The Argentinian headed home in the fourth minute of stoppage time to snatch a precious point after Magpies old boy N'Zogbia had silenced the St James' Park boo boys.
The 24-year-old Frenchman put the visitors in front with a 22nd-minute header and then added a second with a superb left-foot rocket to answer the cat-calls from fans still bristling at the manner of his departure from the club.
N'Zogbia, who was once mistakenly referred to as Charles Insomnia'', tormented right-back James Perch throughout, and with a little more composure, could have killed the game off long before the final whistle.
But substitute Shola Ameobi's 72nd-minute header gave the Magpies hope as a crowd of 44,415 finally had something to shout about, and Coloccini completed the job in the nick of time.
The game started with boos for owner Mike Ashley over his decision to sell the naming rights to the stadium, and N'Zogbia as a result of his extended campaign of agitation for a move away from the club, which finally paid off in February last year.
But the boos on the half-time whistle were all for the club the Frenchman had left behind as the Magpies capitulated all too easily in the face of a not particularly special performance by the visitors.
Newcastle were simply awful for all but a few minutes of the opening period.
They lacked ideas in midfield, where Wigan boss Roberto Martinez had ordered his players to close down space, and toothless in attack on the rare occasions when striker Andy Carroll and Peter Lovenkrands, preferred to Ameobi and Kevin Nolan, saw anything of the ball.
But more alarmingly, they were horribly porous at the back as right-back Perch's education in top-flight football took an ugly turn up an ever steeper hill.
His main job was to try to keep N'Zogbia quiet with a helping hand from Danny Guthrie, making his first appearance of the season after recovering from a knee injury.
But the former Magpie gave him a torrid time throughout and capped his afternoon with a quick-fire double which put the Latics in the driving seat with barely a quarter of the game gone.
There was an element of good fortune about N'Zogbia's first goal when Franco di Santo's cross looped up off Jose Enrique and dropped invitingly for the winger to head across goalkeeper Tim Krul and into the bottom corner.
However, his second less a minute later oozed class as he brought down Di Santo's cross on his chest before smashing a shot past Krul from a tight angle.
Newcastle were laboured in their attempts to get back into the game, although they came close twice within seconds as clock ticked past the 40-minute mark.
First Maynor Figueroa had to head over his own crossbar after Carroll had turned Guthrie's free-kick across goal towards Lovenkrands, and then Emmerson Boyce cleared the striker's header off the line from the resulting corner.
It could have been even worse for the Magpies had N'Zogbia opted to cross early to the unmarked Di Santo in injury time, and the home manager headed for the dressing room with chants of "Hughton, sort it out'' ringing in his ears with his side starring down the barrel of a third successive home defeat.
What Hughton needed was a swift response, but there was little sign of it in the opening minutes of the second half as his side continued to squander possession and make little of it when they had it.
The Magpies pinned the visitors back inside their own half, but were unable to find anything like the quality of final ball they needed to break Wigan down, although Carroll headed wide from Enrique's looping 56th-minute ball in.
Lovenkrands found himself in a promising position on the hour as Perch prepared to cross, but although the Dane controlled well, Newcastle old boy Steve Caldwell intervened before he could shoot.
Guthrie drilled a 65th-minute free-kick harmlessly over the bar with little sign of the fightback the Magpies so desperately required.
However, Ameobi, a 60th-minute replacement for Lovenkrands, gave his side hope with 18 minutes gone when he powered home a header from Jonas Gutierrez's cross to spark a belated onslaught.
Carroll headed just wide seconds later, but substitute Hugo Rodallega perhaps should have made sure five minutes from time after being played in by N'Zogbia.
His side were made to pay at the death when Carroll flicked on Gutierrez's cross and Coloccini headed home from close range to cap a spirited comeback.
Newcastle boss Chris Hughton praised the spirit of his team after watching the Magpies grind down the Latics and snatched a point at the death when skipper for the day Fabricio Coloccini headed home an equaliser in the fourth minute of added time.
"What we have got in this side is great character, that I am aware of. What we are now doing is we are now playing our football in a tougher division, and Wigan have become very much an established Premier League side and they showed very much in patches today the quality they have got.
"We knew we were on the back of two home defeats and that's not something we wanted to continue. We know we are in a tougher division, but this is somewhere that became very much a fortress for us last season.
"The only way to get back to anywhere near that, which we know is impossible in this division, is to draw out results in whichever way we have to, and we showed great character and quality towards the end to get back into the game.''
Newcastle could not have left it any later to grab their point. The roar which went up at the stadium when Coloccini headed home his last-gasp equaliser was as much in relief as celebration with the 6-0 demolition of Aston Villa on August 22 now long forgotten.
To make matters worse, it was N'Zogbia who threatened to undo them as he plundered as his 22nd and 23rd-minute strikes put the visitors 2-0 ahead. The Frenchman gave full-back James Perch a torrid afternoon throughout, and might have eased his side to victory had he made the most of the space afforded him after the break.
But substitute Shola Ameobi gave Newcastle hope with a 72nd-minute header, and Coloccini completed the comeback at the death.
After defeats on Tyneside by Blackpool and Stoke, a point was an improvement, but Hughton, who rested captain Kevin Nolan, acknowledged that his team need to start picking up more results against the sides who are likely to be around them in the table.
"It's always a concern when you are losing or drawing games, and it would be no secret that there are a group of teams against which you would feel that you have got your better opportunities to get your points," Hughton said. "Over a season, we will have to gain more points from the teams in that group.''
For Wigan boss Roberto Martinez, it was a case of what might have been as his side only just failed to hold out.
"The game can be very cruel and that was a clear example," Martinez said. "I felt we were well in control for the whole game, we scored two very good goals from open play, which is the hardest thing in football, and then we let ourselves down by just not being able to defend a set-play at the end.
"That's a little bit where we are. I feel we are very talented young group of players and we showed that today. But then we are lacking that little bit of know-how, that little bit of experience that you need to show at critical moments of the game to see it through.
"Sometimes that can be painful, but the performance as a whole was something we can take a lot from and carry on growing.''
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