X-Force #10 annotations
X-FORCE vol 7 #10
“The X-Equation”
Writer: Geoffrey Thorne
Artist: Marcus To
Colour artist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Joe Caramanga
Editor: Mark Basso
This is the final issue of the series, and as you might expect, it feels like a desperate rush to the finish line. It’s also legacy issue #300, so the main story gets thirty pages, which helps a bit. There’s also a ten page back-up strip (which we’ll come to) and a three-page cover gallery.
X-FORCE
Forge. According to Sage – who’s apparently right – his powers instinctively directed him to stop Moses Magnum’s scheme, without him ever actually understanding on a conscious level what he was doing. (Yes, Moses Magnum. I know. We’ll come to him.) It turns out that this is not a story about the dangers of blind faith as I’d been thinking – Forge was just right all along to trust in his intuition. Sage claims that Forge was deliberately drip-feeding information to the team (in the sense of it being what his powers told him to do) at the point when it would be most effective to make them stick to the plan. The idea seems to be that Forge knew that he was manipulating everyone to do whatever was required for the plan, even if he didn’t know precisely why it was all meant to work.
Forge is apparently just playing along with Magnum’s attempts to recruit him. Despite Diabla’s clear warnings that she never got the chance to finish testing and preparing Forge, Moses falls for it entirely.
Captain Britain. She refers to Diabla calling her “eldritch” in issue #7. What Diabla said was “But you have something extra, no? Something… what is the English word? ‘Eldritch.'” According to Besty, while Diabla merely has the tools to use magic, she is magic – apparently meaning that she has a greater affinity with it than Diabla does.
Askani. She gets to cure Rampage.
Tank. He’s Colossus. Nobody explains what the Tank thing was about. We might speculate that the idea was something about him being ashamed or traumatised by his activities under mind control during the Krakoan era, and that the fake Colossus was supposed to provoke him into reclaiming his identity. If that’s the idea then it’s just barely hinted at here.
SUPPORTING CAST
Sage. She shows up with a bunch of X-Sentinels to save the day. These are the X-Men-impostor Sentinels built by Steven Lang from X-Men #99-100. Their appearance here seems largely arbitrary. Sage mentions that “Someone I know was reverse engineering them.” In the absence of anything better, we should probably take it that she got them from the Toybox facility that she acquired last issue.
John Wraith. This issue is so abbreviated that much of his dialogue consists just of referencing Bible verses. Presumably this is for his own amusement, as he can’t possibly think that most people will get the references.
- Proverbs 17:17 is “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.”
- Proverbs 12:15 is “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.”
- John 16:4 is “I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you.” It doesn’t have an awful lot to do with anything either side of it.
- Luke 21:36 is “Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape al that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”
Surge. Her role in Forge’s intuitive scheme was to provide her gauntlets, which could be used to disrupt Magnum’s control of his Magnum Force energy. This causes a great big explosion which destroys Magnum’s equipment and saves the world. Surge is returned to life as an energy being with no recollection of anything that’s happened since her death in issue #5.
VILLAINS
Moses Magnum. It turns out he’s the employer of La Diabla and her crew. He also seems to be the red-captioned narrator who gets a couple of pages to talk about Professor X and Magneto, and the failure of their crew.
Moses Magnum is, shall we say, an odd choice of character for the big reveal in the final issue of X-Force. The character has been around since the 1970s but is mainly a villain from the wider Marvel Universe. He started off as an arms dealer character, before showing up with superpowers in X-Men #118-119 – the story where Banshee loses his powers. His only other appearances in the X-books were in Dark Wolverine #78-80 and Storm vol 3 #4-5.
The character has been written in wildly inconsistent ways over the years. Sometimes his powers are about earthquakes, sometimes (as here) he’s an all-purpose energy manipulator. Sometimes he’s about profit, sometimes he’s a criminal, sometimes he’s a racist. There isn’t really a consistent core to him.
In this issue, he believes that the mutant/human conflict is based on a false premise, because mutants are human. His plan is to unleash a catastrophe on the world, which he believes will force humans and mutants to unite and lead to a better future. Apparently, this is what Nuklo was supposed to be doing in issue #5 by opening portals that unleashed monsters all over the world. This interest in improving the human race through mass slaughter seems to be new, but according to the added pages in Classic X-Men #25, he did originally get his powers from Apocalypse. He was also trying to impress Apocalypse in Avengers vol 3 #8-9. His agenda here is arguably an echo of Apocalypse Classic.
For some reason, he has a base in the “Deviant city of Dys”. As far as I know, Dys itself is new, but the Deviants are a well-established hidden race originating in Eternals.
