Colossus is usually the person a fight can put right at the front. Turn to steel, take the hit, and give everybody else a chance to move. That role can make him seem easier to u…

Colossus is usually the person a fight can put right at the front. Turn to steel, take the hit, and give everybody else a chance to move. That role can make him seem easier to understand than he actually is. The gentle artist and the armored powerhouse are both real, but neither description explains every choice Peter makes. His breakup with Kitty after Secret Wars is one of this period's uncomfortable reminders. His feelings have changed, and Kitty is left hurt. Being honest about that doesn't make the conversation harmless, and his friends aren't willing to let him retreat behind the idea that he never intended to cause pain. There is also the much more difficult matter of Illyana. When Peter learns more about her sorcery and what happened to her, he has to recognize that his younger sister has lived through experiences he couldn't protect her from. The scene in #189 gives his gentleness a more specific use: he can respond to the person in front of him without treating what happened to her as a reason to pull away. Those two relationships bring out different limitations in him. He can fail to understand somebody's feelings and still be capable of real tenderness. Calling him the nice one would flatten both the mistakes and the effort. The Massacre makes his physical strength frightening in a different way. Peter kills Riptide during the fighting and is himself badly injured. The steel body that usually promises protection cannot keep the team safe from the scale of what is happening. His place in this era ends with that damage, rather than with another easy demonstration that he can endure anything.