Avengers #377
Out of House and Home
Quicksilver takes as walk in Central Park in order to strengthen himself up after injuries sustained fighting Exodus a short while ago.[1] He soon sees a young black man being attacked by a gang. Using his super-speed to save the young man and knocking out his assailants, Quicksilver suggests he goes home as it is starting to get dark. Pietro finds himself wondering where home is for him, given his marital problems.[2] Instead, he decides to take a cab down to the Little Transia section of the city in order to get a slice of his homeland.
As he gets out of the cab, Quicksilver wonders how his life could have been different if he remained in his homeland. He then hears fighting again and is surprised to see the same young man being attacked by yet another mob. However, this time the young man uses mutant powers to blind his attackers and get away. Deciding to find out what is going on in the area, Pietro goes into a local bar and asks about the scene outside. As it turns out, the locals don’t like mutants and are trying to run out a family of them out of town. Quicksilver, an alleged mutant himself, uses his powers to break up this angry mob.[3] He chastises them the whole time, reminding them how their immigrant ancestors came to America to escape persecution and build this neighborhood so they’d have somewhere to belong.
Going outside, Quicksilver finds that another mob has cornered the young man as well as his two sibling, another young man who is super strong and the other a little girl who is wearing sunglasses. While her brothers fight off the mob, the little girl explains that they are the Circle of Pavane and offers to take him to their leader. Pietro decides to follow along and is brought to an abandoned Transian style opera house. There, he meets the leader of the Circle, a man calling himself Pavane himself. Pavane refers to himself as Quicksilver’s oldest foe, but Pietro doesn’t remember ever meeting him before. Sending his daugher — named Wanda — away, he explains how he knew Pietro and his sister back when they were living in Transia.
Pavane details how he was smitten by Wanda Maximoff and tries to befriend her, only to be spurned at every step by Pietro, her overprotective brother. Pavane recounts how one day he discovered he too was a mutant, just like the Maximoffs, and used his powers to capsize a Wanda and Pietro on their rowboat. This was so he could try and rescue Wanda from the water and ingratiate himself to her. However, once again, Pietro saved his sister and told Pavane to get lost.
After Pietro and Wanda left for America and made it big as the Avengers Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, Pavane vowed to return to America and remember the life they left behind before destroying them for rejecting him.[4] Quicksilver realizes that he is dealing with someone who is completely insane for carrying a grudge.
He then orders his three children — Wanda, Ampere, and Brawler — to attack Quicksilver. In the ensuing clash, Quicksilver is slammed through the floor by Brawler and gets stuck. The Pavane family then sets the opera house on fire in an effort to burn Quicksilver alive. However, the building goes up faster than planned and Ampere gets injured by falling debris. Luckily, Pietro gets free and uses his super-speed to race the boy to the nearest hospital for immediate medical attention. When Pavane and his other children arrive they learn that Ampere’s situation is touch and go and the doctors don’t know if he will make a full recovery, but his survival was thanks to Quicksilver.
Pietro points to Pavane that past hatreds are often passed on to their children and that doing so is unforgivable. Quicksilver notes to himself that while he is quick to pass judgement, he can’t forget that he himself has acted with prejudice in the past and wonders if self-hatred is something ingrained in the mutant race.
Recurring Characters
Quicksilver
Continuity Notes
This story incorrectly references X-Factor #92, wherein Quicksilver — then a member of X-Factor — fought Magneto’s Acolytes as part of the Fatal Attractions story arc. Pietro actually injured himself during the Bloodties storyline which took place in Avengers #368-369, X-Men (vol. 2) #26, Avengers West Coast #101, and Uncanny X-Men #307.
Quicksilver married Crystal back in Fantastic Four #150. However, after a period of neglect, she cheated on him as seen in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #6-12. Although the pair have been trying to make things work since Fantastic Four Annual #21, their marriage had become more strained since she joined the Avengers in issue #336 and started to fall in love with the Black Knight. While the Knight left this reality in Avengers #375, the problems with Pietro’s marriage still persist.
Although Quicksilver refers to himself as and is called a mutant, he actually isn’t. It’s revealed years later in Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5 that he was experimented upon by the High Evolutionary as a child. In order to cover up his work he made it so future genetic testing would have Pietro register as a mutant.
Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch first came to America back in X-Men #4 when they were recruited into Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. They later reformed and joined Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in Avengers #16.
