Uncanny X-Men 231 - Inferno Prologue

Colossus poses as his own ghost to help his sister

Uncanny X-Men #231

Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciler: Rick Leonardi
Inker: Dan Green
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Colorist: Glynis Oliver
Editor: Ann Nocenti
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The decision by the X-Men to pretend to be dead is not without its costs - and not all members have to pay the same amount. Colossus has always been the most family minded of the team, devoted to his sister Illyana, but is now forced to hide from her at a time when she most needs help. To add to his woes he's been almost stuck in his armoured form for a long time now, finding it nearly impossible to change to his human form, and so he's become trapped in a hulking metal form that overheats in the Australian desert and is too crude and clumsy around the home. And he's haunted by nightmares about Illyana being prepared for a gruesome fate. Eventually Storm and the other X-Men agree to let him go and see her and Gateway teleports him to Limbo.

The cover is maintained through the coincidence of Colossus arriving partway through his sister casting a necromancy spell to bring help and so throughout the issue Colossus pretends to be his own spirit summoned up by his sister, helped by his now being invulnerable to magic which appears to her to be a further sign that this is his ghost. She needs help as demons posing as characters from a novel (which I have never heard of let alone read) have invaded the mansion and captured the rest of the New Mutants. Colossus finds himself back in his happy teenage home only it's much changed by the demons and he has to overcome them to free the New Mutants.

Despite the contortions to maintain the illusion of being dead, this is otherwise a straightforward issue of sibling duty as Colossus nobly rushes to his sister's side, also helping to fight off the growing rebellion by S'ym. The end of the issue sees the two have a heart to heart and Colossus tells her that as long as a person exists in the hearts of memories of those dear to them they can never truly be dead. In the process, as Illyana notes, he has helped to save her from herself. However after she's gone S'ym re-emerges and swears to win the war.

This is an important and necessary character piece as the narrative moves ever closer to Inferno. Though it's pencilled by Rick Leonardi who is becoming the regular fill-in artist on the book it feels substantial rather than filler grabbed in a hurry. However once again the issue's placing is awkward. We have still to see the X-Men operating in action under their new status quo and instead have been through multiple character pieces. This story might have been better off held back a few issues to allow the X-Men to go into action first.