4) Quicksilver – X-Men: Apocalypse
Evan Peters’ Quicksilver already stole the show in the brilliant ÂX-Men: Days of Future Past, so it was a no-brainer to bring him back in the follow-up, X-Men: Apocalypse, with an even bigger role. This time, however, the character ended up being one of the few good things on show.
While the rest of Apocalypse is populated by the old hats going through the motions or the new cast being under-utilized, Quicksilver breezes through it with the same easy charm and terrific execution of his powers that was evident in Days of Future Past. Sure, the X-Mansion rescue scene is basically a longer reshoot of the ‘Time in a Bottle’ sequence, but it still remains one of the most memorable bits of the film.
Seeing as Quicksilver has now properly joined the team, we look forward to seeing even more of him whenever the next X-Men movie turns up.
3) Gwen Stacy – Emma Stone, The Amazing Spider-Man
While the relationship between Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker and Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane is an iconic one, The Amazing Spider-Man‘s love interest absolutely trumps the characterization of MJ (who, let’s face it, did little more than scream and get captured). In Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy, the films had a nicely rounded character with her own intelligence and agency.
In particular, this is true of the first Amazing film where Gwen’s growing relationship with Andrew Garfield’s Peter is the heart of the movie, and feels like a believable teen romance. The second one slightly misses the mark, as Peter creepily tries to disrupt her from living her own life, but you still can’t fault Stone’s portrayal of the character. On the whole, Gwen is one of the few legitimately amazing parts of his mislabeled franchise.
