Onslaught (comics)

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Onslaught
Panel from X-Men #53. Art by Andy Kubert
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	(Named) Uncanny X-Men #322 (1995) (In shadows) X-Man #15 (1996) (Fully) X-Men #53 (1996)
Created by	Scott Lobdell Mark Waid Andy Kubert
In story information
Alter ego	Non-applicable (created from the minds of Charles Xavier and Magneto)
Team affiliations	Dark Descendants
Abilities	Superhuman strength and durability Psionic powers Magnetism manipulation Reality warping

Onslaught is a character, a psionic entity in the Marvel Comics universe created from the consciousness of two characters: Professor Charles Xavier, founder and leader of the X-Men, and the villainous mutant known as Magneto.

[edit] Publication history

Onslaught first fully appeared in X-Men (vol. 2) #53 (June 1996), and was created by writers Scott Lobdell and Mark Waid, and artist Andy Kubert.

The character was the focus of an intra-company crossover, the "Onslaught Saga", which began shortly before Onslaught: X-Men, ended in Onslaught: Marvel Universe, and led directly into the "Heroes Reborn" storyline. The actual beginning of the saga is hard to determine, due to a great deal of foreshadowing and preluding. The story itself was divided into two categories; "Phase" (comics that tied in directly with the battle against Onslaught), and "Impact" (comics that were affected by Onslaught, but not tying directly into the struggle against him).^{[citation needed]} The event permeated almost all Marvel comic books published in summer 1996.

With the departure of Rob Liefeld and Jeph Loeb from the Avengers title, the storylines were never adequately wrapped up; however, in late 2006, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Onslaught event, a five-issue mini-series, Onslaught Reborn, by Loeb and Liefeld, saw the villain return and explored these dangling plot threads. Set after Decimation but before Civil War, it sees the mutant energy from the depowered mutants reforming the monster.^[1]

[edit] Birth

At the conclusion of the "Fatal Attractions" storyline, Magneto ripped the adamantium from Wolverine's skeleton after Wolverine attempted to kill him. In response, Professor X shut down Magneto's mind psionically -- something he had sworn he would never do.^{[2] [3]} Since the Professor used his powers in anger, his mind was open to the influence of Magneto's psyche^{[citation needed]} which grew in Xavier's subconscious. This small element of Magneto's psyche took root where Xavier's repressed anger at humanity's intolerance toward mutants was buried. Eventually, this part of Xavier's psyche became so strong that it was able to manifest itself as a non-physical entity of pure psionic energy that split from Xavier.

The character of Onslaught was first alluded to when a shadowy figure with Onslaught's distinctive word-balloon coloring and design was seen speaking with a frightened Mystique. ^[4] Onslaught was first mentioned when the Juggernaut crash-landed in Hoboken, New Jersey, having been hit hard enough by Onslaught to send him across the country, with a mental block on his brain, causing him to forget who or what Onslaught actually was (as he had learned Onslaught's identity). ^[5].

Around this time, Nate Grey (X-Man), a powerful psychic from the Age of Apocalypse timeline, came to Earth. When Professor X attempted to scan Nate's mind, Nate accidentally pulled Xavier's astral form into the physical realm. As revealed later, this was the means by which the Onslaught entity learned how to manifest itself in a physical form. Onslaught's next major role in a story was one in which Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, and Iceman are stolen from the mansion in the middle of the night and forced to fight his herald, Post. ^[6] After the battle, a psychic entity (actually Onslaught himself) appeared to Gateway— and the X-Men, warning him of his arrival before vanishing. The entity appeared in this form once more, in which it assisted Gambit and Jean Grey in their investigation of the anti-mutant government agent Bastion. ^[7]

[edit] Onslaught Saga

Onslaught made its first full appearance in costume in X-Men vol. 2 #53. Onslaught's physical form, as first seen here, was enormous and had a uniform similar to Magneto's. Onslaught kidnapped Jean Grey, took her to the astral plane, and attempted to convince her to follow him and to become his consort. Without revealing to her that he was a part of Xavier's mind, he tried to show her the extent of Xavier's own repressed anger and frustration, both towards the seeming futility of his dream and towards his own students - expressed in the form of a flashback^[8], in which Xavier mused on his undeclared and inexpressible love for Jean Grey. Onslaught then offered Jean a power that would rival that of the Phoenix Force, but she rejected him, and for it Onslaught lashed out at her, burning her forehead with her own psionic power, overtaken by Onslaught.

