Marvel’s Fastest Hero Finally Gets the Heartfelt Moment X-Men Fans Didn’t Know He Needed

Uncanny X-Men has been one of the coolest X-Men comics in years (that’s right, it’s even better than a lot of X-Men (Vol. 5), the Hickman series, and all of X-Men (Vol. 6)). Writer Gail Simone has been juggling new mutants the Outliers, the mutant prison Gryamalkin, the magical origins of their new base Haven, and a terrifying change to Gambit that has seen the Cajun mutant and his wife Rogue leave the team. They’ve left the group in the hands of Monet St. Croix, who I will always call M because I’m old, and Quicksilver, who had been helping Rogue deal with Graymalkin Prison. The two of them met in the Avengers Unity Squad at the end of the Krakoa Era and are doing their best to step into the shoes of Gambit and Rogue, especially with the Outliers, who the couple were thinking of adopting.

Marvel has dropped the ball with Quicksilver a lot. While Scarlet Witch gets to be the star of movies, TV shows, and comics, Quicksilver is still played as the mean speedster that no one really likes other than his sister (and M). While Wanda gets her past dug into and every sin forgiven, everyone hates Pietro, including Marvel brass. Giving the character to Gail Simone, a writer who has done amazing work with lower-level characters that other creators ignore, was perfect for the hero. Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 6) #33 does something very interesting with Quicksilver as a character, adding a little wrinkle to the hero that makes perfect sense with what we know about him. It adds a certain softness to the character, one which is repaid with violence later in the issue.

Quicksilver Has a Soft Spot for Children and That Makes Perfect Sense

Quicksilver never knew his parents, raised on Mount Wundagore under the not so tender auspices of the High Evolutionary. Eventually, he and his sister would be found by Magneto, who would assume the two of them were mutants, and were made into child soldiers. As members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch formed something of a two-person unit, with Pietro doing his best to protect his sister from Mastermind and Toad, who coveted her youth and beauty. He had been protecting his sister their whole lives, doing his best to keep her safe in a world that had constantly hurt them.

Pietro was as much a broken child as anyone and that has given him a soft spot for hurt children. This is honestly kind of shocking. Since the classic X-Factor (Vol. 1) #87, we’ve been told that the reason that Pietro was so caustic to those around him was because he perceived the world more slowly than everyone else, which caused him to lose his patience much easier. Anyone who’s been around children knows that the only way to successfully with them is to have patience and that’s something that Pietro Maximoff doesn’t have a lot of. However, even he can forget how much the world annoys when he sees a child hurting. He knows what can come from that and he wants to make sure that no one suffers what he did.

The Outliers are the definition of hurt kids. When the X-Men found them, they were orphans who had banded together, with Rogue and Gambit doing their best to give them something of a normal life. Each of them has their issues, but the one who has the most pain in her life is Calico. We don’t know much about what she went through; her mother was terrible to her and she carries a lot of trauma, which often comes out when she’s sleepwalking. M and Quicksilver promised to step in for Rogue and Gambit, so when Calico shows up in the kitchen in her one of fugue states, Pietro’s proclivity for protecting children kicks in.

He immediately steps up, telling Nightcrawler that he’ll handle it. However, when Calico wakes up, she freaks out on him. She yells that he isn’t a mutant and leaves him dumbfounded. Quicksilver stepped in to help someone who needed him in a surprisingly tender way and was rebuffed for it. Pietro stepping into the X-Men was already something of a surprise, and him taking this role knowing what was expected of him when it came to the Outliers is a big step forward for him. Pietro knows the consequences of a broken childhood and did his best to show some care towards Calico. The fact that she paid his kindness back with scorn would have been enough in the past for him to treat her badly, but instead he keeps making an effort with her, something that goes terribly at the end of the issue, as she screams at him that he can never replace Gambit, her trauma making her feel abandoned and leading to her lashing out, nearly killing M and Quicksilver.

Quicksilver’s Love of Children Is About to Be Put to the Test

Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 6) has been a fantastic comic, taking a page from X-Men master writer Chris Claremont by really digging into the characters and their relationships with those around him. Adding M and Quicksilver into this dynamic was a very interesting development, especially because of the Outliers. Rogue and Gambit have learned to deal with these traumatized teens, leaving huge shoes for Monet and Pietro to fill. The two of them are great heroes, but they aren’t exactly known for being the most caring people in the world. However, there’s always been more to Pietro than meets the eye and his care for children is one of those things.

If there’s anyone who can empathize with the trauma the Outliers have gone through, it’s Pietro Maximoff. He lived a life without parents, constantly feeling abandoned. He and his sister were used by Magneto, who took advantage of their need for a father and did unspeakable damage to them. Their relationship has been one of the most tragic in the Marvel Universe, with Pietro doing his best to protect his sister from a cruel world. Broken children are his people and he will do anything to make sure they don’t turn out like him. However, the Outliers are going to test his resolve in this matter.

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