Age of Ultron: 8 Ways The Avengers' Quicksilver Beats X-Men's

After its release, only one thing was unanimously concluded by fans about The Avengers: Age of Ultron: that there’s a whole lot of, well, everything in the movie. Whether or not all the elements at play worked, however, is a different and divisive story. 

One much-talked about feature of the film is Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver, a hero most audiences already saw grace their cinema screens last year in X-Men: Days of Future Past, played by Evan Peters.

Because the mutant Pietro Maximoff was associated with the Avengers as well, a copyright loophole allowed both the Fox-owned X-Men franchise and the MCU to use the character, just not played by the same actor, which gave rise to this particular Quicksilver conundrum.

While neither franchise can fully realize the comic-book character without exclusive rights (over at Marvel, they’re not so much as allowed to say ‘the m-word’, much less include the existence of the twins’ father Magneto), some agree that Bryan Singer’s sufficiently awesome, time-stopping take on the speedster in 2014 narrowly beat Joss Whedon’s interpretation in this month’s Age of Ultron.

That being said, The Avengers’ portrayal better reflects the Maximoffs’ true origins as well as adding an intriguing character to the MCU with both fun and darkness in appropriate measure (bearing in mind his mere 20 minutes of screen time total). While both Quicksilvers have their high points, here’s why Taylor-Johnson’s genetically-experimented, Eastern European hothead might have the edge over Peters’ smart aleck teen mutant. 

Both Quicksilvers unfortunately shared one common element: their lacklustre wardrobe. While Evan Peters got points for the Pink Floyd shirt and leather jacket, the goggles and gadgets had him looking a bit too close to Spy Kids rather than X-Men. The silver hairpiece better suited to an anime cosplay didn’t help matters, either.

Similarly, Taylor-Johnson’s civilian Pietro didn’t exactly match up to his suited-up teammates, screaming more ‘Nike ad’ than ‘Earth’s mightiest heroes.’ Although his older and slightly darker demeanour (and his version of the platinum wig) worked better than his 2014 counterpart’s, and the tight-fitting sports shirt did wonders to showcase his impeccable physique, the biggest edge that The Avengers’ Quicksilver has in terms of appearance is the way the film captures his movement.

While in X-Men Quicksilver’s powers were showcased in amazing and iconic sequences, the visual effects went towards a more classic, teleportation-like display of super-speed. In Age of Ultron, Quicksilver’s powers are shown through sped-up footage of Taylor-Johnson actually running, with blur and effects added later. 

This adds a new and intriguing dimension of visual language to the Avengers’ big fight scenes, and lends to some awesome slow-mo’d shots of the speedster in action. It also grounds him in reality, as he struggles to make sharp turns and skids to a stop while running at supersonic speeds.