With a statement of "know my name", Onslaught cast her from the Astral Plane, leaving his name psionically burned onto her forehead (visible only to Jean herself). She and the other X-Men soon met with the Juggernaut^[9], who wanted her to use her telepathic powers to read his blocked memory and find out who Onslaught really was. Before they could do so, Onslaught kidnapped Juggernaut and imprisoned him within the mystical gem that granted him his powers^[10]. The entity then manifested itself before the X-Men, defeating them in battle^[11], and destroying most of Xavier's school.

Bishop, the time-lost mutant from the future, had been warned that a traitor within the ranks of the X-Men had betrayed the team in the late 20th century, leading to their destruction. While Bishop had long thought that person to be Gambit, the aforementioned events made it clear that the actual traitor was Xavier, or more accurately, Onslaught. In fact, during a sequence involving Jean Grey and Onslaught, captured as a recording he saw in his alternate future, he fired on Onslaught, destroying his future and saving the X-Men.

Assisted by Post and Dark Beast (who had infiltrated the X-Men by disguising himself as Beast), Onslaught attempted to start a global apocalypse that would destroy all of humanity. Dark Beast and his allies fought X-Factor and let loose a number of Sentinels on New York City^[12].

These Sentinels fought Spider-Man, the Punisher, and the Green Goblin (Phil Urich, a superhero who retired as a result of this battle), and killed the parents of Hallie Takahama, who would later become the superheroine, Jolt. Post defeated Cable, after which Cable and the Hulk fought each other.

Afterward, the two teamed up with Apocalypse for an inconclusive assault on Onslaught. Meanwhile, with the aid of the mysterious mutant Gateway, Wolverine and Elektra were able to discern Onslaught's origin as a twisted synthesis of the minds of Xavier and Magneto.

Following Onslaught's devastation of the X-Men, they were visited by the Avengers, accompanied by Rogue and Joseph (Magneto's clone, who was thought to be Magneto himself). Nate Grey and X-Force soon joined the heroes at the X-Mansion. Grey and X-Force remained behind while the other heroes travelled to the Fantastic Four's headquarters, where they unsuccessfully attempted to prevent Onslaught (in the form of a young Charles Xavier) from kidnapping Franklin Richards^[13].

Meanwhile, the members of X-Force were subdued by Mister Sinister, who also kidnapped Nate Grey. Although Sinister attempted to convince Grey to work with him, Grey was also psychically visited by Onslaught (again in Xavier's child form), who kidnapped him despite the interference of Franklin Richards.

Onslaught was able to use the near-limitless psychic power of his two young captives to amplify his own, changing into his second physical form in the process. In this form, Onslaught fought the Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Joseph. During the battle, Thor was able to physically separate Xavier from Onslaught. Without Xavier's influence, Onslaught was "free" (as he put it), no longer bound by Xavier. Later, after a confrontation with Xavier himself, Onslaught declared that neither mutants, nor humans, were worthy, and that all would be equally destroyed by him.

During the penultimate battle in New York's Central Park, Onslaught's physical form was destroyed by the gathered heroes (whose ranks now included the Hulk, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and surprisingly, Doctor Doom). However, this attack did not disable Onslaught, instead by releasing him from physical constraints it unleashed the full extent of 'his' power. Unchecked by physical constraints, Onslaught used the absorbed reality-altering abilities of Franklin Richards and Nate Grey to create a second sun, with which he intended to destroy the Earth.

Further, as a result of this 'evolution', the assembled heroes found that mutant attacks actually added to Onslaught's strength (his evolving form absorbing and incorporating the energy they used upon him).

Having determined that the absorption of 'normal' life-forms would contain Onslaught's psychic energy in a physical vessel, the non-mutant heroes charged Onslaught en masse, while the mutants released all their energy on the heroes in an attempt to destroy Onslaught, at the cost of killing the heroes in the process.

