Uncanny X-Periment # 73: "Onslaught"

NOTE: Biggest blog entry EVER!

Cable # 33; Avengers # 400; X-Men # 53; Uncanny X-Men # 334; X-Men # 54; Onslaught: X-Men; Uncanny X-Men # 335 (pages 28-29); X-Factor # 125 (pages 1-12); Uncanny X-Men # 335 (rest of issue); X-Factor # 125; Cable # 34; Hulk # 444; Avengers # 401; Fantastic Four # 415; X-Factor # 126; Excalibur # 100; X-Man # 18; X-Force # 57; Wolverine # 104; Generation X # 18-19; X-Men # 55 (page # 1-17); Amazing Spider-Man # 415; Spider-Man # 72; X-Men # 55 (rest of issue); Uncanny X-Men # 336; Cable # 35; X-Force # 58; Punisher # 11; X-Men Unlimited # 12; Hulk 445; X-Man # 19; Iron Man # 332; Avengers # 402; Fantastic Four # 416; Wolverine # 105; X-Men # 56; Onslaught: Marvel Universe


A little over ten years ago, on the Saturday after school got out, I went out to my LCS and picked up “Onslaught: X-Men” along with Avengers # 400, Uncanny X-Men # 335 and Cable # 34. I was already jazzed about Onslaught, having glossed over the lead-in issues time and time again. I had been floored by the revelations in Cable # 33, X-Men # 53-54, and Uncanny X-Men # 334. I remember vividly staying up late that night, reading each of these issues listed above at a suspenseful pace, eagerly awaiting the next page, the next scene, the next issue!

Unfortunately, by the time the final issue of the crossover – “Onslaught: Marvel Universe” – came out, I didn’t have the entire story. I was missing bits and pieces of the crossover. This weighed on me for a long time. At comic book conventions from then on out, I sought after those few missing issues. It took me two full years, but when I left the Chicago Comic Con in 1998, I now had the entire Onslaught crossover. All I needed was time. Time to sit down and read the entire crossover in one fell swoop.

But I was entering into my sophomore year of high school at that point and time was something I just didn’t have. Too wrapped up in English, Biology, and the other comics of the day, I just never found the time to sit down and tackle them. High school ended and my on-and-off relationship with college began, but that still didn’t grant me the time – or even the strong desire – to sit down and read through it.

And then the X-Periment began. I knew that if I were to get the time and opportunity to read Onslaught, it would be with that. Thus, here we are, some ten years later. I completed “Onslaught: Marvel Universe” this morning after a full reading.

Despite what it says, Onslaught is best taken in four phases. Phase one is the opening salvo, Onslaught’s initial attack on the X-Men. Phase two is the missions and quests that bring the X-Men, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and X-Force together. Phase three is Onslaught’s attack on New York City. Phase four is the efforts of the X-Men, Avengers, and the Fantastic Four to end the threat of Onslaught.


Let’s break it down . . .


Phase One

Cable, his Techno-Organic Virus going bonkers, learns that his mentor Blaquesmith has gone missing. He goes to investigate, encounters Post and is beaten within an inch of his life. This is right before he figures out who Onslaught is. Post spares his life, as Cable saved his own many years earlier.

That same day, Jean Grey is going shopping and finding it hard to block out the hypocrisy of the residents of Salem Center. She is then suddenly pulled onto the Astral Plane by Onslaught, who wants her to join him. Not only that, but he also shows her his disgust with human hypocrisy; exposes Xavier’s repressed dark side; and his general evil-ness. She declines harshly and Onslaught lets her go. Over in Colorado, the shadow that was haunting Psylocke and Archangel appears in full form as Juggernaut, back from his jaunt in that place I’m not going to talk about.

