Warning: SPOILERS for X-Men Gold #30
The marriage of the X-Men's Kitty Pryde and Colossus was supposed to be the wedding of the century - right up until it wasn't. In this week's X-Men Gold #30, Kitty decides not to go through with the wedding after all. She does so in spectacular fashion, literally phasing even as Colossus is putting the ring on her finger.
In January this year, writer Marc Guggenheim finally had Colossus and Kitty get engaged. It didn't take Marvel long to invite readers to what they promised was "the wedding of the century."
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That wedding takes place in X-Men Gold #30, an issue that's absolutely dripping in nostalgia. There are countless deliberate callbacks to previous X-Men weddings, most notably 1994's X-Men #30, in which Cyclops and Jean Grey tied the knot. But this time round, the wedding takes an unexpected twist; Kitty Pryde, filled with doubts about her decision, instinctively phases as Colossus tries to put the ring on her finger. That's when she realizes she can't go through with it, and disappears, leaving a heartbroken Colossus behind at the altar.
It's a shocking twist, although regular readers will have been able to see it coming. Kitty and Colossus both know they love one another, but they've been filled with doubts about their marriage. Those doubts are finally expressed in X-Men: Gold #30 by Kitty's best friend, Magik - Colossus's sister. Determined to be a bad influence, on the night before the wedding Magik takes Kitty on to the Mansion's roof, where the two women drink a little... too much. As a result, Magik loses her inhibitions, and says what she's secretly been thinking all along. "I think if you two were meant to be together... it would've happened by now." Kitty already had her doubts, and now her best friend - Colossus's little sister - has given voice to them.
The future of Colossus and Kitty Pryde is unclear. Colossus knows exactly where Kitty will go to think, and the two share a heartbreaking conversation in which Kitty admits she feels there's too much history between them, and that it makes for a poor foundation to build a life together. The rest of the X-Men are devastated, but attempt to put a positive spin on it. Storm - no stranger to marriage and divorce herself - notes that this could be "fortunate." As she explains, "If things aren't meant to work out between Kitty and Peter, it's better they realize it tonight, rather than years from now."
That's clearly the angle Guggenheim hopes readers will take. But it remains to be seen whether or not he pulls it off; comic book readers are deeply invested in this relationship, and this is hardly the end they wanted to see.
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X-Men Gold #30 is on sale now from Marvel Comics.