The best thing about latter day Quicksilver is that he doesn’t forgive Magneto. Their relationship has been handled in different ways over the years. It changes depending on the period and who is writing. The vehement hatred he’s had since the mid-2000′s is, to me, the most interesting portrayal.
This version of Quicksilver is an abuse survivor who isn’t interested in being a “good” victim. He doesn’t forgive his abuser. He doesn’t seem to be harboring feelings of familial love toward his abuser. He hates him. And he says so. Loudly and in front of everyone. He doesn’t let it go. His anger isn’t tempered.
Part of what makes this unique is that Magneto is a more popular character than Quicksilver. It’s easy to have characters hate their abusers when said abusers are stock characters or villains who only exist for the hero’s development. But Magneto is a big, important character. He’s my favorite out of all the X-Men, and I’m not alone in that. He is interesting. He is sympathetic. We like Magneto… but Pietro hates him.
And a lot of people don’t like Pietro. They think he’s annoying or boring, and here he is calling out Magneto. Pointing out that a beloved character gaslit and abused him when he was a teenager and then tried to kill him. Not backing down about it. Throwing a wrench in comics’ greatest redemption.
This is complicated, all the more so because Magneto is an idea. He represents something powerful. He is a voice for the oppressed. He is resistance. He’s also a character, an imperfect one with a convoluted history. There is an inherent messiness to having someone hate Magneto the Character without it being a critique of Magneto the Idea. This is a character disagreeing with Magneto’s personal behavior, not his philosophy. The problem is that, for many, Magneto’s philosophy is what matters most.
That’s why people treat “Magneto is a bad dad” like a hilarious meme. What he did is serious and terrible, but it’s divorced from the way that people primarily think of Magneto. The fandom response is to treat it as a joke rather than to address that Magneto the Character and Magneto the Idea aren’t always the same thing. Or to say you can like Magneto while acknowledging that his “bad parenting” isn’t trivial or funny. (We can like characters who aren’t perfect, I swear.)
For the most part, the canon doesn’t make it a joke. It accepts the complexity of the situation. It leans into Pietro’s imperfections and Magneto’s contradictions, and then it rejects forgiveness anyway. It lets Pietro be angry, and that’s a fascinating choice.
