Quicksilver: Gone Too Soon?

For those of you who have seen X-Men: Days of Future Past, you may have been shocked at Quicksilver’s wonderful portrayal. Most fans seemed skeptical after the release of his character’s feature cover. For those of you who haven’t this article is full of spoilers. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

The Look

Peter Maximoff’s look and attitude were based on what a real kid with his powers would act like, according to Bryan Singer. It definitely makes sense that he looks more like an over-dressed teenager at this age than the more buff, formidable version from the comics. Most of the comments ranged from “What have they done?!” to saying his look was comparable to a “Spy Kids villain”. The 90’s kid look paired well with his devil-may-care attitude and just he had enough snark to be Quicksilver but to be relatable and get the feeling of his impatience with the world across. We didn’t learn very much about him in this movie; his mother’s offer to write a check for whatever he stole this time, and flitting about playing video games in his “man-cave” full of junk food gave glimpses of what he does on a daily basis, but not much about him as a person. During his short screen-time, though, we learn enough to like him, and I think that’s the whole idea. Once his task is over, we don’t really see him in an action capacity again so there wasn’t a need to over use him in this film.

That Scene

In his most marvelous (pun intended) scene, we got to see his point of view as he glided around the room in super-fast motion rearranging guards after they fired their guns at Wolverine, Magneto and of course, Quicksilver himself. In this scene, he listens to Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle” while prepping guards to punch each other in the face, messing with their clothes, and last but not least redirecting the bullets in the air right before they hit his friends. It is interesting that even portrayed as a can’t-stay-out-of-trouble kleptomaniac teenager he is most calm during the most destructive scene he is a part of. The song choice is wonderful, not only because of the reference to time but it adds to the serenity captured in what could have been a chaotic moment—of course, for everyone else in real-time, the result was certainly chaos.

But…Why?

His carefree attitude and unexpected costuming aren’t the only thing X-Men fans should be wondering about, though. Those familiar with Age of Apocalypse probably had a few more red flags raised from the bonus scene showing the creation of the pyramids in Egypt.

Perhaps the bonus scene at the end of the film sheds more light on Quicksilver’s short but sweet screen time. In Age of Apocalypse, Quicksilver and his sister, Scarlet Witch learn that Magneto is their father and join him as X-Men. Quicksilver becomes a large part of the X-Men and leads his own team of X-Men faithfully until Nemesis kills Scarlet Witch. The innocent glimpse we got of Quicksilver in DoFP may have been in part to show a carefree beginning to the character we’ll see later during Age of Apocalypse, which will be called X-Men: Apocalypse in theaters in 2016.

Evan Peters definitely stole the show as Quicksilver.  Here’s a fun fact- Quicksilver existed in both X-Men and Avengers universes, so two studios have the rights to show him. That’s right, that means there will be two Quicksilvers produced by different directors and studios. Look out for the next version of Quicksilver, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson who starred with Evan Peters in Kickass, in Avengers: Age of Ultron.