'Avengers: Age Of Ultron' Prequel Comic Hints At New Character Origins

With other studios holding tight the rights to some of Marvel's key heroes, what's Marvel to do when the time comes to bring in characters that are tied to stories Marvel can't use on screen? One answer might be to change them, just a bit. We have a pretty good idea that Avengers: Age of Ultron will tweak some character origins. Now an Age of Ultron prequel comic that sets up the movie gives us a good idea of how that will happen. One key player is Baron von Strucker, seen at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but we'll keep any further info and spoilers after the break.

Potential spoilers from here on out for those who only want their info to come from the films. (Though if that's the case, why are you here?)

Since Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are mutants in Marvel Comics lore, but Fox owns the screen rights to Marvel's mutant hordes, we're betting that Age of Ultron will make the characters Inhuman. Marvel Studios is developing a film featuring the Inhumans, who in comics are an underground race of humans genetically altered by the alien Kree. (Ronan the Accuser from Guardians of the Galaxy is Kree.)

There's a lot of speculation that the Inhumans will be seen in Agents of SHIELD later this year. When Avengers: Age of Ultron rolls around we also guess that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, characters written as mutants in comics stories, will be revealed as Inhumans.

Now Marvel has released a one-shot digital comic called Avengers: Age of Ultron Prelude – This Scepter'd Isle, by Will Corona Pilgrim and Wellinton Alves. That story follows Loki's scepter through the end of The Avengers to its appearance at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

In the comic, Baron von Strucker uses the scepter in an attempt to unlock latent powers in various subjects. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are two of those subjects, and the idea of powers being unlocked is something that we've seen in other Marvel Comics stories featuring Inhumans, and which has become an Agents of SHIELD story thread, too. Does this lock Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch as Inhuman? No, but it is one more piece of a puzzle that, when completed, will probably reveal their true nature.

THR has this panel pulled from the comic, featuring the scepter and our new character duo: