COLOSSUS & X-MEN versus OMEGA RED

Red Death (Marvel)
Where: X-Men Adventures #4 When: May 1994
Why: Ralph Macchio How: John Hebert

The Story So Far...
At a snow-covered base near the Black Sea, somewhere in the Caucasus region between Ukraine and Georgia, a sudden power surge disrupts a signal relay, which in turn causes critical failure of complex computer circuitry designed to contain a living weapon!

With this subtle act of electrical sabotage a sleeper is awoken: Omega Red is unleashed upon a former Soviet Union to be a tool of military hardliners committed to restoring their empire.

Omega Red's violent path of conquest takes him towards a small farming region once home to Russian expatriate and mutant Piotr Rasputin. Having sought the aid of the X-Men - but only found Jubilee - Colossus accepts a desperate flight to his homeland in the hopes of rescuing his beloved family!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Colossus 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Omega Red 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Wolverine 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Wolverine 6 (Generator)
Agility: Rogue 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting: Wolverine 6 (Warrior)
Energy: Storm 5 (Lasers)
Total: Wolverine 26 (Metahuman)

The X-Men are: Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, and Jubilee, with Colossus.

Fans of the animated series will know Colossus wasn't a full-fledged member, but an acquaintance of the X-Men, who befriended him after a case of mistaken identity in Series 1 episode "The Unstoppable Juggernaut", which was also adapted as X-Men Adventures (Vol.1) #8.

Otherwise he's the hulking hunk of Russian organic-steel you know and love, and although he initially only has Jubilee to rely on, a note left at the mansion quickly gets the attentions of the other X-Men - particularly one who knows what they're up against!

Arkady Rossovich was a murdering scumbag even before he developed a mutant "death factor" that protected him from execution for his crimes.

The disgraced Spetsnaz GRU agent fled to Europe, but was soon reclaimed by the KGB, to be submitted to the Cold War era Soviet Super-Soldier program. Mutant healing abilities would allow Soviet scientists to implant cybernetic enhancements, as well as retractable, prehensile tendrils made of carbonadium: a Soviet alternative to the more costly and difficult adamantium metal.

Carbonadium is radioactive, but Omega Red could resist lethal poisoning with his mutant ability to absorb life force from other humans. He also possesses super-human strength, stamina, durability, and can emit "death factor" pheromone spores capable of weakening, or killing, anyone in his close proximity.

Colossus out muscles Omega Red, having stood toe-to-toe with the likes of the Juggernaut, Apocalypse, and Ord. He'll be a good compliment once Wolverine is on the scene, bringing past knowledge of Omega Red from his days with Team X, and razor-sharp adamantium claws that've cut plenty of cyborgs down to size!

Wolvie's healing factor is also useful when resisting Omega Red's life-draining, but it's unclear if he can inflict enough damage to negate a stale-mate similar to Wolverine (Vol.3) #50. We've also seen both Colossus and Wolverine taken out of the fight by having their energy absorbed in Uncanny X-Men #194.

Who did they willingly turn their essence over to? The power-absorbing Rogue, of course! She too could resist Omega Red's life-draining if she can get her hands on him and take his power. Making it all the easier for her and the rest of the team to put a serious hurt on! Will it happen that way? Let's find out!

The Tape: X-Men Ranking: Wolverine (#5)

What Went Down...

Having learned of the imprisonment of Colossus' parents from his sister Illyana -- the mighty metal mutant, and Jubilee, follow her to a Stalin era gulag reopened under the commission of Omega Red!

Jubilee channels X-Men leader Cyclops to consider a strategic option, but Colossus has no patience for looking at "angles" while his blood boils at the raw sight of injustice.

He quite literally "steels" himself, activating the natural-given skin that allows him to fearlessly charge towards the gulag -- welcoming the oppressors to fire at will!

The soldiers' bullets ricochet harmlessly off Colossus' metallic hide and even an artillery shell fired from a tank cannot stop the righteous Russian!

