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X-Men: Onslaught - The Complete Epic
X-Men: The Complete Onslaught Epic - Book Three
Collects X-Men (1991) #55, Uncanny X-Men #336, Cable (1993) #35, X-Force #58, X-Man #19, Incredible Hulk #445, Iron Man #332, Avengers #402, Thor #502, Wolverine #105. Professor X hasn't been himself lately – moody, inscrutable, but the psionic armor and army of Sentinels are the real tip-offs! It'll take every super hero New York has to face the Onslaught – including not only the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, but forgotten stars of the nineties like Green Goblin Phil Urich, Nate Grey the X-Man and Ben Reilly, a.k.a. Spider-Man! Also guest-starring the Hulk, the Pantheon, the Punisher, S.H.I.E.L.D. and others!
226 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2008
About the author
Peter David
3,691 books1,377 followersaka David Peters
Peter Allen David, often abbreviated PAD, was an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films, and video games. His notable comic book work includes an award-winning 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk, as well as runs on Aquaman, Young Justice, SpyBoy, Supergirl, Fallen Angel, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Captain Marvel, and X-Factor.
His Star Trek work included comic books and novels such as the New Frontier book series. His other novels included film adaptations, media tie-ins, and original works, such as the Apropos of Nothing and Knight Life series. His television work includes series such as Babylon 5, Young Justice, Ben 10: Alien Force and Nickelodeon's Space Cases, which he co-created with Bill Mumy.
David often jokingly described his occupation as "Writer of Stuff", and he was noted for his prolific writing, characterized by its mingling of real-world issues with humor and references to popular culture, as well as elements of metafiction and self-reference.
David earned multiple awards for his work, including a 1992 Eisner Award, a 1993 Wizard Fan Award, a 1996 Haxtur Award, a 2007 Julie Award and a 2011 GLAAD Media Award.
Peter Allen David, often abbreviated PAD, was an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films, and video games. His notable comic book work includes an award-winning 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk, as well as runs on Aquaman, Young Justice, SpyBoy, Supergirl, Fallen Angel, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Captain Marvel, and X-Factor.
His Star Trek work included comic books and novels such as the New Frontier book series. His other novels included film adaptations, media tie-ins, and original works, such as the Apropos of Nothing and Knight Life series. His television work includes series such as Babylon 5, Young Justice, Ben 10: Alien Force and Nickelodeon's Space Cases, which he co-created with Bill Mumy.
David often jokingly described his occupation as "Writer of Stuff", and he was noted for his prolific writing, characterized by its mingling of real-world issues with humor and references to popular culture, as well as elements of metafiction and self-reference.
David earned multiple awards for his work, including a 1992 Eisner Award, a 1993 Wizard Fan Award, a 1996 Haxtur Award, a 2007 Julie Award and a 2011 GLAAD Media Award.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
November 7, 2021
2018 read: At the time of first publication this was was cray cray (in a good way); Onslaught leads to the end of the Fantastic Four, Avengers, Iron Man, Spider-Man etc, as those comic books in this volume were at the time, to be the last to be printed! As for the actual stories nothing can really touch the wonderful Fantastic Four finale with great painted art by Carlos Pacheco. Some of the other books however were very average. 5 out of 12 overall.
Covering Hulk #445, Iron Man #332, Avengers #402, Punisher #11, X-Man #19, Amazing Spider-Man #415, Green Goblin #12, Spider-Man #72, Fantastic Four #416 and Wolverine #105.
Covering Hulk #445, Iron Man #332, Avengers #402, Punisher #11, X-Man #19, Amazing Spider-Man #415, Green Goblin #12, Spider-Man #72, Fantastic Four #416 and Wolverine #105.
March 3, 2021
finished this one much faster cause i had already read half of it or more
there was issues that i didn't like iron man and thor are them.
and there the x force and hulk and wolverine were good
all others i had read as singles before this.
either way a nice experience and only 1 more book is left to read now.
there was issues that i didn't like iron man and thor are them.
and there the x force and hulk and wolverine were good
all others i had read as singles before this.
either way a nice experience and only 1 more book is left to read now.
