed for treason while he beats the hell out of them (proving impossible to hold down), then arrested by Freedom Force. Only being shown images of his newborn nephews make him settle down, but he reappears in
West Coast Avengers and fights the team again before finally being cured by the Inhumans. At some point in all this, he and Crystal divorce, never reconciling after her affair.
Quicksilver in X-Factor:
-Quicksilver was then one of many "Island of Misfit Toy" mutants chosen for Peter David's popular (but lower-selling X-book)
X-Factor- as probably the least-used important mutant (I mean, he's the SON OF MAGNETO and by this point he'd been off a major team book for more than ten years). Here, David actually details just WHY Pietro is such a dick- in a brilliant issue where Doc Samson is sitting down with the team and investigating their mental health, Pietro bluntly confesses that he's a short-tempered asshole who has an issue with patience. And in an amazing bit of dialogue, points out that all of the "little things" that annoy regular people about each other- like idiot clerks who can't understand "Whopper. No Pickles" or can't work a cash machine- are exacerbated a hundred-fold with him, and asks him to imagine "A world where everyone you work with everywhere you go... your entire WORLD... is filled with people who can't work cash machines". This went a long way to improve the character in the minds of the fans... so of course once David was gone, Quicksilver got f'd around with again.
-During the
BloodTies crossover in which Luna is threatened by Fabian Cortez for being the human granddaughter of mutant icon Magneto, Quicksilver quits the X-books as well as the Avengers- learning that Crystal is now seeing the Black Knight helps that decision. He takes Luna and actually stars in his OWN BOOK, which even in 1997 I thought was completely insane. Here, the entire thing centers around the High Evolutionary and his Knights of Wundagore, and involve fights against Magneto-worshipping Exodus and the Man-Beast. Yes, an ENTIRE BOOK centered around the Evolutionary- wonder why it only lasted 13 issues? I think half of my Wundagore builds involved characters from this series, too. Pietro is briefly powered-up with "Isotope E" and then rejoins the Avengers for Kurt Busiek's run on the book, but only as a side character in a roster that hit a peak during the "Kang War" that ended Busiek's run. However, he appears in
Avengers (vs) Justice League, the huge Marvel/DC crossover, almost entirely because he's the only guy at Marvel who can really match up with The Flash. Busiek shows the obvious- that their levels are MILES apart- yet also has Flash lose power on Marvel Earth, and Pietro access the Speed Force on DC Earth.
Quicksilver As Recurring Weirdo:
-This marks the end of Pietro as a big-time hero and more as a selfish, possibly dangerous, loon, especially as Wanda goes crazy in repeated arcs, breaking up the Avengers and more. His words convince her to create the
House of M reality where mutants rule. When Magneto, who rules this reality, realizes what's happened, he actually KILLS Quicksilver to prevent this "abuse" of his dream, but Wanda restores him and wipes out the powers of 98% of all mutants... including her two surviving family members. In the Limited Series
Son of M, Quicksilver becomes desperate to regain his powers, using the Inhumans' Terrigen Mists to gain greater ones, and finally gets arrested. Finally, he "inexplicably" (Wikipedia's words) regains his real powers and escapes, deciding to be a hero again. He moves on to
Avengers Academy as a side-character- an instructor at the school- where he gets this funny bit where it turns out that he's gotten out of jail by lying and saying a Skrull did all his evil stuff, blaming the
Secret Invasion story-arc. Disbelieving this, the sociopathic Academy student Finesse blackmails him into teaching her the ways of great villains like Magneto. He later captures and tortures Loki when he discovers the God is impersonating Wanda, earning the ire of Thor, but teams with Hercules and the Mighty Avengers against the Olympus Group, where he and Kid Zeus make quick friends owing to mutual arrogance (hee). He later beats the hell out of Mister X of the Thunderbolts, as he moves too fast for X's telepathic-martial-arts powers to learn what he's about to do. He appears as a background guy in
The Children's Crusade where the real Wanda is finally found. Later, the public finds out about his "Skrull lie", and he then he joins the privately-run X-Factor team for the quickly-cancelled Peter David-written series.
-Later, it's revealed that the twins are NOT Magneto's children, and instead the experiments of the High Evolutionary, and Quicksilver joins the Avengers Unity Squad. And immediately after this, and Pietro's attempts at redemption, another writer decides to have Wanda reject him during
Civil War II and say his constant inability to learn from his mistakes marks him as a sociopath- the twins fight and Wanda sends him away, but they reconcile when they defeat an embodiment of Chaos and meet their birth mother before she dies. He was himself thought dead in a big
Avengers arc that crossed all three books, but was quickly found trapped in another dimension.
Quicksilver Overall:
-Like his sister, Quicksilver has largely been pigeonholed as "That hero who always goes evil", but in this case, it's his general douchebag behavior (which often went so spiteful and whiny that even in the MARVEL UNIVERSE he stood out as a guy who didn't fit in with a group) that made it so easy for people to write in a "Quicksilver does something awful" arc. These ended up dogpiling very quickly, with every new writer simply ignoring the last story's "Pietro decides to do good from now on" moment and
Scrubsing him back into his prior characterization. I mean, it's tough, I suppose, when the guy hasn't been an active Avenger for more than a couple of years since the 1960s- Wanda surpassed him as a character SO badly, and he just got screwed around after that point. It's odd, because I wrote him off as a "rarely used" guy, but if you see it... he was in
The Avengers twice, then supported on the
FF book, then a few other runs here and there, then a SOLO BOOK, then
Avengers again, then played a role in several big events like
House of M... it's just too bad he's always shown up by his sister, and undergoes the same stories over and over again. The nature of the medium if you're a side character who's too important to just ignore, I guess- most heroes are lucky and just go into limbo... as the son of MAGNETO, Quicksilver almost HAD to be used. And you'll note that he's been a minor nobody since THAT was written out.