The narrator gives us a long list of trivia about Moses Magnum:
- His “known allies” are identified as:
- Apocalypse, as noted above.
- Norman Osborn. This is pushing it. Norman Osborn used him as a pawn to get good publicity for Daken in Dark Wolverine #78-80.
- Kigali Clan. This is a criminal organisation which he was running in Storm vol 3 #4-5 (2014).
- Interpol, the CIA and SHIELD. I’m honestly not sure what any of these are meant to be about.
- His “known enemies” are identified as:
- Power Man and Iron Fist. He fought Power Man in Power Man Annual #1, but I don’t think he’s ever dealt with Iron Fist on panel.
- “X-Team 4”, presumably meaning the X-Men line-up that fought him in X-Men #118-119.
- The Avengers, who fought him in Avengers vol 3 #8-9.
- Black Panther. A slightly odd reference: he has fought the Black Panther, but as a guest star in Deathlok vol 2 #22-23.
- Iron Man. He fought Iron Man in Shuri #5.
- Nation of Canaan. This is the Deathlok storyline again.
- Nation of Japan. That’s X-Men #118-119, when he was threatening to use his powers to sink Japan.
- Nation of Wakanda. That’s Deathlok again.
- Sage adds the following:
- “A volcano couldn’t kill him.” That’s X-Men #119 again.
- “A black hole couldn’t kill him.” That’s Shuri #5.
- “He fought the X-Men and the Avengers to standstills.” That’s the same X-Men and Avengers stories already mentioned.
La Diabla. She implies that her interest in Forge is only due to orders from Magnum. Her role was to “test” Forge in a way that would win him round to Magnum’s agenda. Since the book is being cancelled, the story has to skip straight to Forge joining Magnum anyway, despite La Diabla not having achieved anything yet.
As usual, she has some non-English dialogue. For some reason, this time it’s not in Spanish, but in Esperanto.
- Her line “Forprenu la grandan koleron de la besto. Farigi denove gia homa kago” is “Take away the great anger of the beast, make it its human cage again.”
- “Basta” is “enough”.
- “Ponte kaj pordego” is “Bridge and gate.”
- “Fortikajo” is “stronghold”.
Rampage. Askani helps him to control his monster persona, reframing it in his mind as tiny. This seems to cure him, and he’s very grateful.
Zanda. She’s from the Jack Kirby Black Panther run in the 1970s. She was the fake Colossus, but we don’t find out what the point of that was, or what she’s doing here at all, really. She thinks Magnum and Diabla are “fixated on Forge”.
CAMEO APPEARANCES
Professor X. The opening flashback shows:
- Professor X and the early Silver Age X-Men training in the Danger Room (very early, given Iceman’s boots)
- The Silver Age X-Men fighting the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, probably in their debut in X-Men #4.
- A late 1970s X-Men line-up – Banshee, Colossus, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Phoenix, Storm and Wolverine – fighting a Sentinel. I initially said here that there wasn’t a point where this could fit into continuity, but as pointed out in the comments you can just about shoehorn it in.
Magneto. The other flashback page, loosely designed to mirror Professor X’s, shows:
- Magneto as a child in a Nazi concentration camp.
- Magneto with his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
- Their own version of the fight with the Silver Age X-Men.
- A panel of Magneto standing over a heap of bodies; Magnum’s narration suggests that this is somehow meant to represent the period when he was ruling Genosha as a mutant-supremacist nation.
“Beginning Now”
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Artist: Edgar Salazar
Colour artist: Chris Sotomayor
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Mark Basso
This is a 10-page anniversary back-up strip set between X-Force vol 1 #25-26 – which, per the original stories, is a week-long gap which Cable spends recovering from life-threatening injuries inflicted on him by Magneto in the 1993 crossover “Fatal Attractions”. Part of it consists of Cable’s AI, the Professor, recapping X-Force’s history up to that point, and what the Professor knows about future versions of X-Force through being a time traveller. The rest is a possible happy-ending timeline where Cable becomes the new Professor X and mentor of the next generation. The specific flashbacks are:
- Magneto attacks Cable and tears him apart: X-Force vol 1 #25.
- X-Force carry him back to their Camp Verde base: an expanded version of a panel from the end of that issue.
- Cyclops sends baby Nathan into the future to grow up: X-Factor vol 1 #68.
- Cable’s first meeting with New Mutants Cannonball, Sunspot and Boom-Boom, helping them to defeat Pyro and the Blob: New Mutants vol 1 #89.
- A version of X-Force with Domino, Forge, Cable (wearing an eyepatch), Dr Nemesis (he’s the guy with white hair, goggles and a facemask) and Colossus. This is Cable & X-Force, from 2013-4.
- A version of X-Force with Cable in a headband, Psylocke, Marrow and Fantomex. This is X-Force vol 4, from 2014.
- A version of X-Force with Shatterstar, Boom-Boom, Deathlok, Warpath, Cannonball, Domino and the kid Cable. This is X-Force vol 5 from 2019.
- Days of Futures Past Wolverine is killed by a Sentinel. This is Uncanny X-Men #142.
- A generic shot of the Age of Apocalypse timeline.
- …and from there on, we’re into new alternate timelines.
Surge’s new form reminds me of Jolt in the original Thunderbolts series, who also came back from death in electric form.
Shades of Leah Williams’ X-Factor, which had to arbitrarily wrap everything up abruptly in the final issue. Long form plotting just isn’t rewarded.
That said, this did get very “monster of the week” and pulled in way too much obscure wider marvel stuff. I never quite got the core of the book.
Missed several windows for really developing Sage and the rest of the cast, despite the obvious fondness for them by the creator. Take your chance while you have it!
The one X-Force series that had some identity of its own, and it is saddled with that pointless 10-page story. There is no SCP-343…
There _was_ a story where Banshee and Phoenix were both active X-Men, although it is… difficult to make fit in chronology. It is Marvel Team-Up Annual #1. It presumably happens during X-Men #101, although that is really difficult to believe.
This really had potential but the pacing was dreadful. Magnum should’ve been revealed by issue 5. If the premise was going to drag this long, something unique and surprising had to happen every issue instead of the readers and the characters never understanding what’s happening.
I think the pacing may have been an editorial mandate since all the post-krakoa books have this similar slow pacing (outside of Phoenix, Storm, and maybe X-Men). Hopefully, with another narrative shift coming (according to Simone, the school will reopen and the books will change a lot), Marvel editorial has learned its lesson. Even if it wasn’t a mandate, editorial should have and could have sped up the pacing a bit. Percy’s X-Force had similar pacing at times. It was frustrating. And I say that as someone who enjoyed most of the weird X-Force offshoots because they always are unique and a little weird as far as X-stories go. My favs were the Cyclops mandated X-Force, Wolverine’s X-Force (the Remender team), Storm’s X-Force, Cable’s new X-Force, Cable’s other X-Force with Marrow and Hope, and even Baby Cable’s X-Force.
Moses Magnum is a completely random choice for the main villain.He’s never been interested in human-mutant relations before. He WAS trying to impress Apocalypse in Avengers 8-9 but that was because Apocalypse was threatening to punish him, which is no longer an issue. And why did he choose Forge as the agent of his master plan? It’s especially jarring because in issue 6, Diabla says to Forge “Maybe HE’S right about you”. Moses Magnum has never met Forge before this issue, so it’s not clear why Diabla would think he had any special insight into Forge.
While we’re on the subject of Diabla, does she have anything to do with Diablo? Or did she just take the name because both their shticks involve alchemy?
Zanda is equally random. She usually only cares about rare artifiacts and seducing T’Challa Why would she get involved in a plan to cause mass slaughter to improve mutant-human relations? And why would she take the form of Colossus, who she never met?
And has Zanda ever shown the ability to shape shift in any comics or is that just from the cartoon?
Colossus as Tank made no sense. Why wouldn’t Peter tell Betsy. Rachel and Sage who he is? Why would he still keep this a secret after the fake Colossus attacked? Betsy or Rachel could have been hurt if they thought the fake Colossus was a mind-controlled Colossus and held back.
It’s annoying since we had Colossus in the book and didn’t get any meaningful interacting between him. Betsy, Rachel or Sage. It’s especially annoying since this is the first time Peter and Rachel have been on a team together since- Uncanny X-Men 209? It can’t be that long, can it?
It’s also annoying since most people guessed Tank was Colossus from issue 1. And this book really needed the sales boost it could have gotten from Colossus fans.
Basically, it seems like Thorne put this plot together by playing Mad Libs. ” (Villain) teams up with (Villain) to accomplish (Goal)”.
One more thing- when does this issue take place in relation to X-Manhunt? Because X-Force is seemingly defeated at the end of issue 9 but Wraith and Sage go on from that issue into X-Manhunt. I guess this issue takes place during the “ten hour” gap between Xavier escaping Scott and Xavier saying goodbye to the X-Men on the beach.
