BIOGRAPHY - Page 5
Having nowhere else to turn, Piotr traveled to his old love, Kitty. However, upon setting foot on Muir Island, he saw her kissing another man – Pete Wisdom. Colossus flipped out and attacked Wisdom for taking “his Katya“ from him. The two Peters fought each other and ended up seriously injuring themselves. Only the timely intervention of the rest of Excalibur separated the combatants and calmed the situation. Colossus‘ spine was damaged by Wisdom’s hotknifes but melting and reshaping the damaged steel restored it. Wisdom would have died of cranial bleeding if not for Moira MacTaggert’s treatment. Afterwards, Colossus realized that he screwed up and, in time, was forgiven and joined the team in hopes of redeeming himself for his past mistakes. [Excalibur (1st series) #91-92]
He served well with the group and renewed his past friendships, though at one point he was contacted by the Acolytes, who had reorganized after Avalon’s fall. Several members thought that Colossus‘ individual view, especially in contrast to that of Exodus, would benefit their cause and asked him to return to them. However, Piotr turned the offer down and in turn urged some of the Acolytes to think for themselves instead of blindly following the dreams of others. [Excalibur (1st series) #106]
Around the same time, Piotr was asked by Meggan to draw a portrait of her as wedding gift to Captain Britain. The beautiful elemental inspired Colossus to try out new art techniques and they spent more and more time together, especially after Brian took a short leave of absence to deal with the loss of his powers. Unwittingly, Colossus came between Captain Britain and Meggan's happiness when the innocent elf girl developed a crush on him. At first, she blamed Piotr, saying that he was interested in her and her empathy only mirrored his affection but soon she had to admit that it was just an excuse. [Excalibur (1st series) #119-120]
Meggan managed to set herself straight, however, after talking to both men and proceeded to marry her longtime love, Brian. This wedding marked the end of Excalibur and Colossus decided to return to the X-Men, along with his teammates Nightcrawler and Shadowcat. [Excalibur (1st series) #125]
Reuniting with their former colleagues and some new faces in battle with the All-New, All-Deadly X-Men, the Excalibur trio helped defeat the nanotech constructs and moved back into the mansion. Wolverine initially held a grudge against Colossus for his fall from grace but the two old friends eventually patched up their friendship. Piotr formed a surprising friendship with Marrow--a new X-Man and former leader of the anti-human terrorist group Gene Nation. He was the first to recognize that the young Morlock stole photographs and magazine covers of beautiful people and stored them her in her room. Understanding that she had a problem with her appearance, Colossus portrayed her in a sketch, meaning to show her that true beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #361]
When Xavier temporarily disbanded the X-Men for reasons of his own, Piotr took Marrow with his vacation to Boston, in order to check out an art expo. While there, they were shanghaied to the Hill, the other dimension ruled by Mikhail Rasputin, and Colossus came face-to-face with his brother for the first time since his supposed suicide. The pair of X-Men ended up freeing Mikhail from the corrupting influence of a sentient energy native to that dimension and brought him back to the mansion to recuperate when the entire team became embroiled in the gathering of the Twelve. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #373-375]
Mikhail was one of these legendary Twelve, and one of the Horsemen breached the mansion's security to kidnap Piotr's brother. Colossus joined a strike force of X-Men who traveled to Egypt in order to confront the Horsemen's master, Apocalypse, and his Skrull allies. In the resulting battles, Mikhail sacrificed himself to carry the Horsemen away from the conflict in a dimensional gateway.
In the following months, Colossus remained with the X-Men, despite the departure of some of his closest friends (including Nightcrawler, Shadowcat and Marrow). He began to develop feelings for Rogue, his new team leader and strangely was even able to touch and kiss her in one occasion without her absorption power kicking in. Nothing ever came of this interest though, possibly because both of them have had difficult relationships in the past. [X-Men (2nd series) #100]
Some time later, Hank McCoy's extensive research into the Legacy Virus finally bore fruit and he uncovered a cure for the malicious disease. After a brief celebration, however, closer analysis revealed a flaw in the cure - it was required to bond with a mutant's X-gene and end their life before it could be released into the atmosphere. A dejected Beast promised to continue working on producing another cure... but he needn't have worried. Colossus did not want any more mutants to endure the same fate as his little sister, Illyana, and reasoned that one life was a small price, compared to the suffering of millions. He got ahold of the solution and injected himself with the cure, sacrificing his life to save the lives of countless people on the planet. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #390]