Marvel has a speedster problem much bigger than DC’s ‘The Flash’

The Flash made its Max debut at the tail-end of August, and unlike most superhero streaming releases, it sunk like a stone, earning practically zero new traction for what was once pegged as one of the best DC movies ever made. As the studio’s most costly flop ever and a critical punching bag, The Flash could not have been a more embarrassing first solo movie for the Scarlet Speedster. And yet, despite all that, the movie — and DC at large — still treated Barry Allen with a whole lot more respect than Marvel has its own speedsters.

Primarily, that’s because at least DC gave the Flash his own standalone vehicle in the first place, while the MCU has sidelined the many speedsters among its superhero population since the very beginning. Again and again, the franchise has totally failed to hand its super-sprinting characters the treatment they deserve. So, as we heard faster and faster towards the heart of the Multiverse Saga, it’s about time that Marvel fixed this issue before it trips them up somewhere down the line.

It all goes back to the portrayal of Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Despite being one of the most long-lasting Avengers in the comics, Pietro Maximoff was killed off after a single appearance and, unusually for the MCU, never seen or heard from again (with Taylor-Johnson even hopping over to Sony to continue his comic book career in Kraven the Hunter).

Of course, six years later, in WandaVision, we did eventually get a new Pietro, with the X-Men saga’s Evan Peters brought over as the “recast” Quicksilver, in what is still one of the most inspired, surprising castings in MCU history. But what do they do with him in the finale? Reveal he’s not the real X-Men Quicksilver at all but some guy called Ralph Bohner — killing the Multiverse Saga’s first crossover stone dead all for the sake of a lame, juvenile gag that even Deadpool wouldn’t find funny.

Meanwhile, Lauren Ridloff’s Makkari was one of the best parts of Eternals, thanks to her extremely charming performance, the character’s epic skillset, and her unexpectedly sweet romance with Barry Keoghan’s Druig. And yet, through no fault of her own, Makkari’s at serious risk of pulling a Quicksilver and being a one-and-done wonder, thanks to being trapped in a franchise that appears doomed never to return.

Sadly, Marvel’s strange vendetta against its speedsters shows no signs of slowing down, which is only doing an entire class of its costumed crusaders a massive disservice. Heck, I haven’t even mentioned the tragic fate that met the Whizzer in Jessica Jones season 2 (*Tamatoa from Moana voice* look it up). Although if both Quicksilvers and Makkari team up to run rings around Kang the Conqueror in Avengers: Secret Wars, I’ll be racing to make Kevin Feige a hasty apology.