Quicksilver: No Surrender

Quicksilver: No Surrender #1-5

by Saladin Ahmed (Writer), Eric Nguyen (Illustrator), Martin Simmonds (Illustrator)

The fastest Avenger of all races straight out of the smash-hit NO SURRENDER event, and into a psychedelic survival thriller unlike anything you've seen before! Quicksilver's super-speed and abrasive personality have always isolated him, but he's never been truly alone...until now. Trapped beyond the perception of his friends, family and allies, Pietro must now wage a one-man guerilla war against a monster that he's not even sure is real - to save a world that he may never be a part of again! COLLECTING: QUICKSILVER: NO SURRENDER 1-5

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, X Men, Comic Book, Fantasy

112 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 2018

About the author

Saladin Ahmed was born in Detroit and raised in a working-class, Arab American enclave in Dearborn, MI.

His short stories have been nominated for the Nebula and Campbell awards, and have appeared in Year's Best Fantasy and numerous other magazines, anthologies, and podcasts, as well as being translated into five foreign languages. He is represented by Jennifer Jackson of the Donald Maass Literary Agency. THRONE OF THE CRESCENT MOON is his first novel.

Saladin lives near Detroit with his wife and twin children.

Reviews

[Tiag⊗ the Mutant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A goddamn masterpiece, Saladin Ahmed is writing gold for Marvel these days, and this one hit me right in the feels, it talked to me on a personal level, which is something I rarely experience on superhero comics, and for that it gets my highest praise, another thumbs up for the original art style.

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

If ever wanted to learn about quicksilver this is a perfect book to pick up.

So in the events of No Surrender our speedster here tries to stop the bad guys, grabs a orb (or something like it, I can't remember the No Surrender event much) and gets trapped in a still like world. One with everyone kind of frozen in time except for Quicksilver here. So he basically runs around the world giving his life story while facing off against these energy looking creatures that are haunting him. As the story progresses it fills you in on who the character is and what he does throughout his life up until this point.

Good: The art is actually pretty cool. Usually bland colors mixed with vibrant really works well. Almost like colors splashed onto a blank canvas. I also thought the mindset of Quicksilver was great and really helped build a bond with him more so than most comics. The message here, a little honky, will probably hit home for a lot of people though.

Bad: I thought the themes were a little on the nose. Also, if you've been following quicksilver through the years, this is basically his Wikipedia page dropped right into a comic. It's done well, but it's still that.

Overall, enjoyable surprise. This is better than the event it's made by. Quickersilver is a pretty complex character but Saladin was able to push it further, hitting on a theme a lot of people face in every day life. Gotta keep moving forward and stop blaming others. I dig that. A 3.5 out of 5.

[Des Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woah! I did not expect a meditation on mindfulness and depression, but that's what I got. This book serves as a great primer on the character and his recent updates, as well as an emotional character study, out to answer the age old question: "Why is Quicksilver such a dick?" The art is awesome too, with great use of color and figures which selectively emulate Jae Lee's style. I don't know anything about the No Surrender event proper, but you don't need to in order to enjoy this modern marvel.

[Lobo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Po "Dniu M" i solowym runie Scarlet Witch, trudno patrzeć na Quicksilvera inaczej niż na villaina w opowieści o jego siostrze. Nie wiem, na ile było to zaplanowane, a na ile wynika z kiepskich scenariuszy. Z mutantów tylko Jean Gray cierpiała na syndrom gorszego scenariusza niż Wanda Maximoff. Solowe runy Quicksilvera nie są lepsze, bo pamiętam ten po dniu M, kiedy stracił moce i wykorzystał swoją córkę, żeby je odzyskać. Biedna Luna.

Przy "No Surrender" mam takie same odczucia, jak przy "Moon Knight" - próba rozliczenia się z błędami w scenariuszach i wyjścia z twarzą z niezręcznych sytuacji. I to bardzo udana próba, może nawet bardziej niż poprzedni run "Moon Knight", gdzie w połowie zmienili ekipę i koncepcję.