The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Bruce Banner (but not the Hulk, who was physically separated from Banner during the battle), and an unwilling Doctor Doom appeared to sacrifice their lives in this fashion. Namor and the Scarlet Witch were also among those who sacrificed themselves. The Scarlet Witch used her probability-control powers to shield herself so that she could enter, and Namor may have been able to enter due to the fact that he is a human-Atlantean hybrid, rather than a traditional Homo Superior.

Thanks to Franklin Richards' power, the heroes who gave their lives to destroy Onslaught did not die; instead, they were reborn in a pocket dimension (Heroes Reborn). This dimension was contained within a ball that Franklin would carry with him until the missing heroes were able to return.

In this pocket dimension, during a chaotic event involving the impending detonation of the gamma power core of the Avengers headquarters (which was later revealed to be a breach in space and time), Onslaught himself briefly appeared as a non-corporeal being.

[edit] Onslaught Reborn

When the Scarlet Witch used her powers to depower countless mutants, including Magneto and Prof. Xavier, the power lost by Magneto and Xavier combined, and restored Onslaught (whose consciousness still remained lingering after his death), who is now determined to kill Franklin Richards and every hero that exists. He first appears very grotesque, with a monstrous skull-faced form. Onslaught takes control of both the Human Torch and Mister Fantastic in an attempt to get Franklin but it is interrupted by the Thing and Invisible Woman.

When Franklin flees to Counter-Earth, Onslaught follows him. As he arrived, Onslaught's appearance changed, becoming larger and more refined, notably gaining his trademark Magneto-style head. However, he soon encountered Captain America and the Avengers and was assumed to be temporarily defeated following his plummet into the ocean.

While the Avengers assess their new threat which did not exist until Franklin appeared, they take into account what the boy says about Onslaught. However, they are in disbelief that he is the son of Susan Storm and Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four as they are not married in their reality. Loki, meanwhile, regards the arrival of the entity known as Onslaught as the perfect opportunity to kill Thor.

Shortly afterwards, Thor is assaulted by an Onslaught-possessed Hulk, and in turn, falls under Onslaught's control. The mentally controlled Hulk champions against Thor. The heroes then unite to stop the savage beast, and when Iron Man flies from orbit and hits Hulk with incredible speed and power, Hulk is defeated. Iron Man then is mentally controlled and gets ready to strike Captain America, the man Onslaught wants defeated to eliminate all hope from Earth's heroes. At the Avenger's mansion, Executioner, Scarlet Witch, Enchantress, Ultron V, and Loki appear there before the baffled Franklin Richards.

After a brief skirmish, the heroes and villains decide to work together to defeat Onslaught, but it is Bucky Barnes who defeats him, using a Fantasti-Car to send them both through the Negative Zone barrier in the Fantastic Four's lab, trapping them. Franklin returns home, Bucky finds himself on Earth 616, and Onslaught is last seen floating outside the Area 42 Prison in the Negative Zone.

[edit] Appearance

Onslaught's armor and appearance have been drawn in vastly different ways.

• Officially, his helmet resembles Magneto's, with the purple trim around the facial area, with the helmet empty and fields of light for eyes. In several issues, he has been depicted with a red, noseless face, or a lack of purple rim around his face.

• It can be gathered that Onslaught should have muscle-like plates around his armor, appearing almost robotic at times. However, several artists have drawn the red area of his armor as flesh. The details of his armor's purple plating has been depicted differently, as well.

• Onslaught's massive, monstrous second form has also been depicted in various ways. Most of them are the same as the armor variations of the first form, but there are others; at times, he has been depicted without purple plates on his forearms, with varying minor differences in the structure of his head, and shape of his overall design.

