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X-Men: Onslaught - The Complete Epic
X-Men: Onslaught - The Complete Epic, Book 4
The final onslaught is on! Mutantdom's mightiest telepaths are forced to turn on one of their own, because Professor X's evil side won't stand for any more repression! The world's greatest hero teams gird for battle against one of their deadliest enemies, and when the smoke clears, not only will some of them not still be standing, they won't be there at all! The X-Men are left to take the blame for over a dozen dynamic disappearances, leading the man called Bastion to lay the groundwork for their next crisis! But even if Onslaught is purged from this world, can a reborn world say the same? Guest appearances galore, plus step-by-step details on where the turning point of the 1990s began and ended! Collects Fantastic Four #416, X-Men #56-57, Onslaught: Marvel Universe, Cable #36, Uncanny X-Men #337, Onslaught: Epilogue, Iron Man #6, and X-Men: Road to Onslaught.
256 pages, Paperback
First published December 24, 2008
11 people are currently reading
203 people want to read
About the author
Mark Waid
3,201 books1,290 followersMark Waid (born March 21, 1962 in Hueytown, Alabama) is an American comic book writer. He is best known for his eight-year run as writer of the DC Comics' title The Flash, as well as his scripting of the limited series Kingdom Come and Superman: Birthright, and his work on Marvel Comics' Captain America.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
October 8, 2023
The final instalment and prelude to Heroes Reborn. This is it, the end of the Age of Heroes. This has a great overall concept, but with all the mutants, Avengers, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spidey, Dr Doom and Apocalypse there are just too many characters to keep up with - so it all feels rushed in the end. But it is a landmark series and must-read for anyone interested in Marvel history and/or apocalyptic storylines! A 7 out of 12, strong Three Star read.
2018 read
2018 read
April 1, 2021
The final confrontation with Onslaught results in some major, and I'm talking major, changes in the Marvel Universe overall.
I remember reading this as a kid and being so blown away by the scale of it all. It felt so epic. From the threat of Onslaught himself, to the fact that so many heroes had to "die" in order to stop him, it was one of the seminal moments in my young reading career. Reading it now, I do feel it was definitely a product of its time. The cheesy dialogue, the art/costumes, the nonsensical resolution... it all screams 90's and that is both a good and bad thing, depending on your point of view. However, it still has that feeling of "epicness", and the feeling of Marvel doing something huge and bold at the time.
This is also an "event" before "events" were so common place. And that being the case, Marvel was still spreading out these events throughout their books, instead of creating its own separate 4-8 issue mini as the main issues of the event itself. I think a dedicated title for Onslaught would have served this series much better, as the story feels very fractured. It feels like you miss details here and there, but it's really because the details are so spread out among the "tie-in's".
Overall, this was really enjoyable - if you are a fan of this type of storytelling. I think nostalgia played a big part, it did for me anyways, but it doesn't take away from the fact that the threat of Onslaught was the best part of this story and also the fact that there are some very cool moments of superhero awesomeness in here. Events like this sometimes lack that feeling of danger that they should have, but this one certainly didn't skimp on that. Evident even more so by what comes after this - Heroes Reborn, which was a bold move in itself.
Definitely mandatory reading for X-Men fans, and recommended reading for Marvel fans in general.
I remember reading this as a kid and being so blown away by the scale of it all. It felt so epic. From the threat of Onslaught himself, to the fact that so many heroes had to "die" in order to stop him, it was one of the seminal moments in my young reading career. Reading it now, I do feel it was definitely a product of its time. The cheesy dialogue, the art/costumes, the nonsensical resolution... it all screams 90's and that is both a good and bad thing, depending on your point of view. However, it still has that feeling of "epicness", and the feeling of Marvel doing something huge and bold at the time.
This is also an "event" before "events" were so common place. And that being the case, Marvel was still spreading out these events throughout their books, instead of creating its own separate 4-8 issue mini as the main issues of the event itself. I think a dedicated title for Onslaught would have served this series much better, as the story feels very fractured. It feels like you miss details here and there, but it's really because the details are so spread out among the "tie-in's".
Overall, this was really enjoyable - if you are a fan of this type of storytelling. I think nostalgia played a big part, it did for me anyways, but it doesn't take away from the fact that the threat of Onslaught was the best part of this story and also the fact that there are some very cool moments of superhero awesomeness in here. Events like this sometimes lack that feeling of danger that they should have, but this one certainly didn't skimp on that. Evident even more so by what comes after this - Heroes Reborn, which was a bold move in itself.
Definitely mandatory reading for X-Men fans, and recommended reading for Marvel fans in general.
April 13, 2025
About half of this last volume is the conclusion of the storyline, with a thinly justified last-minute swerve by Onslaught to become even more of a generic crossover big bad. The finale proper is historically interesting, however, for being written as if it really would be the last time we saw the original FF and Avengers. The other half of the volume, unexpectedly, is dedicated to aftermath issues which set up the next X-Men crossover. Also included is Road to Onslaught, which has a few hints as to a different direction the storyline could have taken. (B+)
March 24, 2021
Overall I didn't like the final book that much. The final fight with Onslaught was good but all of the aftermath storylines were anticlimactic. Some of the extras at the end concerning the "Road to Onslaught" were good but the content is found in another series of books. Overall this series goes downhill after Book 1 for me.
September 1, 2014
Woohoo, I finally finished!
The narration is maudlin, the art is often bad. But Onslaught deserves its place among the best X-Men stories.
I like that this volume includes some aftermath, but the story obviously affected a large number of titles, so what's included just kind of dribbles away rather than ending definitively. I like that comics are an ongoing medium, but at the same time, I wish there were clearer beginnings and ends, because it's so hard for a newbie (like me) to know where to go.
