Characters / Marvel Comics: Quicksilver

aka: Quicksilver

Quicksilver

Green Outfit

Blue Oufit

Alter Ego: Pietro Django Maximoff

Nationality: Serbian

Species: Genetically altered human

First Appearance: The X-Men #4 (March, 1964)

"I was the fastest living creature on the planet. So fast I was a blur to human eyes. Bullets couldn't touch me. I could run up the sides of tall buildings. Snatch an arrow out of the air. I was a machine built for speed. Zero to sixty in seven seconds. A top speed of almost 220 miles per hour. Adapted to withstand the accelerated impact of my feet hitting the ground thirty times per second. My bones could absorb shocks that would shatter those of ordinary men. My tendons had the resilience of high tension steel. My body metabolized food so efficiently there was virtually no waste. I never carried an ounce of excess fat. My brain processed information at five times the speed of the average college graduate, data leaping from synapse to synapse, giving me split-second reactions, allowing me to out-think twenty opponents at once. I was more alive than ordinary mortals could ever imagine. I could run across the surface of water. I could outrun a hurricane. I was like the wind. Like a bolt of lightning. I was superb. I was perfection. I was... Quicksilver."

— Pietro Maximoff, Son of M

Making his debut in as a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants along with his twin sister, Wanda, Pietro Maximoff quickly discovers that a life of crime is not for him. When Magneto, the Brotherhood's leader and father of the Maximoff twins, is abducted by the Stranger, Pietro and Wanda quit the Brotherhood and return home to Transia. Reformation on their mind, the pair learn that The Avengers are looking for new members and are subsequently recruited by Iron Man after Pietro talks Wanda into moving to the United States.

Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and former criminal Hawkeye become the second generation of Avengers along with team leader Captain America. Dubbed "Cap's Kooky Quartet", the new Avengers have difficulty measuring up to the original heroes until battles against Kang the Conqueror and Doctor Doom give the team much-needed credibility. Unfortunately the team chemistry is shaken after the Scarlet Witch is wounded in battle with Magneto at a UN assembly, which, combined with Pietro's general distrust of humanity, prompts the twins to leave the Avengers and rejoin the Brotherhood.

It was revealed that this was a ploy by Magneto, using his powers to control the American soldier's gun's at the assembly and graze Wanda's temple, not only causing Quicksilver to rejoin Magneto, but for Wanda to have temporary memory loss, thus preventing her from talking her brother out of it. Eventually, one thing led to another, and soon, after a battle between the Brotherhood, and the X-Men & Avengers, Pietro and Wanda were forced to leave Magneto to his seeming death. Long story short, both Pietro and Wanda eventually rejoined the Avengers...

...And eventually, Pietro left the team again. After he was saved from a Sentinel attack by Crystal of the The Inhumans, The Avengers, and Fantastic Four, Crystal brought him back to the home of the Inhumans to rest and recuperate, and they eventually got married, and even had a baby. (Though the two eventually got divorced.) Since then, Pietro as Quicksilver has rejoined the Avengers on and off (along with a stint in X-Factor). Due to the generally derided Avengers Disassembled storyline, Wanda had caused mass chaos and and was seen as a threat. To sum up, it was decided by Xavier and the X-Men to kill her. Pietro, overhearing this, pleaded Wanda to take immediate action. And so... she ended up warping reality, causing the whole House of M event.

After losing his powers, gaining a set of new ones, (time travel related) going crazy, losing his new powers, regaining his old ones, and becoming sane again, Quicksilver is now a hero once more. After serving with the now defunct Mighty Avengers team, Pietro was an instructor at the Avengers academy, teaching a new generation of heroes. He then led the Serval Industries X-Factor team for a while. Post-Secret Wars, he joined the Avengers Unity Squad.

His name derived from the archaic word "quicksilver," which meant mercury (in the sense of the metallic element Hg that's liquid at room temperature). This name, in turn, derives from the fact that mercury looks silvery but moves as though it's alive ("quick"). Mercury is also the name of the quick-footed Roman messenger god.

Quicksilver has appeared frequently in other media, most notably in two separate movie franchises as portrayed by different actors: Evan Peters in the X-Men Film Series, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This was due to a complication in the history of the character (i.e. Quicksilver was introduced as an X-Men antagonist but later became more associated as an Avenger) that made it so he could be featured in both universes, albeit with different backstories.

The MCU version, Pietro, is formally introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron. He and Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) are orphans from Sokovia who become empowered by the Mind Stone in experiments done by HYDRA, later pit against the Avengers by Ultron (James Spader) before defecting to join them. This is ultimately Pietro's only major appearance in the series, as he is killed in the climactic battle and has not returned since.

The X-Men version, Peter, is introduced in X-Men: Days of Future Past an American slacker who is sought out to help bust Erik (Michael Fassbender) out of prison, and eventually becomes a member of the team in later installments. Unlike the MCU version, Peter is a mutant in this series and heavily implied to be Magneto's illegitimate son, but without Wanda as his twin sister as traditionally portrayed.

With Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019 and conclusion of their X-Men series, the fate of Quicksilver in movies moving forward became unclear. Complicating matters was Peters' apparent return as Quicksilver in the MCU series WandaVision, implying some degree of multiversal crossover with the retired franchise. This was ultimately a revealed as a fake-out, with Peters in fact portraying a completely unrelated character set up to masquerade as Pietro by Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn). With the incoming of introduction of mutants and the X-Men in the MCU, however, it remains unseen how (and if) the different cinematic versions of Quicksilver will be reconciled now that both franchises are under one roof again.

Not to be confused with the Golden Age speedster hero named Quicksilver who mostly goes by Max Mercury now.

---

Quicksilver provides examples of the following tropes:

A-H

• Action Dad: he has a daughter named Luna from his ex-wife, Crystal.
• Actually a Doombot Played with up to eleven by Quicksilver. After the Secret Invasion, he tried to clean his name of his recent disasters by claiming, in-universe, that he had been replaced by a Skrull. Of course, that was not the case, and Jarvis and Henry Pym (who were real hostages) realized that he was lying in the same page. Quicksilver's psychic daughter Luna also sees through the lie immediately, and this pretty much destroys their relationship until Quicksilver publicly recants.
• Adaptational Badass: He's much more powerful and more prominent in the X-Men Film Series than his adaptational counterpart from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and arguably even his original comic incarnation.
• Adaptational Villainy: Bordering on Never Live It Down, but if Pietro appears outside comics, he will almost undoubtedly be portrayed as an X-Men villain, sometimes an Anti-Villain if he's lucky. Arguably the worst case of this is X-Men: Evolution, where he's the most villainous member of the Brotherhood (who're a bunch of Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain types here), and his behaviour sometimes borders on making him The Sociopath. (Consider that in the comics, even in the 60s when the Brotherhood were proudly Card Carrying Villains, Quicksilver was only with them to watch over Wanda, who in turn was only with them because she owed Magneto a debt, and they jumped ship to become Avengers after about four or five appearances. In other words, Pietro was the LEAST malicious of the brotherhood.) Lampshaded in X-Men: Destiny, where your character has the option of asking about why he's following Magneto despite being a good guy.
  • Averted in Avengers: Age of Ultron. While he starts out as manipulated by the villains, Pietro and his sister quickly join the Avengers, with Pietro especially sacrificing himself to save Hawkeye and a civilian boy from a hail of bullets.
  • Also averted in X-Men: Apocalypse. While in X-Men: Days of Future Past he was basically a super-powered slacker who briefly helped the heroes for the lulz, in the sequel, he's a straight-up hero, apparently inspired by the example of Mystique. If not for his heroism, in fact, every single student at Xavier's would've died when the mansion exploded and Apocalypse would've been unopposed.
• Always Someone Better
  • The Flash fulfills this role in Marvel/DC crossovers. Head-to-head, Quicksilver is simply no match for any Speed Force user. To illustrate the point, at one point The Flash is outrunning Quicksilver while running backward. Though Quicksilver is quite delighted when the Flash steps into the Marvelverse where there is no Speed Force, and thus, no Super-Speed for him.
    (while chasing the Flash, who had just snatched the Cosmic Cube from Ms. Marvel's hands) Hello. You're on my Earth now, and you're already starting to slow down. So let me just say... It's nothing personal. Oh, no. Not at all.
    (shoves the Flash aside, snatching the Cosmic Cube from him)
    Hah! I'm faster! Faster! Speed Force be damned!
  • In-universe, his own nephew (sort of) Thomas Shepherd aka Speed fulfills this role. He taunted Quicksilver while running backwards, just like the Flash before him. And then there's Northstar, one of the few Marvel-Speedsters who can go Lightspeed.
• Anti-Hero: Generally a Type II, but later downgraded to type IV, and briefly even type V, since most American writers don't like stereotypical "Euro Trash" characters.
• Arch-Enemy: Fabian Cortez and Exodus both serve this role to him, being both mutants who have embraced Magneto's legacy of Super Supremacy. Cortez was the first of them to hit the scene and tried to play the Evil Mentor to Pietro for a little while (he wouldn't have any of it) but it was Exodus and his threatening of Luna during the Blood Ties event that earned Pietro's hatred. Ironically, the two are friends and allies in the Age of Apocalypse.
• Arrow Catch: He's more than capable of this, much to Hawkeye's chagrin.
• Badass Family: Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and brother-in-law Vision as part of the Avengers. There's also Polaris, his half-sister and fellow member of X-Factor. And of course there is his on-again off-again father Magneto.
  • Don't forget his nephews (kind of), Billy and Tommy (Wiccan and Speed).
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Hurting Wanda, even accidentally, brings out the bad side of Pietro. He is insanely protective of his sister, despite her pointing out she is capable of looking after herself.
  • He also starts developing the instinct for Lorna Dane (Polaris). Some time before the establishment of Serval Industries' X-Factor, he found her drinking in a bar due to some stress. He tried to snap her out of it, but she attacked him in a drunken rage. The fight between the siblings ensued in the bar. He eventually subdued her and intended to bring her into Avengers, but she's taken into custody by law enforcement for causing chaos in the bar. Later, after Polaris is freed by Harrison Snow and becomes leader of Harrison's X-Factor, Quicksilver joins the team to keep an eye on her.
• Blackmail: Quicksilver beat up and threatened a blackmailer who showed him pictures of Crystal with another man.
• Blessed with Suck: Super speed isn't always a blessing, especially during dinner with the in-laws. Trying to pace himself to avoid embarrassment, Pietro still managed to eat his entire meal so fast that the entire Inhuman royal family could do nothing but stare in awe. It's also a big part of the reason why he's such a douche; when you perceive everything so much faster to the point where it feels as if the rest of the world is moving in slow-motion, your patience will run out very quick. At one point he compares it to being perpetually stuck in line at the bank behind someone who's trying to count $100 worth of pennies by hand.
• Blow You Away: He can use his speed to create cyclonic wind gusts strong enough to knock people off their feet.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: He's been trained in martial arts by Captain America.
• Brainwashed and Crazy:
  • During his limited issues series the Inhuman scientist Maximus used his hidden Psychic Powers to manipulate Quicksilver's mind, subtly encouraging him to turn against the Avengers.
  • Maximus originally did this in the Vision and the Scarlet Witch series and the West Coast Avengers back in the 80s (trying to use Terrigen Mists on Luna, and then framing the Avengers for treason), and the aforementioned solo (stealing the Terrigen mists to stop a ritual meant to imbue Inhumans their abilities), and more recently in Son of M (stealing the Terrigen mists to use on Luna, and mutants depowered by M Day). First discovered by Franklin Richards in X-Factor Annual #2, and then later confirmed by Maximus himself to Luna in Silent War #6. As of 2022, the psychic virus Maximus placed in Quicksilver’s head to control him is still there.
• Brother–Sister Team: Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.
• Brought Down to Normal: He thought he had it bad when life moved in slo-mo, but after losing his powers, everything seemed so... fast. He went crazy, stole mutating mists from his in-laws, and used them to get time travel powers.
• Cannot Spit It Out: In the third Uncanny Avengers volume, Pietro develops an attraction to his teammate Synapse, but is unable to tell her how he feels, one of many things the Red Skull mocks him for while controlling him.
  Red Skull: Synapse makes your heart sing, and you can't even talk to her.
• Cultural Posturing: Engaged in a bit of it during the Roy Thomas years. When Wanda taunting Pietro and Vision alike for their stilted English, Pietro responded that he was proud he hadn't naturalized to the horrors of American living like some people he could name.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Has a few to his name, but his most spectacular one involved Mr. X, whose shtick was reading his opponent's mind to determine what they were going to do before they even did it. He tried this with Pietro and learned that Pietro was going to beat him half to death with a metal pipe. The only problem was that Pietro was moving far too fast for Mr. X to affect the outcome of this in the slightest, meaning that yes, he did get his ass thoroughly beat. Oh, and the kicker? X was in possession of the Spear of Odin at the time.
  You can read minds enough to be able to predict any attack your opponent will make. So you will be able to —[hits Mr. X] anticipate every move I make —[hits him again] and do absolutely —[and again...] nothing about it —[...and again...] because -[..again...] I-am-the-fastest-man-on-Earth.
  • Wolverine has beaten him several times simply by waiting for Pietro to accidentally run into his fist.
  Wolverine: That never gets old.
• Deadly Dodging: When fighting a Big Bad and his Mooks most usually.
• Deadpan Snarker: Like his father before him.
• Depending on the Writer: Quicksilver's level of jerkassery, and the explanation for the reasons thereof (if any), are one of those things that changes with every writer. Sometimes he's just a grouch with a good heart, sometimes he's a total asshole with no explanation.
• De-power: Quicksilver was one of the mutants who lost their powers after the events of House of M.
• Disproportionate Retribution: While under the telepathic influence of Maximus the Mad, Quicksilver went- well, mad. Specifically in ways that made him seek Disproportionate Retribution on others. He betrayed the Avengers, framed them for treason and then tried to kill them due to a series of slights (both real and imagined). These supposed offenses included the way his teammates approved of Wanda's marriage to Vision despite Pietro's objections, as well as the time they accidentally left him behind in Australia after their battle with the Sentinels. Even his biggest gripe, Crystal's infidelity, hardly justified attempted murder, especially since the Avengers had nothing to do with it.