I don’t think there are any Colossus fans left. The Colossus fans are used to things like Colossus pretending to be a robot because he’s too ashamed to be Colossus anymore, which is why they are no longer Colossus fans. I don’t believe Colossus has had one good storyline since Claremont originally left the X-Men.
This is random. It reads as of Thorne decided to mess with…well, someone…when he heard that the book was getting cancelled early. He had intricate plans to pay off everything. Heard the book was ending, so instead, he threw random characters into plotholes and was finished.
My favourite X-Force iterations:
1.)Uncanny X-Force by Remender
2.)original X-Force as college-age teens out to experience the world by John Francis Moore
3.)X-Force team with Marrow written by Si Spurrier
> Jean goes into a coma as soon as she becomes Phoenix in X-Men #101; by the time she comes out of it and is reunited with the team, Banshee has lost his powers fighting Moses Magnum
I don’t think this is correct. Jean re-joins the team in X-men #105 and Banshee is part of the team in Shiar space during the original Phoenix saga (X-men #107-108), e.g. Banshee is the one who defeats Jahf, the first guardian of the M’krann crystal.
They stay on the team together until #113, when Jean gets separated during the volcano fight with Magneto. When they reunite during the Proteus Saga, Banshee has lost his powers, but that’s all the way in #125. Phoenix was not in a coma for 24 issues.
> I don’t think there are any Colossus fans left.
You may be right, and that’s crazy considering he’s got a cool look, cool powers, and was on the team during a few of its most popular iterations.
How did they manage to screw up Colossus? I know they heaped comical amounts of angst on him in the ’90s, but that was the ’90s. Whedon pushed him hard, but then that was in the context of nostalgia over him and Kitty, which isn’t a plot point that plays well anymore.
As a POC fanboy (but not African/Black, I’m SEA/Brown) , I’m relieved/gladdened that current Marvel editorial allowed the writer to use POC villains/ because quite frankly it was getting too tiring with the usually White, usually American bad guys
No-Prize : why are Moses Magnum and Zanda acting apparently OoC ? They’re bored since they’re both already wealthy enough to be so financially secure that they have no real need of ever working again (I.e. engaging in criminal activity) in order to survive in contemporary late-stage capitalism global society , so they just do whatever suits their fancy to pass the time . After all , Marvel is supposed to be “the world outside your window” and IRL , you have the planet’s currently-richest men , particularly the self-proclaimed Anti-Christ* , causing countless innumerable people boundless and immeasurable and suffering simply because he can I.e. he’s an absolute POS born-bad bad-seed sadist sociopath
* https://tribune.com.pk/story/2540273/is-elon-musk-secretly-posting-on-4chan-as-the-antichrist?amp=1
I’m not sure if any X-characters came out of the ‘90s worse than Colossus. Lobdell finally killed him off in almost a throwaway issue (which is crazy as it was the culmination of the Legacy Virus plot which had ran almost for a decade). Storm wasn’t done any favours post-Claremont, but she was simply portrayed as cardboard. It’s easier to see how Storm has remained popular after some bad creative decisions compared to Colossus being dissected by terrible creative choice after terrible creative choice.
The angst just kept piling on worse and worse with the character. It culminated in Jeff Lemire* revealing his parents were abusers (the exact opposite of how Colossus should be portrayed). Other ideas getting tacked on the character which didn’t fit with his prior characterization, such as deciding that he must be related to Gregori Rasputin, only muddied the waters. I don’t know why Marvel decided that Piotr’s default personality should be wallowing in misery. It was definitely not how Claremont wrote Colossus.
It is a shame as I felt Colossus was the character Claremont did the second best work on after Storm.
It’s not as if the character is difficult to understand. He thought he was a “simple country soul” only adept at the physical who discovered that beneath the metal exterior he has the soul of a poet.
*I know from reading Lemire’s creator owned books he’s one of the best talents writing comics, but if I went by Exceptional X-Men I’d be convinced he was talentless.
I meant to write the X-Man he did the second best work on after Storm, as we all know Claremont’s greatest contribution to the X-mythos is the monumental work he did with Magneto.
Ummmmmm….
Moses Magnum?
That seems…more like someone trying to prove they know some Marvel deep cut characters than anything.
@Luis, Teleq- Yeah, Jean and Banshee are on the team together between issues 105-113. The problem with Marvel Team-Up Annual 1 is that Xavier is weakened from nightmares of Lilandra and Jean appears as Phoenix. That’s impossible since Jean becomes Phoenix in issue 101, she’s hospitalized while the X-Men go overseas and when she’s reunited with the X-Men in issue 105, Xavier has met Lilandra in person, ending his nightmares of her. The Official Marvel index assumes that Jean recovered, appeared in Marvel Team-Up Annual 1, and then had a relapse.
