Proteus is an early example of Colossus having to make a decision he can't feel good about afterward. The X-Men are fighting someone who can distort reality and burn through hum…

Proteus is an early example of Colossus having to make a decision he can't feel good about afterward. The X-Men are fighting someone who can distort reality and burn through human bodies, and ordinary attacks aren't solving it. Metal is a weakness. Piotr's own body gives him a way to stop Proteus, but using it means destroying the being they're trying to stop. He does it in #128 because Moira and everyone else are still in danger. It's easy to list that as a big Colossus win. It also puts a killing on a man who didn't join the team because he wanted to kill anyone. That's something worth keeping in mind with him. Being gentle doesn't mean he will always refuse lethal force. It means there is a serious distance between what he would like to do and what he sometimes decides he has to do. He can protect the people beside him and still have to live with how he did it.