Quicksilver's crossovers have a regularity that no other file in this corpus presents: they are almost all moments where it change sides. Adversary in 1964, Avengers from 1965, ally of the Inhumans, member of X-Factor in 1991, then again elsewhere.
On most characters, a crossover is judged by what it does to them. Here the useful question is different: where was he before, and where is he after?
This instability is the very subject of the character, and it has a market consequence that no one formulates.
Time with the Avengers (from 1965)
The first shift, and the most important: he leaves the opponents' camp to join the team fighting them.
This is a considerable change in status for a character introduced three years earlier as an antagonist, and the story treats it not as a moral conversion but as an accommodation.
⚠️ These issues are wanted, but as Avengers issues from the period. Its presence adds practically nothing.
The rapprochement with the Inhumans
The second shift: a marriage, a move elsewhere, and a long period where he belongs to a community other than the one where he is expected.
This corpus highlights what is unusual about this sequence. A secondary character who permanently leaves the framework of his franchise generally disappears from sales. Here, the move kept it published for years.
Scattered numbers, belonging to the titles concerned, and for the most part very accessible.
X-Factor (1991-1993)
The third shift, and the only one that produces material truly centered on it.
He takes on responsibilities and finds himself in a position he had never held: one where he is expected to do something.
To aim for in collection: the issues of the period, printed in considerable quantities, therefore at the price of everything: even though they contain the best of the character.
The 2005 event and its aftermath
The most brutal shift: he acts, his actions have major consequences, and he comes out of it lastingly discredited.
This is the only time he actually causes something important, and then the story sets out to make him pay for it, which is the best modern sequence on the record.
Recent and abundant period. ⚠️ Watch out for alternative coverage on the central issues of the event.
What a character without a fixed camp produces
This is the central observation of this article, and it generalizes to a whole category of secondary characters.
A change of allegiance should create a key: there is a “before” and an “after”, a first number in a new team, a new status.
The market don't index them. It lists the first appearances, the first costumes, the deaths and the returns, but not the changes of sides of a secondary character, for lack of a category to name them.
Result: a character who has changed sides five times in sixty years has not produced no key for this reason. Each of these moments is, however, more decisive, for him, than most of the numbers that are sold at a high price.
This corpus draws a practical rule: where the market has no word, it has no price. The categories missing from the commercial vocabulary are exactly those where the informed collector buys below real interest.
Collection strategy
Prioritize X-Factor (1991-1993). This is where it is best written, and these issues cost the price of paper.
Add the 2005 event and its immediate aftermath. The only moment where he is the cause of something, and where the story draws the consequences.
Don't try to cover the Avengers of the 1960s for him. These numbers are expensive for other reasons, and its presence there is not an event.
Look for the toggle numbers. First number in a new team, first number after a break-up: they are not reported anywhere, and they are at the price of all comers.
As always, condition and gradation determine value; relying on real recent sales is strongly recommended.
Find the overview in our collection guide and our best runs.
Track each crossover and identify missing numbers with our collection management application.
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Start my trial →Two turning points to check before buying
Since the market does not index changes of side, it falls to the collector to place them. Two issues mark the start of Quicksilver's trajectory and are easy to verify in the credits of each copy.
X-Men #4 (March 1964). Written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby, this issue, "The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants!", introduces the first Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Quicksilver makes his first appearance there, alongside the Scarlet Witch, in Magneto's camp. It is the starting point of everything: the "before" of the first switch. A useful detail for recognizing a copy: on the covers of issues 4 and 5, the costumes are colored differently from the interior, with the Scarlet Witch in green and Quicksilver in blue, whereas they are red and green inside the pages.
Avengers #16 (May 1965). Titled "The Old Order Changeth!", this issue is written by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Iron Man, Giant-Man and the Wasp leave, and the new team is made up of Captain America, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. This is the real turning-point issue: the first one where he changes teams. It is sought for the team change it tells, not for the character's presence alone.
The cover date is not the release date
These two issues illustrate a habit worth adopting. X-Men #4 is dated March 1964 but came out in January of that year, and Avengers #16 is dated May 1965 for a March release. When you build a timeline of changes of side, reason in cover dates to order your issues, but keep the two-month gap in mind when you compare them with outside events.
A simple method for spotting turning-point issues
- List the teams the character has passed through, in order, starting from the landmarks above.
- Look for the first issue of each new period: editorial databases flag arrivals and departures in each issue's character list.
- Check the cover before buying: an alternate cover or a coloring that differs from the interior says nothing about value, but it avoids buying the wrong copy.
- Log your turning-point issues separately in your tracking, with their period, to see at a glance which stage of the trajectory you are missing.
This approach does not replace reading the article above: it complements it by giving verifiable anchor points for the first two stages of the character's trajectory, before the later periods described earlier.
Frequently asked questions
Almost all of them are moments where he changes sides: adversary in 1964, Avengers, ally of the Inhumans, X-Factor member in 1991, then elsewhere. The useful question is therefore where he was before and where he ends up after.
The article recommends X-Factor (1991-1993), where the character is best written. Those issues were printed in huge quantities and sell at run-of-the-mill prices.
No, those issues are sought as Avengers issues of the period, and his presence adds practically nothing. It is better to aim for turning-point issues, such as the first issue in a new team.
It is the only time Quicksilver is truly the origin of something important, and he comes out of it durably discredited. Beware of alternate covers on the event's central issues.
The market records first appearances, first costumes, deaths and returns, but has no category for a secondary character's changes of allegiance. Where it has no word, it has no price, and an informed buyer can benefit.