-In the end, the character has fairly few fans- his appearance and powers aren't cool enough to make up for his shitty attitude (again, even by Marvel standards), which left most people cold on him- none of the kids I know liked Quicksilver, and he was always seen as annoying, dumb-looking and a jerk. And not the FUN kind, either- guys like Wildfire or Wolverine were jerks, but were at least FUNNY and flat-out aggressive bad-asses to make up for it... Quicksilver was a WHINER.
Quicksilver's Powers:
-Power-wise, Pietro's pretty easy to stat, and his powers are pretty explicitly given in the comics (Supersonic speed, but much less than the near-Light Speed Force users of DC), so he's easy there. I gave him a handful of the Alt-Effects there too, including a Cyclone Suffocation, Multiattack punches, a pushing stream, a Whirlwind Attack that hits everyone, and the ability to Deflect projectile attacks. He's not entirely efficient for his PL (Defensive Roll is much worse than Protection, and he makes PL 10.5 on offense), but he's still not someone to screw around with in combat. He's harder to hit than fricking SPIDER-MAN, who is one of the defining "hard to hit" guys in all of comics, and he gains a metric ton of Combat Advantages as a result of his Super-Speed, nearly all defensive. I actually upgraded him since 2014, figuring that I've read issues where he houses entire Avengers squads- Marvel was more clear than even DC as to what would happen if a Speedster came at you with everything he had- nobody can lay a finger on him, and he can hammer anybody.
-For some reason, DCA's Flash has crappy hand-to-hand accuracy. Well, not CRAPPY, but only +10, and this is a guy who's so fast, he can hit you before you even see him. So I gave Quicksilver some really good hand-to-hand accuracy.
---
QUICKSILVER (Pietro Maximoff)- Younger Version
Created By: Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
First Appearance: The X-Men #4 (March 1964)
Role: The Speedster, The Jerkass
Group Affiliations: The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, The Avengers, X-Factor, The Avengers Academy
Avengers Grade: C-Level
PL 10 (156)
STRENGTH 2
STAMINA 3
AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 10/14
DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 1
AWARENESS 2
PRESENCE 0
Skills:
Acrobatics 4 (+8)
Athletics 3 (+5)
Deception 8 (+8)
Expertise (Current Events) 3 (+4)
Insight 3 (+5)
Intimidation 6 (+6)
Investigation 3 (+5)
Perception 5 (+7)
Stealth 3 (+7)
Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Improved Disarm, Set-Up, Teamwork
Powers:
"Super-Speed"
Enhanced Fighting 5 [10]
Enhanced Advantages 18: Agile Feint, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll 2, Evasion 2, Follow-Up Strike, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Improved Defense, Improved Initiative 4, Power Attack, Takedown 2, Uncanny Dodge [18]
Enhanced Dodge 7 [7]
Enhanced Parry 1 [1]
"Mach 5-ish" Speed 11 (4,000 mph) [11]
Quickness 7 [7]
"Super-Speed Feats"
"Wall & Water Run" Movement 2 (Wall-Crawling, Water-Walking) (Flaws: Limited to While Running) [2]
Immunity 1 (Friction Heat) [1]
"Cyclone Suffocation" Affliction 8 (Fort; Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated) (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst) (16) -- [20]
- AE: "Jetstream" Move Object 6 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Cone) (Flaws: Touch Range) (12)
- AE: "Rapid-Punches" Strength-Damage +3 (Extras: Multiattack 5) (8)
- AE: "Strike Everyone in Range" Strength-Damage +3 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst 5, Selective 5) (13)
- AE: "Catch Projectiles" Deflect 12 (12)
Offense:
Unarmed +11 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Super-Speed +15 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Rapid-Punches +15 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Suffocation +8 Area (+8 Affliction, DC 18)
Whirlwind Attack +5 Area (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +20
Defenses:
Dodge +8/+15 (DC 18-25), Parry +10/+15 (DC 20-25), Toughness +3 (+5 D.Roll), Fortitude +6, Will +7
Complications:
Reputation (Enormous Tool)- Pietro is a very unpleasant person to be around, even when he's a super-hero. He also does some very evil things- it was he who set of The House of M, by manipulating his sister.
Relationship (The Scarlet Witch)- Pietro is extremely overprotective of his sister, and doesn't like her hanging around with guys he doesn't approve of. It... can get creepy.
Relationship (Crystal- Ex-Wife)- Pietro married a member of the Inhuman Royal Family, but he neglected her for some Inhuman Militia because he's a tool, and so she cheated on him with A NORMAL HUMAN (the guy who sold Vision & The Scarlet Witch their house).
Relationship (Luna- Daughter)- Pietro rarely sees his human little girl, who usually stays with her mom.
Responsibility (Trapped in a Slow World)- Quicksilver is frequently annoyed by how slow everyone else around him moves. He says it's like constantly being stuck in line behind somebody who doesn't know how to use an ATM.
Secret (It Wasn't a Skrull)- Quicksilver used The Secret Invasion to blame a Skrull imposter for various illegal and immoral actions of his- only a few others know that this is a lie.
Relationship (Magneto- Father)- Quicksilver's father is the most infamous Mutant who has ever lived, and a notorious villain. Pietro was once beholden to him, but eventually rejected his father, only to fall victim to villainy's embrace himself.
Total: Abilities: 44 / Skills: 38--19 / Advantages: 4 / Powers: 77 / Defenses: 12 (156)
-Here's the original, PL 10 build, probably suiting the character up until the 1980s.