He runs all the way to the heavy machine, and tackles it head-on, turning the weapon against its masters by tossing the tank straight through the gulag gates!

Jubilee begrudgingly joins the charge, blasting plasma fireworks at any incoming soldiers as she storms the gate. "Okay -- looks like we'll save the subtlety for another day! Thanks for listening, Petey! You dork!"

Colossus does not respond, or join Jubilee in her dash. Instead, he is transfixed by the horrifying presence that has cast its shadow behind him -- Omega Red, with one of his coils of death wrapped around the young Illyana Rasputin.

The second coil snakes around Colossus' body, lifting him off his feet as his strength is slowly drained and he fights against the tendril's crushing squeeze.

It seems Colossus is alone to face his fate, but salvation arrives not a minute too soon. The X-Men are here -- and Wolverine has come to settle an old score!

Omega Red immediately drops Colossus and turns his attention to the voice from his past -- sending his wrist-tendrils looping around the charging Wolverine!

They tighten before the X-Man can reach his target and make good on threats.

Wolverine struggles to resist, but machismo gives way to a fading spirit as the coil begins its deadly draining of life energy. Omega Red taunts.

"Perhaps I shall have your corpse stuffed -- mounted in Red Square... A symbol of my triumph over... Eh? That shadow! What can it be?"

Wolverine is no more alone than Colossus! Rogue arrives overhead with a tank in hand to bring it slamming down on Omega Red's body!

The X-Men regroup under the scornful eye of field leader Storm. She worries for the recklessness of Rogue and Jubilee, while Wolverine clues Colossus and the team into his long history with the "Soviets' Super-man".

At that moment, Omega Red pushes the tank off his body!

Colossus and Wolverine race to meet him, but once again Omega Red's long reach holds the mighty Russian at bay and snatches Wolverine into the air!

The X-Man desperately tries to rake his claws across Omega Red's eyes, but his futile efforts aren't for nothing!

With his tendrils occupied, Omega Red is wide open to the flying figure of Rogue!

She drives her shoulder into his back like a battering ram, and he drops his weakened prey to instead wrap both deadly coils around her!

To the Soviet Super-Soldier's shock -- Rogue is completely unfazed by the life-draining attack! Her own mutant power to absorb life force appears to completely cancel out Omega Red's deadly ability!

Unaffected, Rogue is able to shrug the binding cables off with her super-human strength, but before she can resume the attack -- Darkstar arrives in the sky!

Omega Red orders his flying comrade to take care of Rogue, but Darkstar does not share his violent vision for Russia's future.

Having observed Storm's apparent command of the weather, she implores the X-Woman to summon the deepest cold if she's able and direct it at Red.

Rogue obliges Storm with a full nelson to hold Omega Red in place while the weather goddess directs the arctic winds to blast a bitter cold directly at him!

The villain can only shout broken dreams of glory as his body temperature begins to cool and he's returned to the icy frozen state that held him before saboteurs ended his suspended animation. The terror on the Caucasus is ended.

The Hammer...

The intervention of Darkstar not only handed Storm the means to end Omega Red's rampage, but also ensures his collaborators in the attempted coup will be brought to justice by modern Russia.

You may've noticed a colouring error [above] that makes it seem as if Storm is shouting to herself. The center panel is obviously intended to be a close-up of Darkstar, who I always wished could've had a more active role in the story, but is reserved for a final act twist.

Everyone has a bit more to do in the animated episode, which spreads the action over two separate battles, allowing Darkstar to get involved much sooner and witness everyone's abilities, to more intuitively suggest an outcome to Storm.

If you thought it was a little off that Rogue's powers would cancel out Omega Red's without any contact to her skin -- you won't be surprised to find that she actually does succumb to the life-draining coil in the animated version. Granted, this only raises further questions about how the tendrils actually work.

In this instance I'm not sure the source material is entirely helpful at clearing anything up. The exact details of Omega Red's abilities generally feel a little slippery in the mainline comics, as well.

