Colossus (comics)

Concept and creation

Editor Roy Thomas, in charge of reviving the X-Men for Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975), told the creative team to go home and create some characters for the new team. Dave Cockrum recalled:

I just went home and Colossus was one of the first ones that came to mind. We needed a strong guy for the team, so I drew up a strong guy. The character's armor just kind of fell into place. He was accepted pretty much as-is, except that I had given him bare legs because it seemed only logical that if we're going to show him armored up, the legs should be bare like the arms. But Len Wein didn't like male characters with bare legs. So we decided that his costume would be blue when he wasn't armored up, and that we'd see his legs when he was armored up, due to the unstable molecules of his costume.

Publication history

A mainstay of the X-Men comic book series until the 1990s, Colossus went on to appear regularly in the first series of Excalibur. While a member of the team, he had his own self-titled one-shot that depicted him and his teammate Meggan battling Arcade at his new Murderworld facility.

After returning to the X-Men alongside Excalibur teammates Shadowcat and Nightcrawler, Colossus stayed with the title until his death. He was later resurrected and was a regular in the third series of Astonishing X-Men written by Joss Whedon. He is the feature of a limited series, Colossus: Bloodlines, in which he journeys back to Russia. Colossus has since returned as a regular in the X-Men series, appearing in various titles such as X-Men: Manifest Destiny, X-Men: Secret Invasion, X-Men, and Astonishing X-Men.

Colossus appears in Cable and X-Force, a new series by writer Dennis Hopeless and artist Salvador Larroca which debuted in December 2012. He appears in Extraordinary X-Men, written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Humberto Ramos. He is part of a team which is led by Storm, and includes his sister Magik, Iceman, a teenaged version of Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, a re-purposed Sentinel named Cerebra, and Old Man Logan.

Background

Piotr "Peter" Rasputin was born on a Soviet collective farm called the Ust-Ordynsky Collective near Lake Baikal in Siberia. He lived there with his mother Alexandra, father Nikolai, and sister Illyana. His older brother, Mikhail, had been a Soviet cosmonaut and had apparently died in a rocket accident. The 2006 comic mini-series Colossus: Bloodline established that the family was descended from Grigori Rasputin.

Peter's superhuman powers manifested during his adolescence while saving his sister from a runaway tractor. He was then contacted by Professor Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men.

X-Men

Peter was part of the second generation of X-Men, formed by Charles Xavier to save the original X-Men from the living island Krakoa. He agreed to leave the farm community where he was born to go to the United States with Xavier. Xavier gave him the name Colossus. After the battle was won, Colossus remained in the U.S. with the new X-Men.

Colossus is typically portrayed as peaceful, selfless, reluctant to hurt or kill, and often putting himself in danger to protect others. In some of his earliest missions, he battled the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, and visited the Savage Land, where he met Nereel.

Peter's family always remained in his thoughts and he frequently wrote letters home. Shortly after joining the X-Men, a woman known as Miss Locke kidnapped many of the team's loved ones to force the X-Men to help her free her employer, Arcade, from captivity by one of Doctor Doom's robots. Among her captives was Colossus' younger sister Illyana, whom Locke had kidnapped from the Siberian collective farm and transported to the United States. Arcade brainwashed Colossus into becoming "The Proletarian", who then battled the other X-Men until they countered the brainwashing. The X-Men freed Illyana from captivity, and she went to live with her brother Peter at Xavier's mansion. She was later held captive in a dimension known as Limbo, where she spent years while only mere moments elapsed on Earth, and became the adolescent sorceress Magik. As a result, an alternate-timeline version of Colossus dies in Limbo.

When the X-Men fought the evil mutant Proteus, Colossus attempted to kill Proteus, an act he found morally questionable even though he did it to save Moira MacTaggart's life. During his early career with the X-Men, Peter started what was arguably his most significant relationship with fellow X-Man Kitty Pryde. Although they were only a couple for a short while, the relationship provided the foundation of a deep and lasting friendship.

Colossus was later almost killed in a battle with Mystique's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, but was saved by Rogue and the Morlock Healer. During the Secret Wars, he became infatuated with the alien healer Zsaji, and realized his feelings for his teammate were not wholly genuine, ending his relationship with Kitty Pryde. Emotionally distraught, he afterwards engaged in a bar fight with Juggernaut.