"No Surrender" to przemyślana, inteligentna seria, oparta na koncepcji mocy Pietra, tego, co znaczy być Quicksilverem, rozliczenie z jego najgorszymi cechami i przypomnienie, że niekoniecznie muszą dalej definiować jego postać. Nie ma tu dróg na skróty i tanich chwytów. Akcja rozwija się powoli, Pietro ma czas na przemyślenia, a że nie myśli szybko, trochę mu to zajmuje. W efekcie wychodzi świetna alegoria walki ze stanami lękowymi i depresją. Pietro mierzący się z najgorszą wersją samego siebie, ze wszystkim, co w nim gniewne, okrutne i podłe, to przejmujący obraz, który długo ze mną zostanie. To seria, która sprawiła, że POLUBIŁAM Pietro, a szczerze, nie sądziłam, że to możliwe. A teraz rozumiem go, współczuję mu i doceniam, że nie przekreślili popełnionych przez niego błędów tylko sprawili, że czegoś się z nich nauczył. Duży plus, będę śledzić scenarzystę, bo wreszcie ktoś, kto potrafi pisać. No i oczywiście sporo stąd trafia do moich fików :)

[47Time · Rating 5 out of 5]

The main character narrates the story and I've never seen him more human and likeable. I always thought him arrogant, but here he is empathic and very much a hero type. He even adopts a pet for a while. He tells the story of his childhood and his becoming a mutant, but most of the focus is on his struggle against aggressive shapes that seem to respond to his emotional state.

Pietro has become stuck in time. Or unstuck from time. In the black and white world he finds himself in, he stumbles over a shape that is attacking a helpless human. It looks surprisingly like himself. They fight it out and he ultimately wins, but there are many others just like it.

The shapes attack people Pietro recognizes, his parents' old home, his daughter Luna, the Avengers mansion, even his sister Wanda who joins him in battle for a short while. She tells Pietro that the Avengers are working on saving him and he must calm himself to escape the frozen world.

Pietro manages to defeat a horde of the shapes before his most difficult challenge - a copy of his negative emotions, like rage, anger and impatience, that challenges his way of thinking and life choices. It breaks the two of them back into the real world and departs to 'kill a lot of people.' In the end Pietro understands that the shapes and his clone come from within him. He must accept himself with good and bad to be able to live with himself.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one didn't impress me much. The art is very uneven; some of it's pretty good, but then there are several stretches of pages that are very minimal with large blurry geometric blocks. Most of it's very dimly colored, too. I know it's supposed to be some kind of a shadow dimension, but geez... (On page 20, I think, a description of the menace is: "It looks like a picture of me drawn by an angry child," which I could apply to most of the book.) I thought the writing was inconsistent, too. There are long formal semi-stilted soliloquys from Pietro, and then he begins speaking (or more often whining) very briefly and informally. (On page 108, I think, the menace complains: "You know what? This is boring." and, again, I applied that to the rest of the book.) The best part of the story was a turtle Pietro adopted. Turtles are cool. I'll point out that there are several reviews posted here from good and probably more intelligent and appreciative people who liked the book quite a bit, so you should probably trust them. I'll just offer a "Meh" instead of an "Excelsior."

[Monsour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its great to see Quicksilver have some spotlight. This is actually the best part of No Surrender story arc. Giving the mostly un notice Marvel character have their moments.

[Nessa [October Tune] · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5.

[Haley The Caffeinated Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s Quicksilver, I am biased lol

[mila⁷ · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was so fucking good

[Ondra Král · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rozpolcené dojmy.

No Surrender je čistě charakterová studie Quicksilvera. Hodně dobrá. Tohle je ideální komiks na seznámení s postavou nebo někam do NHMka, Ahmed psychologickou stránku prostav prostě umí.

