[This story contains spoilers for Fox’s Deadpool 2.]
Deadpool 2 surprised fans with the appearance of one larger-than-life character.
Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Russell (Julian Dennison) are sent to the Ice Box prison, where one mutant is kept away from the general population: the Juggernaut. Russell befriends the huge mutant, who helps him in his quest for revenge against the evil man running the center for mutant youths where Russell has been raised.
In the film, Colossus goes toe-to-toe with the Juggernaut, and needs help from his X-pals to bring him down. But how does the movie version of events stack up against previous comic book clashes? Here is a closer look at the times the Juggernaut has tangled with Colossus.
Uncanny X-Men No. 102 (1976)
The first time Colossus and the Juggernaut face off against each other, it doesn’t go well for the hero; after an impressive opening — complete with declarative statement, above — Colossus folds pretty quickly after a fight that apparently demolishes part of a castle. “Flatten me a hundred times an’ I’ll face you the hundred-an’-first as strong an’ fresh as ever!” claims the Juggernaut at one point, and considering he seems pretty unscathed by the whole thing, he might be understating things.
Uncanny X-Men No. 183 (1984)
Arguably the most famous fight between the two characters sees neither one in costume — and leaves Colossus unaware who he’s actually fighting, at least to begin with. A bar brawl between the two, with a depressed Colossus letting himself get beaten up by a Juggernaut who’s pissed that his night out has been ruined, ends up being a fun, if destructive, character moment for both of them. Similar to their first fight, Colossus is defeated, mostly because he gets part of a building dropped on top of him again.
Marvel Team-Up No. 150 (1985)
Colossus actually takes a relative back seat in this fight between the X-Men (and Spider-Man, who was the recurring character in the Marvel Team-Up series) and the Juggernaut, preferring to get a punch in and basically try and keep everyone else from being crushed. Turns out, this leads to Colossus’ most successful fight with the villain yet, in that he doesn’t end up utterly defeated. That doesn’t mean he wins, however; the Juggernaut still manages to get away after, you guessed it, causing property damage and distracting the good guys.
Uncanny X-Men No. 541-543 (2011)
It was actually some time before Colossus and the Juggernaut fought next, with the villain spending much of the 1990s either fighting Thor or in an alternate universe (don’t ask). For the majority of the following decade, he tried going straight with varying degrees of success, spending time as a member of both the X-Men and their spinoff group Excalibur, as well as Marvel’s version of the Suicide Squad, the Thunderbolts. It was while with that latter team that he was essentially infected by an Asgardian weapon, turning him into an even more unstoppable warrior — one that could throw Colossus across great distances without breaking a sweat. The solution to this was…unexpected: Colossus appealed to the mystical source of the Juggernaut’s usual power and, in becoming a Juggernaut himself, finally was able to beat the bad guy for once. There was, of course, a drawback: Colossus was stuck being a Juggernaut for a number of years afterwards.
Amazing X-Men No. 15-19 (2015)
The most recent conflict between the Juggernaut and Colossus started with neither of them possessing the Juggernaut’s powers. Instead, they were fighting because each assumed the other one wanted the powers back, and by the time they both figured out they were wrong, it was too late — someone else had claimed them. Eventually, the Juggernaut had managed to reclaim what had originally been his, leading to one more battle — which Colossus won by, essentially, destroying the ground under the Juggernaut’s feet and causing him to fall into the void. (Don’t worry, he climbed out again by story’s end.)
