Q

Quicksilver: Avengers Origins - Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver/Son Of M

featuring Sean McKeever and David Hine

(Art by Mirco Pierfederici and Roy Allen Martinez)

Marvel's Mightiest Heroes Book 25.  Two stories starring the mutant speedster Pietro Maximoff.  In the first we see how he and his twin sister discover they are mutants and join Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants before reforming their ways to become Avengers.  The second story, in the wake of Brian Michael Bendis' 'House Of M', sees Pietro trying to cope with having lost his powers and starting down a dark path.

It's always interesting to consider characters who had their origins as villains but later became well-known heroes and how that occurred.  Marvel had a particular penchant for this back in the 60s and 70s, with Avengers like Hawkeye, Vision and Black Widow all starting off as antagonists.  The first story here then recounts that same journey for Pietro and Wanda but looking back at that original change for the characters through the lens of modern storytelling.  We see the twins as shunned orphans who are offered a place in the world by Magneto but who discover that his ruthless policies are not in-keeping with their natures.  The one drawback to this story is that, due to being intended as in-canon and not a retcon, we never get to see the moment when Pietro and Wanda discover their true relationship to the Master of Magnetism.

The second story, 'Son of M', is by far the better of the two.  We see Quicksilver at a true low point, hated by the heroes of the Marvel Universe for his part in creating the House of M event and de-powered during M-Day by his sister.  Depressed and desperate he attempts to regain his powers through the terrigen mists of the Inhumans, forcing him to confront his estranged wife Crystal and his daughter Luna.  What follows is a tragedy forged by Pietro's desperation, his impulsiveness and, worst of all, his misguided attempts to do good.  There's a great scene where he confronts the also-depowered Magneto and we get a sense of how the baton of arch-villainy has truly been passed from father to son.

4 out of 5