Pietro Maximoff, alias Vif-Argent (« Quicksilver » en version originale) est un super-héros évoluant dans l'univers Marvel de la maison d'édition Marvel Comics. Créé par le scénariste Stan Lee et le dessinateur Jack Kirby, le personnage de fiction apparaît pour la première fois dans le comic book X-Men #4 en mars 1964.

Vif-Argent est un mutant, anciennement membre de la Confrérie des mauvais mutants, Facteur-X, les Inhumains, les Vengeurs et dernièrement professeur à l'Académie des Vengeurs.

Biographie

The character first appears with his twin sister, the Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff), as a part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The siblings were originally presented as mutants, with Pietro possessing superhuman speed and Wanda able to control probability. The pair are recruited by their father Magneto after he saves Wanda from a mob after she accidentally causes a house to burst into fire. Quicksilver stays with her to protect her. He has Jewish ancestry, from his father. After several confrontations with the X-Men, they depart when Magneto and his lackey the Toad are abducted by the cosmic entity the Stranger. They then travel back to Europe. Pietro and his sister reform and are recruited by Iron Man to the superhero team the Avengers, after they discover they are advertising for new members and want to get support for themselves.

Together with leader Captain America and former villain Hawkeye, the four become the second generation of Avengers, and are later dubbed "Cap's Kooky Quartet". Quicksilver first thought he should be leader, though he is captured by the Mole Man on the first mission. He is rescued by the Avengers, who defeat the Minotaur without him, and would sometimes quarrel with the other members. The Scarlet Witch becomes close friends with Hawkeye and both become loyal members of the team until Wanda is accidentally shot on a mission against Magneto. Quicksilver then flees from the Avengers with his wounded sister. The pair accompany Magneto back to his mid-Atlantic base, where the character captures the X-Men and Pietro skirmishes with the X-Man Cyclops. After a solo appearance by Quicksilver in the title The Amazing Spider-Man, the twins finally realize that Magneto is actually the true villain. Pietro and Wanda reappear in the title X-Men and are then kidnapped along with several other mutants by the robot Sentinels, and are subsequently freed by the X-Men.

The character reappears in the title Avengers, and advises the team that Wanda has been kidnapped and taken to another dimension by the warlord Arkon. After Wanda is rescued, Pietro and his sister rejoin the team. During one mission Quicksilver is wounded by a Sentinel and is found by Crystal, a member of the Inhumans. Crystal nurses Pietro back to health, and the pair are eventually married. Pietro and Wanda also meet Robert Frank - formerly World War II hero the Whizzer - who was present at Mount Wundagore (the birthplace of the siblings) with his wife at the time of their birth. Frank briefly joins the Avengers, believing Pietro and Wanda to be his children. The Scarlet Witch also becomes romantically involved with her Avengers teammate the android Vision. Although Pietro initially disapproves, he eventually gives his blessing to their marriage.



Quicksilver features with the Inhumans and Fantastic Four against the villain the Sphinx in a Fantastic Four annual, and the siblings' origin is explored in the title Avengers when romani Django Maximoff kidnaps Pietro and Wanda and returns to Mount Wundagore in the country of Transia, where they were born. After a battle with the Avengers against the Elder God Chthon, the siblings learn from Bova, one of the New Men created by the character the High Evolutionary, that they are the children of Maximoff, and not Robert Frank. Quicksilver then returns to Attilan (city of the Inhumans) and in the title Fantastic Four is revealed to have had a daughter (Luna) with Crystal.

During the limited series Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Magneto forces Bova to reveal the truth about his missing children, who are revealed to be Pietro and Wanda. After their mother Magda dies in childbirth, the children are given by the High Evolutionary to Django Maximoff to raise as his own. Pietro and Wanda reject Magneto when told. His marriage to Crystal is also strained when she has an affair. Crystal's uncle Maximus the Mad uses technology to cause Quicksilver to become psychotic. This drove him to frame the Avengers for treason as his perceptions are twisted to perceive them as having 'betrayed' him, forcing them to escape the government-sponsored Freedom Force, and then deal with Quicksilver's new 'team' of LMD-based duplicates of the Zodiac, until the Vision convinces Pietro to stand down by showing him images of his newborn nephews.

