Colossus (character)
Colossus is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum, he first appeared in Giant-Size X-Men #1.
A Russian mutant, he is a member of the X-Men. Colossus is able to transform himself into a metallic form, making him the physically strongest of the team. He is portrayed as quiet, honest, and virtuous. He has had a fairly consistent presence in X-Men-related comic books since his debut. A talented artist, he only reluctantly agrees to use his powers in combat, feeling it is his responsibility to use his abilities for the betterment of human- and mutant-kind.
Wizard ranked Colossus at 184 on the "Top 200 Comic Book Characters of All Time". In 2006, IGN placed Colossus in the 10th spot of their list of "The Top 25 X-Men". In 2013, ComicsAlliance ranked Colossus as No. 22 on their list of the "50 Sexiest Male Characters in Comics".
In film, Donald MacKinnon made a cameo appearance as Colossus in X-Men before Daniel Cudmore took over for X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, and X-Men: Days of Future Past while Stefan Kapičić voiced a separate iteration of Colossus in Deadpool, Deadpool 2 and the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Deadpool & Wolverine.
Concept and creation
Editor Roy Thomas, in charge of reviving the X-Men for Giant-Size X-Men #1, 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.
Cockrum detailed more of the character's conception, "Colossus was loosely based on a character I had come up with in college, named 'Mr. Steel'"... As for why the character was chosen to be Russian... "Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Everybody was into détente and it was supposed to be an international group and the way I drew it, he looked like a Russian, so why the hell not? That was really all there was to it."... "Len Wein chose Peter's name. I imagine he used Rasputin because...it's a recognizable Russian name."
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 Dec. 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.
In 2025, Colossus will be getting a solo X-Men project.
Fictional character biography
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 and a Romani woman named Elena.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 Rasputin 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 MacTaggert'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 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 armored 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.