There was a continuity insert as a back-up short in Marvel Tales during the 1990s which serves the purpose of fixing the continuity issue with Marvel Team-Up Annual #1. Before the X-Men leave the desert, they are attacked by the character Sunstroke. During the battle, Jean’s injuries are aggravated, so she needs to be hospitalized again.
@yrzhe, Chris V- Even under Claremont, Colossus had problems. He was the member of the team who seemed to fail the most. He got defeated by a Mandroid in issue 118 because his punch missed, he was nearly killed by Deathbird in issue 156, he was nearly killed by Pryo and Avalanche in issue 178, he was nearly killed by Riptide and Harpoon in issue 211. In issue Even Peter seemed to realize it. In issue 194, he notes that he didn’t perform well against the Hellions, and his performance has been subpar for months. In issue 197, he tries to stop “Doom” (actually Ms. Locke) from killing Arcade but instead causes her plane to crash right in front of him. Peter points out that as usual, he just made things worse.
And toward the end, Claremont seemed to write Peter as filled with angst. In issue 249, Donald Pierce comments on how dark Peter’s paintings have become. This only ended when Peter lost his memory.
The ’90s didn’t do Colossus any favors- his becoming an Acolyte and nearly beating Warren Ellis’s self-insert to death for making out with Kitty damaged the characters in many fans’ eyes.
About his death- why did it happen? Scott Lobdell was filing in between Claremont’s second run and Morrison’s run but Morrison later said he wanted Colossus alive? Did Lobdell and Morrison fail to communicate?
Claremont started setting up that Piotr wasn’t made for that lifestyle though, which is why he wanted Piotr to retire from the superhero life and become the artist.
It’s sort of telling that Jim Lee/Andy Kubert have Colossus randomly show up on Muir Island, possessed by the Shadow King, right when Claremont decides he’s had enough and can’t keep writing the X-Men. If it’s coincidence or meta, regardless, it’s symbolic.
Which, considering what would have been avoided if Colossus was allowed to stay retired, Claremont seems to be proven in the right.
@Chris V: Lemire would hardly be the first genuinely great writer to specifically fail at writing X-Men – Brubaker’s run fell considerably short of his talents too. So did Milligan’s.
As for Thorne’s X-Force… well, choices were made. Onward and upward and all that.
My goodness, what a load of utter nonsense this last issue, and by extension much of the series was.
Folks have already touched upon most of it, but I’ll echo:
Zanda: WTF. A random choice.
Colossus as Tank: WHY? What was the point? And why should anyone care?
Moses Magnum: Really? Sheesh.
The X-Sentinels: Oooooohhhh, that makes sense now. I couldn’t figure out why those characters in those outfits. Talk about a deep, deep cut.
Surge: welcome back?
X-Force as a whole: I love how they’re all “well, we’re done. See ya, don’t call us” at the end.
This entire series felt like a great idea which fell horribly flat. Maybe because of the pacing and quick cancellation, and maybe it just wasn’t thought out well enough.
I kind of wanted to see more of Cable’s happy funtime future hallucination X-Force. They looked like they’d have an interesting story.
Anyway, of all the X-Forces that have every X-Forced, this is one which existed and should have been called X-Factor instead.
@JDMA12 If I had a nickel for every time an Asian teenager with electrical powers who shares her name with a brand of soda died but came back as an energy being…
The pointless Colossus plot will just make it extra dumb if the Chairman of 3K is En Sabah Doug. It will be two characters obscured for a lengthy period, for no reason whatsoever.
@Si: Three if we count Inmate X at Graymalkin, four if we count “The Traitor” over at X-Factor. Either the talent pool’s been stealing each other’s notebooks or Brevoort really, really likes dramatic reveals the readers guessed six months ago.
Then again, I’m willing to give MacKay the benefit of the doubt – I wouldn’t have clocked Wyre of all people as a member of 3K. And if Astra is indeed the Doctor, the Chairman might end up being a similar deep cut.
When I read the annotation above and saw Moses Magnum mentioned at the beginning, I went, “Oh! He’s an arms dealer and wants Forge on his payroll inventing weapons. That makes sense!”
The rest of the annotation leads me to believe that my idea would have been better.
Oof… this one was bad. I guess when Thorne was told that the series was cancelled, he decided that rather than abbreviating the plot, he’d just jam the entire remaining plot into the last issue.
