X-amining Classic X-Men #5 - Patreon First!

"Prison of the Heart"

January 1987

In a Nutshell

Colossus falls in love with a Russian ballerina.

Writer: Chris Claremont
Artist: John Bolton
Letters: Tom Orzechowski

Colors: Glynis Oliver 

Editor: Ann Nocenti
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

Plot

Sketching at Brighton Beach, Colossus oversees a young woman being kidnapped. He intervenes, rescuing her, and learns she is Anya Markarova, a Russian prima ballerina who defected to the US. The two artists proceed to spend time together, discussing their shared experiences and falling in love. But when the Russian gangsters intent on bringing her back to Russia try to kidnap her again, Colossus exposes himself as a mutant in the process of saving her once more. Though he frightens off her would-be kidnappers, he scares Anya as well, who doesn't believe him to be human. He asks her to look into his heart, but she says that a man of steel has no heart, and leaves him. Night falls as Colossus sadly ponders the experience, before tearing up a drawing of Anya and quietly insisting she is wrong.  

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