Monday, August 30, 2004 The wonderful world of comics history Note: This entry contains spoilers for Astonishing X-Men #4 One of the perils of being a late entry into the world of true comics nerdiana is being hopelessly behind on pretty much every long-running comic book. I'm familiar with the characters of the X-Men and DC universes due to long-time exposure to cartoons and film, but say the names Madelyne Pryor or Deathstroke to me and I become all sorts of blank. This doesn't keep me up nights, necessarily, but when a book structures a huge reveal around the reappearance of a character I didn't even know was dead, I can't help but feel a little left out. Fortunately for me and my kind, there is the Internet, where it becomes very easy to learn the complete history of superheroes. And what I discovered while reading about the life and times of one Piotr Rasputin? Reading these histories in summarized form is truly hilarious. Big moments for Colossus include: "When [Anya] was attacked by her father’s men and Piotr transformed into Colossus right before her eyes to deal with them, Anya was rather shocked and felt deceived by him. She accused Piotr of lying and, before running out on him, claimed that a man of steel could not have a heart. Piotr thought long and hard about what she had said but then decided she was wrong and moved on." "During a time when the X-Men were visiting a native tribe in the Savage Land, Piotr witnessed three young women being attacked by a dinosaur. He rushed in to help them but one of the savages was beyond help and died of her injuries. Later that night, after the victim was buried, the other two women, Nereel and Shakani, approached Piotr to join them in a final ritual. They took him to a small island, where they started to kiss him, Colossus was confused, but Nereel explained that her tribe believed the best way to honor a fallen friend is to create a new life, especially with such a strong and noble outlander to bring new blood into their tribe. At first, Piotr tried to resist, but the two ladies did not back down from their intent and finally he gave in and made love for the first time in his life." "During a mission in space, the X-Men were injected with Brood embryos which were slowly metamorphosing them into sleazoids from the inside. The certainty that they was going to die a horrible death, caused the relationship of Piotr and Kitty to get more intense. Despairing, Kitty asked Piotr to make love to her for the first, and probably last, time. Piotr declined, telling Kitty he cared too much for her to go through something so special under such awful conditions. Instead, they held each other that night and, the next day, successfully fought the Brood Queen on the alien’s homeworld and were freed from the embryos by the Acanti, a race of space whales that had been oppressed by the Brood for eons." Doncha just love comics? | permalink blog • archives • photos • about • contact This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. All content © 2004.