Did Thorne see the Vegas line on The Adversary as the villain, and just decide to go with Moses Magnum to throw everyone off? While he was at it, I guess we should be glad he didn’t reveal that Tank was Joseph or Nate Grey or an alternate-timeline Moses Magnum.
I really wanted to like this series as I like Forge and Sage, and I find it interesting when they bring in Academy X or other idealistic mutants introduced as teenagers into having to make hard choices with X-Force. But this just didn’t land.
I’ll also list my favorite X-Forces, to join the trends:
1. Utopia-era hit squad. The art was great, the plot was well-defined in the first arc (“All the humans who killed lots of mutants are back, and we’re going to kill them again”), and the cast was an interesting mix.
2. Cable has visions of the future. Again, a great cast (how was this Dr. Nemesis’s only time on X-Force?), and a lot more fun than Storm and Psylocke dealing with one plot for like 20 issues. The collision between X-Forces at the end where they tried to get some resolution between Hope and Bishop didn’t really work.
3. The original X-Force. This was the first time trying the concept of mutants-as-militants, and it was an interesting evolution from the New Mutants. Peaked during the crossovers of the era, and got noticeably weaker after Age of Apocalypse rebooted it.
4. REvolution-era X-Force. They only got like eight issues, and there was some weirdness like Warpath flying, but it was another radical take. They all died at the end, but it got hand-waved away.
5. The start of Krakoa X-Force. I liked the original concept of the mutant CIA, and the split between the field team and the intel team. I liked a lot of the cast – Jean was never going to work out, but seeing Beast finally go over the line irrevocably was a good conclusion to his arc of the last decade. This just got messier and worse after Hickman’s exit.
I suppose if we’re doing that, my top pick would be Remender’s Uncanny X-Force followed by Milligan’s pre-X-Statix stint, and then the Road Trip era of the original.
I just want to say that if you have to choose between the second UNCANNY X-Force title and ‘Cable & X-Force’, as they’ve done here in the covers gallery (and numbering), then I choose the Cable version.
I didn’t think Milligan’s X-Force would count for our “favourites list” here due to not being represented in the X-Force retrospective story.
Cable & X-Force ran for two more issues than Uncanny X-Force (vol. 2), which must have influenced which version of X-Force they chose to include.
I always have been and always will be a Colossus fan, but admittedly, my fondness for the character is part nostalgia and part just wishing writers could see in him what I see. I wished Claremont leaned more into his pacifist nature and played him off more against Wolverine’s more violent nature, but Claremont was always more interested in the Kurt/Logan pairing.
Funnily enough, that’s precisely what they did with Colossus in the Deadpool films but with (obviously) Deadpool instead of Wolverine. Yeah, it was done to comedic effect because we’re talking about Deadpool films here, but I still think Colossus was written better in the Deadpool films than he’s ever been in written in the comics.
And I’ve always had a soft spot for the “Don’t judge a book by its cover” types. A monstrous looking blue furred mutant who’s actually brilliant and articulate. A demonic looking mutant who turns out to be a devout Catholic. And a towering man of steel who looks imposing as hell and appears to be someone who you’d imagine would enjoy combat and smashing things up, but who would really rather spend his day painting pictures and feeding squirrels in the park.
I’m not a Colossus fan, but if I was, I think I’d have stomped off in frustration by now. It’s not just that Colossus keeps saddled with weird and/or regressive storylines, it’s the points where it’s clear writers are *trying* to set him on a better path – Gillen, Hopeless, Yost – only to have the next guy to come along yank the football away. A reader can only take so much.
@John- the problem most people had with Revolution-era X-Force is that it featured Cannonball. Boom-Boom and Warpath murdering innocent people to get back at a Corrupt Corporate Executive. That’s completely out of character for them and every writer to handle them since has pretended it didn’t happen.
The problem with it, in my opinion, is that Ellis and then Edginton were writing the series as one of Ellis’ WildStorm books. I enjoyed Ellis’ WildStorm comics, but it wasn’t X-Force.
I found it the weakest of the Counter-X titles.
Thinking back to the Claremont run, Colossus might have peaked when he took out Proteus. What was his major success afterwards, killing Riptide? Maybe the issue in which Illyana summoned him and thought he was a ghost? The “Peter Nicholas” subplot? At least he was the star of a weird Ann Nocenti/ Rick Leonardi story in MCP.
I think Claremont didn’t want to deal with him, but he’s a great visual. Art Adams, JR Jr., Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Andy Kubert, and others made him look awesome. I wonder if Claremont took him out during Mutant Massacre to get rid of him, but the editors wouldn’t let him stay gone because he looks so cool.
