Sibling Chic

It’s a wild world we’re living in today, kids. A cinematic superhero-saturated world, where the headlines are filled with not only what superheroes will be coming to the silver screen this summer, but even the first, merest glances of next year’s superheroes are big news.

Case in point: the Internet broke wide open yesterday with amateur video of the first days of location shooting for next year’s AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, giving us all our first glances of Joss Whedon’s versions of Avengers mainstays Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch and Ultron. Let’s have a look.

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Obviously, this is merely the motion-capture stand-in for Ultron, based on the behind-the-scenes shots I’ve seen of Robert Downey Jr similarly dressed as Iron Man on location. But the head alone looks promising, with the trademark earpiece antenna and what looks like Ultron’s familiar jawline. I’m confident that when they get that head in the computer we’ll see Ultron’s freaky mouth wide open as always.

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Online reaction to the AVENGERS 2 Quicksilver has been mixed, but I gotta say, this really works for me. The shirt has a subtle translation of the lightning-bolt motif, and the silver hair suggests Pietro’s strange front-hanging bangs.

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I mean, you look at this shot, and it passes the simplest test: you look at it and you say, “Hey, it’s Quicksilver.”

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I mean, in a perfect world, he’d look like this, but I realize we can’t have everything. And it’s certainly worlds better than the weird rave version we look to be getting in this summer’s new X-Men entry:

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I’m not sure why Pietro needs to wear Nintendo controllers on his belt, but I’m willing to keep an open mind.

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Like her brother, the Scarlet Witch looks to be in her civilian clothes in this scene; as this was filmed in Italy, I’m wondering if this is the duo’s first appearance, perhaps in their European homeland of Transia, before they officially join the team. Does this mean we might see a more traditional Scarlet Witch look elsewhere in the film?

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The original Jack Kirby look is a little severe, I have to admit.

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By the ’80s, John Byrne’s version was a little more streamlined and elegant. This is the classic version I’d love to see, but I admit it’s a longshot.

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George Perez gave Wanda a slight makeover in his late ’90s AVENGERS run, stressing the European/Gypsy roots. It’s a nice look, and I liked it, but it might be a little much for the movies.

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I was never much for the Ultimate makeover of Pietro and Wanda, but that was more for the creepy incestuous vibe than for the boring costume design.

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Of course, if you’re looking for comic-accurate costumes, the place to go remains the offerings of adult-film director Axel Braun, who featured the Scarlet Witch in his AVENGERS parody a couple of years back, and has a guest-shot by Quicksilver in his upcoming CAPTAIN AMERICA parody. Axel knows his comics, and is clearly a child of the ’70s and ’80s. And as great as those costumes look, they often highlight why updating them for the big screen might not be a bad idea.

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