Jean heads on home, terrified. At this moment, the Juggernaut appears to her, claiming to have information about Onslaught all trapped up in his mind, but inaccessible to him. Gambit and Bishop rally up the X-Men to find Juggernaut on the grounds while Cyclops goes off to have a chat with Professor X. Cyclops is now deeply concerned, as his mental rapport has been cut due to Jean and Juggy’s use of the ol’ Z’Nox Chamber. Professor X has Cyclops shut down the defenses down to lure the Juggernaut into the mansion (not knowing that he’s actually there and downstairs). Jean then uncovers who Onslaught and has Juggernaut get the flip outta there. Juggernaut goes running, but bumps into Onslaught in Xavier’s study.

And that’s when we find out that Onslaught and Professor X are one in the same.

Onslaught disposes of Juggernaut, then summons his X-Men to him. The X-Men arrive, including Dark Beast posing as Beast. Professor X transforms into Onslaught before their eyes and demands their allegiance. The X-Men decline and Onslaught departs for a bit.

Onslaught then goes to Four Freedoms Plaza and posing as Franklin Richardses invisible friend “Charlie,” continues to build some trust with him. Meanwhile, over at Avengers Mansion, Nate Grey has arrived, ranting that Professor X has gone nuts. The Avengers decide to investigate his claims.

Back at the mansion, Onslaught takes out the X-Men while they were trying to delete some files and disconnect Cerebro. Dark Beast shows himself and forms an alliance with Onslaught. The pair then take Jean, seeking to discover how her mind was able to serve as the template for the Phoenix. Jean fights back, escapes to the Z’Nox Chamber and sends out a legendary emergency transmission to the other X-teams. Onslaught arrives, almost killing her, but the X-Men intervene and strike hard. Onslaught makes them think he’s dead, but then materialized behind them. Bishop, this being the moment he’s been waiting for since he came back from the future, steps into the way of the beam and saves the X-Men. Onslaught then departs with Dark Beast.

(The transmission is received by all parties, but not necessarily seen. Generation X is away from their headquarters, but it’s possible saw it and that’s what made her do what she did – explain later. X-Force saw it en route from a mission. Excalibur saw it, but they had something more immediate happen. As for X-Factor . . .)

Dark Beast presents his soldiers to Onslaught – the teleporting assassin Fatale; the brainwashed Havok; and Random, who has infiltrated X-Factor. Onslaught then summons X-Factor’s training Sentinel, which causes X-Factor to miss out on Jean’s transmission.

X-Factor (whose roster is now Forge, Polaris, Wild Child, Mystique, Shard, Sabretooth, and Random [kinda]) follows a tracking signal to the abandoned Brand Corporation, where there are Sentinels are being held in stand-by. A battle with Post, Havok, Fatale, and Random follows. Polaris gets all weepy and angsty fighting Havok, but defeats him in the end. Meanwhile Dark Beast captures Sabretooth, Mystique and Forge and the Sentinels are taken away from the Brand Corporation.

Back in Westchester, the Avengers and Nate Grey arrive at the mansion, where the gang plays a game of catch-up. Professor X is Onslaught, but seems to also have ties to Magneto. Onslaught is after both Nate Grey and Franklin Richards. Cable is missing. Moira MacTaggert claims to have the secret to defeating Xavier/Onslaught at Muir Island.

And, unknown to all of them, Apocalypse has returned and has joined the Watcher in observing the Onslaught conflict as it unfolds.

They divide into teams.


Phase Two

Storm goes off to retrieve Cable. Unfortunately, Onslaught has sent the Hulk to take care of him. I’m not sure when he was to mind control the Hulk, but he did and now the Hulk is after Cable, whose T.O. Virus is outta control! Cable and Storm both to their best to take down the Green Giant, tearing through his smart self, his mobster self and then getting into savage self. Hulk then runs off with Cable, Storm in pursuit. The trio battle across Baltimore, eventually ending with a combination of lightning and telepathic attacks that nearly kills Banner. Cable then pulls Banner/Hulk out from Onslaught’s mind control and the trio sent off to take Onslaught down.

In New York, the Gambit and the Avengers (now that’s an odd fit) head to Norfolk, Va. where they believe they’ve found Magneto. In fact, they have found Magneto, but de-aged, amnesic, and hanging out with Rogue. Quicksilver immediately overreacts to his father and a conflict ensues. Joseph takes down Captain America, Iron Man, and Quicksilver. He eventually goes after Scarlet Witch, which reminds her of her demeaning time in the Brotherhood. However, after he releases her, she realizes he’s not the man that once lorded over her and Quicksilver. She, Rogue, and Gambit calm everyone down and they head off with Joseph in tow.

Back in NYC, a team of Avengers (Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Crystal) and Iceman and Bishop head to Four Freedoms Plaza. They get there right in time, as Onslaught attacks and takes down Nathaniel Richards, the Skrull Lyja, and Ant-Man. The group battles it out, but are unable to stop Onslaught from taking Franklin.

Back at the Brand Corporation, Forge, Sabretooth, and Mystique escape and find out that the real Beast in captive below. They grab Wild Child and head on back into Dark Beast’s lair to save him. Havok and Random both manage to escape, with Random dying (I guess) and Havok hurting Polaris on his way out. The rest of X-Factor rescues Beast and capture both Dark Beast and Fatale.

Cyclops, Archangel, Psylocke, Phoenix, and Cannonball arrive at Muir Island and find out about the Xavier Protocols. Brainwave keys encrypt the Xavier Protocols and the combination of those keys unlocks the secrets as to how to disable or even kill each and every X-Person. Cyclops, Phoenix, and Moira reveals how to create a Psi-Armor that would protect them from Xavier’s telepathy. This is good news that quickly turns bad as the other X-Men enter and they accidentally download how to kill and disable other X-Men. They then head on home.

Back at the mansion, X-Force is busy keeping Nate Grey protected. Mr. Sinister shows up to recover Nate Grey. Various battles with X-Force later and Sinister is able to use Nate’s power against his own protectors and himself. Sinister then leaves with Nate Grey as his captive, hoping to use him against Apocalypse and to keep him away from Onslaught.

Up north, Wolverine has arrived at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters (the Generation X one), where he hopes to get information from Gateway, considering Gateway’s connection with Onslaught. With Elektra’s help, they coax some information outta him. As it turns out, when Xavier wiped out Magneto’s mind up on Avalon, part of Magneto’s personality merged with Xavier’s dark side. The merging created an entity called Onslaught.

Meanwhile, Emma Frost dumps Banshee out in the middle of nowhere and takes Generation X up to her Canadian safehouse. There, Generation X is forced by Emma to be happy, but then do battle with Toad. Toad, as usual, turns out to be a zero threat. Banshee then arrives with the help of Sasquatch from the defunct Alpha Flight.


Phase Three

As the various teams converge at Four Freedoms (the X-Men save the team that went to Muir Island; the Avengers; and the Fantastic Four), the Sentinels rain down upon New York City. Within seventeen minutes, they cut off all of Manhattan from the outside world. The heroes take to the streets, including Spider-Man and his, uh, clone Peter Parker (yep, G.D. Clone Saga).

With Franklin Richards now within him, Onslaught uses his powers to create his citadel in Central Park. Immediately after that, Onslaught unleashes a massive Electro-Magnetic Pulse that wipes everyone out and shuts down anything electric.

Within Onslaught, Franklin finds Professor X and wakes him up. Xavier, appalled by this monster he had created, comforts Franklin best he can. Onslaught transforms into a larger monster and is confronted by a team of X-Men and Avengers, along with the Invisible Woman. Cyclops hits Onslaught with full blast, Invisible Woman open the crack in the armor and Thor slams through, grabbing hold of Xavier and tearing him from Onslaught himself. Thinking that this will do it, Onslaught reveals that he and Xavier are now two separate entities. He then unleashes a massive psi-storm that keeps them away from the citadel.

Cable and Invisible Woman then brave the psi-storm in an effort to save Franklin. Apocalypse joins in to help them out and Cable is stunned to find ol’ Poccy alive and kickin.’ Cable and Apocalypse head off to Onslaught’s citadel, where Apocalypse is planning on actually killing Franklin. Cable and Invisible Woman stop him, and Apocalypse leaves, all p.o.’d. Franklin now has hope, though.

Whatever there was of Xavier left in Onslaught goes off and helps save X-Force from certain death.

SHIELD then shows up, but Sentinels blast the hellicarrier out of the sky. As scavengers go to raid it, the Punisher arrives on the scene and helps Contessa, Dugan, and GW Bridge evacuate it and blow it the heck up.

Back at the mansion, Dr. Strange goes to investigate the abandoned Gem of Cyttorak. There’s all sorts of trials and tribulations with the god Cyttorak, and Gomurr and Tar help Cain get the power back and . . . stuff.


Phase Four

Hulk wants to go against Onslaught. Captain America doesn’t. Hulk, Vision, Falcon, Crystal, and Hawkeye go underground beneath the citadel to bust Onslaught up. They hit the psi-storm and Hulk is caught up in a fantasy that shows their team being wiped out. Their fragile trust in the Hulk is shattered and they head it on back.

Nate Grey, at the mercy on Mr. Sinister, is stuck at Mr. S’s base. As Sinister tries to talk Nate into helping him against Apocalypse, Onslaught seeks to capture Nate. He does this using a projection of Franklin. Onslaught eventually grabs hold of Nate after a heated argument between he and Sinister.

In New York, Quicksilver, Iron Man, and Giant-Man head to the Wakandian Consulate to get the materials to construct the Psi-Armors. While Quicksilver and Giant-Man struggle with Sentinels, Black Panther and Iron Man build the Psi-Armors. They then head to Times Square.

There, the rest of the Avengers meet up with them. Captain America is shaken as the citizens of New York have lost all hope in the face of this crisis. As he and the other Avengers get a hold of the Psi-Armors, Holocaust and Post arrive to take them. The Avengers face off against the pair, having some difficulty. Captain America struggles with what to do, as the Avengers seem outmatched by these two whackos. Cap then tricks Holocaust into attack a cloaked Post, then the Avengers manage to take down Holocaust themselves. This rallies up the spirit of a nearby mob.

At Four Freedoms, the Fantastic Four are welcoming any and all who are willing to help. As this is occurring, Franklin attempts to get a message out to his parents. Onslaught tampers with this message, causing the message to instead be manifestations of the Fantastic Four’s enemies. The Fantastic Four deal with them while also having Puppet Master, Alicia, She-Hulk, Namor, Black Panther, Fantastic Force (?!), the Inhumans, and Doctor Doom join up. Also, Beast is back. They are able to block the transmission and gather everyone up for the final assault.

Over in the Bronx, Wolverine rescues a child from a fire. After this, he goes after the man known as Stick, who talks Wolverine into continuing his pursuit of his humanity. Wolverine is then summoned by the Human Torch into coming back to Four Freedoms to prepare for the final battle.

After being mocked by Doctor Doom, Joseph is looking for answers. At first, he talks to Captain America, but Cap can’t offer an solace. Xavier and Joseph then speak, with Xavier telling him that he has an opportunity to start a new, while the now powerless Xavier must deal with the guilt. Xavier then secretly heads to the citadel. Jean catches wind of this telepathically and tells Scott. Scott orders the X-Men be rounded up in secret. Back at the citadel, Onslaught tears into Nate’s mind, searching for more information about the Age of Apocalypse. When he learns that the AoA Magneto sought to destroy the world, he realizes that Mutants are just as bad as humans and seeks to just totally destroy the world. He tosses Nate inside of him with Franklin. Xavier then shows up to deal with Onslaught.

Onslaught, about to kill Xavier, is struck hard by the arriving Cable and the X-Men. Unfortunately, Onslaught hands their asses to them. Lucky for them, that’s when the Avengers, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Namor, She-Hulk, and Doctor Doom show up. Onslaught creates a second sun to destroy the Earth and erects a force field around him.

The super-heroes contend with the shield and with the combined might of Vision and Rogue, are able to do some damage to him, but Onslaught somehow ends up able to be charged by this attack. Hulk then leaps in and asks Phoenix to release the Banner side of him, unleashing the savage and uncontrollable Hulk upon Onslaught. As the two battle and battle, Cable, Joseph, and Xavier plan on a way to bring Franklin and Nate out of Onslaught by linking the Xavier and Joseph.

Onslaught makes Hulk madder and madder, which comes to a head when Hulk lands a massive punch against Onslaught. His armors break up, reality twists. Suddenly, Hulk and Banner are two people and Onslaught has evolved into a being of pure energy, unstoppable now. The only way to stop him is for Onslaught to have a host. In an ever-heroic move, Thor roars forth and slams into Onslaught’s body. It kills Thor, but also does serious damage to Onslaught as well. Human Torch and Thing follow up, as do the Avengers. When it comes down to the end, it’s Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman. They have the X-Men fire upon Onslaught once they all go in, thus blasting him out of existence.

They do so and as the last super-heroes sacrifice themselves, the X-Men strike as one. With Cable’s help, Xavier and Joseph pull Franklin and Nate Grey out of Onslaught’s exploding energy body. Onslaught is then obliterated, just as Banner enters.

And it’s done. However, the entire world just saw the X-Men fire upon the super-heroes when they were in the middle of an energy field. Apocalypse declares that this is the beginning of his era. But there is still hope that the heroes may have survived . . .

WHEW! MY FINGERS HURT!

It’s hard for me to judge Onslaught. As a whole, I think Onslaught is on the lines of a big summer blockbuster movie. It’s a little predictable, a lot of flashy special efforts, some drama, some humor, some cool characters with awesome lines, and – if you think about it too much, the whole thing falls apart.

Put into simplest terms, what is Onslaught all about? Onslaught is the story of a terrible creature born out of a moment of desperation when the darkness of two enemies (Xavier and Magneto) merged. This creature, Onslaught, manifested itself from the dark recesses of Professor Xavier, gathering together various agents, each one having a past with Xavier’s students. Onslaught to have Mutants dominate the globe as humans were full of spite and hypocrisy. He sought the power Franklin Richards and Nathan Grey to fulfill these tasks. And when he glimpsed upon the world that Nathan Grey hailed from, he learned that both humanity and Mutantkind were corrupt and weak. He decided to destroy the Earth, but with the sacrifice of a number of super-heroes – mostly human, at that – Onslaught was defeated. Inadvertently, this sacrifice painted Mutants as even more vicious and hated than ever before. Put this way, it sounds almost epic, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not. At least, not in a fantastic way.

Don’t get me wrong. Onslaught is a great read, but it suffers from more than a few problems. First, among all things, Onslaught himself is a very flat villain. He makes long-winded speeches, unleashes devastating attacks, and is evil purely for the sake of being evil. He hates humans because Magneto hates humans. He later hates Mutants because he thought they were stupid in some alternate reality. There’s nothing to him. At times, it does seem like the writers want to flesh him out, to make him more interesting. But these times are few and far in between. He goes from being a real threat, really coming out and kicking ass to being a plot device for “Heroes Reborn” in a matter of issues. Even the concept of Onslaught’s creation is shaky. Sure, he seems cool, but the moment you really start to think of how silly it is, the more you begin to question why Onslaught even exists.

Secondly, some of the issues drag on and on endlessly and needlessly. Issues of Fantastic Four never end, each one serving to be too long and too complex for their own good.

The constant use of illusions gets old fast. There are cliches galore, especially in terms of dialogue. Plus, the whole story gets very predictable when the foreshadowing grows out of control.

But there is some good in all of this. While I know that Avengers and Fantastic Four fans roll their eyes at this story, it serves well as a development for the X-Men. It gives humans yet another reason to hate Mutants. It allows for various subplots – Rogue/Gambit, for one – to take another turn as the story begins to coalesce. Bishop’s quest to stop the traitor, the aforementioned Rogue/Gambit relationship, the Dark Beast’s plans, Cable/Apocalypse, X-Man/Sinister . . . a good couple more all get some time in the sun.