Weighing in on the Colossus conversation: he should have stayed dead. The death meant something (even if the logic behind it didn’t). Kieron Gillen is really the only creator to have a handle on him post-resurrection. And Gillen kind of makes the case that he isn’t suited for superheroics. I like the character fine but haven’t really enjoyed him in a long time (aside from maybe depressed, bearded left at the altar Piotr).
Also, side note, it is weird how so many recent stories are based around “what if Logan and Piotr didn’t get along?” I know this doesn’t have that, but it was kind of a thing on Krakoa, in Wolverine: Revenge and Ultimate Wolverine. So maybe Hickman has an issue with him.
@Michael Loughlin
I would certainly describe Colossus’s killing of Riptide as memorable, but I wouldn’t refer to it as a success. Claremont went for the cheap shock moment there by having Peter kill out of rage for the first time (Proteus was his first kill, but it wasn’t rage motivated).
As for Colossus, from what I recall reading somewhere or another, he was injured during the Mutant Massacre because he was supposed to form Excalibur along with the other founders, but apparently somebody decided last minute (possibly even Claremont himself, but I don’t rightly recall who it was) that Colossus and Captain Britain in the same group would be redundant, so they kept him with the X-Men instead.
No, I don’t know why I began that second paragraph with “As for Colossus…” when I was already talking about Colossus in the first paragraph. I don’t know why I say and do most things.
Moses Magnum and Zanda appearing here is not a surprise if you are at all familiar with Geoffrey Thorne from the Black Panther forums. He’s been talking about a BP run with MM as the villain and Zanda as a love interest for ages. He probably decided to use elements of it here when he got the chance.
Anyway, I though this book was OK. His take on Sage is excellent, and evocative of Morrison. On the other hand, having character motivations be cloaked in blinds is fine (good even) but Thorne’ mechanical storytelling doesn’t make it work. There is also a growing trend (MacKay and Orlando are most guilty of this) of writers who think pulling out obscure characters is a substitute for a dramatic story.
Jonathan Hickman is clearly a fan of Colossus. He based Rasputin IV’s visual identity on Colossus in Powers of X, he added Colossus to the QC in Inferno, Colossus was part of the Maker’s Council in Ultimate Invasion, Colossus was part of the Brotherhood in Wolverine: Revenge, Colossus even had a cameo in Aliens vs Avengers.
There is a scene between Piotr and his son Nikolai in WR 5 that is some of the best Colossus writing I’ve read in a long time. Hickman uses Colossus to represent the East in his East vs West motifs.
I think Colossus not being suited to super-heroics is perfectly fine whenever the X-Men franchise encompasses a culture or a species. Piotr can be an artist, a teacher, a politician, an ambassador, etc. It’s only in the back-to-basics eras where the X-Men are purely a superhero team when it becomes a problem.
@GN- The problem is that while Magnum and Zanda would work perfectly as the villains of a Black Panther run, they’ve never expressed an interest in human-mutant relations, so their presence here remains arbitrary. Sometimes repurposing a plot from one character to another just doesn’t work.
For example. in JM DeMatteis’s Spectacular Spider-Man run, Peter is exposed to a gas by Harry Osborn and realizes that he has always felt deep seated guilt for the deaths of his parents. DeMatteis admitted that he intended it for a Batman plot but it got rejected. The problem is that while it’s easy to believe that Bruce harbors guilt over the deaths of his parents, Peter was (a) a baby and (b) thousands of miles away ,so it just makes Peter into a parody of himself that feels guilty about everything.
Or take Kurt Busiek’s Avengers run. Busiek admitted that he intended Justice’s role as the star-struck, doubting newbie for Nova. But he didn’t think it would work after Nicieza’s characterization of Nova. So instead of just reverting Nova to his previous personality, he shoved Vance in that role again. So we got 20 issues of Vance acting out of character.
I wouldn’t characterize the Riptide death as a “cheap shock moment.” I don’t know Claremont’s intentions for sure, but I think it was meant to evoke the accidental Proteus death and show that Colossus specifically wasn’t holding back anymore for fear of killing. It also signaled a change in the entire team’s attitude toward using lethal force. I’d say it was a pretty pivotal moment in Colossus’ arc as the gentle giant.
I would wonder how many of Claremont’s plans for or desire to use Colossus were derailed when he was given the edict that Piotr and Kitty couldn’t date anymore.
Colossus is a great visual, but he’s rarely given a pivotal role in a story because his powers are pretty basic. Post Riptide, the only real moments that I think he’s had are when he had the surprise reunion with the X-men in Fall of the Mutants (and was Roma’s ace in the hole against the Adversary) and when he helped Illyana against the fake Baba Yaga. Much like Storm’s best moments, these were nearly 40 years ago.
