While Quicksilver’s stint in the MCU was short-lived (literally), one of his Marvel Comics costumes could have made it infinitely more memorable, as this absolutely wild suit deserved the live-action treatment–and for more reasons than one.
Pietro Maximoff aka Quicksilver technically made his MCU debut in the post-credit scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but it wasn’t until Avengers: Age of Ultron that he became an established character. In the MCU, Quicksilver and his sister, Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch, were Sokovian nationalists radicalized by Hydra who volunteered for experimental treatment that promised to make them superhuman soldiers. While many died before them, their treatment actually worked–unlocking Scarlet Witch’s latent magical abilities while granting Quicksilver super speed. Despite the fact that they started out as villains, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch eventually joined the Avengers to stop the villainous Ultron–though Quicksilver tragically died in battle, permanently excluding him from the rest of the MCU while forever taking away the possibility of bringing this particular Marvel Comics costume to the big screen.
In Mutant X by Howard Mackie, J.J. Kirby, and Mike Miller, readers (and Havok) are thrown into an alternate reality where Cyclops was presumed dead along with his parents in a plane crash, leaving Havok as the sole survivor. This alternate timeline showed Havok becoming one of the leaders of the X-Men alongside Magneto. However, this Havok variant of Earth-1298 would soon be possessed by the consciousness of his Earth-616 counterpart–allowing the main-universe Havok to exist in a totally different universe for a little while. From a narrative standpoint, this is a really exciting comic book premise that highlights a less popular character in a really cool and unique way. Although, like any alt-reality story, the coolest aspects don’t revolve around the main character, but rather the many differences between this new world and the original–and Quicksilver’s costume is no exception.
Quicksilver’s Alt-Universe Suit Lives Up to His Codename
In this universe, Quicksilver is a member of the X-Men and sports a suit the likes of which fans have never seen. Rather than wearing a green/blue skin-tight costume with a silver lightning bolt featured on the chest, this Quicksilver actually has a full-body suit of lightweight armor that is actually primarily silver (unlike his original suits) while retaining the iconic lightning bolt design that is featured all over the costume. Plus, it has a helmet and a visor, protecting his head from injury while shielding his eyes from the incredibly high winds he creates while running. In this suit, Quicksilver would not only appear to be nothing more than a flash of blinding silver light to those he sprinted past, but the armored aspect of his costume would protect him in battle. In wartime scenarios, the original Quicksilver has always left himself horrendously exposed–though his chances of sustaining life-threatening injuries lessen dramatically in this suit, meaning it not only looks cooler and stays more true to his codename, but it’s also more practical given his profession.
The irony here is painfully tragic, as not only will fans likely never see this version of Quicksilver’s suit in the MCU, but this alt-universe costume would have actually saved his life in Avengers: Age of Ultron, which gives it even more of a reason to have appeared in the live-action films. However, within the vast landscape of Marvel's multiverse, anything is possible–so while it seems unlikely now, perhaps fans will eventually see Quicksilver’s wildest costume in the MCU, just as this crazy yet perfectly fitting suit always deserved.