Jenže... 5 sešitů je hrozně moc. Příběh tu skoro není a cesta k závěrečnému poselství (hezkému!) je extrémně pomalá. Druhým problémem je fakt, že je to vlastně uzavřená minisérie. Quicksilver po ní zmizí v propadlišti béčkových Avengerů a když se vynoří, jiný scénárista ho pojme úplně jinak. Kdyby to byl první book, tak neříkám nic, ale od uzavřených věcí čekám něco trochu jiného.

3,5*

[Valéria. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nerada porovnávam dve diela od jedného autora medzi sebou ale tu to proste nejde a Black Bolt je o poznanie lepšie dielo. Quicksilver je síce super book na pochopenie jeho postavy, jeho histórie a ľudí okolo neho, ale keď človek čítal Black Bolta, tak toto je také.. fádne. Ten jeho vnútorný monológ ma viac iritoval ako bavil, ale zase, čo iné robiť keď ste zaseknutý niekde, kde nemáte nikoho s kým sa baviť. Ale kresba, tá bola bomba. 3,5/5

[SzaraReadsComics · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5
A fantastic read even if you don't know much about Pietro.

[bri 🧸 · Rating 5 out of 5]

yeah cause my maximoff twins heart is shaking

[Maja · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite new Marvel character is a turtle, and his name is MR. DIBBLES! No, but seriously, what a good mini series. Keep those introspective character studies coming, Marvel, and we're all going to be very happy readers.
(Also, I wasn't kidding about Mr. Dibbles. I love turtles. Good turtle content here.)

[anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I'm the fastest man in the world. But I've learned that I can't outrun the things that I've done. I've learned that I have to face them, good and bad. And the only way to do that... is to slow down."

Pietro may be a dumbass, but he's my dumbass trash son.

[Ant Tellez · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.3/5.0

I was not expecting this to be as beautiful as it was! Saladin Ahmed does a graceful job presenting readers with an accessible form of Quicksilver, a character that may not receive all of the praise in the universe, but is certainly an imperative piece to the Avengers puzzle.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked, but didn't LOVE it. The art was decent, but a bit on the crazy side. And Pietro's always been a jerk, probably always will be a jerk, and this story didn't really change that.

[A Fan of Comics · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read!

This book was pretty short, I was able to read it in an hour. But man was it good! A lot to do with pain and how we use it/how it defines us. I don't completely know how quicksilver got trapped, it seems to be part of the Avangers no surrender series, but I wasn't too confused and was able to read the story regardless. Really liked the art, I now feel like I know the history of Quicksilver and I really liked the message behind the story. More of an emotional ride then a superhero story.

[Viki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't put it into words how much I loved this piece. It's short, only 5 issues but so amazingly written and so full of thoughts and emotions, it feels even shorter than it actually is - yet I was content by the end.

Pietro Maximoff is such an interesting character but this is the first piece I read that focused especially on him and dear lord, it did a great job with it. Pietro is more than being fast. Pietro is more than being a brother. Pietro is more than being an Avenger. He guards himself so much, he always puts on these masks of anger and impatience and rage, all the fire emotions of a speedster, and it slowly eats him up. This is a story about him facing his own emotions, his own mistakes, his own fears, his own past - and he does it all alone. If you are interested in who Pietro is, this is an absolutely great place to start.

Can't wait to get everyone I can to read this. So much love.

[Silas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read No Surrender recently, I figured I would see what happened to Quicksilver after he disappeared in that event. This was very much a solo book, since Quicksilver spends most of the time trapped outside of time in this volume, trying to fight mysterious energy beings that look a lot like him. Parts of this felt more like the Flash than Quicksilver, but it did at least deal with Quicksilver's hotheaded nature, and the resolution is a bit more enjoyable because it isn't a conventional comic book fight resolution. Quicksilver gets a turtle friend, which is kind of endearing for a character whose usual function in comics is to be a jerk, and really serves to humanize him a lot, without taking him away from his roots. It has a decent flashback function that covers a lot of his history, and gives a reason for him to move back to his old costume. Overall, this was an enjoyable book that felt a little bit like a weird fit for the main character, but if it is carried forward, is a positive change for him, as well.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well done comic. The story didn't grip me as much as Black Bolt, Vol. 1: Hard Time, Ahmed's other Marvel comic I've read. I guess that this is because of the premise in that Pietro is effectively alone for the story. In fact, when Wanda makes her occasional appearances it threw me as it didn't seem consistent with the 'physics' of the problem. Anyway there isn't any other character for Pietro to play off unlike Black Bolt with Crusher, the alien girl and others.

I thought the turtle was a nice touch.

A bit like Wreck-It-Ralph 2 in that there is no real villain.

[Bill Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a part of some epic sales event, the speedster Quicksilver disappeared trying to save the world. This book tells the story of what happened next. Pietro Maximoff, our hero, slides in between moments where he battles angrier versions of himself as he looks for an escape from a frozen gray world.

The narrative is pretty introspective for a character that runs and runs and runs. The ending works well enough and functions as something of a soft reboot for the most impatient character in comics.

[Bobby Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

In an old issue of X-Factor, during a discussion with Doc Samson, we got a glimpse into the way Quicksilver perceives the world and why he has always been an abrasive, arrogant and impatient character. In the No Surrender series, Pietro is alone in a world where nearly everything seems frozen in time. We get further expansion of our view into his perception of the world, introspection and perhaps some long-delayed maturing mixed with action as he tries to fight his way out of the strange condition and save those he loves. For Quicksilver fans, a must have for the collection.

[Lulu (the library leopard) · Rating 4 out of 5]

good miniseries with some great character work! i really liked what this did with pietro and wanda's relationship, pietro as a character, and how it dug into the way their romani heritage and status as immigrants has shaped them as characters, the magneto parentage retcon is dumb as hell, but i don't hold it against this specific run because that's a larger marvel issue. i hope pietro's turtle becomes a regular fixture in comics.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't typically read comics, so I can't speak to the graphics. However, I think this provided a good back story and now I'd like to go back and rewatch Avengers: Civil War. I think I'd understand it better.
What I really appreciated though, was the storyline of reconciling with and overcoming past traumas and mistakes. Originally, I read this as a quick way to finish my last two prompts for the Popsugar reading challenge but was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this comic.

[raqueltea · Rating 5 out of 5]

so it's incredibly rare that writers for Pietro or Wanda don't erase their Romani heritage. Ahmed does the opposite and also writes a very interesting tale of depression, mindfulness and what living with trauma does to you. this is my first read of Saladin Ahmed but I will have to read more clearly. also the art style was incredible and the contrast of bright color and the blandness of the in between world was well done. also just realized I've read his Star Wars work before lol

[Louis Skye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Quicksilver and I’ve really enjoyed Ahmed’s work on Miles. His writing style and the art by Nguyen and Simmonds are a great combo for this solo series.

Fantastic and eerie concept that doesn’t require much explanation. Really goes into the heart of what makes Pietro tick—he’s lovable but a douchebag. That dichotomy drives this narrative and gives us much-needed insight into Quickie’s psyche. I loved every minute!

[Scarred Wizard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know what i just read. Complicated & messy. I don't even know what's happening. Ugly ass artwork doesn't help at all. The only thing i love in this book is it has my queen Scarlet Witch. That's all for the 2 points of rating. The only pages i enjoyed the artwork is from Paul Renaud which is just 3-4 pages of flashback. I think i will be enjoying it more if he is the main artist.

Rating : 3.5/10

[José · Rating 5 out of 5]

95/100.

El trabajo de guion de Saladin Ahmed ha sido impresionante. No me esperaba algo tan bueno, sobre todo, porque de Pietro hacía bastante que no se escribía nada en solitario... y no ha decepcionado para nada. El dibujo de Eric Nguyen ha acompañado a la historia a la perfección, y aunque las páginas finales me parezcan menos pulidas, sigo pensando que es impresionante.