Quicksilver battles the West Coast Avengers and is captured by the Inhumans and cured of his condition. In an effort to repent for his actions, Pietro aids the Avengers West Coast against Magneto and the villain Immortus, who has captured Wanda. Although successful, Pietro refuses to return to Crystal and joins the now U.S. government-sponsored superhero team X-Factor. The character and Crystal are reunited during the storyline "Bloodties" when the Avengers, X-Factor and X-Men team to stop a group of mutant terrorists who kidnap their daughter Luna, and are responsible for a civil war on the island nation of Genosha. After dealing with the threat, Quicksilver learns of Crystal's relationship with Avenger the Black Knight and leaves, also resigning from X-Factor.

The character also features in a self-titled limited series, with Quicksilver taking daughter Luna and traveling to Mt. Wundergore, aiding the High Evolutionary and his Knights of Wundagore against villains Exodus and the Man Beast. Quicksilver uses the experimental Isotope E to augment his powers, allowing him to move at greater supersonic speeds. A future version of Pietro called "Nestor" appears and reveals that his powers are not speed but rather temporal based. Quicksilver also rejoins a reformed Avengers and features briefly in the second volume of Heroes for Hire.


Under the All-New, All-Different Marvel branding, the character will be part of the Uncanny Avengers.


Descent and Rebirth
Quicksilver features in the limited series Magneto Rex, and with half-sister Polaris spies on their father Magneto, who is now the ruler of Genosha. Quicksilver is banished when he rallies the Avengers against Magneto. Quicksilver makes sporadic appearances in Avengers and the mutant titles Mutant X, X-Factor and X-Men until featuring in the limited series X-Men: Age of Apocalypse in a battle with the despot Apocalypse.


House of M
Quicksilver plays a pivotal role in the limited series House of M, convincing his now mentally unstable sister Wanda to use her abilities to warp reality and create a world where mutants are in a majority and humans are the minority—with Magneto established as absolute ruler—while also giving their fellow heroes their own greatest desires—having abducted Professor X to read the minds of the heroes—to discourage them from trying to restore history and stop them from killing Wanda. Thanks to Wolverine retaining his memories, along with the mysterious Layla Miller, many of Earth's heroes regain their memories and battle Magneto, who also remembers and realizes that Pietro is to blame for this mistake. Magneto kills Quicksilver (crushing his body with a robot Sentinel) in a rage at this perceived 'abuse' of his dream, although the character is resurrected and the normal reality restored when the Scarlet Witch witnesses this, telling Magneto he cares more for mutants than his own children. In retaliation the Scarlet Witch has also depowered 98% of the mutant population, which by accident includes Quicksilver.


Son of M
The story continues in the limited series Son of M, with Quicksilver, desperate to regain his powers, exposing himself to the Terrigen Mist (the source of the Inhumans' mutations and abilities) and inserts Terrigen crystals into his body—all without permission from Black Bolt. Courtesy of the Terrigen crystals, Quicksilver gains new "time jumping" powers and kidnaps his daughter Luna. Quicksilver discovers the crystals can restore mutant abilities but have an extreme effect on non-Inhuman physiology, causing several deaths. Quicksilver and Crystal meet again in the direct sequel, limited series Silent War, when Black Bolt demands the return of the crystals. When Crystal sees how he has mutated, she declares their marriage annulled according to Inhuman law.

In the title X-Factor the crystals are removed from Quicksilver's body by another mutant, leaving him powerless once again. Destitute and jailed for vagrancy in the one-shot X-Factor: The Quick and the Dead, Quicksilver has a series of hallucinations and inexplicably regains his super speed. Escaping jail, Quicksilver rescues an innocent and rediscovers his desire to be a hero.


Mighty Avengers
Quicksilver appears in the title The Mighty Avengers and is used as a pawn by Elder God Chthon, with the character's spirit trapped in the arcane tome called the Darkhold. The Avengers defeat Chthon, and Quicksilver's consciousness is "downloaded" into the body of Vision, before being restored to his own body. Quicksilver joins the team after learning that it is Wanda (Asgardian god Loki in disguise) who brought the team together. After the events of the Secret Invasion storyline the character is publicly exonerated of former crimes, with an unknown Skrull being blamed (although Henry Pym, Maximoff's daughter Luna, and Avengers butler Jarvis are aware of the lie). Quicksilver also resumes wearing his original green costume. Quicksilver loses the respect of his daughter Luna when he lies to the Inhumans and claims that many of his past actions were actually perpetrated by a Skrull impostor, although Pym tolerates the lie as he feels that Quicksilver deserves a chance to redeem himself.

Quicksilver finally learns that the person he thought was his sister is actually Loki in disguise. Enraged, he and the rest of the team travel to the Isle of Silence to set a trap for the god of mischief. After imprisoning Loki in a device designed by Hank Pym, he begins torturing the god for information about Wanda's whereabouts. Loki offers no information about her and manages to contact Thor to beg for his help. Thor arrives and attacks Quicksilver for the way he is treating Loki. He is able to outrun the thunder god's lightning but is eventually overpowered. He is one of the Avengers who joins Hercules, Amadeus Cho and their allies in an assault on Olympus Group Headquarters. He battles Amazon warrior women alongside Zeus and helps a wounded Wolverine defeat the Huntsman, stabbing him through the chest with his own weapon.

Quicksilver is later summoned by the Ghost using Amadeus Cho's technology, to defend Asgard against the Thunderbolts. He single handedly defeats Mister X who is in possession of the Spear of Odin. Mr. X isn't able to react quickly enough despite his abilities and Quicksilver viciously beats him down with a piece of debris. He is seen alongside the other Avengers against the Void-possessed Sentry in the events of Siege.


Avengers: The Children's Crusade
Quicksilver is searching for his sister in Wundagore when Magneto and the Young Avengers go to find the Scarlet Witch. After trying to abduct his nephew Wiccan so he can assist him in finding his sister, he is stopped by his father and his other nephew, Speed. After Wiccan suggests that maybe Magneto actually did want to make up for his past, he became angry and said, "Nephew the last time I allowed myself to believe that..... My father tried to kill me". Quicksilver prepares to fight his father but when debris from his rampage strikes his sister it is found that the Scarlet Witch there is actually a Doombot in disguise. The journey takes Quicksilver and his comrades all the way to Latveria so they rescue the Scarlet Witch. After the Scarlet Witch turns herself in to the X-Men and the Avengers a fight breaks out between the two groups. After being knocked out along with all the other Avengers and X-Men by his sister, he is finally reunited with his sister.


Heroic Age
Quicksilver joins the teaching staff of Avengers Academy to teach young students how to become heroes. He does so in order to distance himself from the legacy of his father Magneto. One of the new students, Finesse, figures out that his story about being abducted by Skrulls is a lie. She blackmails him into giving her "private lessons" on everything he learned during his time with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Finesse convinces Quicksilver to help her search for the Taskmaster, who might be her biological father. After arriving at what they thought was an abandoned training camp, they found it still in use and quickly captured the criminals they found there. Quicksilver returned to the mansion and encountered Tigra, who was upset because some of the students assaulted the Hood on her behalf. During a heated exchange Quicksilver managed to convince her that kicking them out of the Academy for trying to help would only turn them against becoming heroes. At the new campus for the Avengers Academy (where the Faculty are offering to train other superpowered youths), Quicksilver is revealed to be mentoring Lightspeed as a teacher's assistant.

In the miniseries "Magneto: Not a Hero", Joseph is resurrected under unknown circumstances and forms a new Brotherhood of Mutants with Astra and mutated deformed versions of Blob, Mastermind, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Toad. It is soon revealed that the mutated versions of Blob, Mastermind, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Toad are clones created by Joseph.

Quicksilver has joined the privately owned superhero team X-Factor. When confronted during a press conference by Fatale over his actions meant to repower mutants and his lying about a Skrull having been responsible, Pietro finally admitted in public that he had been responsible and had tried to avoid facing the consequences; by doing this, he earned his daughter's respect back, and the two reconciled.

Wanda and other heroes and villains experienced a moral inversion during a clash with the Red Onslaught. Quicksilver and Magneto try to talk the inverted Wanda down, but when Wanda attacks them with a curse designed to punish her blood relatives that only affects Quicksilver, Wanda realizes that Magneto is not their biological father.

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch later take a trip to Counter-Earth. After being tracked down and defeated by Luminous (a female who was created by the genetic material of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver), Pietro and Wanda were brought to the High Evolutionary himself. He revealed to them that Django and Marya Maximoff were their true parents. He also told them the truth where they were supposedly not mutants, but they had been experimented on by the High Evolutionary. After escaping from the High Evolutionary's experimentations, Pietro and Wanda located the Avengers Unity Division (who had traveled to the Counter-Earth looking for the twins) and helped the inhabitants of Lowtown (a refuge for the High Evolutionary's rejects) from their creator's assault. After the High Evolutionary is defeated and he escapes into a portal with Luminous, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch return to Earth with the Avengers Unity Division.

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