The impetuous mutant known as Quicksilver is a super-speedster stuck in a slow-motion world. Scion of the genetic terrorist known as Magneto, Master of Magnetism, Pietro Maximoff shunned his father's philosophy of mutant superiority and world domination. He chooses instead to run with the Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

Real name: Pietro Maximoff
Occupation: Adventurer, former criminal
Group affiliation: Avengers: formerly X-Factor, the Knights of Wundagore and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants
Base of operations: Avengers Mansion, New York City
First appearance: X-Men (Vol. 1) #4 (1964)

Height: 6'
Weight: 175 lbs.
Eye color: Blue
Hair color: Silver

Powers: Pietro Maximoff is a mutant who can think and move at superhuman speeds; his entire body is adapted to the rigors of life in the fast lane. Quicksilver's powers of acceleration make possible any number of feats: He has dodged machinegun fire, created cyclone-like gusts of wind, sprinted up the sides of buildings and run across bodies of water. Since his abilities were fully awakened by the High Evolutionary's Isotope E, he no longer knows the upper limits of speed.

Weapons: None

History: Pietro Maximoff is the son of Magneto, mutant Master of Magnetism, and his former wife, a gypsy named Magda. Prior to Pietro's birth, Magda fled Magneto, terrified by the recent manifestation of his bizarre powers and his newly adopted doctrine of world domination. Seeking refuge, Magda came upon the scientific citadel of Wundagore in the Balkan Mountains of Transia. She was taken in by Bova, a humanoid cow created by the master geneticist known as the High Evolutionary. Magda gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, and named them Wanda and Pietro. Still afraid her estranged husband might hunt them down them, she walked into the frozen mountain wilderness to perish.

Bova presented the twins to the High Evolutionary, who agreed to find them human foster parents. He chose Django and Marya Maximoff, a gypsy couple camped nearby, who had lost their own twins. The Maximoffs accepted the gift and cared for the children as if they were their own. As adolescents, Wanda and Pietro discovered they possessed unusual superhuman abilities. Wanda could cause strange phenomenon to occur simply by waving her hands, and Pietro was able to move faster than the blink of an eye. When Django stole food to feed his starving family, enraged villagers attacked the gypsy camp. Using his phenomenal speed, Pietro took flight with his sister. The circumstances of the youngsters' separation from their family were so traumatic that not until well into adulthood could they remember anything but the barest details of their early existence. For the next few years, Wanda and Pietro wandered central Europe, living off the land.

While visiting a small village, Wanda accidentally caused a house to burst into flame with her then-uncontrollable hex-casting abilities. Superstitious townspeople took up arms against the young mutant, mistaking her for a witch. Despite Pietro's attempts to defend his sister, the siblings soon were overpowered. They were about to be killed when Magneto came to their rescue. The genetic terrorist pressed them into service in his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, costumed them, and rechristened them the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. For months, Wanda and Pietro served their new master out of a sense of obligation -- and for fear of reprisal. As members of the Brotherhood, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch aided Magneto in his terrorist campaigns against humanity and helped him combat the idealistic team of mutant heroes known as the X-Men. Magneto did not realize Wanda and Pietro were his children, nor did they know he was their father.

When the alien entity known as the Stranger stamped out the Brotherhood, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch petitioned for membership in the Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes. They were inducted -- along with Hawkeye, arrow-slinging ex-con -- to replace the team's charter members, who wished to take leaves of absence. However, humanity's hatred and fear of mutants still disturbed Quicksilver; he briefly rejoined Magneto, compelling his sister to follow. Ultimately, the siblings confronted the Master of Magnetism. Combining their abilities, Wanda and Pietro helped the Avengers and X-Men defeat their former savior.

After rejoining the Avengers, Quicksilver was seriously injured while battling a pack of mutant-hunting Sentinel androids. He was rescued by Crystal -- a member of the royal family of the Inhumans, a genetic offshoot of mankind. The pair became romantically involved and married following a brief courtship. Not long after the birth of their first child, Luna, Quicksilver discovered the truth regarding his parentage. Magneto had stumbled upon Bova, and learned from her that Wanda and Pietro were his children.

Magneto confronted Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch with this revelation, hoping to sway them to rejoin his crusade against humanity. Unable to accept that he had changed his ways, Quicksilver denounced Magneto for his callous treatment of them when they were members of his Brotherhood. Although the mutant speedster chose to remain with his wife in the Inhumans' domain, he began to neglect her. This led Crystal to become involved with another man. Learning of her infidelity, Quicksilver refused to forgive her. Crystal took Luna to Earth and joined the Avengers, while Quicksilver connected with the team's West Coast branch. Shortly thereafter, Pietro became a special operative of the U.S. government as a member of its new mutant task force, X-Factor.

When Quicksilver and Crystal successfully reconciled, Pietro left X-Factor and rejoined the Avengers. However, the struggling couple's happiness came to an abrupt end when Crystal seemingly perished in the team's battle against sentient psionic menace known as Onslaught. In reality, a whole host of Earth's greatest heroes had been transported to an alternate reality. During Crystal's absence, the High Evolutionary recruited Quicksilver to lead a small faction of his Knights of Wundagore, animals the geneticist had endowed with intelligence and humanoid forms. For a time, Pietro directed the Knights in battles against injustice. Quicksilver and Crystal were reunited when the missing heroes finally returned to their native Earth.

After Magneto gained control of the island nation of Genosha off the coast of South Africa, Quicksilver returned to his father's side -- but only to acquire a better vantage point from which monitor his activities. At first forced to cope with civil war and the effects of the lethal Legacy Virus, Magneto soon gained the might of a unified nation when a cure for the mutant plague was released into the atmosphere. At the eleventh hour, Quicksilver managed to escape his father's empire to warn the X-Men of the Master of Magnetism's impending attack against humanity. Though the world continues to teeter on the brink of genetic war, Pietro has chosen to fight by his sister's side once again as a member of the Avengers.