________ Of The Week! Vol. 1

Each week, there shall be a new topic. This Week, it's Villian, then maybe it'll be fued, or story arc, or hero, or team, or rack, you don't know, only I do. So without further ado:









During the conclusion of the Fatal Attractions crossover, Magneto ripped the adamantium from Wolverine's skeleton after Wolverine attempted to kill him. In response, Professor X shut down Magneto's mind psionically. When this happened, a portion of Magneto's psyche was transferred into Xavier's repressed subconscious. This small element of Magneto's psyche took root in the dark corner of Xavier's mind, where his repressed anger at humanity's intolerance toward mutants was buried. This was the seed that would grow into the being known as Onslaught. This occurred in X-Men #25, with further details in Wolverine #105.

Onslaught was first mentioned in Uncanny X-Men #322, in which the Juggernaut crash-landed in Hoboken, New Jersey, having been hit hard enough by Onslaught to send him across the country and forget who or what Onslaught actually was. Onslaught's presence was felt behind the scenes in several other X-Men stories over the following year, but little was revealed about the character during this time; ultimately, the stories during this time would bear little relevance to the actual plot of the "Onslaught" crossover. 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 in X-Men #50, in which a team of X-Men fought his herald, Post. After the battle, a psychic entity (actually Onslaught himself) appeared to the X-Men before vanishing. The entity appeared in this form once more in Uncanny X-Men #333, in which it assisted Gambit and Jean Grey in their investigation of the anti-mutant government agent Bastion.

Onslaught made its first full appearance under that name and in costume in X-Men #53. Onslaught's physical form, as first seen here, was enormous and had a uniform similar to Magneto's. It was extraordinarily intelligent, and had vast psionic and magnetic powers. He 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 to X-Men #3 (Volume 1), in which Xavier mused on his undeclared and unexpressable love for Jean Grey. She rejected him and fled from the astral plane. She and the other X-Men soon met with the Juggernaut in Uncanny X-Men #333, 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 (X-Men #54). The entity then manifested itself before the X-Men, defeating them in battle (Onslaught: X-Men).

Onslaught, assisted by Post and Dark Beast (who had infiltrated the X-Men by disguising himself as Beast), attempted to start a global apocalypse that would destroy all of humanity. Dark Beast and his allies fought X-Factor and loosed a number of Sentinels on New York City in X-Factor #125. These Sentinels fought Spider-Man, the Punisher, and the Green Goblin (Phil Urich, a superhero who retired as result of this battle), and killed the parents of the girl who would become Jolt. Cable defeated Post, after which he and the Hulk fought each other. Afterward, the two teamed up with Apocalypse for an inconclusive assault on Onslaught. Meanwhile, 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 (Fantastic Four #415). 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 turned from wanting to eliminate non-mutant humans to wanting to eliminate both mutants and humans.

Onslaught's physical form was destroyed by the gathered heroes (whose ranks now included the Hulk, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and surprisingly, Doctor Doom). In doing so, however, they unleashed his full extent of his power. Unchecked, Onslaught used his power to create a second sun, with which he intended to destroy the Earth. The heroes determined that they could enter Onslaught's energy-based form and use their own bodies to contain Onslaught's psychic energy, but the strain of doing so would destroy them. Furthermore, using a mutant to do so would allow Onslaught to draw upon that mutant's power to increase his own. 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 (both mutants) 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. With the departure of Rob Liefeld and Jeph Loeb from the Avengers title, this mysterious occurrence was never touched upon again; however, in late 2006, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Onslaught event, a mini-series, Onslaught Reborn, by Loeb and Liefeld, will see the villain return and explore this dangling plot thread.



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