November 28, 2015
Even more tie-in issues are included in this third installment in Onslaught's crazy ongoing story. Spider-Man, Punisher, Iron Man, and Hulk all do their part to try to deal with the mess associated with the psychic powerhouse created as a combined form of the darkest portions of Professor X's and Magneto's psyches. Meanwhile, Onslaught targets two of the most powerful young people to add to his mental might -- Franklin Richards and Nate Grey, the X-Man. Also, Wolverine finally gets to the root of Onslaught's creation, and the Avengers duke it out with two of the main bad guy's toughest cronies, Post and Holocaust.
December 21, 2020
The story of Onslaught was well done but the amount of extra stories kept delaying progress. Having it so long and drawn out was a bit annoying. The extra stories were not that bad but they really didn't add to the experience.
March 31, 2025
The third volume advances the main storyline (though not much, for all of the page count) and also includes more loosely connected tie-ins, most notably a just-OK trilogy of "end of an era" Avengers stories. The best tie-in of the set, however, is probably the (second) Hulk issue. Overall, somewhere between the first and second collections in quality. (B)
October 3, 2018
I read the core X-titles back when this event was happening, I was a massive X-Men and X-Factor fan at the time and quite liked X-Force and Generation-X. I had no real interest in the traditional superhero teams, aside from an early childhood love of Spider-Man I thought they were all a bit too twee and rather camp for my tastes. I felt the X-Men and the spinoffs were a slight bit more mature in their storytelling.
I stopped reading Marvel comics around '98 and didn't get back to reading comics/graphic novels at all until around '06 thanks to being reintroduced to classic 2000AD stories. I was aware of the criticism surrounding Marvel and DC's big event cashcows but remembered enjoying Apocalypse, Onslaught and Operation: Zero Tolerance at the time and felt the latter's political analogues were on-point, if memory serves then they're just as valid regarding the current political climate. So I was quite keen to come back to this series as a more cynical 40-something.
Well, the first book was nearly as good as I remembered, forgiving the contemporary art style and attitudes of the 90s, it's a bit too 'superhero' for my tastes now but reasonably solid, the second book was also quite good. The third though, ugh, it's pretty poor. I can see why Marvel took the opportunity to reboot the rest of the universe. I don't know if the likes of the Avengers, Hulk and Fantastic Four are made worse for their vague connections to the Onslaught story or whether they were at the end of their rope and it was the only hope they had but it's all dull, nothing content. At the time of buying the comics I only bought those that were a direct continuation, the "Phase" books, not the "Impact" ones. This collected edition is largely filler, with little if anything of major significance to the overall story. I won't pretend to be knowledgeable about the various contributers' finest work, I'm merely taking the content at face value. The writing and art is a mixed bag, I do like my namesake's art across some of the titles within but some of the other contributions are pretty poor.
After having spent the best part of the last decade reading indies current and classic as well as subscribing to 2000AD and the Megazine I can see that the criticism of Marvel's content back then is entirely justified. I'm a fan of the core content of this series, even if its and my age has taken the sheen off it but the cash-in content is dross.
I stopped reading Marvel comics around '98 and didn't get back to reading comics/graphic novels at all until around '06 thanks to being reintroduced to classic 2000AD stories. I was aware of the criticism surrounding Marvel and DC's big event cashcows but remembered enjoying Apocalypse, Onslaught and Operation: Zero Tolerance at the time and felt the latter's political analogues were on-point, if memory serves then they're just as valid regarding the current political climate. So I was quite keen to come back to this series as a more cynical 40-something.
Well, the first book was nearly as good as I remembered, forgiving the contemporary art style and attitudes of the 90s, it's a bit too 'superhero' for my tastes now but reasonably solid, the second book was also quite good. The third though, ugh, it's pretty poor. I can see why Marvel took the opportunity to reboot the rest of the universe. I don't know if the likes of the Avengers, Hulk and Fantastic Four are made worse for their vague connections to the Onslaught story or whether they were at the end of their rope and it was the only hope they had but it's all dull, nothing content. At the time of buying the comics I only bought those that were a direct continuation, the "Phase" books, not the "Impact" ones. This collected edition is largely filler, with little if anything of major significance to the overall story. I won't pretend to be knowledgeable about the various contributers' finest work, I'm merely taking the content at face value. The writing and art is a mixed bag, I do like my namesake's art across some of the titles within but some of the other contributions are pretty poor.
After having spent the best part of the last decade reading indies current and classic as well as subscribing to 2000AD and the Megazine I can see that the criticism of Marvel's content back then is entirely justified. I'm a fan of the core content of this series, even if its and my age has taken the sheen off it but the cash-in content is dross.
