X-Men: Onslaught - The Complete Epic, Book 2

X-Men: Onslaught - The Complete Epic

by Warren Ellis, Tom DeFalco, Howard Mackie

Who are the traitors in X-Factor? What are the Xavier Protocols? And where does Franklin Richards fit into the plans of the awesome Onslaught? The Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and no less than five mutant teams search for answers in the second segment of the saga that literally re-made the Marvel Universe of the 1990s Also featuring the villainy of Apocalypse, Dark Beast, and the savage Sabretooth Guest-starring the Hulk, Uatu the Watcher, and Elektra: Assassin Collects Excalibur #100, Fantastic Four #415, X-Factor #125-126, Generation X #18, Wolverine #104, X-Men #55, Uncanny X-Men #336, Cable #35, and X-Force #58

Genres: Comics, X Men, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

248 pages, Paperback

First published May 28, 2008

About the author

Warren Ellis is the award-winning writer of graphic novels like TRANSMETROPOLITAN, FELL, MINISTRY OF SPACE and PLANETARY, and the author of the NYT-bestselling GUN MACHINE and the “underground classic” novel CROOKED LITTLE VEIN, as well as the digital short-story single DEAD PIG COLLECTOR. His newest book is the novella NORMAL, from FSG Originals, listed as one of Amazon’s Best 100 Books Of 2016.

The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He is currently developing his graphic novel sequence with Jason Howard, TREES, for television, in concert with HardySonBaker and NBCU, and continues to work as a screenwriter and producer in film and television, represented by Angela Cheng Caplan and Cheng Caplan Company. He is the creator, writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, recently renewed for its third season, and of the recently-announced Netflix series HEAVEN’S FOREST.

He’s written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters, and given keynote speeches and lectures at events like dConstruct, ThingsCon, Improving Reality, SxSW, How The Light Gets In, Haunted Machines and Cognitive Cities.

Warren Ellis has recently developed and curated the revival of the Wildstorm creative library for DC Entertainment with the series THE WILD STORM, and is currently working on the serialising of new graphic novel works TREES: THREE FATES and INJECTION at Image Comics, and the serialised graphic novel THE BATMAN’S GRAVE for DC Comics, while working as a Consulting Producer on another television series.

A documentary about his work, CAPTURED GHOSTS, was released in 2012.

Recognitions include the NUIG Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal for service to freedom of speech, the EAGLE AWARDS Roll Of Honour for lifetime achievement in the field of comics & graphic novels, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2010, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative. He is a Patron of Humanists UK. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.

Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second epic collection plays more on the periphery and the huge Franklin Richards sub-plot in this X-Men, Avengers and Fantastic Four get their assess kicked time and time again classic Marvel event. However after the captivating and awe-inspiring build-up and final appearance and rationale of Onslaught the multiple crossovers and plots take a lot of the power away from what at first was looking pretty amazing. 7 out of 12.

I read the comic books covered by this volume: Excalibur #100, Fantastic Four #415, X-Factor #125-126, Generation X #18, Wolverine #104, X-Men #55, Uncanny X-Men #336, Cable #35, and X-Force #58

[Tawfek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlike the first book which i found myself have read all of it
this book was mostly unread by me i made single reviews on each issue.
and half way in or something i found myself immensely enjoying the stories and the action.
i enjoyed the story by warren ellis even though it wasn't really tied to the onslaught event.
i was amazed by the spider man stories and how they keep coming up with more good stories for the character.
i was surprised by the green goblin stories when i read it i wasn't expecting much really
the x force second comic was great as well
an over all satisfying experience.

