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

Hands down, the best scene in X-Men: Days of Future Past was Quicksilver’s “Time in a Bottle” sequence – perhaps even in the whole franchise. While this Quicksilver scene definitely has no equal in Age of Ultron, Whedon’s Quicksilver gets points for feeling more integral to the plot, whereas in X-Men, Peter acted as a wickedly awesome plot device, and we say farewell in the next scene.

Conversely, in Age of Ultron, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are quite inextricable from the overall plot. They are also relevant thematically, their connection to Tony Stark’s dark past reinforcing the idea that heroes are not always all good, and gives at least a little uneasy support for Ultron’s ideologies.

Finally, the biggest part that Quicksilver plays, ironically, in his death. One of the MCU’s greatest failings is that the stakes are never high: with Marvel announcing its lineup for the next decade, we know they’re not going to kill off their major money-makers. With Marvel’s track record of happy endings, the death of brand-new Pietro gave the audiences – now well-acquainted with the Marvel formula – a needed jolt. 

This both gives the movie an emotional dimension that it needed, underlines both the relationship between the twins and Scarlet Witch’s emotional ties to her powers, and underscores the idea that supervillains – and heroes – have deadly repercussions.