QUICKSILVER: Page 2 of 10

BIOGRAPHY - Page 2

Pietro, however, was slowly developing a resentment towards humanity, which continued to show distrust towards him and Wanda for their previous actions with the Brotherhood. This gnawing doubt sprang up full force when Magneto returned from space, captured the twins and asked them to accompany him to the United Nations. There he instigated an assault on the Scarlet Witch by one of the security guards. Enraged at his sister's injury, the culprit being a “mere human,” Quicksilver rejoined Magneto's Brotherhood and brought the unconscious Wanda along with him. [Avengers (1st series) #46, 48-49]

Her forehead being grazed by a bullet, Wanda again temporarily lost the use of her powers and could do nothing to intervene with Magneto’s schemes to capture the X-Men and force them into his service, save argue with her brother. After calming down, Pietro soon realized how rash his actions were and, with the help of the Avengers, the X-Men and Magneto's flunky, Toad, the twins rejected Magneto's rule once more. The Master of Magnetism was apparently killed in a landslide soon after. Instead of returning to the Avengers, Wanda, Pietro and the Toad became traveling companions, looking for a peaceful existence somewhere in the world. [X-Men (1st series) #45, Avengers (1st series) #53]

It didn't work. Soon, they were captured by the Sentinels, like most other known mutants at the time. This time, the Sentinels were activated by Federal Judge Chalmers and Larry Trask, the son of the mutant-hunting robots late creator, Bolivar Trask. By the time Chalmers revealed to Larry that he was a mutant himself, it was too late to stop the Sentinels, and if not for the X-Men, they would have succeeded in imprisoning all mutants. [X-Men (1st series) #59-60]

Searching for a means to restore Wanda’s power, the twins went to Europe and checked the libraries of several monasteries, until they came across an ancient book of spells. Wanda felt herself drawn to one of the formulas and, once it was cast, Arkon materialized in front of the three mutants. Throwing around his lighting bolts, he took himself, Wanda and, by accident, the Toad back to his world, leaving Quicksilver behind. The smitten Arkon intended to make Wanda his queen. Furthermore, as his planet’s energy rings were depleted, saw no other way than to destroy Earth’s sun to re-empower them. Having no means to follow the strange man, Pietro was forced to contact the Avengers for help. Together they found a way to Arkon’s planet and arrived just in time to stop the sun’s destruction. It was discovered that Thor’s magical hammer could easily recharge the energy rings, thus ending the need for a battle between Arkon’s world and Earth. As the dimensional jump had restored Wanda’s access to her mutant powers, the twins decided to rejoin the Avengers. [Avengers (1st series) #75-76]

In their absence, the Avengers had gained several new members, including the Vision. The repressed synthezoid still had the soul of a man and, despite his grave-cold voice and him being artificial, the Scarlet Witch found herself highly attracted to him. As soon as Pietro noticed the tiny spark of love between his teammates, he disapproved of the potential relationship, not willing to lose his sister to a “machine.” His bickering caused the synthezoid to become distracted during a fight with some Skrulls, resulting in Pietro and Wanda being captured. As the other Avengers already had their hands full trying to protect Earth from the effects of the galaxy-wide Kree-Skrull-War, they could not go after the missing twins. They eventually managed to escape on their own with the help of Captain Marvel, who had also been kidnapped by the aliens. [Avengers (1st series) #93-97]

Back on Earth, Pietro would not let the matter of Wanda’s feelings for the synthezoid rest. Time and again, he made his opinion heard and, in his desperate attempts to renew his bond with Wanda, he even brought up their criminal past and their common status as mutants setting them apart from humanity, neither aspect Wanda remembered too fondly. Regardless, Pietro considered it his duty to protect his sister from harm, and he was absolutely certain that her infatuation with the Vision would cause her nothing but grief in the long run. [Avengers (1st series) #99-101]

When the Sentinels re-appeared, the robots wanted to end the threats of mutants by ensuring that they wouldn’t be born anymore. In a somewhat twisted sense of logic, they built a machine that would render everyone on Earth sterile, and they captured the Scarlet Witch to use her as a power source for the device. His sister taken from him, Pietro was in a state of shock and he angrily lashed out at his own teammates. Disagreeing with the Avengers about the best way to save Wanda, he ran off to prove that he could rescue her all by himself. [Avengers (1st series) #102]

Remembering the last confrontation with the Sentinels, Pietro tracked down Larry Trask and pressed him for information. Thus learning of a hidden Sentinel base in Australia, Pietro forced Larry to come along with him to help rescue his sister. Along the way, Trask was bothered by precognitive visions of destruction and death, making him think that they would fail in stopping the Sentinels from destroying the planet. However, it was just his own death that Larry foresaw, as he was crushed by a falling Sentinel during the battle. Quicksilver didn’t fare much better; trying to outrun the gigantic robots, he crashed into a wall and broke several bones. Meanwhile, the Avengers also made their way to the Sentinel base by other means, freed the Scarlet Witch and disabled the Sentinels. They sealed the entrance to the base shut, unaware that the barely conscious Pietro was still inside. [Avengers (1st series) #103-104]

He might have died there, if not for the Inhuman Crystal. On the way back from the Fantastic Four, her teleporting dog, Lockjaw, sensed the speedster’s distress and transported himself and his mistress inside the Australian base. Crystal took pity on the handsome stranger and brought him to Attilan, the Inhumans’ Great Refuge, where she helped to nurse him back to health. It was the first time that Pietro was together with a woman other than his sister, and their mutual attraction soon turned to love, despite the fact that Crystal was actually the girlfriend of the Fantastic Four’s Human Torch. For a while, Crystal was unsure about her feelings, especially when the Torch came to Attilan. Crystal was taken hostage by Omega, the personification of the Inhumans’ hatred and guilt, and this forced the two rivals for her affection to work together. Once that crisis had passed, Crystal made her decision and chose to be with Quicksilver. [Fantastic Four (1st series) #131-132]

Pietro then contacted the Avengers to let them know he was alright, and to inform them of his decision to marry Crystal. Wanda was quite happy for her brother and told him that, in the meantime, she and the Vision had proclaimed their love for each other and started dating. However, once again Pietro dismissed the idea of a romance between mutant and machine and angrily broke off the conversation, telling his sister not to bother calling him again until she “came to her senses.” [Avengers (1st series) #110]

Even though Quicksilver refrained from personally inviting the Avengers to his wedding, they attended the festivities as guests of the Inhuman Royal Family, just like the Fantastic Four. Despite the tension between Pietro and Wanda and an attack by Ultron-7, Quicksilver and Crystal were finally married before their united friends and family, and left for their honeymoon by way of the teleporting Lockjaw. The Whizzer had recently reunited with Wanda and come to believe he was her and Pietro's father. Bob Frank watched the event on a monitor screen in the infirmary of Avengers mansion, where he was recuperating from a recent heart attack. [Avengers (1st series) #127, Fantastic Four (1st series) #150]