Also, Captain America shines through as a true leader and super-hero. He’s written very well, I feel. His doubts during the Post and Holocaust battle take him onto a more human level, while his abilities and very attitude on both the field and among the other heroes makes him larger-than-life. A great scene is during the final battle with Onslaught when Cap kinda takes a second to look around and be honored to work alongside such great heroes.

Then there’s Thor, who really embodies the Thor I’ve really pictured. A hero, a warrior, more than willing to throw himself into the maw of danger and destruction. In fact, most of the big Thor moments in Onslaught are actually the best all-in-all, including his freeing of Xavier from Onslaught and his being the first sacrifice.

The sacrifice scene in it of itself is well done, allowing each of the various characters a moment to shine before they go off to be drawn by Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, and Whilce Portatio. Hank and Jan share a moment, as do Reed and Sue. Quicksilver yelling for Crystal when she enters Onslaught is particularly heart wrenching, despite how crappy their marriage was. Even Teen Iron Man gets a nice exit, grabbing Doctor Doom and zooming right him right into Onslaught with him.

There are also terrible characters. While the X-Men, the majority of the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four are all well written, Doctor Doom comes off as uber-lame. He’s the total exaggeration of what and who his character is and puts even the kookiest villains to shame during his appearances. On top of that, Quicksilver comes off just as badly. He is written like a cliché.

The writing various from issue to issue, of course, and while most of it is mostly, there are some parts that are worse than others. The Punisher, Generation X, X-Force, and the two Spider-Man books all suffer from lagging stories and/or stories that are very much unnecessary.

I’ll also be honest when I say that as a geeky X-Fan, I really wanted to see X-Factor, X-Force, Excalibur, and Generation X jump in with the X-Men and help them against Onslaught. If only for a few pages . . . [sigh]

On the art front, we’ve got mostly all winners. Carlos Pacheco on Fantastic Four, Ian Churchill on Cable, Joe Mad on Uncanny, Andy Kubert on X-Men, Andy Kubert on the Onslaught one-shots, Steve Skorce on X-Man, and Chris Bachelo on Generation X. Where can you go wrong? Well, Steve Epting on Avengers, Angel Medina on Hulk, Joe Bennet on Iron Man, Val Semeiks on Wolverine, and Castrillo on X-Force. These artists, whether or not they’re good now and whether or not they’re guest pencilling, are pretty bad in terms of creating dynamic and interesting forms of art.

And this is definitely a case when you can see just how much a good colorist and inker can make or break the art. Andy Kubert’s art can off as rather flat thanks to poor inking. Plus, the colors on Avengers and Iron Man are horrendous. Why in the world are these two books not colored in the same way that X-Men and Avengers are? The quality – or lack there of – is terrible. At least one full panel and a number of characters and objects in the Avengers aren’t colored at all.

The overall design of Onslaught is pretty cool, I’ll give them that. It’s a pet peeve that his mid-crossover transformation is half-ignored, but I guess I can blame that on a memo or e-mail just making the rounds.

So, where do I stand on Onslaught? I’d have to say that for all the good things about, there’s an equal amount of bad. I can’t help but be swept up in the excitement of the story, but I also can’t help but be bothered by the flaws of it. I think it had potential to be something better and indeed, it may have been planned to be. But at the end of the day, it quickly became a vehicle for “Heroes Reborn.” (A quick note of “Heroes Reborn” – it was the darkness before the dawn. Sure, it was crap, but at least Jim Lee’s art was pretty. And the aftermath brought that amazing Busiek/Perez run on Avengers)

There is a deep thought in Onslaught, but you have to be eagle-eyed to catch it. At times, it comes off as a “twilight of the gods,” as it were. The heroes are made to parallel the ancient gods of old, now fading into the annals of history . . . until the next year, when they come back, better than ever.

Final thoughts on Onslaught? It was a fun ride, if not convoluted and disappointing at times. It had some great moments, but some crappy ones too. Out of ten (one being “The Draco” and Ten being “The Dark Phoenix Saga”), I’d say it’s a firm 5.


~W~