• Dodge the Bullet: He's done this too many times to count. One wonders why gunmen even bother trying.
• Does Not Like Magic: Admits as much during Uncanny Avengers when Doctor Voodoo invokes mystical creatures to repair Avengers Mansion. When Wanda responds to this by pointing out that she uses magic, he is quick to remind her of how much pain it's brought her, ending his talk with a simple "magic sucks!"
• Driven to Suicide: Already depressed after losing his powers, Pietro jumps off a roof in Son of M #1 after a humiliating encounter with Spider-Man.
• The Family That Slays Together: Quicksilver's time in the Brotherhood of Mutants had the Maximoff twins performing crimes with their father, though they didn't know it at the time.
• Fantastic Racism: Ironically, despite the anti-mutant racism he's experienced his entire life, he was vehemently opposed to Wanda's relationship with The Vision on account of the latter being a robot. Moondragon psychically "cured" Pietro of this prejudice, but he later returned to hating Vision during his brief Face–Heel Turn in the 80s.
• Fast as Lightning: His lightning motif goes well with his speed.
• Flash Step: He often does this in scenes where he's using his powers for some Mundane Utility or another.
• Fragile Speedster: Mildly subverted, as his flesh and bones are endowed with the requisite durability for him to survive using his abilities, but he's by no means Nigh-Invulnerable.
• Freudian Excuse: He's not exactly a bad guy, just an impulsive dick. Having a rocky relationship with his father and sister doesn't help, however, and he outright tells a shrink that his main reason for being an impetuous, self-centered prick is the fact that the speed of the world around him is agonizingly slow to him. Picture having to wait in a slow-moving line for hours for something mundane. That's what every single second is like for him. Being possessed by his in-law Maximus the Mad several times but rarely acknowledged by anyone (including his twin sister, and his ex-wife) doesn’t help matters.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Pietro's jealousy is one of the reasons Crystal refuses to start their relationship anew. This revelation came just minutes after Pietro slugged Jolen of the Inhumans for placing a flower in Crystal's hair.
  • It doesn't help that said jealousy isn't unfounded due to Crystal's adulterous behavior.
• Heel–Face Brainwashing: Pietro was originally against Wanda's marriage to the Vision, simply because his brother-in-law was a machine. It took fellow Avenger Moondragon erasing those prejudiced thoughts from his mind for Pietro to change his tune.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Quicksilver had a habit of this early in his career, bouncing between the Avengers and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. He returned to villainy during the 80s, but this was later Retconned into having been the result of Maximus' brainwashing. And even without a thought-out decision to change sides, when you're as hotheaded as he is, you might find yourself up against your teammates as you pursue one rash course of action or another.
• Heroic Sacrifice: During Avengers: No Surrender, he runs himself into another dimension stopping the device freezing all the other heroes from working.
• Holier Than Thou: On his worse days, Quicksilver is quick to cast scorn on others while completely ignoring his own mistakes and flaws. During his rock-bottom moment in X-Factor vol 3, he even actually described himself as being "holier than thou" without irony.
• Hot-Blooded: In most depictions, his temper is as quick as everything else about him.
• Humiliation Conga: Time hasn't been kind to this speedster. From being a member of the Avengers and having his own limited series in the '90s, he commits a pivotal Nice Job Breaking It, Hero during the House of M event in an attempt to keep the Avengers and X-Men from (possibly) killing Wanda after Disassembled, is accidentally depowered in the event's aftermath, was divorced by Crystal after being mind controlled by Maximus into breaking Inhuman law in a Professor Guinea Pig scheme, and ultimately lost his powers again and was reduced to homelessness and being jailed for vagrancy. He inexplicably regained his powers, but has pinballed aimlessly since, mostly being used as an Unwitting Pawn for villains like Cthton and the High Evolutionary. Moreover, his frequent possessions by Maximus are often brushed aside as him making excuses, even by his own twin sister.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: Quicksilver's metabolism is so efficient that he produces very little waste. Canonically, it's fifteen times more efficient than a normal human being's metabolism.
• Hypocrite: He greatly detested Vision for marrying his sister, simply because he was a machine. It doesn't speak well for Pietro, considering his long-held disgust for humanity over their persecution against mutants. However, it’s hard to guess how sincere it was considering he was under mind control by Maximus, and later acknowledges Vision as family several times.

I-Z

• I Am Not My Father: Pietro purposely took on a teaching role at the Avengers Academy to distance himself from his father.
• Incest Subtext: His relationship with Wanda is sometimes a little too close.
• Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress:
  • During his Heel periods he's often been defeated this way; indeed, his very first appearance had him defeated by Angel tricking him into running into a wall. Amusingly, he once used this to his advantage when fighting a Sentinel that had absorbed his powers.
  • Likewise, Spider-Man once took Quicksilver out by clotheslining him.
• Insufferable Genius: In addition to everything else, Quicksilver thinks faster than most people, and can usually figure out a problem long before anyone else around him. This just adds to his impatience and frustration with his fellow humans, something he's not shy about expressing.
• It Runs in the Family: The bouts of insanity seem to be a familial trait.
• It's All About Me: During the third Uncanny Avengers volume, he attempted to claim superiority over the team, stating that he had been an Avenger longer than any of them. The Wasp (a founding member) is quick to call him out on this.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Quicksilver has been a good guy, bad guy, and in-between, but never stops being an arrogant asshole. This extends to his other incarnations, like his appearances on the different cartoons and Ultimate X-Men. Depending on the Writer, Pietro is usually, beneath his jerkassery, a good guy who does anything for his friends and family.
  • For all his flaws, Pietro really does enjoy being a superhero and helping out others, although this is something he will not admit openly. Aside from his sister, he also greatly cares about The New Men and sees them as an extended family.
  • Even with both of them currently divorced, he still holds high regard for his ex-brother-in-law Vision to the point where he still sees him as family.
• Karma Houdini: Made a statement on the news that his kidnapping of Luna was a work of a Skrull imposter after the Secret Invasion crossover. However, Luna knows the truth, and while she'll keep his secret because she loves him, she makes it very clear that she has lost all respect for him. Strangely, there was never a need for him to lie about being a Skrull when he was being mind controlled by Maximus. But then, so was Medusa and Black Bolt… And then when Fatale calls him out on this on live TV, he admits the whole truth, which causes Luna to regain her respect for him, making him a slightly different type of karma.
• Leeroy Jenkins: His arrogance and impatience often lead him to rush into battle without thinking (which can backfire on him spectacularly).
• Lightning Bruiser: Of the "hard-hitting speedster" variety. His enhanced physiology makes him far more durable than he appears, and he can very easily beat someone half to death before they can even react.
• Love Triangle: He was briefly in one with his estranged wife Crystal and their fellow Avenger Black Knight during the 90s. Black Knight eventually backed off after Pietro and Crystal tried to repair their marriage.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: He's gone through this three times and counting. First he and Wanda learned that the elderly superhero The Whizzer was their father. Then they found out that a mysterious old wizard was their long-lost Romani adoptive father. Then they learned that their true father was not the Whizzer but their hated ex-boss Magneto. Then came AXIS with yet another Retcon that their true father wasn't Magneto after all, but that last one's been more or less ignored since then.
• Made of Iron: One of the Required Secondary Powers that prevents Pietro from vibrating himself into jelly every time he uses his powers.
• Magic Compass: A living version, as his powers allow him to sense magnetic vibrational patterns and always tell which direction is north.
• Me's a Crowd: In Son of M, Quicksilver could use his temporary time traveling powers to create multiple copies of himself by jumping into the future in 30 second intervals.
• Mistaken for Gay: When trying to explain to Crystal that he's seeing a psychiatrist.
• The Mole: Joined Serval Industries' X-Factor mainly to keep an eye on Polaris for Havok, but ultimately stays for her.
• Mundane Utility: Pietro uses his super speed to read books, solve jigsaw puzzles, go shopping, type, and prep salads.
• My Future Self and Me: Quicksilver gained limited Time Travel powers after exposing himself to the Terrigen Mists, which he only learned about after meeting his future self.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: To Scarlet Witch.
• Never My Fault: Another of his major faults. After a poorly-thought out attempt of his to stop the Juggernaut results in Synapse being gravely injured, he ends up blaming everyone else for it. Wanda is quick to point out Synapse was injured because of him, angrily calling him out on letting his Pride blind him to the truth, and telling him that he will not be welcome on the team again until he admits to his mistake.
  • However, it’s hard to know how seriously to take this considering Wanda was the one who unleashed Juggernaut in the first place because she thought using the power of Cyttorak to clean up a fight scene was a good idea, and blaming Juggernaut actions on Pietro makes little sense as getting injured is par for the course for superhero duty. It comes off as as less a case of Pietro being irresponsible than Wanda engaging in this trope instead.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: House of M and Son Of M. First his attempt to keep his sister from being killed by his friends results in mass depowering of the mutant population when her anti-mutant feelings came to the surface. Then his attempts to fix it while under the mind control of Maximus cause a war to break out between The Inhumans and US military. Also, it turns out that re-powering of mutants with terrigen crystals has horrible side effects.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Magneto received one from half a dozen Quicksilvers (who’s was under Maximus’ telepathic control) in Son of M, many of whom had words for "their" father after the fight.
  Quicksilver #3: All I ever wanted to do was please him.
  Quicksilver #2: He barely acknowledged my existence.
  Quicksilver #1: Have you noticed me now?!
  • In Trial of Magneto, Quicksilver again beats Magneto into a comatose state, because he believed Magneto killed Wanda. All Magneto can do is utter a brief ‘Son!’ before lapsing into unconsciousness. Only seconds before, Magneto has been soloing against the combined might of the X-Men and Avengers with ease.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Even though it has been long established that the Inhuman Maximus the Mad was behind Pietro’s villainous actions (see Brainwashed and Crazy and Disproportionate Retribution above and every story Steve Englehart wrote him in), later writers and fans overlook this in favor of portraying Pietro as a naturally cruel man who abuses Wanda. James Robinson’s depiction of him in the Scarlet Witch (2016) solo was especially egregious in this regard. It makes Wanda’s accusation that Pietro is a sociopath make less sense, putting aside that sociopath is not an actual mental health diagnosis the way she claims. The only saving grace is that Pietro was once again under mind control, this time by the Red Skull as depicted in Uncanny Avengers.
• Parental Substitute: Django Maximoff, his adoptive father and more recently revealed to be his maternal uncle. Django raised the twins with love until the day a mob motivated by anti-Romani racism attacked their people. Both Wanda and Pietro consider him their true father no matter who they are actually related to.
  • Pietro often sees the High Evolutionary as more of a father figure to him than Magneto ever was, and depending on how evil he is that day the Evolutionary either reciprocates those feelings or manipulates those feelings for his own ends.
• Personality Powers: Well, except the most prominent part of Pietro's personality is how he's a total jerkass because every second in real time lasts for hours from his perception.
• Pet the Dog: On occasion, which he'll usually balance out by being like a complete jerk again seconds later.
• Power Creep, Power Seep: He could originally run several hundred miles per hour - unimpressive by the standards of those who can cross interstellar distances in seconds, but about the speed that makes sense for your average battle with a character who looks like a blur but can still be zapped with Eye Beams or punched if you can predict him well enough to put your fist where his face is going to be a second from now. These days he can run faster than light and even break through different dimensions in his last mini Quicksilver: No Surrender.
• Pretty Boy: Depending on the art, Quicksilver is usually not a pretty boy except for X-Men Evolution cartoon. However, in one X-Factor issue, he was called 'Pretty Boy' by his inmates when he was put in prison for vagrancy.
• Professor Guinea Pig: While under mind control by Maximus, Pietro has been made to expose his daughter Luna and depowered mutants to the Terrigen mists, convinced it would reverse their fortunes after M Day. It didn’t.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He and Wanda were only in Magneto's Brotherhood because he saved their lives; they refused to kill anyone, used their powers against Magneto to stop him from killing, and joined the Avengers as soon as they were free of him.
• Put on a Bus: Roy Thomas got rid of Quicksilver twice during the original Avengers run. The first time was when Pietro and his amnesiac sister temporarily rejoined Magneto's Brotherhood, and the second was when an injured Pietro was accidentally left behind in Australia after the team's battle against the Sentinels. The second exit proved to be much longer-lasting, as he was soon found by Crystal, who took him back to Attilan. He would not return to being an active Avenger until the 90s, not long before the Onslaught crossover.
• Repower: After losing his powers on M-Day, and later using the Terrigen Mist that empowers the Inhumans to achieve an altered version of them (he could vibrate his molecules faster than the speed of light and travel through time) he just got his old Super-Speed back (without any real explanation) during the X-Factor: The Quick and the Dead one-shot. Apparently, Epiphany Therapy trumps a Reality Warper depowering 98% of all mutants...
• Required Secondary Powers: As noted in the page quote, Pietro's mutation didn't simply grant him speed; it also strengthed his bones and tendons, and provided him with phenomenal reaction time.
• The Rival: The Black Knight became this to him during the period when they were in competition for the affections of Crystal.
• Romani: Pietro and Wanda's mother, Magda, was Romani, and they were adopted by a Romani family when she died.
  • Depending on the Writer their father, Magneto, is either Romani as well or Jewish.
• Rubik's Cube: International Genius Symbol: Pietro can solve one in 0.0000034 seconds.
• Sanity Slippage: Went insane without his powers. Being repeatedly mind controlled by Maximus, his former in-law, while being gaslit that it never happened, has also had terrible effects on his mental health.