July 23, 2024
Marvel sucked during the '90s. Not only did they suck, but they tried really hard at it! You cannot tell me that these guys were not trying to outdo each other in trying to make crappy comic books. The dialogue is overly written, littered with those annoying* boxes that serve as footnotes, as if you are supposed to stop where you're at, sift through dozens of long boxes, and peruse the point of reference. Just awful.
The artwork is a train wreck of Liefeld influenced dreck. The Richard Strakings/ ComiCraft computerized fonts look gimmicky, as does the severely dated computer coloring enhancements by Malibu Studios. I guess that these were breakthroughs at the time and precursors to modern day techniques, but they have not aged well. The artwork by Andy Kubert, Joe Madureira, and Angela Medina are all varying degrees of suckiness.
Every single costume is changed except for Captain America. Thor's enchanted Uru Hammer now has a chain attached to the handle instead of the stirrup that used to be at the end. Every hero has long hair that seems to "float" in the air like it's underwater...thanks for pioneering that look, Liefeld. Thor's hair is past his ass, and even the Sub-Mariner has long hair. Why? He never did before. The devolved Wolverine was a horrendous idea.
What were comic book creators on in the '90s? The dialogue by Mark Waid, Scott Lobodell, and Peter David are all laughable, being unintentionally funny. Actually, all of the writing is bad, but I am too lazy to list everyone's name, ditto all of the terrible "artists". Anthony Castrillo's pencils in X-Force #58 were so Byrne-esque that I had to do dome research online to see if this was some Byrne pseudonym. He really has the look and feel down, almost coming off as a tracing of Byrne's pencils at times. He was the only bright spot, aside from the teaming of a neophyte Mike Deodato, Jr. and veteran Tom Palmer. Deodato's early style was very much of the era, and he was also busy drawing every single hero as an overly musclebound, long hair floating in the air like it were underwater, character as the rest of these hacks. I feel sorry for you kids who grew up on this decade's comics, and I am glad that I sat it out.
The artwork is a train wreck of Liefeld influenced dreck. The Richard Strakings/ ComiCraft computerized fonts look gimmicky, as does the severely dated computer coloring enhancements by Malibu Studios. I guess that these were breakthroughs at the time and precursors to modern day techniques, but they have not aged well. The artwork by Andy Kubert, Joe Madureira, and Angela Medina are all varying degrees of suckiness.
Every single costume is changed except for Captain America. Thor's enchanted Uru Hammer now has a chain attached to the handle instead of the stirrup that used to be at the end. Every hero has long hair that seems to "float" in the air like it's underwater...thanks for pioneering that look, Liefeld. Thor's hair is past his ass, and even the Sub-Mariner has long hair. Why? He never did before. The devolved Wolverine was a horrendous idea.
What were comic book creators on in the '90s? The dialogue by Mark Waid, Scott Lobodell, and Peter David are all laughable, being unintentionally funny. Actually, all of the writing is bad, but I am too lazy to list everyone's name, ditto all of the terrible "artists". Anthony Castrillo's pencils in X-Force #58 were so Byrne-esque that I had to do dome research online to see if this was some Byrne pseudonym. He really has the look and feel down, almost coming off as a tracing of Byrne's pencils at times. He was the only bright spot, aside from the teaming of a neophyte Mike Deodato, Jr. and veteran Tom Palmer. Deodato's early style was very much of the era, and he was also busy drawing every single hero as an overly musclebound, long hair floating in the air like it were underwater, character as the rest of these hacks. I feel sorry for you kids who grew up on this decade's comics, and I am glad that I sat it out.
March 29, 2021
The heroes begin to lose hope, as they realize that Onslaught may be a foe that is beyond them.
This one is another volume of showing us the individual heroes and also the teams, and how they are dealing with and reacting to the attack from Onslaught. Things are pretty dire as they have had to retreat to New Jersey, as Onslaught now claims and for all intents and purposes, owns New York. I think this was the biggest blow to the heroes as New York has been the main Marvel city of heroes for some time.
The stories themselves are hit and miss. There is good and bad here but to be honest, it would've been better to stream line this event a bit more. Don't get me wrong, its interesting to see the tie ins, but the overall narrative seems bogged down by the extra details that are explored. Onslaught is a great villain, but I get the feeling that he is being ignored for the most part of this volume. The issues where we deal with Onslaught directly are still really good, and provide a good sense of drama, but I just wanted more of that.
The next volume is the final one, so we will see how the heroes deal with Onslaught once and for all.
This one is another volume of showing us the individual heroes and also the teams, and how they are dealing with and reacting to the attack from Onslaught. Things are pretty dire as they have had to retreat to New Jersey, as Onslaught now claims and for all intents and purposes, owns New York. I think this was the biggest blow to the heroes as New York has been the main Marvel city of heroes for some time.
The stories themselves are hit and miss. There is good and bad here but to be honest, it would've been better to stream line this event a bit more. Don't get me wrong, its interesting to see the tie ins, but the overall narrative seems bogged down by the extra details that are explored. Onslaught is a great villain, but I get the feeling that he is being ignored for the most part of this volume. The issues where we deal with Onslaught directly are still really good, and provide a good sense of drama, but I just wanted more of that.
The next volume is the final one, so we will see how the heroes deal with Onslaught once and for all.
November 18, 2024
A slight improvement over Volume 2, this collection mainly treads water until the concluding volume. The X-Men, Fantastic Four, Hulk, and the Avengers all battle Onslaught in different scenarios, Cable goes through the usual Cable drama. There's an X-Force issue but it's the worst offender of Treading Water, as it basically retells each character's origin. Wolverine saves a kid in his effort to be less feral. And Thor does something boring related to Asgard.
A lot happens in this volume, and yet, the story doesn't really advance much. It's still just squads of intermingled heroes fighting Onslaught while Apocalypse and Uatu watch on.
If you've liked the Onslaught series so far, I think this is better than the previous volumes but I don't think that it's so much better that it will convert anyone who hasn't enjoyed the series thusfar. You certainly wouldn't want to start reading X-Men here.
A lot happens in this volume, and yet, the story doesn't really advance much. It's still just squads of intermingled heroes fighting Onslaught while Apocalypse and Uatu watch on.
If you've liked the Onslaught series so far, I think this is better than the previous volumes but I don't think that it's so much better that it will convert anyone who hasn't enjoyed the series thusfar. You certainly wouldn't want to start reading X-Men here.
September 4, 2018
This third volume is a bit more action-packed than the last one, and the issues here deal a bit more directly with the actual Onslaught story, which I appreciated. One thing that did bother me, though, was a great deal of rather heavy-handed foreshadowing that the Avengers and the Fantastic Four would not survive the confrontation with Onslaught. Decades later, of course, I already knew about that, but I would have hoped it would be a bit subtler or maybe even not mentioned at all until it happened. Despite going a bit against my expectations, and having some rather horrendously designed costumes in a few cases, this was a good read, and I'm looking forward to finishing out this event.
February 13, 2026
This is a continuation of the Onslaught story line. Art isn’t bad and the stories themselves not horrible. The Onslaught piece is kind of interesting. I had wandered away from comics for a bit when this came out. So hadn’t read it before. It isn’t as bad as the hype, but it isn’t Chris Claremont era X-Men either.
January 1, 2023
Let's be fair, these across title events are always a mess of quality and continuity.
FYI: 90s Thor has the worst hair.
FYI: 90s Thor has the worst hair.
October 8, 2012
This volume continues to be well-crafted, with individual stories being important to the overall plot. There's a particularly nice focus in the X-comics that lead off this volume, that then fades in the latter half of the book. Beyond a few stand-out issues however (like Thor #502), this is more average fare, but probably a hair better than the volumes that preceded it.
October 22, 2014
I thought it was better than previous volumes because the stories focused on individual characters and things they needed to do to get ready for onslaught. The action was tight paced and meaningful. Let's hope the payoff is worth it!
November 24, 2008
Thought this was a three part series, but it didn't end. Where is vol. 4?
April 18, 2009
The heroes continue to fight Onslaught, trying desperately to save the world and Franklin Richards, Sue and Reed Richard's Son.
January 25, 2016
It's gonna be all right, Franklin! The ENTIRE Marvel Universe will save you!
August 25, 2015
It is fun to see the old gang before all the mess that is to come.
Want to Read
June 14, 2016FALSE
August 4, 2017
The real action is starting, finally! Nevertheless some pointless issues to the major plot are still present in the volume. So far this volumes seem to be more expensive that they needed to be. Nevertheless, the major plot is great and is evolving in a very interesting manner.
Read
August 10, 2017Still enjoying, the storyline.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews