Five Biggest Surprises In Avengers: Age Of Ultron

2. Quicksilver appears to really be dead

Pietro Maximoff shows his true colors when he saves Hawkeye and an innocent bystander from Ultron’s airborne attack late in the movie, getting himself riddled with large caliber shells in the process. As he remarks himself, “Bet you didn’t see that coming.” I certainly didn’t.

Even so, there was a scene earlier in the movie where Maria Hill is briefing Captain America on the powers of the Maximoff twins. Instead of merely saying that Quicksilver can move at super-speed, she describes his power set in terms of his accelerated metabolism. That being the case, I assumed that maybe part of that meant he could heal quickly from injuries that would kill us normal folks, similar to the way Barry Allen recovers at lightning speed on The Flash.

Guess not. When Cap and Black Widow look over their new, inexperienced team of Avengers in the final scene, we see War Machine, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Falcon … but no Quicksilver. Guess he really is dead.

A bunch of fans have taken to the internet to wonder why Marvel would introduce Pietro just to kill him off so quickly. My guess is that the feeling is that his death would help round out Wanda’s character arc, completing her journey from the naive, more uncertain woman we meet early on.

It’s also possible that Quicksilver isn’t deceased, and that his wounds were simply so extensive that it is going to take him longer to return to health. I almost hope that isn’t the case, because after the emotional death of Phil Coulson in The Avengers was undone, this would be going back to that same well. It was big surprise that Quicksilver would be a one-and-done character, but it’s probably better now if he is.

Next: Not the Hawkeye we know