He first appeared in Quality's National Comics #5, cover dated 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, decades later writer Mark Waid was free to reinvent the character in The Flash without contradicting anything. 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.