[edit] Powers and abilities

Onslaught possesses immense telepathy and telekinesis, could project psi-blasts of devastating force, assume total mental control, induce illusions, mental or physical paralysis, and able to alter one's perception. He was especially powerful on the astral plane. Onslaught was also capable of manipulating magnetic fields. Another demonstration of his raw power, was when Onslaught ripped the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak out of the supposedly indestructible Juggernaut's body, and his tremendous power of energy manipulation was also demonstrated when he integrated Franklin Richards into himself, who is beyond an Omega-Level mutant and has been stated by Roma to be Celestial level even in his current childlike age. After fully evolving into his own, separate consciousness, Onslaught combined Franklin Richards' vast reality-altering powers with his own, and his powers were increased to virtually omnipotent level. At that level he was even able to create a new sun. Onslaught stated that he could geometrically increase his strength by will. ^[14] He knocked the Juggernaut, literally, across North America. He was also able to go toe-to-toe in a physical fight with an enraged "Savage" Hulk, although the Hulk was able to rip his armor off and overpower him.

[edit] Onslaught's objective

The Overview book, Road to Onslaught, contained what appeared to be copies of Marvel documents (laced with corrective notes in red pen), entitled "Onslaught Made Easy", describing what it was Onslaught was trying to accomplish, in details not immediately apparent in many of the comics. According to these, Onslaught was planning to become a collective consciousness, or "hive-mind", replacing all thought in the universe with his own. Onslaught was to become thought itself (an objective he had actually managed to accomplish before his demise), and force himself into the minds of every living being. However, this was a miscalculation on Onslaught's part, as a human mind cannot contain such a massive consciousness (the documents compare this to forcing an orange into a grape).

The control of the Sentinels was not to just terrorize the populace, nor was it to keep the heroes in check (especially since Onslaught no longer considered them a threat). He had abducted several scientists working on the Sentinels to gain access to Sentinel technology. His goal was to use the technology within the Sentinels that cancels out psionic energy of mutants. Onslaught planned to reverse this process, and channel all that energy into himself, with the Sentinel's rampage being a way to spur fear, panic, and various negative emotions, which would release scores of psionic energy, which Onslaught would then channel into himself, growing ever-stronger.

However, just having vast amounts of psionic energy wouldn't be enough, as Onslaught would need a way to channel it. Using Xavier's knowledge of Landau, Luckman, and Lake and the transdimensional portals, Onslaught planned to tap into the portals to spread himself to everyone on the planet with a single thought. Subsequently, Onslaught had focused his assault on Manhattan due to the "mother of all these doorways", as the documents state, lying below Central Park; the Grand Chamber of the Morlock Tunnels, a "horrific bubbling cauldron of energy that he intends to wield", again quoting the documents. He planned to use this energy via Gateway, who had taken great interest in beings with psionic power, knowing that one of them would wield enough of this power to inadvertently destroy the world. But, because he serves this power, he serves the one who wields it (which would be Onslaught).

The documents summarize his objectives thusly...

• "Recruit" Franklin Richards and Nate Grey.
• State his intentions to the world.
• Release the Sentinels on Manhattan.
• Expose the core of ambient, world-wide energy which exists in the Morlock Tunnels beneath Central Park.
• Use Gateway to disseminate his hyper-psionic energy throughout the world using the pre-existing Landau, Luckman, and Lake energy portals.

[edit] List of casualties

The final battle against Onslaught cost the Marvel Universe eighteen of its most prominent figures. Though they would return, the event marked a turning point in their individual histories.

• Dr. Bruce Banner; notably not the Hulk version of his personality who was separated by Onslaught and left behind.
• Black Panther
• Captain America
• Crystal
• Doctor Doom
• Falcon
• Giant-Man
• Hawkeye
• Human Torch
• Invisible Woman
• Iron Man
• Mister Fantastic
• Namor the Sub-Mariner
• Scarlet Witch
• Thing
• Thor
• Vision
• Wasp

In the miniseries Heroes Reborn: The Return, it was erroneously implied that She-Hulk and the Inhumans were casualties as well, as they were shown to board the craft returning the heroes to the mainstream Marvel Universe. In reality, however, She-Hulk had been working with the Heroes For Hire, and when Crystal returned in the page of Quicksilver's comic, the other Inhumans welcomed her back.

[edit] Final Battle Roster

Those that fought Onslaught in the last battle included those in the List of Casualties, Cyclops, Professor X, Jean Grey, Hulk (with and without Banner), Wolverine, Rogue, Gambit, Storm, Cable, Joseph (Magneto's clone), Bishop, Iceman, Nate Grey (X-Man), Quicksilver, and Franklin Richards.