During the Mutant Massacre, Colossus became heavily involved in the X-Men's efforts to save the Morlocks from the Marauders. When Kitty was severely injured by Harpoon, Peter gave in to his rage and snapped Riptide's neck. He eventually passed out from previous wounds inflicted by Riptide. Magneto, with the aid of Shadowcat, used his powers to heal Peter's armored form, but the process left him paralyzed. He was sent to Muir Island to recuperate, along with Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, and the surviving Morlocks.

Over time, Colossus' wounds healed, but he was trapped in his armoured form and could maintain his human form only with the utmost concentration. When he saw the X-Men in Dallas during the Fall of the Mutants, he had his sister teleport him to the battle, as Destiny had not seen him in her vision of the X-Men's demise. When the team decided to sacrifice themselves to stop the Adversary, Colossus gave his life alongside them to save the world. Like the rest of the X-Men, he was revived by Roma and decided to let the world believe him dead while he and the X-Men worked out of an Australian base.

Following the Inferno event, Illyana was returned to her original Earth age. Colossus decided it would be better for Illyana if she went back to live with their parents in Russia.

In time, Colossus was reunited with Nereel in the Savage Land, and met her son.

After the X-Men began falling apart with Rogue vanishing, Wolverine taking off, Longshot quitting, and Storm apparently killed, Psylocke telepathically prodded the remaining three to disband and travel through the Siege Perilous to gain new lives. Peter emerged in New York with no memory of his past life, inventing a new persona for himself as 'Peter Nicholas', where he quickly became a successful artist. He battled the Genoshan Magistrates. He began having visions of a beautiful model, who turned out to be Callisto transformed by Masque. The two were kidnapped by the Morlocks, though Peter had no memory of his time with the X-Men. He resumed his armored form and defeated Masque. He was saved by Forge, Banshee, and Jean Grey, who decided it better that he live his new life rather than be dragged back into theirs.

Peter was psychically dominated by the Shadow King and sent to hunt down Stevie Hunter and Charles Xavier. Xavier had no choice but to destroy the Peter Nicholas persona to break the Shadow King's hold. Colossus joined in the battle of Muir Island, and rejoined the X-Men as a member of Storm's Gold Strike Force. Peter is shown to be traveling to the Savage Land, where he locates Nereel. He is astonished to learn that the child she bore was not his, but that of another lover. Disheartened, he departs the Savage Land.

The X-Men later found themselves in another dimension, where they discovered that Colossus' brother, Mikhail, was alive and acting as a messiah to the population of that world. Mikhail returned to Earth with the X-Men, but was distraught with having been responsible for the deaths of the original crew from his first trek into the other dimension.

Mikhail established himself as leader of the Morlocks and planned to use them as a part of his mass suicide which he thought would grant him retribution or at least reprieve from his guilt. This would prove to be a great source of grief for Peter in an upcoming string of family deaths that would lead to him temporarily disbanding from the X-Men.

However, unbeknownst to the X-Men, Mikhail survived. In a seemingly last second change of mind, Mikhail transported himself and the Morlocks to another world. Later, upon learning this, Peter was disappointed by his brother's departure and blamed himself.

Back in Siberia, Peter's parents were slain and Illyana kidnapped by the Russian government, who hoped to genetically evolve Illyana to the point where she would have the use of her powers again, to defeat the mutant known as the Soul Skinner. Colossus, with the help of the X-Men, saved Illyana and brought her back to the Mansion.

Later, Illyana became an early victim of the Legacy Virus and died from it. The loss of his immediate family, as well as brain damage that forced him to remain in armored form, caused Colossus to rethink his position with the X-Men and join Magneto and his Acolytes, who had offered him an alternative to the X-Men's pacifist philosophy of peaceful mutant/human coexistence. Colossus recovered from the brain damage soon after, but decided to remain with the Acolytes of his own volition, hoping he could temper their extremist methods with what he had learned from Professor Xavier.

Excalibur

His stay with Magneto was not long once he realized that Avalon was not the place for him, either, particularly after Magneto was left brain-dead and the space station was destroyed by Holocaust. He left in search of the only person he felt truly cared for him, his former love and teammate Shadowcat, now a member of Excalibur. Colossus traveled to England, where he found Kitty in the arms of her new love, Pete Wisdom. Colossus, exhausted, mentally ill, and enraged, attacked Wisdom and, although the battle was short, Piotr nearly killed him. Colossus was subdued by Captain Britain and Meggan, later cured of his illness by Moira MacTaggert.

