Onslaught Retrospective 2: Prologue

Art by Andy Kubert

“Road to Onslaught” and “Prelude to Onslaught” really only have meaning insofar as which issues Marvel put into each collection. As noted in the Introduction, there are hints going as far back as 10 months before Onslaught appeared. Most of those are vague hints at best, adding nothing to the story. For the purposes of this retrospective, I’m beginning the Prologue at X-Men 50 which was the first issue that saw both significant interaction with Onslaught (though that was unknown at the time) and conflict with Onslaught’s forces. It is also, unfortunately, where we see the first sign of the event’s most fatal flaw: at no point did the writers seem to know what Onslaught was or what he wanted.

The Prologue consists of the following issues (listed in a suggested reading order). Some have only minor significance.

                       X-Men 50         X-Men Unlimited 10         X-Men 51

                       X-Men 52         Uncanny X-Men 333          X-Force 55

                       X-Man 15 X-Man 16                 X-Man 17

                       Cable 32                 Cable 33         X-Men Unlimited 11

                       X-Men 53 Excalibur 99                  Uncanny X-Men 334

                       X-Men 54 Fantastic Four 413 Avengers 400

Opening Salvos

X-Men 50 sees some X-Men spirited off to be evaluated by a servant of Onslaught. Since Onslaught is Xavier and has access to his knowledge and abilities he has no reason to test the X-Men. Meanwhile, the rest of the team (Xavier included) are interacting with an unspecified psionic entity. Xavier speaks directly to it. This entity will be seen again, and again it will be separate from Xavier–so separate in fact that right before Onslaught is revealed to be Xavier it coalesces and takes shape around his body.

X-Men Unlimited 10

Following this confrontation, McCoy (the Dark Beast from Age of Apocalypse who escaped to the prime universe) launches a plan to replace prime Beast. His concerns are twofold: he’s worried that Mr. Sinister will learn about his presence after he meddled with Sinister’s schemes years earlier, and he also wants to keep an eye on Bishop who has fragmented memories of the Age of Apocalypse. McCoy replaces Beast in X-Men Unlimited 10, and while this doesn’t have a significant impact on the event, it is a subplot that runs through it.

X-Men 52

The next several issues in the prologue add little to the story. X-Men 51-52 reminds the reader that since his arrival in the present Bishop has been hunting a traitor who will destroy the X-Men. Uncanny X-Men 333 spends most of its time setting up Operation: Zero Tolerance (which won’t start for another year). The information it does drop is that the government is aware of something called Onslaught (this goes nowhere) and that something mysterious happened at a sentinel plant.

The Villain Makes His Move

X-Men 53

In his first direct move against the X-Men, Onslaught psychically kidnaps Jean Grey and proceeds to argue that Xavier's dream is flawed and doomed to failure because those fighting for it are hypocrites. He tries to back up his claims by showing Jean parts of Xavier's dark side. This feels like a strategy in contradiction to Onslaught's goal, though. His intention is to convince Jean to join him and to do this he shows Jean Xavier’s dark side. But Onslaught is Xavier and knows that he’s Xavier so his strategy is in direct contradiction to his goal: he’s driving Jean from Xavier rather than toward him.

Uncanny X-Men 334

First, it’s established that at this point in his evolution, Onslaught’s physical body only exists as a shell around Xavier so Xavier would had to have been there. Xavier, though, is seen in the mansion in X-Men 42-43, published at the same time as Uncanny X-Men 322. Though simultaneous publication does not necessarily mean simultaneous occurrence, if they’re even in proximity Xavier getting to Canada and back with a detour to find Juggernaut and clobber him along the way is tough to square. But for the sake of argument, let’s assume Xavier made that trip. It’s hinted in these prologue issues, and confirmed later, that Onslaught only learned to exist as a physical entity because of Xavier’s interaction with Nate Grey. That encounter wasn’t seen until five months after Juggernaut’s encounter with Onslaught, and continuity in both series makes it clear that what happened to Juggernaut happened first.

X-Men 54

Fast forward to the prologue’s final two issues. Juggernaut has traveled to the X Mansion so Jean Grey can read his mind and reveal Onslaught’s identity which he insists is locked inside. This makes no sense. Even ignoring the continuity problems of the Juggernaut/Onslaught encounter and the Nate Grey/Xavier fight, when Onslaught is physically manifested he fully covers Xavier. There would be no way for Juggernaut to know who he is.

