Quicker Than Silver

One of the more overlooked teams in Marvel Comics are The Young Avengers, a group of teenaged heroes with legacy mantles they hope to carry with pride. Of all characters in Marvel the last you'd assume to get a "kid version" of is Quicksilver, but believe it or not such a character exists! This week's Z-Lister is a hero by the name of Speed.

Introduced in "Young Avengers #10" in 2006 and created by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung, Thomas Shepard was a teenaged mutant living in Springfield, New Jersey. The Young Avengers actively search for Thomas after their teammate Hulkling is abducted and they try to find help in other teenagers with powers. The Young Avengers find Thomas locked up in a facility where Thomas claims he's been locked in and experimented on for months. Wiccan/Billy-a member of The Young Avengers-notes how Thomas looks just like him and resembles Quicksilver. After donning a costume and using the name "Speed", Thomas joins The Young Avengers.

It is later revealed Wiccan and Speed are twin brothers. Kind of. Back in the 1980's the Avengers Scarlet Witch and The Vision fell in love and got married, but because Vision's robotic organs were incapable of sexual reproduction Scarlet Witch used her powers of reality manipulation to "create" two children named Thomas and Billy. Scarlet Witch was forced by her teacher Agatha Harkness to "undo" the children and then forget the kids were ever created, but during "Avengers: Disassembled" Scarlet Witch remembered those events and sought vengeance on The Avengers. Later during "House of M" Scarlet Witch created a new reality where her kids were alive again, but after that world was undone and everything returned to normal she avoided The Avengers and sought the help of Doctor Doom. With his help, Scarlet Witch recreated her children and gave them lives separate from hers. As a result, Thomas and Billy grew up with different parents in different places and were never aware of their true origins until the event "Avengers: The Children's Crusade".

Despite helping fellow Young Avenger Kate Bishop/Hawkeye II steal her bow from the base of The Secret Avengers, Kate chooses to date teammate Patriot rather than Speed. Bummer. In one adventure The Young Avengers fight a team of teenaged heroes who use the Young Avenger's name and Speed notices these kids have the same prison uniform as the one he had before joining the team. This possible storyline was left forgotten. After The Young Avengers break up Speed/Thomas gets a job assembling tablet computers. And that's the last thing he did. You know, for one of two Speedsters in the Marvel Universe, this kid doesn't get much to do does he?

While he doesn't have as much history as his brother Wiccan or uncle Quicksilver, Speed is still pretty interesting to me. If Quicksilver ever gets a book like his sister I think it'd be beneficial to include Speed in there. Despite not being really important-other than being part of Scarlet Witch's bizarre history-Speed is still a member of one of the most notorious families in comic books. Magneto, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, The Vision, The Vision Family, Wiccan, Speed, Polaris, Wonder Man, the family gets around. Hopefully Marvel will feel the need to include this fast-acting superhero in more stories in the future.

Thanks for reading.