Quicksilver is Marvel’s ultimate speedster, but one beatdown of an overpowered foe proves that the MCU barely scratched his potential. Facing someone who can predict his every move, there still isn’t anything that can stop Pietro Maximoff.
Originally a mutant villain, Quicksilver quickly became a key member of the Avengers and discovered (after one hugely controversial retcon) that his superspeed is actually the result of experiments by the High Evolutionary. As a speedster, villains on Pietro’s level have been hard to come by, but one recurring foe has been Mr. X. First introduced as a Wolverine villain, X is a martial arts master with the telepathic ability to read his opponent’s minds to combat their moves before they’ve even happened. Mr. X is all but impossible to beat, and yet Quicksilver demolished him in a staggering feat.
Quicksilver’s Speed Is Faster Than Thought
Quicksilver’s most recent duel has him wipe the floor with Mr. X in a stunning display that shows the absurd potential of his power. In Jim Zub and Enid Balám’s Avengers Unlimited: Infinity Comic #16, Quicksilver faces off against Mr. X to avenge X’s murder of his cousin, Jardani Lakitos. While Mr. X is able to get some blows in early, reading Pietro’s moves, Quicksilver does what he does best, and speeds up. While X initially seemed to stand a chance, Quicksilver stops holding back, resolving to destroy X in the space of a single heartbeat. Mr. X taunts that new upgrades mean he can take a hundred blows and keep going, but Pietro promises, with complete seriousness, to deliver ten thousand, and proceeds to demolish the villain.
Quicksilver Delivers 10,000 Punches in a Heartbeat
This specific matchup is made more impactful because of Pietro’s guilt over not putting Mr. X away for good after their first meeting. That meeting – in Thunderbolts vol 1 #143 by Jeff Parker and Miguel Sepulveda – had Mr. X working for the titular Thunderbolts, and losing even harder to Pietro, who trounced him without getting hit once. Mr. X has new enhancements here, making the victory even more impressive, but what’s mind-blowing is the sheer speed Quicksilver fights at. Mr. X can read what his enemies will do slightly before they start doing it – Quicksilver’s feat here therefore suggests he can move even faster than thought. If Quicksilver ever chose to use his powers lethally, his target would be dead the instant he decided to kill them.
Quicksilver’s Deadly Potential Is Impossible to Calculate
Marvel has actually explored the idea of a killer Quicksilver in Dark Ages, where a mind-controlled Pietro kills multiple heroes before the others can react. However, even this downplays his speed as shown in Avengers Unlimited: Infinity Comic, which suggests he’d be impossible to stop by anything but a fellow speedster. Mr. X shows that even those who react to Quicksilver’s attacks before he’s begun performing them will still be battered countless times over the length of a heartbeat, proving that despite his MCU speed, Quicksilver is so much more dangerous than the movies showed.