Colossus accepted Shadowcat's new life and chose to become a member of Excalibur. Although Colossus, along with the rest of the team, soon accepted Kitty's relationship with Wisdom, Kitty's pet dragon, Lockheed, did not, and was often seen trying to reunite Kitty with Peter, whom he much preferred. One such example being snatching away the garter during Meggan and Captain Britain's wedding and dropping it into Colossus' hand, who was then required to place it on Kitty's leg, who had previously caught the bride's flowers. With Excalibur, he participated in many adventures, including helping to save London from an ancient demon. Excalibur eventually disbanded, and Colossus returned with Nightcrawler and Shadowcat to the X-Men. But as soon as they returned, they faced a group of imposters following Cerebro, in the guise of Professor X. During this time, he repaired his friendships with Wolverine and Storm, that were broken when he had joined the Acolytes. He formed a deep friendship with Marrow. Peter again found his long thought-dead brother Mikhail, but unfortunately lost him again when Apocalypse collected The Twelve in his quest for power.

"Death"

Using thoughts and notes from the recently murdered Moira MacTaggert, the X-Men's resident scientist, Beast, claimed to have found the cure for the Legacy Virus. Unfortunately, it could only be made airborne with the death of its first user. Rather than wait for a safer version and allow others to die as Illyana had, Colossus injected himself with the cure. By using his powers and sacrificing himself, Colossus enabled the release of an airborne cure, effectively eradicating the disease. His body was cremated, and Shadowcat took his ashes back to Russia to be scattered on his native soil.

Return

Nearly two years later, it was brought to the attention of the X-Men that a medical company, entitled Benetech, had developed a mutant cure. After gaining a sample of the cure, Dr. Henry (Beast) McCoy discovered a string of DNA hidden deep within the recesses of the formula. After matching the DNA, Beast and the other X-Men set out to investigate the truth behind Benetech. During their infiltration, they discovered that Ord, an alien from the Breakworld, was responsible for the means with which the company was able to develop the cure. While the team was separated, Kitty descended into a hidden complex beneath the Benetech building and was able to unlock the true secret behind the cure: shortly after Peter's self-sacrificing death, Ord had captured his body and left a duplicate that the X-Men had cremated.

After reviving him, Ord had used the Legacy Virus cure in Peter's bloodstream to develop his mutant cure. After unknowingly releasing Peter from his cell, Kitty rejoined him with the X-Men. Together they subdued Ord as he tried to escape Earth. Since reuniting with his friends, Peter has returned to fight with the X-Men, and he and Kitty were able to resume their romantic relationship.

Colossus: Bloodline

During the Colossus: Bloodline limited series, Colossus made a trip to Russia in response to a call for help from his cousin, journalist Larisa Mishchenko. Her research had established that their family descended from Grigori Rasputin, and that their relatives were being systematically murdered. Rasputin is established as having been a powerful mutant, whose power and life essence had been passed down to his descendants. As his descendants are murdered, his great power is invested in greater measure in the remaining descendants. When there is only one descendant left, Rasputin will be reborn within that individual. Mister Sinister, an old ally of Rasputin, is revealed as the man behind the murders. Larisa is murdered by Sinister, but Colossus and his brother Mikhail foil Sinister's plot, and Mikhail banishes himself to a dimension where he can never die, but from which he can never return. If Sinister were to murder Colossus, Rasputin would be reborn in Mikhail, but locked in a dimension on his own. However, all those involved remained unaware of Colossus' son, Peter, in the Savage Land, whose presence could severely alter the situation. Colossus returned to the X-Men, a man without family. It is rumoured that the boy Michael Termani escaped the extermination and made his way to the United States of America in search of Colossus, whom he may be related to.

Breakworld and beyond

During an attack on the institute, Colossus engages Sebastian Shaw, although "Shaw" turned out to be an illusory attack by Cassandra Nova. It was revealed that Colossus is the mutant destined to destroy Breakworld according to the Breakworld's precogs. However, on a mission to the Breakworld, the X-Men discover that this was not an actual prophecy but an elaborate scheme created by Aghanne, the insane leader of a Breakworld reform cult, intended to bring about that world's destruction. Colossus is chosen for the prophecy as his unique organic steel form would allow him to destroy the planet's power source, initiating a chain reaction that would destroy the entire world. Realizing this, Colossus refuses to kill the planet although he does threaten to seize power and rule it if the Breakworld destroys the Earth as planned.

