Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Vegan)
Occupation: Scout for Vegan military
Group Membership: Vegan race
Affiliations: Agent of Vegan race;
formerly worshiped by unidentified tribes in the Bora-Buru region of Africa
Enemies: Giant-Man (Henry Pym), Wasp (Janet Van Dyne)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Agent 7M
Base of Operations: Presumably Vega Superior, the fourth planet in the star-system Vega, in the Milky Way Galaxy;
formerly a mountaintop peak in the Bora-Buru region of Africa
First Appearance: Tales to Astonish I#58/1 (August, 1964)
Powers/Abilities: As a Vegan, the gigantic Agent 7M possessed superhuman strength (Class 25) and durability. The small horn-like projections on his forehead continually radiated anti-gravitons, which enabled him to support his vast bulk (see comments).
He was reasonably skilled in hand-to-hand combat, and could pilot an interstellar spacecraft.
But he was not particularly clever or inventive, and was highly superstitious.
Height: 30'
Weight: 12.5 tons
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown
History:
(Tales to Astonish I#58/1 (fb) - BTS)
- Agent 7M was sent from Vega Superior to scout Earth as a planet for
potential conquest. His spacecraft landed atop a sheer mountain peak in the Bora-Buru region of Africa, and he could not figure
out how to get down! (see comments)
The natives of the valley below lived in dread fear of the thirty-foot tall extraterrestrial, whom they dubbed "Colossus" and worshiped as a god. In order to study mankind, Colossus demanded that the tribesmen bring him a human as a sacrifice, so he could have an Earthly specimen to take back to his home-world for study.
(Tales to Astonish I#58/1) - After learning of the existence and threat of the Colossus from fellow Avenger Captain America, Giant-Man and the Wasp traveled to Bora-Buru in their private jet to investigate. But when they flew too close to him, Colossus grabbed their plane, so they bailed out and began to climb the mountain on foot.
After reaching the top of the peak, Giant-Man began to grapple with Colossus, but the hero was at a disadvantage, for the alien was twice his size (At the time, Giant-Man normally grew to a maximum height of 15 feet; see comments). Then Giant-Man taxed his power and made himself large enough to match Colossus' height; but Colossus was still stronger, and Giant-Man soon began to feel extremely weak and dizzy from overexerting himself.
However, Giant-Man used a combination of his full range of size-changing abilities and shrank to ant-size, to seemingly vanish before Colossus' eyes; and the Wasp (who was too small for Colossus to even notice) used her sting at full intensity to knock their huge foe off his feet.
The superstitious Colossus was soon convinced that humans possessed great magical powers, and fearing that he would fall under some mystic spell, he climbed into his spaceship and headed back to Vega Superior -- as he took flight, he contacted his superiors, to warn them that humans were "magicians," and he advised them that Earth should be taken off the list of potential targets.
Comments: Created (Written completely) by Stan Lee, (Illustrated neatly by) Dick Ayers, (Inked discretely by) P. Reinman, (Lettered sweetly by) Art Simek.
The Vegans have an entry in the OHotMU I#11, and Deluxe Edition#15, in the Appendix to Alien Races.
Those early Ant-Man/Giant-Man stories are pretty goofy, but they're still fun to read. Pick up the Essential Ant-Man edition to get over $1000 dollars worth of stories in black-and-white for about $15.00!
Mnaketcham informs us that on "the cover to Tales of Suspense I#67, Colossus is one of the villains attacking Iron Man, along with the Melter, Crimson Dynamo (probably this one) and the (villainous) Black Knight. I believe this is the issue where Count Nefaria makes Iron Man hallucinate past villains." Mnaketcham is quite correct, and Colossus appears only on the Jack Kirby cover of that issue -- Kirby obviously confused Colossus with Gargantus.
The Vegans' ability to emit anti-gravitons to support their large bulk is a trait also shared by some other gigantic extraterrestrial races (e.g. the Tsiln [see Gog]).
Colossus probably couldn't climb down the peak because--with his large size--its surface was too relatively smooth for him to get safe handholds and footholds...or maybe he just suffered from a fear of heights; but it remains a mystery why he didn't think of just getting into his spacecraft to fly off the peak and descend to level ground...
