Superman Analogue: Colossus
49When we're talking about Men of Steel, we gotta talk about a character who takes that literally... Piotr Rasputin, The X-Man known as Colossus!
Original Thread: https://twitter.com/CaseAiken/status/1078472955942895616
Original Text: I mentioned yesterday that there were closer analogues to Superman on the #XMen team than Hellion and I'm going to go from there to rattle off a few which will lead into one I've been saving for since the start. I'm going to start with their most literal Man of Steel: Colossus
Now, Marvel has a lot of big ol' bricks and Colossus seems in good company with the likes of the Hulk, Thing, or Juggernaut. Hell, he at one point WAS the Juggernaut...bitch (I'm so sorry).
But when you really look at this tall drink of water with raven hair, perfect cheeks, and a background in farming, it's hard not to see that he's a pretty good stand-in for the less literal Man of Steel. Only Soviet. Wait that sounds familiar...
And Colossus has always been a favorite of mine amongst the X-Men. I mean, he's such a nice guy. Supposedly there's a cameo in the first X-Men movie where he's just sitting there writing poetry, and that's awesome. No powers. You're just supposed to know.
(And, no, I'm not blind. I wrote the tweet, grabbed the pic, posted, then realized he's drawing)
And you got to love just how distinct a power set he has. Turns to steal. Sounds pretty self-explanatory, but actually it's a weird form of teleportation where he trades out all the carbon-based elements of his body for organic steal from another dimension. Comics are very weird.
But it lends itself to a very distinct look that stands out regardless of which costume he's wearing.
On that note, I do love his classic costume and all of the updates, but I do have a soft spot for the costume he wore for the brief time when he went bad and joined Magneto's group, "The Acolytes", even though it has some 90s extremisms.
But the key thing for Colossus is that he's always just been this amazing big brother-type on a team of students. There's a reason that the classic Claremont run is so well-regarded: the characters really made for a great dynamic and Colossus was the a core part.
When I'm looking for a pure version of a Superman type, I want someone that inspires hope, and Colossus does just that.
Like, do you remember his appearance in X-Men 2? How badass was that and it was for like a second.
And he can also throw down. Marvel is not lacking for strong guys who can take a hit and so he's had some great fights over the years, but one in particular I want to call out is a fight with another Superman type character, Gladiator, who we have discussed before.
Really, the only version I wasn't a huge fan of, was the Age of Apocalypse version.
And look, Colossus' love life has been the subject of many stories, and different versions have ended up with different people. Been cool with all of it. I'm happy to see a good guy get with the right person, regardless of who that is. He's my boy after all.
So yeah, not all Superman need to fly. Sometimes they just need to stand tall.
SeanMike! @BeerAndAShot Dec 27, 2018
Replying to @CaseAiken I really want to know your thoughts of him in the Deadpool movies. Seriously.
Great point and I can't believe I forgot to comment on that! My reaction to Colossus in Deadpool 1 was "Oh...that's the best Superman I've seen on screen in a long time!" He's even got the little Superman pentagon! Personality-wise it's a great version of an older Colossus!
I mean, the moment when he offers Negasonic Teenage War Head a granola bar while heading off to a mission was so goddamn perfect. Like, there have been cooler versions of the character, but this was a wonderful corny big brother/dad type super hero.
SeanMike! @BeerAndAShot Dec 27, 2018 And to be honest, I think he was overall kind of right in DP2, giving him all those chances and watching him throw them away, but yet he still came out to fight the Juggernaut.
And I loved that fight! Sure, CGI fight, but I also really enjoy hand drawn comic book fights and fully animated movies. How often are you going to get two truly impossible giants fighting on screen?
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