Ultimately, I think his fall accelerated past the point of no return when he had his breakdown after young Illyana’s death in the 90s. I don’t think he’s ever been the same since.
@Sam- Well he also defeated Masque in Uncanny X-Men 263. But I don’t think that really counts- after Forge had defeated the last of Masque’s minions, Masque threatened Forge and Colossus snuck up behind Masque and slammed him into a wall. Hardly a great heroic moment.
But even before Riptide, there were problems. He did defeat Nimrod in issue 209 but that was only because Kitty phased inside Peter and disrupted Nimrod’s circuitry without Nimrod realizing it. This is definitely an example of how Claremont only saw Peter as effective in concert with Kitty.
In the X-Men’s encounters with Dracula, in issue 159 and Annual 6, Peter had trouble fighting Dracula hand-to-hand, even though Dracula only has the strength of “ten men”. Roger Stern felt the need to explain that this was a result of the Darkholders enhancing Dracula’s strength.
And in issue 200. while the X-Men are fighting Fenris’s armored goons, Colossus is the one that has the most problems. thanks to a goon with a “thunder-puncher”. (Isn’t that a thing from He-Man?)
I think there was potential in Colossus joining the Acolytes out of grief, then realizing he’d made a horrible mistake. I could see Colossus examining the differences and similarities between the X- Men and Acolytes, making alliances and enemies, and ultimately leading a rebellious faction against Exodus. The ‘90s X-books burned through that storyline pretty quickly, however, and he ended up on Excalibur. When he went back to the X-Men, it was like nothing major happened.
I think the original problem is that Colossus didn’t have a role on the team. Cyclops and Storm were leaders, Wolverine was the tough guy, Nightcrawler was the heart and/or funny one, Kitty was the young viewpoint character, etc. Colossus was the strong guy who was naive, sad, and not too bright. When Kitty became the youngest character, his early “little brother” characterization didn’t stand out or work as well anymore.
@Thom
Claremont wasn’t subtle. If he wanted to the Riptide killing to be evocative of Proteus, he would have outright referenced that through flashback or dialogue. I don’t recall that happening. I also don’t recall Proteus’s death being accidental. It’s been a long time since I read the story, but my recollection is that Peter knew exactly what would happen when he struck Proteus, but (rightly) deemed it necessary.
@Moo- Colossus says “That mistake will be your last” before killing Proteus, so clearly Peter was deliberately trying to kill him. Peter didn’t have a choice- Proteus needed to possess an innocent person’s body to stay alive, so either Proteus died or an innocent person did.
It’s interesting that it was thought that putting Colossus on a team with Captain Britain would make him redundant. Since between Uncanny X-Men 171 and 247 Colossus was on the same team with Rogue, who is also a Flying Brick. Arguably having Rogue on the team DID make Peter less vital to the team.
Another example of Claremont writing Colossus as a screwup- in issue 238, the team fight the Genoshans and they have no problem since Wipeout isn’t present, except for Colossus, who is nearly killed by a CLOSING DOOR.
Thorne posted his annotations for X-Force 10:
Thorne was told the book was cancelled between issues 7 and 8.
The X-Sentinels would have featured in issue 9 as one of the Mad Thinker’s defenses against Sage.
Zanda was basically a way of making the version of Zanda he used in the cartoon Avengers Assemble: Black Panther’s Quest canon in the comics. This Zanda is a magical shape-shifter who hooked up with Magnum for the thrill of it.
Unfortunately, absolutely none of that is consistent with the Zanda we’ve seen in the comics.
@Michael
IIRC, the “Colossus is too similar to Captain Britain” decision wasn’t based on just the powerhouse factor.
Yeah, I can see some overlap between Colossus and Brian as personalities, where in a straightforward superhero environment they’d default to acting like Silver Age DC-esque square-jawed do-gooders.
Though from that perspective, the reason Colossus became so unworkable is they’ve piled too much misery on him to be able to write him as a naive, good-hearted farm boy anymore.
I wonder if he could be rehabbed with a run on the Avengers or another non-mutant team.
[…] #10. (Annotations here.) Oh lord. This is a premature cancellation, and with issue #9 being derailed by a crossover, […]
They should make him a mentor for a team of young mutants, that can make wonders for a stale character and as far as I remember Colossus hasn’t had a stint like that before.
(He did in AoA, but of course that led to death and tragedy, like everything else in AoA.)