Mercury

The history of DC's speedsters is wide and colorful. One of the greatest things about the origins of those character associated with lightening speed is the fact that it's an on-going project and characters are still being developed and fine-tuned.

There is little doubt that the fan lines are drawn between Barry Allen and Wally West; but it would be a total remiss for us to consider the roots of those two greats mentioned. A good place to start would be with the most golden age of golden agers: Max Mercury.

The character first appeared in Quality Comics' National Comics issue #5, in November 1940, as Quicksilver. Almost nothing was revealed about that character except that he possessed super-speed and his secret identity had the first name Max. Due to the character's indistinct background, many years down the line, writer Mark Waid reinvented the character in The Flash storyline.

When the character reappeared in early 1990s issues of The Flash, his name had to be changed from Quicksilver to Mercury to avoid confusion with Marvel Comics' Quicksilver.

In Waid's origin of the character, he was originally a scout with the US Cavalry in the 1830s. A friend of the local Indian tribes, he was shocked and dismayed to find them massacred on the orders of his commanding officer. Enchanted by a dying Indian shaman, he gained super-speed. In the years that followed, he became known to the Indians as Ahwehota (He Who Runs Beyond The Wind), and to everyone else as Windrunner.

Mercury has repeatedly traveled through time, seeking to enter the so-called Speed Force. He usually bounces off and finds himself decades in the future. His first attempt left him in the 1890s, where he created a new identity for himself as Whip Whirlwind. Later, he travelled ahead again, and was active in the 1930s and 1940s as Quicksilver when he acted as a mentor to the fledgling Golden Age Flash and Johnny Quick.

In 1948, he had an affair with the wife of a doctor who had saved his life. When the doctor learned of this, Max fled into the future once more.

He spent some years in hiding, but was persuaded by Jay Garrick to return to action against Professor Zoom (one of The Flash's penultimate limited story-lines). In recent years, he has been the mentor of first Wally West and later Bart Allen (alias Impulse). He taught West about the Speed Force, and helped him to access his full speed by encouraging him to break a mental block he'd placed on his powers—stopping Wally from being as fast as Barry, he also attempted to teach Impulse a measure of patience with varying results. While living with Bart, Max met an aged physician named Helen Claiborne, who turned out to be his daughter from his earlier affair.

Since then Max Mercury has played a secondary role in the background of the speed family plot-line, aiding other superheroes as battling partners and as a mentor.


Max is fully human with granted superhuman speed by ancient Native American rituals. Over time, he tried to find the fuel for his powers (and those of other speedsters): the Speed Force. Though he never quite entered it, his attempts allowed him to travel forward through time.

Amongst his peers, Max is unique in his attempts to understand the Speed Force in a mystical way. He also differs from other speedsters because of his agility; he cannot run as quickly as the Flashes, but he has a greater ability to perform acrobatic stunts and finely coordinated actions than they do - with the skill to even outmaneuver Professor Zoom.