Colossus is one of the X-Men members that tries to defend Professor Xavier against the Hulk, who has come looking for Charles as he is one of the members of the secret Illuminati that exiled him from Earth. During their battle, the Hulk reflects on Colossus' bravery, mentioning that Colossus might have made a "decent opponent" to the Hulk's previous incarnations. Locked in a test of strength, Hulk demonstrates his superior power by bending Colossus's arms backwards at the forearms, breaking them. Beast later uses a laser in the lab to heat his arms up near their melting point, while Strong Guy bends them back into place; his arms needed to be re-set in their metal form before he transformed back to his human form to avoid serious injury to them.

Colossus returns to Russia with Wolverine and Nightcrawler along for the ride. The trio are captured by the Russian government, who wish to find out why all their mutant agents succumbed to M-Day, and Colossus did not. This led to a battle against the Russians and Omega Red, who was being examined by their captors. After defeating Omega Red, the heroes receive a call from Cyclops informing them of their new home in San Francisco. They soon arrive back in the States, where they aid in rebuilding the X-Men.

Colossus was briefly a member of the Fifty State Initiative team called The Last Defenders alongside Nighthawk, She-Hulk, and Blazing Skull.

Joining the rest of the X-Men, Colossus relocates to San Francisco. Still mourning Kitty, the other X-Men try to cheer him up using various different methods from picking fights with him to throwing a party. In the end he tells them to leave him be, he just needs time. Later while walking through Golden Gate Park, he come across a little girl who needs help rescuing her Kitty from a tree to which he replies that nothing would make him happier.

X-Infernus

Colossus feels the X-Men are not doing enough to rescue Illyana from Limbo, and is upset. With the aid of Pixie, the team is able to enter Limbo, where they encounter hostile demons. After defeating the demons, the X-Men locate Illyana, who has been defeated by Witchfire. The X-Men and Magik defeat Witchfire by trapping her in the dimension that houses the Elder Gods. Illyana leaves Limbo with the X-Men when Cyclops and Colossus offer her a home.

Utopia

When the Dark Avengers head into San Francisco to battle any X-Men they can find, Colossus battles Venom. They later face off again when the combined Dark Avengers and Dark X-Men attack Utopia, with Colossus and the X-Men emerging victorious. It's also during this time that Colossus suffers from depression due to the loss of Kitty prior to the Messiah Complex. During this period, Magik arrives at Utopia to ask for help from the X-Men and her former teammates as there's a battle coming in Limbo. The reunion helps alleviate some of Colossus's depression, but after Magneto comes to Utopia, Magneto brings the bullet carrying Kitty back to Earth to save her in a show of good faith and Kitty and Colossus are reunited, but are initially unable to touch as Kitty spent so long phased to stop the bullet hitting something that she has 'forgotten' how to resume a tangible state on her own. Due to Warlord Krunn's mutant cure, Colossus was temporarily depowered and beaten in battle by him, but other Breakworld residents were able to restore Kitty to her fully tangible state.

Fear Itself

After the Juggernaut became Kuurth: Breaker of Stone, one of the Heralds of a long-dormant god of fear known as the Serpent, Colossus made a bargain with Cyttorak, the other-dimensional being who originally empowered the Juggernaut, to gain the power to stand against Kuurth. Colossus became the new avatar of the Juggernaut and was able to push Cain Marko back until Cain was summoned by The Serpent. This decision caused Kitty to break up with Colossus, as she cannot cope with his increasingly displayed willingness to sacrifice himself when she wants someone who will be willing to live for her.

Due to this, Colossus decides to stay on Utopia with Cyclops' team of X-Men instead of returning to Westchester due to his fear of his new Juggernaut powers being unsafe around children. After another stressful battle, Colossus realized that his powers were far more dangerous than he realized, and he requested to be locked up alongside his sister, only to be freed when needed on missions.

Avengers vs. X-Men

At the onset of the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline, Colossus is featured in fights against several characters, including Spider-Man, Red Hulk, and Thing. He is one of the few X-Men teleported by Magik to the dark side of the moon to confront the Avengers over Hope Summers. When the disruptor devised by Iron Man blasts and divides the Phoenix Force, part of it bonds to Colossus, who becomes one of the Phoenix Five along with Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magik and Namor. He attempts to release his Juggernaut powers, but Cyttorak refuses, citing his affiliation with the Phoenix due to his newfound destructive powers. While empowered with his fragment of the Phoenix Force, Colossus attempts to regain Kitty's affections, but she rejects him—wary of his power-mongering and that the Phoenix has changed him for the worse—he reacts angrily. Colossus is eventually defeated when Spider-Man manages to provoke him and Magik into attacking each other, causing them to incapacitate each other. Their Phoenix powers dissipate and are absorbed by Emma Frost and Cyclops (Namor having already been defeated). Following the defeat of Cyclops as the last of the Phoenix Five, Colossus and the other former members of the Phoenix Five did not surrender themselves to the authorities. Magik later purges the Juggernaut powers from Colossus with her Soulsword. Knowing that Magik could have repelled his servitude to Cyttorak at any time and that she made him keep the Juggernaut powers to teach him a lesson, Colossus evinces hatred toward the sister he once loved, going so far as to say he wants her killed.

X-Force

Colossus's powers have gone out of control, apparently as a result of losing the Phoenix Force, causing parts of him to shift between flesh and organic steel rather than all flesh or all organic steel. He now appears as a member of Cable's new X-Force team after Cable provides him with a device that stabilizes his condition.

Amazing X-Men

Colossus has since rejoined Wolverine's team of X-Men, after quitting Cable's X-Force team following the results of the Cable and X-Force/Uncanny X-Force: Vendettas storyline. It is eventually discovered that Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magik, Magneto and Colossus were actually infected with nano-sentinels by Dark Beast, after the incident with the Phoenix Force, and that was the real cause for their broken powers. He has since regained control of his organic steel powers and has stopped wearing Cable's harness which helped him to stabilize his flesh and steel forms.

During the Secret Wars storyline, Colossus is with the X-Men when they take part in the incursion event between Earth-616 and Earth-1610. The Hulk's Doc Green form uses Colossus in a Fastball Special that destroys the Triskelion.

Extraordinary X-Men

Colossus later joins Storm's new team of X-Men who are living in an isolated part of Inferno so they can protect the remaining mutant students of the Xavier Academy from the effects of the Terrigenesis virus that has infected the Earth and rendered almost all of the mutant species sterile. During the Apocalypse Wars, Colossus, Ernst, Anole, Glob Herman and No-Girl are separated from Storm's team. When they re-encounter the missing students, they discover them to be now adults protecting an ark of 600 artificially created mutant embryos from the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse: one of whom is a celestially altered Colossus.

Colossus was eventually found by his teammates Iceman and Nightcrawler and teleported back to X-Haven by Cerebra. There, he was transformed back to normal by Apocalypse, who was tricked into doing so by Nightcrawler.

Powers and abilities

Colossus is a mutant with the ability to transform his entire body into a form of "organic steel", with properties similar to osmium but of still unknown composition. Colossus must transform his entire body into this armored state; he cannot transform only a portion of his body. When he transforms, he gains approximately 1 ft (30 cm) in height; official figures state his height at about 7 ft 5 in (230 cm) in transformed state versus 6 ft 6 in (200 cm) in normal human form) and his weight is at least doubled. In his armored form, Colossus possesses superhuman levels of strength, as well as superhuman stamina and durability. His physical strength is currently greater than when he first joined the X-Men due to the realignment of his cells by Magneto following an injury during the Mutant Massacre. While in his armored form, Colossus requires no food, water, or even oxygen to sustain himself, and is extremely resistant to injury. He is capable of withstanding great impacts, large caliber bullets, falling from tremendous heights, electricity, and certain magical attacks. While he has great resistance to temperature extremes of hot and cold, extreme heat followed by rapid super-cooling has been shown to cause extreme damage. As he is vulnerable to the anti-metal vibranium in his metal form, his body instinctively shifts to human form when faced with a vibranium weapon.

Colossus is an excellent hand-to-hand combatant, having received training from Wolverine and Cyclops. He has had training in acrobatics and sword fighting from Nightcrawler. In his human form, he is still exceptionally strong and in superb physical condition, though not superhumanly so. He has completed college-level courses at Xavier's school.

As the unstoppable Avatar of Cyttorak, Colossus gained additional superhuman strength and resistance to injury, as well as other mystical powers. Among these is the power to ignore impediments to his movement, hence the "unstoppable" moniker.

Television

Film

Video games

Novels

The X-Men/Star Trek crossover novel Planet X has the X-Men transported into the Star Trek universe; Colossus is seen transforming into his metal form and is mistaken for a Founder by Starfleet personnel.