One of the most controversial X-Men villains of all time was most certainly born in the penultimate episode of X-Men '97, “Tolerance is Extinction Part II.” Even if you didn't see a new villain appear anywhere on screen, we witnessed his conception, so to speak. The villain in question is Onslaught, a psychic entity born of the animosity between Charles Xavier and Magneto. But who – or more precisely what – is Onslaught? Created by Mark Waid, Scott Lobdell and Andy Kubert in 1996 X Men #53, this is the strange story of the mutant nemesis beyond the Omega level.
Bishop, the mystery of the X-Men traitor and the first signs of the attack
Onslaught's roots go back to the introduction of another major X-Men character, Lucas Bishop. When Marvel first introduced Bishop Uncanny X-Men #281 in 1991, was a time traveler from another dystopian future. In their timeline, the X-Men were betrayed by one of their own and destroyed from within. The identity of the so-called “traitor X” was a mystery lost in time that Bishop hoped to solve. He initially believed that the traitor was Gambit. Years later, Marvel finally revealed who the traitor X was. This revelation led to the emergence of the entity Onslaught.
X-Men: Fatal Attractions It is the true genesis of the attack
In the decade of 1993 X Men #25, during a pitched battle between the X-Men and Magneto's forces, Magneto ripped the adamantium metal from Wolverine's skeleton, nearly killing him despite his regenerative powers. In a moment of uncontrolled rage no his old friend, Charles Xavier used his telepathic powers to shut down Magneto's mind, leaving him in a catatonic state. However, during this intense psychic contact, all of Magneto's negative traits, such as his anger, sadness, and huge god complex, entered Xavier's mind. It became intertwined with all of Charles' repressed negative emotions and eventually became its own entity called Onslaught.
The attack lay dormant inside Xavier's mind for a while, but it slowly began to emerge. Finally, he learned to manifest his own body. It was a giant, monstrous shape, whose head looked like a version of Magneto's helmet. The Onslaught entity still held Charles Xavier's dream of uniting humanity and mutants, only he would do so by using fear. If humans and mutants were terrified of Onslaught's wrath, they would unite under his rule. Onslaught attempted to recruit known mutants and others to his cause, such as his brother Juggernaut and Jean Grey. They all rejected him and he erased their memories of his true identity as Xavier. He then bided his time to make his move.
X-Men/Avengers: Onslaught The series of events changes the Marvel Universe
Finally, when a young mutant died on the grounds of Xavier's school for the gifted, Xavier's mind finally broke. Years of failures caught up with him and Onslaught took full control of his body and mind. He tried to recruit his students the X-Men to his cause, but they all rejected him and fought against their former teacher. Bishop realized that Xavier himself was the traitor X he had read so much about as a child. Bishop managed to save his fellow X-Men, but now Onslaught was free and ready to wreak havoc.
In the series of events X-Men/Avengers: Onslaughtthe powerful entity attempted to attain the vast psionic powers of Franklin Richards, the mutant son of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four. He hoped that Franklin's powers, as well as those of the alternate universe version of Cable called the X-Man, might be enough to turn humanity and mutants into a collective consciousness. He reprogrammed the Sentinels to obey only him. The X-Men and Avengers were able to separate Xavier from Onslaught. But without Xavier's noble side as an anchor, Onslaught became even more dangerous than before.
The attack “Kills” the Avengers and the Fantastic Four
The non-mutant members of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four realized that they would have to be the ones to stop the Onslaught. This was because the entity could more easily channel its energy into a mutant. They seemingly sacrificed their lives to stop him, dissipating their psychic energy into next to nothing. But the world blamed the mutants death of Earth's mightiest heroes, and anti-mutant hysteria reached a fever pitch. This allowed Bastion to gain support from world governments to fund their Operation Zero Tolerance. X-Men '97 seems to be doing these stories in reverse order.
Why Onslaught remains a polarizing X-Men character
So why is Onslaught so controversial? Many fans thought the character was only used to take the Avengers and Fantastic Four characters “off the board” and sent into their own separate universe. Although the X-Men believed them dead, it turned out that Franklin had only sent them to a pocket dimension. In 1996, Image Comics' Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld returned to Marvel where they were given free rein to reinvent these characters for the modern era. This year-long initiative, called “Heroes Reborn”, was not very popular. Many felt that Onslaught was just a vehicle to separate the Avengers and FF from the X-Men, thus splitting the Marvel Universe. Because of this, the Onslaught character has only made sporadic returns since then, though one was as recently as last year. X Men series
The X-Men '97 Future of the attack
In X-Men '97, we saw Xavier reach into Magneto's mind before his attack on Logan. And it was clearly in the head for an extended (and apparently painful) period of time. This was the moment that created Onslaught in the comics, and we're pretty sure it's coming to the series as well. Although the character was not that popular, X-Men '97 has been rehabilitated an equally unpopular villain in Bastion. We think the writers of X-Men '97 it can also make Onslaught a fan favorite. We're not sure when or where he'll appear, but the divine son of Charles Xavier and Magneto will almost certainly appear in X-Men '97 sometime. It's only a matter of time until he raises his ugly helmet.