I don't believe Colossus (or any other Vegans for that matter) have been seen since this story (...not even in the Maximum Security mini-series, which included such obscure extraterrestrials as the Hidden Man and Edam and Gouda)
And it might be worth noting that Hank Pym previously
had to swallow chemical capsules to alter his size, but at the
beginning of this story, he discovered how to do it mentally using his
wafer-thin cybernetic headpiece.
--Ron Fredricks
Colossus has an entry in Marvel Legacy: The 1960s Handbook.
New images by Markus Raymond (except for the main, which was added by Ron Fredricks).
Profile by Snood. Expansion by Ron Fredricks.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Agent 7M, the Colossus, has no known connections to:
The planet Vega Superior should be distinguished from:
The Vegans, natives of the planet Vega Superior, should be distinguished from:
|
A relatively small (for Vegans) space vessel with primitive warp-drive capability, it could transport one Vegan-sized occupant through space at faster-than-light speeds. Its power source, and whether it had any weapons capabilities, are unrevealed. Colossus landed it atop a peak in the Bora-Buru region of Africa, where he was trapped because he couldn't figure out how to get down to level ground (see comments). But the superstitious Colossus was eventually frightened away by the "magical" powers of Giant-Man and the Wasp, so he climbed back into his spacecraft and returned to his home-world of Vega Superior. --Tales to Astonish I#58/1 |
|
|
|
A rocky spire that seemed to be over a hundred feet high, it was located somewhere in equatorial Africa; the top of it was flat, and a few trees grew upon it. The giant Vegan Agent 7M (aka Colossus) landed his spacecraft on the top of the towering escarpment, but he was unable to climb down to descend to the valley below. Colossus battled Giant-Man and the Wasp atop the peak, but the superstitious extraterrestrial eventually fled in his spacecraft when he thought the heroic couple had magical powers. Afterward, the native tribes erected an idol of Giant-Man atop the peak, to honor the hero who vanquished Colossus. (Comments: Although the towering peak somewhat resembled the Black Tower of M'Kumbe, it wasn't the same geological formation, which was actually located near Wakanda. And that idol would be the second time Giant-Man was honored with a statue of his likeness -- the nation of Santo Rico would have a statue to commemorate his defeat of El Toro.) --Tales to Astonish I#58/1 |
|
|
They were natives of various unidentified tribes of the Bora-Buru region of equatorial Africa. They were terrified of the extraterrestrial Colossus, who landed his spacecraft atop a sheer peak, and the huge alien demanded that they bring him a human sacrifice. The tribesmen watched from afar as Colossus battled Giant-Man and the Wasp, and they were relieved when the heroic couple frightened the huge invader away. Later, they built an idol in the form of Giant-Man atop the same peak, to honor the hero who had vanquished Colossus (...but nothing for the Wasp -- I guess she was too small for them to even notice that she was there.) --Tales to Astonish I#58/1 |
|
images: (without ads)
Marvel Legacy: The 1960s Handbook, p10 (main image - Colossus; refurbed version of Tales to Astonish I#58, cover)
Tales to Astonish I#58/1, p14, pan4 (headshot - Colossus)
Tales to Astonish I#58/1, p5, pan6 (Colossus seizes Giant-Man and Wasp's jet)
Tales to Astonish I#58/1, p12, pan6 (Giant-Man vs Colossus)
Tales to Astonish I#58/1, p13, pan4 (closeup of horns protruding from Colossus' forehead; Wasp)
Tales to Astonish I#58/1, p16, pan2 (Colossus climbs into his spacecraft)
Tales to Astonish I#58/1, p16, pan4 (Colossus' spacecraft leaves Earth)
Tales to Astonish I#58/1, p4, pan1 (after landing his spacecraft on Earth, Colossus finds himself trapped atop peak)
Tales to Astonish I#58/1, p4, pan2 (Colossus atop peak)
Tales to Astonish I#58/1, p16, pan8 (idol of Giant-Man atop peak)
Tales to Astonish I#58/1, p12, pan1 (Bora-Buru tribesmen; Giant-Man battling Colossus atop peak [background])
Tales to Astonish I#58/1, p12, pan3 (Bora-Buru tribesmen talking about battle between Giant-Man and Colossus)
Appearances:
Tales to Astonish I#58/1 (August, 1964) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Dick Ayers (pencils), Paul Reinman (inks), Artie Simek (letters)
First posted: 03/17/2002
Last updated: 07/22/2026
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099
Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you
should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!