In preparation for Avengers: Age of Ultron, Marvel has released a digital comic explaining some of the backstory for Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Up until now, we’d only seen them in the post-credits scene for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but this comic gives us a surprising new origin story for their superpowers.
Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch have a convoluted history in Marvel comics, appearing in so many crossovers that they’re the only characters to be licensed in both Fox’s X-Men movies and the Marvel Studios franchise—which explains why we see two totally different Quicksilvers in X-Men: Days of Future Past and Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Since the Avengers movies can’t include any X-Men or mutants, Marvel Studios had to find a new explanation for Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch’s superhuman abilities. Many fans assumed the characters would be Inhumans, but this new prequel comic suggests otherwise.
Avengers: Age of Ultron Prelude – This Scepter’d Isle follows Loki’s spear after it was taken by S.H.I.E.L.D. in The Avengers, at which point it falls into the hands of HYDRA’s Baron Strucker. In turn, his scientists use the spear’s power to experiment on citizens from the war-torn (and totally fictional) Eastern European city of Sokovia. As it turns out, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are the successful results of those experiments.
This comic effectively puts an end to the theory that Age of Ultron would introduce more Inhumans to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, it does give us a far neater explanation that ties together various plot strands from Captain America, Thor, and The Avengers. There’s still plenty of time to introduce other Inhuman characters before their own movie comes out in 2018.
Photo via Marvel
