15 Emotional Comic Book Moments That Made Us Shed A Tear
5. Peter Rasputin Loses His Sister
Peter Rasputin, better known to comic book fans as the metallic mutant Colussus, is the quintessential gentle giant of Marvel comics. Despite being very tall and incredibly powerful, he is typically characterised as being quiet, shy and a bit of a pacifist. Because of the characters innocence, the death of Peter's sister Illyana to the Legacy Virus in Uncanny X-Men #303 feels all the more sad and tragic.
On a team of complex heroes and anti-heroes like Wolverine and Cyclops, Colussus was the last mutant reader's would ever wish pain and suffering on. As if Illyana's death by itself wasn't enough to bring a tear to the eye, writer Scott Lobdell and artist Richard Bennett deliver a beautifully crafted issue-ending sequence between Jubilee and Jean Grey that is utterly heart wrenching.
Because Colussus is stunned into silence by Illyana's death, Lobdell and Bennett use Jubilee to emote feelings of grief and despair. The young mutant is comforted by Jean - certainly a character that knows a thing or two about death - who tells her Jubilee, "we come into the world alone, and we leave the same way". If the tenderness of that line of dialogue doesn't open the floodgates for a reader, then there's no telling what will.