Colossus (Piotr Nikolayevich "Peter" Rasputin; Russian: Пётр Николаевич Распутин) is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum, he first appeared in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975). A Russian mutant, he is a member of the X-Men. Colossus is able to transform himself into a metallic form, making him the physically strongest of the team. He is portrayed as quiet, honest, and virtuous. He has had a fairly consistent presence in X-Men-related comic books since his debut. A talented artist, he only reluctantly agrees to use his powers in combat, feeling it is his responsibility to use his abilities for the betterment of human- and mutant-kind. Editor Roy Thomas, in charge of reviving the X-Men for Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975), told the creative team to go home and create some characters for the new team. Dave Cockrum recalled: I just went home and Colossus was one of the first ones that came to mind. We needed a strong guy for the team, so I drew up a strong guy. The character's armor just kind of fell into place. He was accepted pretty much as-is, except that I had given him bare legs because it seemed only logical that if we're going to show him armored up, the legs should be bare like the arms. But Len Wein didn't like male characters with bare legs. So we decided that his costume would be blue when he wasn't armored up, and that we'd see his legs when he was armored up, due to the unstable molecules of his costume. Cockrum detailed more of the character's conception, "Colossus was loosely based on a character I had come up with in college, named 'Mr. Steel'"... As for why the character was chosen to be Russian... "Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Everybody was into détente and it was supposed to be an international group and the way I drew it, he looked like a Russian, so why the hell not? That was really all there was to it."... "Len Wein chose Peter's name. I imagine he used Rasputin because...it's a recognizable Russian name."(Via Wikipedia)
