Onslaught (Marvel Comics)

Onslaught is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared as a cameo in ''X-Men: Prime'' #1 before making his first full appearance in ''X-Men'' vol. 2, #53, where he would eventually serve as the main antagonist of the "Onslaught" storyline from then onward.

Onslaught was written as a sentient psionic entity created from the subconsciousness of two mutants: Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto. During a battle between the X-Men and Magneto's Acolytes, Professor Xavier used his telepathic powers to shut down Magneto's mind, rendering him catatonic. It was explained through the Onslaught crossover series that the darkest aspect of Magneto's mind escaped into Xavier's subconscious, where it "merged" with Xavier's own darker nature to eventually grow into a separate persona of its own.

Publication history

The character first appeared in cameo in ''X-Men: Prime'' #1 (July 1995), named in ''Uncanny X-Men'' #322 and made his first full appearance in ''X-Men'' vol. 2, #53 (June 1996) where he was co-created by writers Scott Lobdell, Mark Waid, and artist Andy Kubert. He was written and introduced as a villain that was part of the effect of events in the 1993 " Fatal Attractions" storyline. Onslaught's introduction into X-Men storylines caused its own crossover event across multiple Marvel comic book titles (including ''Avengers'', ''Fantastic Four'' and ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' issues).

Fictional character biography

Origins

Onslaught is a psionic entity created from the subconsciousness of Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto. During a battle between the X-Men and Magneto's Acolytes, Magneto used his powers to remove the adamantium from Wolverine's skeleton. Xavier used his telepathy to shut down Magneto's mind and render him catatonic. During the psionic contact, Magneto's anger, grief, and lust for vengeance entered Xavier's consciousness, mingling with every long-suppressed negative yearnings Xavier had endured during the last 30 years. This result created the being known as Onslaught.

After gaining an independent body, Onslaught possesses Xavier and kidnaps him after being forced to leave his body. Onslaught also captures Nate Grey, intending to use his power to transform the human race into a collective consciousness. Several members of the Avengers and Fantastic Four sacrifice themselves to stop Onslaught by entering his energy field, causing him to be destroyed. It is later revealed that the heroes survived, but were transported to a pocket universe created by Franklin Richards and rendered amnesiac.

Onslaught Reborn

A five-issue limited series, ''Onslaught Reborn'', was released in 2006 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the "Onslaught" storyline; it is written by Jeph Loeb, with art by Rob Liefeld.

After Scarlet Witch removes the powers of most of Earth's mutants, the powers of Charles Xavier and Magneto combine to reform Onslaught, whose consciousness survived after his death. Onslaught swears revenge on Franklin Richards and other heroes, transforming into a monstrous form with a skull-like face. However, he is defeated by Rikki Barnes, who transports herself and Onslaught to the Negative Zone.''Onslaught Reborn'' #1–5 (January 2007-February 2008)

Onslaught Unleashed

Some time later, Rikki Barnes, now known as Nomad, begins having nightmares set in the jungles of South America. When her teammate Toro is kidnapped, Rikki begins to suspect that her nightmares are something more sinister than she first thought. Later, while investigating Roxxon, the Secret Avengers come across the plans Project Power, a deadly power source developed in Colombia. As the Secret Avengers investigate the facility, Beast and Ant-Man find the source of the energy to be from the Negative Zone. As Rikki races inside the facility to locate Toro, she stumbles into the control room instead.

Onslaught possesses Rikki and reveals that she is a construct created to act as his host, with the real Rikki having died in the Negative Zone. Rikki has Gravity kill her so that Onslaught cannot return.

Red Onslaught

A clone of Red Skull later exhumes Charles Xavier's corpse and grafts part of his brain onto his own. He gains Xavier's psychic abilities and becomes known as Red Onslaught. Red Onslaught is defeated by Scarlet Witch and Doctor Doom, who attempt to use their magic to invert his morals, but their efforts backfire, causing everyone present to morally invert from their usual behavior. With the Skull reverted to a human body, he is hidden from the Avengers by Edwin Jarvis until Steve Rogers can retrieve him. Working with the inverted villains — now referring to themselves as the 'Astonishing Avengers' — and with Brother Voodoo possessing Scarlet Witch, the White Skull is able to undo the inversion.

Reign of X

Following the establishment of Krakoa as a mutant nation, Nightcrawler becomes aware that a dark presence is haunting Krakoa, which is dubbed "Patchwork Man". Believing the culprit to be his son Legion, Xavier recruits Nightcrawler to investigate and bring Legion to Krakoa. Nightcrawler rescues Legion from Orchis and learns that the Patchwork Man is Onslaught, who was restored and weaponized by Orchis. Nightcrawler and Legion embrace Onslaught instead of fighting him, weakening Onslaught and enabling Nightcrawler to kill him.

Powers and abilities

Onslaught is a psionic entity with superior physical and mental power; possessing the combined abilities of Professor X and Magneto. He is capable of telepathy, telekinesis, energy projection, sensing mutant presences, manipulating magnetic fields, mind control, flight, mental manipulation, possession, astral projection, perceiving magnetic and electrical energy, absorbing any mutant into his being, and affecting reality itself. Onslaught can also enhance his physical size and strength.

After fully evolving into his own, separate consciousness and having Professor X ripped from him in the Astral Plane, Onslaught evolved into a second, cybernetic form. In this form, thanks to adding the full potential of Franklin Richards and Nate Grey combined, his powers were increased to god-like levels, including the ability to create and reshape matter at will, and apparent omniscience.

Other versions

Jean Grey's Onslaught

When an alternate Phoenix recruits the original X-Men to stop yet another Phoenix who is using its powers to influence its world, they learn that she was from a universe where she and the X-Men stopped Magneto, but not before he killed Professor X. In response, they began using more decisive methods to bring peace between mutants and humankind. While they stopped threats like Ultron and Annihilus, Phoenix also began controlling her allies like Tony Stark, and set her eyes on ways to increase her powers.

After being teleported to Earth-696, the original X-Men initially clashed with their older counterparts, whom they were able to convince to help them stop the Phoenix.

X-Men '92

During the battle against the Shadow King (who was possessing Cassandra Nova) in the ''Secret Wars'' storyline, Professor X faced Shadow King on the Astral Plane in the form of Onslaught.

In other media

* Onslaught appears as a boss and playable character in '' Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes'', voiced by Maurice Dean Wint.
* Onslaught appears in ''Marvel Super Hero Squad Online'', voiced by Travis Willingham.
* Red Onslaught appears as a boss in '' Marvel Heroes''.
* Onslaught appears as an unlockable playable character in ''Marvel Puzzle Quest''.
* Onslaught appears in ''Marvel Contest of Champions''.
* Onslaught appears as a collectable card in ''Marvel Snap''.
* Onslaught was proposed as the main villain in the cancelled ''X-Men Legends 3''.

Collected editions

References

External links

*

In-depth analysis on the creation of Onslaught

Article on the Onslaught crossover

{{Magneto
Characters created by Andy Kubert
Characters created by Mark Waid
Characters created by Scott Lobdell
Comics characters introduced in 1996
Fictional characters who can change size
Fictional characters who can levitate
Fictional characters with body or mind control abilities
Fictional characters with electric or magnetic abilities
Fictional characters with elemental transmutation abilities
Fictional characters with energy-manipulation abilities
Fictional characters with metal abilities
Fictional empaths
Magneto (Marvel Comics)
Marvel Comics characters with superhuman senses
Marvel Comics characters with superhuman strength
Marvel Comics giants
Marvel Comics male supervillains
Marvel Comics mutants
Marvel Comics psychics
Marvel Comics shapeshifters
Marvel Comics telekinetics
Marvel Comics telepaths
Merged fictional characters