[edit] Other versions

[edit] Ultimate Onslaught

A character with a strong resemblance to Onslaught appears in the final page of Ultimate X-Men #91, and appears on the cover of #92. In solicitations he is referred to as Ultimate Onslaught. However, in #92 it is revealed to be Charles Xavier returning from the future with Cable.

[edit] In other media

[edit] Video games

Onslaught has appeared as the final boss in Marvel vs. Capcom. In that version of the story, Xavier subconsciously used Onslaught's power to call heroes from another universe to help the Marvel super heroes battle him. At the end of the game, the player faced Onslaught in the two forms seen in the comics.

In two endings to the game, Jin Saotome (in his own ending) and Captain America (in Hulk's ending) sacrifice themselves to defeat Onslaught (who had become the mass of pure energy in said endings).

[edit] Toys

There have been several Onslaught figures released throughout the years. A helmeted version was released in the late 1990s. Later, in 2006, Onslaught's second, monstrous form was used as the Build-A-Figure for Marvel Legends Series 13. It was smaller than most other ML Build-A-Figures to that date, but is larger than subsequent figures such as MODOK and The Blob.

[edit] Onslaught checklist

(This checklist is in alphabetical order and not in release order as according to the phases and impacts.)

• Amazing Spider-Man #415
• Avengers #400
• Avengers #401
• Avengers #402
• Cable #32
• Cable #33
• Cable #34
• Cable #35
• Cable #36
• Excalibur #99
• Excalibur #100
• Fantastic Four #414
• Fantastic Four #415
• Fantastic Four #416
• Generation X #18
• Generation X #19
• Green Goblin #12
• Incredible Hulk #444
• Incredible Hulk #445
• Incredible Hulk #446
• Incredible Hulk #447
• Iron Man #332
• Onslaught: X-Men
• Onslaught: Marvel Universe
• Onslaught: Epilogue
• Punisher #11
• Spider-Man #72
• Thor #502
• Uncanny X-Men #322
• Uncanny X-Men #333
• Uncanny X-Men #334
• Uncanny X-Men #335
• Uncanny X-Men #336
• Uncanny X-Men #337
• Wolverine #93
• Wolverine #104
• Wolverine #105
• X-Factor #124
• X-Factor #125
• X-Factor #126
• X-Force #46
• X-Force #52
• X-Force #57
• X-Force #58
• X-Man #15
• X-Man #16
• X-Man #17
• X-Man #18
• X-Man #19
• X-Men #25
• X-Men #46
• X-Men #49
• X-Men #50
• X-Men #53
• X-Men #54
• X-Men #55
• X-Men #56
• X-Men #57
• X-Men: Road to Onslaught
• X-Men Unlimited #11
• X-Men Unlimited #12
• X-Men Unlimited #14

[edit] Trade paperbacks

The trade paperbacks collect issues involved within the Onslaught storyline. When arranged in order an image of Onslaught and Xavier is created on the spine. Unfortunately the issues in the trades are not in reading order. They include:

• Onslaught Book One: "The Awakening" (Onslaught: X-Men, Uncanny X-Men #332-334, X-Men #53-54, Wolverine #104)
• Onslaught Book Two: "To The Victor..." (X-Force #57-58, X-Man #18-19)
• Onslaught Book Three: "Comrades In Arms" (Avengers #401, Fantastic Four #415, Uncanny X-Men #335, X-Men #55)
• Onslaught Book Four: "Eye Of The Storm" (Cable #34-35, Incredible Hulk #444-445)
• Onslaught Book Five: "The Front Line" (Amazing Spider-Man #415, Green Goblin #12, Punisher #12, Spider-Man #72, X-Factor #125)
• Onslaught Book Six: "Pyrrhic Victory" (Avengers #402, Fantastic Four #416, Onslaught: Marvel Universe, Uncanny X-Men #336, X-Men #56)
• Onslaught Reborn (by Jeph Loeb & Rob Liefeld, 2008)

Starting in December 2007, the entire storyline is being collected chronologically in four new volumes titled X-Men: The Complete Onslaught Epic ^[15].

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• The official Marvel Universe article on Onslaught