COLOSSUS

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Vegan race)

Occupation: Scout for Vegan military

Group Membership: Vegan race

Affiliations: Agent of Vegan race;
formerly worshipped by a tribe in Bora-Buru

Enemies: Giant-Man (Henry Pym), Wasp

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 in Bora-Buru, Africa

First Appearance: Tales to Astonish I#58 (August, 1964)

Powers: As a Vegan, Agent 7M is 30' tall and possesses superhuman strength (Class 25) and durability. The small horn-like projections on his head continually radiate anti-gravitons, which enable him to support his vast bulk. He is reasonably skilled in hand-to-hand combat, and can pilot an interstellar craft with primitive warp-drive capacity. He is not particularly clever or inventive, and is highly superstitious.

Height: 30'
Weight: 12.5 tons
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown

History: (Tales to Astonish I#58 (fb) - BTS) - Agent 7M was sent from Vega Superior to scout Earth as a planet for potential conquest. His ship landed on a sheer mountain peak in Bora-Buru, Africa, and he could not figure out how to get down! The natives of Bora-Buru named him The Colossus and worshipped him as a god. In order to study mankind, he demanded a human be brought to him, under the guise of a sacrifice.

(Tales to Astonish I#58) - Giant-Man learned of the existence and threat of the Colossus, and he and the Wasp traveled to Bora-Buru to investigate. They flew too close to him and he grabbed their plane, but they bailed out and then reached the top of the mountain on foot. At the time, Giant-Man could not grow to a height large enough to grapple with the Colossus without becoming extremely weak and dizzy. However, using a combination of his full range of size changing abilities, and the involvement of the Wasp, they convinced him that humans possessed great magical powers. Agent 7M got back into his ship and headed back to Vega Superior, warning his superiors of the humans' powers, and 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#67, Colossus is one of the villains attacking Iron Man, along with the Melter, Crimson Dynamo 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 cover of this issue. The writer of that story obviously confused Colossus with Gargantus.

Colossus has an entry in Marvel Legacy: The 1960s Handbook.

Clarifications:
Agent 7M, the Colossus, has no known connections to:

• Colossus, a stone statue built by Mingo's men, which came to life and overthrew Mingo's rule, @ Tales to Astonish I#53/2
• Colossus, the pawn of the Horusians, @ Incredible Hulk II#145
• Colossus, Piotr Rasputin, of the X-Men, @ Giant-Size X-Men#1
  --or his various alternate dimensional counterparts, such as that of Earth X, Age of Apocalypse, Ultimate, etc.
• The Wall, formerly known as the Colossus, of the original X-Force, @ Cloak and Dagger III#9, 10
• It, the Living Colossus, the statue sometimes animated by Bob O'Bryan, @ Tales of Suspense I#14

The planet Vega Superior should be distinguished from:

• Vega Superior, aka Son of Krakoa, @ Excalibur I#31

The Vegans, natives of the planet Vega Superior, should be distinguished from:

• The Vegans, a group of people who do not eat or use products coming from animals--as I was poetically reminded by Mick Martin, the Anti-Grimm, a fellow carnivorous bastich:
  "I think you might have been incorrect about something. You start off the "Powers" section with: "As a Vegan, Agent 7M is 30' tall and possesses superhuman strength (Class 25) and durability." Now, I know lots of Vegans. While I feel their commitment to the abolishment of animal food products from their diets must be respected if not mimicked, I don't see how you say that these eating habits would necessarily bestow superhuman powers upon them. In fact, I would think it would decrease their chances of receiving such powers, since it means there is absolutely no possibility of their consumption of any animals who were accidentally irradiated due to nuclear testing."

images: (without ads)
Tales to Astonish I#58, Cover (Colossus main image)
(Colossus head shot)
(Vegan spaceship)
(Colossus attacks)

Appearances:
Tales to Astonish I#58 (August, 1964) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Dick Ayers (pencils), Paul Reinman (inks)

Last updated: 01/01/03

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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