[Brian Garthoff · Rating 2 out of 5]

*****RUH-ROH! I wrote this review following Marvel unlimited’s reading list for Onslaught. The description of this collection and book 2 on there do not match. Will probably review and rewrite once I’ve finished the event to fix it. Thanks, Marvel...******


Woof! Onslaught book 2 has basically nothing to do with Onslaught at all. The issue of Xforce is really the only bright spot in this collection of fugly Spider-Man crossovers that are only included because of the presence of sentinels, and maybe one text box mentioning Onslaught. This is classic Marvel junk food filler from a cringeworthy era but sometimes I go for that type of thing. Unless you’re strapping in for the full Onslaught event, feel free to skip. And even if you do go for the complete Onslaught story, I’m really not sure what you’re getting out of this book.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book deals with a lot of the tie-ins with Onslaught in other comics. The story from the first book progresses a little bit slower in this volume. Overall not as interesting as the previous book but this book was necessary to move the plot forward.

[Alex E · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Onslaught continues as Sentinels are unleashed upon Manhattan.

This second volume deals with mostly the Sentinel threat. Onslaught has taken over a fleet of them, and has commanded them to take over Manhattan and hunt down anyone who may be a threat. This volume circles around all the heroes in New York, showing how they are dealing with the chaos, and the Sentinels themselves. We also have more about the storyline of Nate Grey, and how X-Force tries to guard him against Onslaught and Mr. Sinister.

I think this was an ok volume, but more of a filler type book for me. I mean, it is interesting seeing how everyone is dealing with what is happening, and how they try to keep up a brave face. However, most of these stories feel inconsequential and reactionary. I mean, Spidey taking apart a couple of Sentinels isn't really helping... but is cool to see.

I would say read this if you like the "tie in" type stories that really round out an event. If not, you can skip it and go for the main bout again Onslaught.

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This second collection focuses on various side stories, some of which feed into the larger storyline (such as the Wolverine tie-in) and some which just show other heroes dealing with the side effects of the crisis. The best of this set are the Spider-Man tie-ins; the weakest are the X-Factor tie-ins. The rest fall somewhere in-between. Ultimately, this is probably more for completists than necessary to understand the complete story. (B)

[Kris Shaw · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one falls under the category of 'careful what you wish for'. The Onslaught trades from the '90s are incredibly rare and expensive. After years of wishing and hoping that Marvel would re-issue them, I now have the first three of four chunky trades collecting this crapfest in all of its garish glory. It's hard to tell what sucks more, the '90s ComiCraft fonts, the fact that every hero is ridiculously muscular and has new costumes, overly-written scripts, the fact that Cable and X-Man are all the most powerful mutants EVER, the crappy artwork, the *boxes in every single panel…my God, I am glad that I missed this decade! I don't know how people kept the faith in Marvel during those times. I'm not sure that I could have! I hate all of the Liefield creations with nonsensical names like Random, Domino, Shatterstar, etc. I also hate how Cable, X-Man, and all of the aforementioned have some sort of marking over their left eye, and how many of them have "face paint" ala Paul Stanley. Horrible. Coincidentally, the latest CBG also has an article about the "eye" thing. I also hate the current trend in these X-trades where they feature part of an issue. That reminds of those horrible hack job trades that Marvel put out in the '90s. I prefer to have the entire issue collected.

[Adam Stone · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a snoozefest, mainly written by my least favorite 90s X-Men writers. The Excalibur , Wolverine, X-Factor, and Spider-Men issues just felt like the Onslaught story had been shoved into their terrible ongoing storylines: Dark Beast's plot with X-Factor being not great, and, of course, Spider-Man's clone storyline being probably the worst Spider-Man era of all-time.

Tom DeFalco's Green Goblin story didn't exacly break any new ground in storytelling but it was fun, silly and about a billion times better than the issues that preceded it.

The X-Man issues were pretty run-of-the-mill Marvel X-nonsense of the time, but the inclusion of X-Force made them more interesting than previous X-Man issues.

The Punisher story was dull but I don't think Punisher was much of a good title until the Garth Ennis years.

I also read X-Men Unlimited #12 as part of this collection, which is a story about Doctor Strange releasing Juggernaut from the Cyttorak Gem, where Onslaught had imprisoned him. It wasn't great.

So far, the Onslaught event is a story of diminishing returns. Even if you love cheesy, 90s X-Men crossovers, this one might wear you out a bit.

[Vikingpuff · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a bit tedious for me, but maybe because I was not following every single story that gets involved here. But I have to admit that an event which brings the Avengers, The Fantastic Four and the X-men together is peak comics. I mean, I followed the MCU and this is something "Avengers Doomsday worthy" so yeah, really exciting despite not having full context of the story around

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it.

[Jdetrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

When you have this many different series and creators in one volume, it's hard to talk to overall quality, but as these huge blockbusters go, this continues to be dumb fun.

[Michael Keskeys · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s fun but this part is where the continuity of this whole thing gets a bit wonky.

[Erik Dudek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Forgot about the clone saga...

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little more crazy mid-90’s adventure with the mind of Onslaught nipping at the heals of the Marvel Universe.

[Lillian Francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off I read: Excalibur #100, Wolverine #104, X-Factor #125, X-Factor #126, The Sensational Spider-Man #8 (inclusion of this issue kind of hilarious – it’s barely a panel of a tie-in), Amazing Spider-Man #415, Green Goblin #12, Spider-Man #72, X-Man #18, X-Force #57, Punisher #11.
These were all listed in comic book herald Onslaught reading list. But apparently I should also have read some major titles that were missing from this list: Fantastic Four #415, Generation X #18, X-Men #55, Uncanny X-Men #336, Cable #35, and X-Force #58.
Due to this I appear to be reading everything out of order and its all just a jumbled mess.

[Jeff Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a little bit of a haphazard set of issues that really aren't as important in the greater scheme of things, but they do go to show just how wide and sweeping an effect this Onslaught event had on the Marvel Comics line as a whole. I hadn't read quite a few of these issues before, so it did give me a more extended view of how Onslaught's actions impacted disparate characters like Spider-Man (the Ben Reilly version), the Green Goblin of this era, the Punisher, and so on. There are more direct X-Men ties that I appreciated, though. You'll find out what Cyclops, Jean Grey, Psylocke, Archangel, and Cannonball learned about Professor X's contingency plan he'd created in case one of his students went bad in the form of the Xavier Protocols. You'll also learn about how X-Man was being protected by X-Force from being taken by Onslaught, even if that mission didn't work out as planned. X-Factor, meanwhile, has a run-in with some of Onslaught's forces, and have to deal with a lot of confusion in figuring out which Beast is which (since our Hank McCoy had been replaced for months by his devious Age of Apocalypse version). Wolverine's solo issue follows his and Elektra's investigation of how Onslaught came into being in the first place. This is an enjoyable trade paperback to read, even if it does take a bit of a break from the main story.

[Deirdre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Professor Xavier has now been subsumed by Apocalypse, mayhem and chaos has ensued and it's up to the Marvel Superheroes to try to fight it. Several of the stories are quite interesting in the dicotomy between an ordinary human life and the responsibilities of having power and needing to use it to better other people's lives and keep them alive.

Fun stuff.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Downward turn this volume, lots of side stories with good Goblin and the Punisher and a Spider-Man and blah blah blah. Too bad this whole event got taken from the X-Men and brought into the rest of the Marvel universe.

[Oliver Hodson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Completely scattered collection going through the whole marvel universe. Some of the sidelines added small bits to the story, but by and large, i would have liked it to stick closer to the xbooks. The x-man /mr. Sinister story was the best part.

[William Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

completely convoluted. terrible layouts.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with the last book, an OK crossover. Some of the subsidiary stories like the Spider-Man and Punisher issues felt a little bit too extraneous, though.

[Labyrinth Rossiter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Now that Onslaught's intentions are clearer, the story is better, if still scattered hither and yon.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the previous volume in the Onslaught epic, the story is scattered across multiple titles and the panelplacement makes it difficult to read the dialogue in the in the intended order.

[Jeremiah Salyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Xavier flips his lid

This massive comic is worth the read. Enjoyed it. The Punisher was a nice issue. It's better than then incomplete volume 2.

[Babs]

FALSE

[Alberto Guerrero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic

The onslaught epic is by far one of my favorite arcs in marvel Comics. Very well written, and super immersive experience.