The Cold War inspired villain had immediate appeal on the strength of a bombastic Jim Lee design, but a hodgepodge of oh-so nineties invulnerabilities and death-dealing powers have arguably made the character unwieldy in a narrative context, leading to inconsistent conclusions throughout the years.

Putting him back on ice was a clean way to wrap up a robust done-in-one story, but the way it comes about feels a little bit dubious. Maybe if Iceman were on the team it would be an easier sell, but even that speaks to the difficulty of leaving Omega Red in play.

There are a lot of interesting differences between the November 1993 broadcast episode and its X-Men Adventures comic book adaptation.

Despite the episode name appearing on the cover, the comic story is titled "Red Death", wielding that most taboo of words as far as Saturday morning cartoons of the era were concerned. An otherwise trivial difference -- especially for a series that dealt with death in its very first plotline! This one's for you, Morph!

More substantial is Omega Red's release from suspended animation: an act of sabotage in the comic, while in the animated series, anonymous hands confidently manipulate the controls. A deliberate escalation contextualized by scenes of tanks and storm troopers invading a city already under siege.

The comic version also flirts more specifically with the geo-politics of the story, establishing a slightly more deliberate locale than the ambiguous Russia of the cartoon. We still don't quite know which "sovereign nation" Colossus and the Rasputin family come from, but the comic-given geography of a "small city in the Caucasus" of the former USSR seems to imply it's probably Georgia, or Armenia.

Despite the narrative-driven change to Colossus' Siberian comic book upbringing; trifling with the specifics of Communist politics probably wasn't high on anyone's agenda. The Cold War had ended a few years prior, and Rocky IV was almost a full decade behind us. American comic books will always love a good Russian villain, but most people were probably hoping to just move on from the looming threat of mutually assured atomic destruction.

That might be the reason Omega Red is ultimately depicted as hostile to almost everybody -- including the Soviet Generals he's supposed to be serving!

This version of Arkady Rossovich is harder than hardline. He intends to install himself as the iron ruler of a new empire. An expressed delusion of grandeur that seems to be a catalyst for the reserved Darkstar to finally reveal her true allegiance, and act against her military superiors. Russians aren't all evil, buddy!

All in all, both the comic and cartoon do a good job of cramming a whole lot of stuff into a pretty succinct story. There are things I like about both versions. The Series 2 episode was always a memorable favourite, but I think the twenty-two page comic does a good job of amending some of its pacing issues.

Marvel's Ralph Macchio [not THAT one] always did a good job on the various Adventures titles, and the intensity of John Hebert's pencils really helped push back against the innate second-class status of a book adapting a cartoon. His work, with its straining tendons and broad muscle, feels right at home with the look of the show, and contemporary X-artists like Lee, Andy Kubert, and maybe even Leinil Yu, while also being very identifiable.

Macchio later took the series into original stories in Adventures of the X-Men, and bridged the animated shared universe with Marvel Adventures. Continuations well worth your time, especially while you're eagerly anticipating the upcoming revival of X-Men '97 on Disney Plus -- which recently added definitive Wolverine voice actor Cal Dodd!

Dive deeper into your favourite characters by following links throughout this post, and discover more from the multiverse by exploring the Secret Archive for a complete index in order of publisher, series, and issue. You can also catch up on the 2021 Rankings Recap and Top 20 Fights of Season 2021!

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Winners: Storm & Rogue (w/ X-Men & Darkstar)
#34 (+4) Storm
#46 (+26) Rogue
#446 (+5) Darkstar [+1 assist]
#5 (--) Wolverine [+1 assist]
#435 (--) Colosssus [+1 assist]
#369 (+23) Jubilee [+1 assist]
#361 (+9) Magik (Illyana Rasputin) [+1 assist]
#967 (new) Omega Red

SUNFIRE versus DARKSTAR

Chapter 2: First Contest: Frenzy in the Frozen North! (Marvel)
Where: Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions #2 When: July 1982 Why: Mark Gruenwald, Bill Mantlo & Steven Grant How: John Romita Jr

The Story So Far...
Across the universe there exist immortal entities whose very being determines cosmic reality. The Grandmaster is one such being: an Elder of the Universe whose taste for games inspires a Contest of Champions!

Snatching the world's heroes from a temporarily frozen Earth; The Grandmaster drafts a team of twelve to represent him in a contest of life and death! His team must race to find segments of a golden artifact scattered to the four corners of the Earth. The Grandmaster's ultimate prize is the restoration of his immortal brother: The Collector!

Killed by the mad man-god Michael Korvac; The Collector's demise is beyond even the vast cosmic reach of a fellow Elder. Thus, The Grandmaster's challenge is issued to the ultimate opponent - Death herself!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Draw 2 (Average)
Intelligence: Draw 2 (Average)
Speed: Draw 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Sunfire 4 (Athlete)
Agility: Darkstar 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting: Draw 4 (Trained)
Energy: Sunfire 6 (Mass Destruction)
Total: Sunfire 23 (Champion)

We're back in the Contest of Champions, which means two teams of three represent The Grandmaster and Death in a race to claim portions of a golden artifact. The contest is interesting -- but what we're really here to see are the inevitable battles that break out between competitors from opposing teams!

Sunfire represents Death, fighting alongside Invisible Girl and Iron Fist -- not that you'd necessarily know it. The hot tempered Japanese mutant has no time for teamwork. His narrow focus on victory fuels a fiercely individual burden.

That's a quality that could work in the favor of Darkstar, who fights for The Grandmaster's team beside Daredevil and Talisman. Her first major deployment to the United States was to recover and return Black Widow to the Soviet Union, but she wound up temporarily defecting to the ranks of The Champions of LA.

Collaboration continued to be a hallmark of Laynia Petrovna's career, even after she returned to the USSR. Her mutant mastery of the darkforce was applied as a member of The Soviet Super-Soldiers, and later The Winter Guard.

Darkstar's powers are related to the same other dimensional energies used by Cloak, but her unique mutant connection allows her to fly, teleport, and project solid constructs made of abysmal darkforce energy. These can also absorb light.

Sunfire's powers are very different, but he shares some similar experience. He first entered the world stage as a hostile threat, using his atomic flame to enact a doctrine of loathing for American power, and its influence over modern Japan.

Sunfire fought the X-Men in his first outing, but was soon recruited to join them as one of the famous international lineup from Giant-Size X-Men. A redeemed Shiro Yashida later became a high-profile member of Japan's premier superhero team, Big Hero Six, while maintaining some loose affiliation with the X-Men.

Sunfire's self-sustained flame and aggressive nature make him a serious threat to Darkstar, but if she can keep her distance and use darkforce constructs to defend from afar -- she might just be able to take care of him!

The Tape: Sunfire Ranking: Draw (Not Ranked)

What Went Down...
A bitter arctic chill whips through the competitors as they discover themselves in the snow of the North Pole. Pleasantries between The Grandmaster's team are soon cut short as Sunfire takes to the sky -- prompting Darkstar to follow!

The hot-blooded hero sees his opponent approaching and seizes the opportunity to eliminate the competition with two searing spears of fire!

Darkstar nimbly navigates a path between the jets of flame and summons the energy of the Darkforce to return fire. A massive black hand forms from her outstretched fist, reaching to engulf an unprepared Sunfire!

The fist closes around Sunfire, surrounding him in darkness. Its massive fingers pin his hands by his sides, while the dark energies absorb the light of his fire into the cold void of another dimension.

Contemplating his samurai spirit, Sunfire stirs the raging inferno that burns within him -- and unleashes a blazing atomic explosion from all his extremities!

The stunning explosion blasts Sunfire free of the darkforce's suffocating grip and cracks the icy plane below!

