By David Kenney
A superhero’s death is hard for any crazy comic fan to digest. Sure, this reeks of fromage, but people get attached to comic characters just as they do movie or TV characters.
In Uncanny X-Men #390, Russian steelman Peter Rasputin, AKA Colossus, experiences such a lame-duck meeting with the reaper. An X-Men mainstay since 1980, Colossus was the soft-hearted, big brother who could turn his flesh into steel. Once a defector to X-Men nemesis Magneto’s pro-mutant cause, Colossus was always in pursuit of peace, for mutants, humans and himself.
Colossus chooses to sacrifice himself to finalize a cure for the Legacy virus, and it seems he has finally found peace.
The same can’t be said for many X-Men fans. Issue #390 sends off the big Russian nobly yet timidly for someone who’s more than a bit player. Especially strange since the X-Men series is filled with multiple weak character links.
Colossus deserved much better. His character may have sometimes seemed as cold as his homeland, making him less endearing, but his role could be dominant in the storylines. When he joined Magneto, X-Men fans were shocked. His relationship with Kitty Pryde, AKA Shadowcat, was curious and developed his character. The death of his sister Ilanya to the Legacy virus, darkened his character with the weight of her loss. Finally, Colossus was a hero worth cheering for.
So Marvel goes and ices him. Bad Marvel, bad. They should have killed their pathetic excuse for a Spiderman. A famed storyline they could have slighty imitated was The Dark Phoenix saga. There, the X-Men’s Phoenix, aka Jean Grey, went bad, ate a world and died finding redemption. Either that or they could have imitated The Death of Superman series, where the Man of Steel died to save the world. Instead, Marvel plumps a half-fast story on it helpless readers. Really, what’s the point?