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Yeah that might be my favorite scene in all of comics. Perfect way to keep Quicksilver an ass, while also gaining him the reader's sympathy.

Say what you will about Peter David, but it only took him three pages to completely change the way everyone looks at Quicksilver. Definitely one of my favourites on this list so far.

Good moment, but when I saw "Quicksilver" and "Peter David," I assumed that this would be the Lockjaw story.

Just a real comic / science geek question comment here... Isn't the length of time of putting together a puzzle based on your thinking. In other words, super physical speed shouldn't really help, unless someone could think faster, too. Just something I've thought about with super speed before. Flash, Superman... wouldn't their speed to do certain tasks be limited by the speed of thought?

Wow... I'm feeling extra geeky this morning, I guess.

Truly a classic. So much so, in fact, that the current X-Factor series had a full-issue homage (#13, from early 2007) where the then-current team went back to Doc Samson for psychiatric evaluations. The variant cover of an exasperated Doc Samson was hilarious.

Ethan: At the speed they move, they can just try all the pieces in all positions before you know it.

Yeah, think about it - one of the biggest tasks behind jigsaw puzzles is the sorting of the pieces (finding all the border pieces, finding the corner pieces and then sorting by which pieces share similar traits), and that's helped tremendously by super speed.

Meh, Quicksilver's still a jerk. If you've been living this way your entire life, it's not unreasonable to ask that you adjust to it by now.

Strangely, I quit reading comics just after the X-Cutioner's Song...because of the lousy writing. I was on the verge of quitting after Claremont left the X-Men, and decided I'd stick it out through X-Cutioner's, to see if the writing got better. That crossover, of course, was awful, and so I decided to stop after the epilogues. So this issue, the one with Jubliee you featured previously, and the "open hand/closed fist" issue of X-Force were among the last comics I bought for 10 years.

I guess X-Cutioner's Song was SO BAD, even some classic moments in the epilogues couldn't convince me to stay.

SOOOOOOO, that's what PMS stands for!

I've been wondering that for decades!

Off all the runs and creative teams of X-Factor, that was the single best one issue. Also, one of my top 10 favoutire x-books of all time. In a single issue, devoting just a few pages to each character, Peter David developed them more and better than anyone up until that point. And what a nice surprise to learn, at the end of the issue, who the shrink was. Also, lovely art by Quesada!

I like the idea that these big event crossovers are just as traumatic for the characters as they are for the audience.

loved that issue . for found it interesting to see a shrink try to get into the head of the x factor charecters and quick sliver admitting he is the way he is due to setting too high a standard for himself. a good issue

At the time I wasn't reading any of the X-Books and picked this one up off the rack for some reason, skimmed it and bought it on the spot. The whole therapy sessions thing was great, but Quicksilver's summation at the end of his session stuck with me. Nice one.

E. Wilson, keep in mind that PAD himself was well aware that this doesn't explain some of the crap Pietro had pulled over the years (e.g. almost tossing Luna into the Terrigen Mists). Some of it was just Pietro being a jerk.

That outfit with the baggy suit and the basketball shoes tied like a teenagers' doesn't really seem right on Quicksilver.

Another great Peter David Quicksilver line:

Upon hearing a news report that Jamie Madrox had been murdered: "Hmm. Slow news day."

Peter David and Joe Quesada knocked it out of the park on this one. Quicksilver's session was the best of the lot, too. "...your entire world... is FILLED with people who can't use cash machines." Dang. Definitely a turning point in how I thought of the character.

Isn't it usually explained with any of the speedsters that their brains move proportionally faster than a regular person as well? Because if they didn't, in reality, a person like the Flash or Quicksilver would kill themselves the first time they move at super speed and don't notice a tree or building or car in time and slam into it at the speed of sound.

Apodaca: Sorry, I've gotta ask. Were you referring to the suit or the shoes?

The cash machine bit does bring to mind Alan Moore's line that "life is an endless gallery of statues".

This issue kind of blew my mind as a kid and I never forgot it. It was great to see it revisited here. Like others have said here, it was a total turning point for me with the character...amazing work on behalf of Peter David.

Which issue was this? I don't know precisely when the X-cutioner's Song happened, but I know it was probably around '93 or '94, right? I had no idea Quesada was at Marvel that long ago. I have X-Factor #94, and there was a reference to Pietro's annoyance at the slowness of the rest of the world, and I think there was even a reference to him having talked to a therapist. So maybe that issue was shortly after this one. I'm not sure. You really should give the issue numbers for all of these. Just saying that a story takes place right after a famous epic crossover is no help for those of us with no knowledge of that famous crossover.

Mary, this was issue #87.

I've always loved this entire issue, but this moment is ALWAYS the one that comes to mind.

"...your entire world... is FILLED with people who can't use cash machines."

Brilliant. I've enjoyed Quicksilver, from his earliest appearances to the present day, significantly more simply because of these three pages.

you'd think a speedster would know to tie his shoes.

One of my favorite piece of PAD's work. (Nice art by JoeyQ, too) It's a terrific character piece for all of X-Factor, really, and one of the best uses for Doc Samson. (Shame he's apparently going to be evil now or something?)

This era of X-Factor reminded me a little of Giffen/Maguire/DeMatteis JLI, with less slapstick and more sarcasm. Really fun stuff.

To Ethan:
i've thought of that myself. The best i can come up with is that part of Quicksilver's mutation is the ability to think fast enough to be able to use his powers, know what i mean? What good is super speed if you can't register that there is something in the way a mile or two ahead and if you don't take appropriate action to circumvent that obstacle you're going to make a nice sound-effect-y "SPLAT!"
I'm not saying all speedsters in comics have super intelligence but it seems to me that it makes sense that there brains are hardwired in such a way as to allow the speedster to notice/understand the world around him at super speed.
What do you think?

RE: Super speedsters thinking fast

They certainly do. When Jay Garrick had his leg broken by Professor Zoom in "The Return of Barry Allen", Wally notes in the epilogue that Jay has read the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica in the short time he's been laid up.

In the Mike McKone pencilled Teen Titans, the writer would note that most super speedsters do not retain what they read at super speed. I don't know how I feel about that. It's probably just a matter of total recall - the whole Encyclopedia Brittanica is a LOT to remember.

Those are DC speedsters, but there's no reason to think that Quicksilver doesn't work the same way.

@Gary - FYI, Johns established in HIS Titans run that Bart (uniquely) can retain stuff he reads super fast.

Like everyone said-- a classic issue all around. I love how *wrong* Val is about everything.

At the end of that issue, doesn't some scary offscreen beastie grab her as part of a cliffhanger? If so, I don't think I stuck around long enough to see the resolution of it. Loved PAD's X-Factor but (like some others) was well and truly burned out of X-Books by the end of X-C S.

This is good character work.

Boy, do I find Quesada's art incredibly ugly!

Quesada's art from this era both intrigues and repulses me.

Of course, this was a time when every 'hot' artist picked something and grossly exaggerated it as their signature. Remember Sam Kieth's ridiculous curly cues? Or Liefeld's extra muscles that can't actually attach to a bone? Or McFarlane's over use of the webbing?

Anyway, Joe has taken Quicksilver's distinctive hairline and exaggerated to a ridiculous eye gouging degree -- UNTIL that last panel when those rogue hairs look like Bunny Ears which is so right it's awesome. (If the puzzle had been of a tortoise it would have been perfect).

Imagine the concentration it would take for Quicksilver to talk at a speed that Doc Samson can understand him, and put the puzzle together at the same time. Pretty impressive feat on Quicksilver's part.

Jacob T. Levy - Yes, she was, but not sure what PAD planned for her. A lot of storylines he had set up were left hanging after he left mid-story (when the team visited Genosha), so who knows? It ended up being some organism that placed her under the control of the Acolytes...

Rob Ocelot - Yeah, JQ does tend to give his characters Medusa hair...

The Epilogue issues to the X-cutioner's song are all pretty good, actually. Better than the actual cross-over (though the cross-over itself is kind of fun, in a switch your brain off before you start reading it kind of way...)

On speedster thought, I've always assumed that they think faster, thought not necessarily better, than non-speedsters. It lets them keep up with the fast movement they are doing, but they can't make the same kinds of logical connections that super-scientists do.

I dunno, while I do find it a fascinating bit of characterization for Quicksilver, I think it's equally fascinating that Doc Samson had already figured that out (unless anybody thinks that he just *happened* to have a jigsaw puzzle of a snail--and thus the perfect metaphor for Pietro's point--sitting around half finished).

@ noodles - that's where the retention thing came from and where the "most" qualifier came from. I just couldn't remember who wrote that series, only those McKone pencils. Thanks for giving me a writer's name to go with it.

There's the bit about Quicksilver caring for someone on the team. He gives a very pointed "no comment."

I can't remember if this was followed up on or referring to something specific.

15 years later I'd look back at it as an oblique reference to Polaris- Pietro maybe suspected a relation there?
But I have no idea.