The first real hints of who Onslaught is come in X-Man 15-17 when Onslaught recruits Holocaust (another refugee from Age of Apocalypse) to capture Nate Grey, and in Cable 33 when Cable fights another of Onslaught’s servants. In X-Man, during the fight, Holocaust indirectly reveals that he knows who Onslaught is and that his identity won’t surprise Nate. This ties into a plot thread running through the X-Man books since Nate’s own arrival in the prime universe: his distrust of Xavier. The two fought in X-Man 10 where Nate pulled Xavier out of the astral plane, making him corporeal. Over in Cable, while the Nate/Holocaust fight is happening elsewhere, Cable deduces Onslaught’s identity but passes out before he can tell anyone.

Elsewhere, as all of this is going on, Rogue meets up with Joseph (implied to be a revitalized Magneto with amnesia but who will eventually be exposed as a clone). Rogue has been on the run from X-Men responsibilities while Joseph has been seeking them out. The two head off together, neither one knowing about what’s building back home.

At this point we hit a dead run. Onslaught psychically kidnaps Jean Grey. There’s a (non)mystery here about his identity, but attentive readers will notice that his armor is the same shape as the shadow seen in flashbacks in X-Man 16. Also, the cover totally gives him away.

Early Contradictions

X-Men 53 leads directly into Uncanny X-Men 334 which leads immediately into X-Men 54. Roughly concurrent to those events, the Fantastic Four go off to space, leaving Franklin at home where he spends time with an imaginary friend named Charlie who is actually an Onslaught psionic projection intended to manipulate Franklin. At approximately the same time as this, or slightly later, Nate Grey--who left in search of the Avengers at the end of X-Man 17--arrives in Avengers mansion and tells them that Charles Xavier has gone insane. No reason is given for how Nate acquired this knowledge. The best possible explanation is that he somehow psychically became aware of Onslaught's actions between X-Men 53 and Onslaught X-Men.

Now to the end...Uncanny X-Men 334 and X-Men 54, the issues that finally reveal Onslaught's identity, are just as significant for their continuity problems as they are for their plot developments. And of it revolves around Juggernaut.

Juggernaut got punched from Canada to New York back in Uncanny X-Men 322 (as covered in the Introduction). We know Scott Lobdell had no plan for who or what Onslaught was at the time. Unfortunately, reverse engineering Onslaught to be Xavier like they did makes the events of Uncanny X-Men 322 run counter to everything that came after it.

While Jean is running around with Juggernaut, Xavier has two separate encounters with Cannonball and Cyclops and is an absolute jerk to both. However, at the end of his encounter with Scott, his personality abruptly changes to someone apologetic and afraid. Later, in a second Cyclops encounter, Xavier realizes he opened his files on Franklin Richards (who he’s been psychically talking to) but doesn’t remember doing so. The implication is that Onslaught exists within Xavier’s body like a separate personality and can take control of him.

X-Men 54

In the final pages of X-Men 54, the psychic energy we first saw in X-Men 50 coalesces around Xavier’s body to create Onslaught’s armor. If we accept that Onslaught and Xavier are distinct entities within one body, if follows that while Xavier is in control of his body Onslaught can project himself outside Xavier’s body in a form that Xavier himself can interact with, and also manifest his armored exterior (as seen in X-Man 16 and Excalibur 99) around it.

It’s ironic that of all the issues I count among the prologue, the issues that are heaviest with Onslaught content are also the most flawed. I have no doubt that major characters and events are reverse engineered on occasion, but it did not work well here. By the time the prologue ends and the event begins in full in Onslaught: X-Men, the story problems that will grow more substantial as the event goes on are already clear. The Onslaught-lite issues, though, are decent. Some of them are even quite good with interesting character arcs (especially the Cable and X-Men Unlimited issues). Also, the final two issues leading to Onslaught’s reveal are very tight with tension ratcheting up on every page as action is interspersed with some frankly disturbing Xavier interactions. The excitement of the ending covers up the problems and makes the prologue work on a first read.

Remember to check out the other parts of this retrospective: Introduction, Onslaught Phase 1, Onslaught Phase 2, Onslaught Epilogue, and Congratulations! You Survived Onslaught.

For issue-by-issue commentary of every issue, visit my Twitter @theroncouch #CompleteOnslaught.