- A violent attack.
- An overwhelming outpouring: an onslaught of third-class mail.
[Alteration (influenced by obsolete slaughte, slaughter) of Dutch aanslag, a striking at, from Middle Dutch aenslach : aen-, on + slach, a striking.]
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[Alteration (influenced by obsolete slaughte, slaughter) of Dutch aanslag, a striking at, from Middle Dutch aenslach : aen-, on + slach, a striking.]
noun
She braced herself for the onslaught of reporters awaiting her outside.
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Onslaught is a Marvel Comics supervillain who was the focus of an enormous intra-company crossover in 1996. He was created by writers Scott Lobdell and Mark Waid and designed by artist Andy Kubert with input from dozens of others. He first fully appeared in X-Men (vol. 2) #53 (June 1996).
Although his nature was initially unclear, Onslaught was a composite lifeform made up of Professor Xavier's repressed mental characteristics and influenced by psychic contact with Magneto. Using Xavier’s vast psionic powers and Magneto’s control over the electromagnetic spectrum, he transmuted himself into the physical world and was defeated only through the combined efforts of the entire Marvel superhero community.
"Onslaught" is also a shorthand for the Onslaught Saga, which began shortly before Onslaught: X-Men, ended in Onslaught: Marvel Universe, and led directly into the Heroes Reborn collection of series. 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).
The event permeated almost all Marvel comic books published in summer 1996.
He is unrelated to the Imperial Guard-member of the same name.
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 -- something he swore he would never do. (This occurred in X-Men (vol. 2) #25, with further details in Wolverine #75.)
Since the Professor used his powers in anger, his mind became open to the influence of Magneto's psyche, which festered and grew in 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. Eventually this part of Xavier's psyche became so strong, with the help of Magneto's psyche, it eventually became powerful enough to manifest itself as a non-physical entity of pure psionic energy that split itself from Xavier. The character of Onslaught is first alluded to in X-Men: Prime #1, which was the one-shot that reintroduced the X-Men to the traditional Marvel Universe following the Age of Apocalypse storyline. He is never actually seen or named, but a shadowy figure with Onslaught's distinctive word-balloon coloring and design is seen speaking with Mystique, who is shown to be frightened. 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, with a mental block on his brain, causing him to forget who or what Onslaught actually was (as he had learned Onslaught's identity). 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. 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 (vol. 2) #50, 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. After the battle, a psychic entity (actually Onslaught himself) appeared to the Gateway and the X-Men, warning him of his arrival 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 (vol. 2) #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 (vol. 1) #3, 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 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 [vol. 2] #54). The entity then manifested itself before the X-Men, defeating them in battle (Onslaught: X-Men), 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 in X-Factor #125.
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
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. 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 five-issue mini-series, Onslaught Reborn, by Loeb and Liefeld, will see the villain return and explore this dangling plot thread. Set after Decimation but before Civil War, it sees the mutant energy from the depowered mutants reforming the monster.[1]
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.
Onslaught's armor and appearance have been drawn in vastly different ways, presumably due to different artists having conflicting interpretations of him.
Onslaught has existed in two forms, each with a different spectrum of power:
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 utilize 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...
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
(It is in Alphabetical Order and not in release order as according to the phases and impacts)
Amazing Spider-Man #415 - Spider-Man battles Onslaught's sentinels.
Avengers #400 - X-Man (Nate Grey from the Age of Apocalypse) seeks the help of the Avengers
Avengers #401 - Joseph and Rogue join the fight.
Avengers #402 - the Avengers battle Holocaust and Post.
Cable #32 - Post vs. Cable
Cable #33 - Post vs. Cable (cont.)
Cable #34 - Onslaught-controlled Hulk vs. Cable
Cable #35 - Cable teams up with Apocalypse to rescue Franklin Richards
Cable #36 - Cable deals from the aftereffects of the battle with Onslaught with Franklin Richards
Excalibur #99 - Onslaught recruits the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club
Excalibur #100 - The X-Men travel to Muir Island to discover how to stop Onslaught
Fantastic Four #414 - Onslaught appears to befriend the reality-warping Franklin Richards.
Fantastic Four #415 - Onslaught abducts Franklin Richards.
Fantastic Four #416 - The Fantastic Four and their allies fight Onslaught- conjured phantoms of their greatest foes.
Generation X #18 - Emma Frost subconsciously tries to Safeguard Generation X from Onslaught
Generation X #19 - Emma Frost releases Generation X from her subconscious efforts to protect them from Onslaught
Green Goblin #12 - Green Goblin battles one of Onslaught's sentinels
Incredible Hulk #444 - Cable and Storm free Hulk from Onslaught's control
Incredible Hulk #445 - the Hulk joins the Avengers in an attack on Onslaught.
Incredible Hulk #446 - The Hulk is on the run post-Onslaught and post-Banner
Incredible Hulk #447 - The Marvel Universe deals with a mindless Hulk due to the Onslaught Affair!
Iron Man #332 - Iron Man and the Avengers battle Onslaught's sentinels
Onslaught: X-Men - X-Men are attacked by Onslaught
Onslaught: Marvel Universe - The stunning conclusion.
Onslaught: Epilogue - Professor X is interrogated by Bastion.
Punisher #11 - Punisher and S.H.I.E.L.D. prevent helicarrier from being scavenged after battle with Sentinels
Spider-Man #72 - Spider-Man (Ben Reilly) joins Peter Parker against the sentinels
Thor #502 - Last issue of Thor in which he prepares for battle the day before the end.
Uncanny X-Men #322 - The Juggernaut lands in New Jersey after getting punched by Onslaught in Canada.
Uncanny X-Men #333 - Onslaught helps Jean Grey escape from Operation: Zero Tolerance
Uncanny X-Men #334 - The Juggernaut seeks the help of the X-Men in seeking to unlock Onslaught's identity from his mind
Uncanny X-Men #335 - Avengers and X-Man come to the X-Men's aid
Uncanny X-Men #336 - The X-Men, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four launch an all-out assault
Uncanny X-Men #337 - Xavier takes stock of his life after Onslaught
Wolverine #93 - Juggernaut runs for his life because he knows too much
Wolverine #104 - Wolverine and Elektra discover Onslaught's true nature
Wolverine #105 - Wolverine joins the battle
X-Factor #124 - Havok is unconsciously manipulated by the Dark Beast
X-Factor #125 - Onslaught takes control of Project: Wideawake's Sentinels.
X-Factor #126 - Forge and Sabertooth rescue the real Beast
X-Force #46 - Mimic is captured by Onslaught
X-Force #52 - X-Force battles Onslaught augmented Blob and Mimic
X-Force #57 - X-Force attempts to safeguard X-Man from Mister Sinister
X-Force #58 - X-Force are psionically manipulated by Onslaught
X-Man #15 - Onslaught recruits Holocaust
X-Man #16 - Holocaust battles X-Man in Onslaught's name
X-Man #17 - Holocaust battles X-Man in Onslaught's name (cont.)
X-Man #18 - X-Man seeks X-Force's help
X-Man #19 - Mister Sinister tries to prevent Onslaught from controlling X-Man
X-Men #25 - Xavier shuts down Magneto's mind!
X-Men #46 - Onslaught sends a Sentinel research facility offline
X-Men #49 - Chamber is teleported away by an Onslaught-controlled Gateway
X-Men #50 - the X-Men battle Onslaught's herald, Post!
X-Men #53 - Onslaught takes Jean Grey on a tour through Professor X's mind.
X-Men #54 - Onslaught's identity revealed
X-Men #55 - the X-Men, Avengers, and Fantastic Four attempt to stop Onslaught and his sentinels
X-Men #56 - Xavier confronts Onslaught
X-Men #57 - Xavier allows himself to be taken into Government custody
X-Men: Road to Onslaught-Explains Onslaught’s motives
X-Men Unlimited #12 - Doctor Strange helps free Juggernaut from the Gem of Cyttorak
X-Men Unlimited #14- Franklin Richards deals with the loss of his parents due to Onslaught
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:
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - voldsomt angreb
Nederlands (Dutch)
aanval, bestorming
Français (French)
n. - attaque
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (βίαιη) επίθεση, εισβολή, εφόρμηση ή έφοδος
Italiano (Italian)
assalto, attacco
Português (Portuguese)
n. - investida violenta, arremetida (f)
Español (Spanish)
n. - ataque violento, crítica violenta
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - våldsamt angrepp, anstormning
中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
突击, 猛攻, 猛击
中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 突擊, 猛攻, 猛擊
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) انقضاض, حمله عنيفه
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - הסתערות, התקפה
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