• The Sociopath: During 2016's Civil War II event his sister stated that he is a "textbook sociopath" who disrupts "through manipulation or force" all his relationships. Seeing as how Wanda doesn't exactly have room in her glass house to throw stones, take from that what you will - though to be fair, that was in the context of acknowledging her own mental issues. Worse, Quicksilver was being mind controlled by the Red Skull at the time, and wasn’t responsible for his actions.
• Smug Super: Quicksilver is the "fastest man on Earth" and he'll never let you forget it.
• Spectacular Spinning: Quicksilver can create whirlwinds by running around his opponent at top speed. These whirlwinds are powerful enough to overpower the Human Torch while in flight.
• Speed Blitz: He's fond of combining this with Criss-Cross Attack to dismantle his foes.
• Speed Demon: Quicksilver is one of the fastest beings in the Marvel Universe, a fact he never lets people forget. He once said that to him, everyone else is moving very slowly, including their thought processes. Picture having to wait in a slow-moving line for hours for something mundane, that's what every single second is like for him.
• The Speedster: Quicksilver is Marvel's Alternate Company Equivalent to The Flash. While a bit slower than his counterpart from the Distinguished Competition, he is still far and away the fastest character in the Marvel universe with his own take on classic speedster abilities.
• Status Quo Is God: Quicksilver can try, he can have all the hard-earned lessons and character development he likes, but come the next writer, he's going to be a jerkwad again.
• Super-Reflexes: His reflexes are canonically stated to be better than those of the finest human athletes. Even in early appearances he was capable of feats such as dodging close range optic blasts courtesy of Cyclops, and he's only gotten faster on the ball since then.
• Super-Intelligence: Of the learning quickly variety. Pietro learned how to play Beethoveen's Moonlight Sonata from memory and by ear in ten seconds, never having played piano before and only knowing where the 'C' key is. As any musician knows, Moonlight Sonata isn't exactly a beginner's piece. He is also an accomplished sculptor.
• Super-Speed: Up to Mach 4 but possibly higher.
  • During the Mighty Avengers era, he was outrunning radio waves, putting him at translight speeds, vibrating so fast when he got angry that he was creating wind shear and his equivalent of a nervous twitch was zipping from Tibet to Indonesia and back in a second or two at most. While this was debunked by Marvel editor Tom Breevort, the statement Breevort gave indicated that he had not actually read the comic. Whether he retains this level of speed is up for debate.
  • As of Quicksilver: No Surrender, Pietro can now travel the world in picoseconds.
• Super-Speed Reading: Does this frequently to stave off boredom.
• Super Supremacist: A mild version to be sure, but Pietro's natural arrogance and sense of superiority leads him to often view ordinary humans with disdain. Of course, Marvel civilians being who they are, it’s not hard to see why.
• Super-Toughness: Pietro's body is immensely durable thanks to the Required Secondary Powers needed to keep him from tearing himself apart, which has the side effect of making him incredibly difficult to seriously hurt.
• Time Stands Still: Quicksilver once explained his angry personality by asking his psychologist to imagine living in a world consisting entirely of the slowest queue at the checkout.
• Took a Level in Badass: During the "Siege of Wundagore" storyline his Super Speed was amped up to pre-Crisis Superman levels by the High Evolutionary's Isotope E, allowing him to defeat Exodus (who ironically is a Superman-level mutant, and leagues more powerful than Quicksilver normally).
• Took a Level in Jerkass: He was always arrogant and hard to get along with, but in The Bronze Age of Comic Books, writer Steve Englehart made him an out-and-out bigot who broke off his relationship with his sister over her relationship with the Vision. Later writers retconned this into being mind control by Maximus.
• Touched by Vorlons: After decades of being a mutant, the most recent (as of 2019) interpretation of Pietro is that he is in fact an ordinary human being who was empowered as a baby by the High Evolutionary.
• Turn Out Like His Father: With his father being who he is, this is a concern for several characters. Despite their antipathy for each other, Pietro and his father share a mutual arrogance, and some villains such as Fabian Cortez have even attempted to exploit this by tempting him to take a more active role in mutant affairs.
• The Un-Favourite: Magneto's relationship with his kids is very screwed up, but he and Pietro cannot get along with each other. Magneto resents Pietro’s refusal to be his heir, and Pietro sees Magneto as his abuser.
• Walk on Water: He's run across the Atlantic Ocean and back more than once.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: His portrayal in various adaptations, such as Marvel 1602, X-Men: Evolution and Wolverine and the X-Men (2009), where he is usually aware about his parentage from the start. Eventually it leaked into the main continuity as well n Son of M (see quote above), which was a 180 degree turn from his original relationship with Magneto. It hasn’t been touched since, especially after the Axis retcon.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Zig-zagged, Quicksilver goes back and forth on the villain front, but even at his best he's still quite a jerk.
• Would Hurt a Child: During his Sanity Slippage days, he thought it was God's will he murder the then-teenaged Layla Miller.

---