The strain of the awesome outburst puts Darkstar on the back foot, allowing Sunfire to arch his back and resume an offensive. He sends a volley of three fire streams at Darkstar -- but her powers are still able to defend against their heat!

The shattered ice below suddenly reveals the golden prize at the centre of their contest.

Sunfire spots it first and abandons the battle -- making a beeline for the exposed water below in an effort to assist Invisible Girl in claiming victory for their team. Darkstar remains airborne, extending a giant black pincer in a race with Sunfire as a new struggle begins!

The Hammer...
The rules and objectives of the Contest of Champions ultimately outweighs the conflict between Sunfire and Darkstar. They become involved in the final mad dash to secure their golden prize, abandoning the battle without conclusion.

It's somewhat interesting to note that both featured characters are mutants. In fact, all three of the Contest of Champions battles we've covered thus far have included at least one mutant: Wolverine and Storm, the others respectively.

The Contest of Champions was originally conceived to tie-in with the Summer Olympic Games, so the international flavor is fairly deliberate, but the choice of adding lesser known heroes, and newly created obscurities, is a creative one.

It would've been very easy to overrun The Contest with X-Men. I'm not sure there's a more worldly bunch of heroes in the Marvel Comics canon to this very day. Wolverine, Storm, and Sunfire were all part of Professor X's global mutant recruitment drive in 1975, seen in the series defining Giant-Size X-Men #1.

There are two heroes representing the Soviet Union in The Contest, but neither is the famous X-Man Colossus. Along with Darkstar is her brother Vanguard, who debuted fighting Iron Man with his sister and the Soviet Super-Soldiers, in 1978, and competes later in The Contest on the side of Death's team.

Over the years I've often thought it might be a more exciting comic with the likes of Colossus in place of Vanguard, but there's something to be said for the world building Contest achieves, and the more sporting tone of its brand variety.

Of course, Darkstar has loose ties to the X-Men, most notably serving with Angel and Iceman as one of The Champions. Long time fans might remember her as an unrequited romantic interest for Iceman before the team went their separate ways. The pair share a tender moment together during the gathering of prospective competitors at the start of Contest of Champions #1.

The Marvel Age was rooted deeply in the Cold War era, so the majority of Soviet characters have tended to be villains. I like the way Darkstar and her comrades embellish a heroic side to the other side of the iron curtain.

In Contest of Champions, I think we see Darkstar in her best design. Like her heroic bearing, she eschews the standard Soviet colour palette of red. Sure, there's a gold star, but the black and yellow athletic stripes down the side give her the look of a general, legitimate Marvel super-hero. I like it!

Sunfire has a pretty spiffy design himself, if a little more obvious. I suspect he's a character we'll return to, to explore more deeply in the future.

In the mean time: Darkstar is currently appearing in our unofficial sequel to Contest of Champions. You should check out The Contest: Green Lantern vs Darkstar for an intriguing match-up you can now view with more context. It's a closely contested result that deserves a closer look.

If you'd like to discover more battles like the one featured today, or explore more from the worlds of comics, dive in to the Secret Archive. There you'll find every featured fight indexed by publisher, series, and issue number.

Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has documented well over 600 battles and counting! If you like reading about superhero smackdown, you can help make it all possible by subscribing to Patreon. Patrons receive illuminating schedule updates, special request options, and voting polls.

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Winner: Inconclusive (Draw)
#448 (new) Sunfire
#449 (new) Darkstar (Laynia Petrovna)

THE CONTEST: GREEN LANTERN versus DARKSTAR

It had to happen! The Grandmaster has watched the Secret Wars on Infinite Earths for many years and now he comes with a challenge: I must select 12 heroes & villains from the DC Universe to do battle against his Champions of the Marvel Universe! Grandmaster's team competed in the first Contest of Champions and set an allowance of 5000pts based on fixed Fight Club Rankings. Each battle will be decided by you in fantasy fight polls held on Twitter, Facebook and Patreon!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Draw 2 (Average)
Intelligence: Draw 2 (Average)
Speed: Darkstar 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Draw 3 (Strong Willed)
Agility: Darkstar 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting: Draw 4 (Trained)
Energy: Green Lantern 7 (Cosmic Power)
Total: Draw 22 (Champion)

The last battle flipped the lead in my favour, but The Grandmaster still has a lot more spending power for the battles ahead. Today he's got another strong 0pt selection on his team, but unlike the battle with Blitzkrieg, this time I'm conserving points with an equal challenger I think is a perfect match!

The Grandmaster didn't go for one of Russia's well known physical power-houses when he recruited for the original Contest of Champions. Instead, he chose the complex personal ethos and versatile super-powers of Laynia Petrovna: better known to the world as Darkstar!

She was raised from childhood to harness her mutant ability to wield the other-dimensional energies of the Darkforce for the Soviet Union. This is the same power connected to Cloak, but her expertise allows her to fly, teleport, and project large solid objects. We haven't yet documented these powers in action, but she's used them to go toe-to-toe with Magneto, Doctor Doom, Hulk, and Sentinels!

Darkstar and energy constructs? That sounds like something right up the Green Lantern's alley!

In the DC Universe the Darkstars are a rival organization of intergalactic lawmen. We caught a brief glimpse of Hal Jordan butting heads with one in Green Lantern #40, but to match The Grandmaster's unranked bargain recruit, I'm looking to a Green Lantern we haven't yet featured on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths: Jessica Cruz!

Before she became a charter member of the Green Lantern Corps, Cruz had the unusual distinction of wearing the Ring of Volthoom: an interdimensional ring possessed with an entity that fed on the wearer's internalized anxiety and fears. Fear was something Jessica had plenty of, having escaped killers who murdered he friends when they stumbled upon them disposing of bodies.

Darkstar's darkforce energy can absorb light into its dimensional void -- which could be a problem even for a Green Lantern. Encounters with the New Gods and Darkseid have only increased Jessica's powers, which is why I think she could be perfectly suited to match and destroy the shadowy constructs of Darkstar. They've both faced the other side of death. I think Jessica Cruz is the one who came back stronger!

The Verdict (Updated May 11th)...

It boiled down to a battle of light against darkness. I put my chips on the light, hoping Green Lantern's willpower could outshine the abysmal constructs of Darkstar's dark force power.

Green Lantern started strong, no doubt benefitting from strong brand recognition -- but the battle soon heated up, to become one of the closest match-ups The Contest has seen so far!

Nazar Talk Comics jumped in early to advocate for Green Lantern. Jessica Cruz is still a relatively new ringslinger, but the anxious temperament that defined her early appearances has been offset by newer adventures. A temporarily fatal encounter with Darkseid left her able to project Omega Beams from her hands -- a unique ability that may've be on the minds of people voting for her!

Writer David Gallaher knows a bit about both characters, having written Convergence: Green Lantern Corps and Darkstar and The Winter Guard. It was exciting to hear his perspective, which came down to one simple deciding factor "by a hair": Darkstar absorbs light!

During the week we saw Darkstar's light absorption give Sunfire trouble in a spotlight on Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions #2. Sunfire was able to burn his way out of the black void with his atomic flame, but there's no guarantee a Green Lantern would do  the same.

With Facebook polls still not functioning,, it was looking like it might end in a split draw -- until the Twitter vote was broken at the eleventh hour! In blackest night Darkstar took victory with 54.2%!

That means Round 4 goes to The Grandmaster in another nail biter!

We'll be back for Round 5 later this month! Keep your eyes on The Contest for the latest battles and past results. Hit up Twitter, Facebook, and Patreon for regular updates and new voting polls. You can also let me know what you think about the result in the comments or on social media!

Winner: Darkstar

The Grandmaster: - 2

Secret Wars on Infinite Earths: - 2

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