(If you're looking for a continuation of Xavier's story, I did some digging and it looks like the next thing is X-Men Zero Tolerance or X-Men Operation Zero Tolerance, a hardcover with a few more issues than the softcover. Onslaught returns in Onslaught Reborn.)
The narration is maudlin, the art is often bad. But Onslaught deserves its place among the best X-Men stories.
I like that this volume includes some aftermath, but the story obviously affected a large number of titles, so what's included just kind of dribbles away rather than ending definitively. I like that comics are an ongoing medium, but at the same time, I wish there were clearer beginnings and ends, because it's so hard for a newbie (like me) to know where to go.
(If you're looking for a continuation of Xavier's story, I did some digging and it looks like the next thing is X-Men Zero Tolerance or X-Men Operation Zero Tolerance, a hardcover with a few more issues than the softcover. Onslaught returns in Onslaught Reborn.)
October 8, 2012
The best part of the whole story, with a very nice event book by Mark Waid (that would be more meaningful if the heroes were actually sacrificing themselves) and some good aftermath stories.
July 23, 2023
The Onslaught crossover mercifully ends, with the overindulgent Onslaught: Marvel Universe one shot which takes this X-storyline and throws in all the main Marvel superheroes into a giant epic fight which makes no sense. But, it succeeded at the reboot that the editors wanted. Story just got in the way of that.
There were strong chapters of Onslaught, all within the main X-Men titles, which had progress and moved forward in interesting ways. What didn’t work were the tie-in issues with Sentinels flying around New York randomly running into Iron Man or whoever. It was the pinnacle of comics trying to look cool and essentially do nothing else.
That poor final chapter of Avengers, Mark Waid and Mike Deodato trying their best to give the flagship team a proper sendoff which ultimately only felt like filler. Fantastic Four fared better, with excellent art by Carlos Pacheco where many classic villains showed up (and turned out to be illusions) and it at least seemed like good closure.
Anyhow, in the Marvel Universe finale Onslaught was now in its most over-the-top final form. What was this “psionic entity’s” point again? To look super evil and buff, in edgy Magneto-esque armor, and rant about the destroying the world. That was it? Not much of a plan, actually.
The parts illustrated by Adam Kubert were awesome, which I do have to admit. And then it was over, the non-mutant heroes had to jump in a portal for poorly explained reasons, apparently that was like a big tragedy.
We all know the real reason. Behind the scenes, Rob Liefeld and also Jim Lee had decided to return to Marvel after upending the industry by founding Image Comics. In one of the worst ideas ever, titles like Waid’s great Captain America run had to be cancelled so that they could reboot everyone in a new universe with terrible art. Jim Lee’s side was decent, by the way. It was Liefeld’s infamous Avengers and Cap that was embarrassingly awful.
That being said, I am reviewing 90s X-Men here so I’ll stop now. Much has been written about the strange Heroes Reborn experiment elsewhere. Suffice to say, when the Heroes Returned a year later things got much better.
Onslaught leaves a bad taste in my mouth, partly because it’s one of those stories where the good guys save the world from a problem they created. Like, mutants are supposed to be a metaphor for marginalized groups who are unjustly discriminated against. Right? But in this case, fears of mutants are very valid. It’s not that an evil mutant was defeated by a good mutant. It’s that Professor X—supposedly the most saintly leader ever—accidently created a being so evil that it “killed” over a dozen of the biggest superheroes in the world. Yes it makes for drama and irony. But overall, isn’t the lesson therefore that mutants are inherently a danger to the world and should be controlled?
Afterwards, Xavier is hauled off by the government and that’s supposed to be such a sad scene. Yet if you think about the implications seriously, that would be very obvious and sensible.
Which is where Bastion comes in, the next big bad for Operation: Zero Tolerance. He was the mystery figure who had been leering in the shadows here and there, slowly preparing for the following summer’s required crossover. More on that next post, because it never ever ends…
There were strong chapters of Onslaught, all within the main X-Men titles, which had progress and moved forward in interesting ways. What didn’t work were the tie-in issues with Sentinels flying around New York randomly running into Iron Man or whoever. It was the pinnacle of comics trying to look cool and essentially do nothing else.
That poor final chapter of Avengers, Mark Waid and Mike Deodato trying their best to give the flagship team a proper sendoff which ultimately only felt like filler. Fantastic Four fared better, with excellent art by Carlos Pacheco where many classic villains showed up (and turned out to be illusions) and it at least seemed like good closure.
Anyhow, in the Marvel Universe finale Onslaught was now in its most over-the-top final form. What was this “psionic entity’s” point again? To look super evil and buff, in edgy Magneto-esque armor, and rant about the destroying the world. That was it? Not much of a plan, actually.
The parts illustrated by Adam Kubert were awesome, which I do have to admit. And then it was over, the non-mutant heroes had to jump in a portal for poorly explained reasons, apparently that was like a big tragedy.
We all know the real reason. Behind the scenes, Rob Liefeld and also Jim Lee had decided to return to Marvel after upending the industry by founding Image Comics. In one of the worst ideas ever, titles like Waid’s great Captain America run had to be cancelled so that they could reboot everyone in a new universe with terrible art. Jim Lee’s side was decent, by the way. It was Liefeld’s infamous Avengers and Cap that was embarrassingly awful.
That being said, I am reviewing 90s X-Men here so I’ll stop now. Much has been written about the strange Heroes Reborn experiment elsewhere. Suffice to say, when the Heroes Returned a year later things got much better.
Onslaught leaves a bad taste in my mouth, partly because it’s one of those stories where the good guys save the world from a problem they created. Like, mutants are supposed to be a metaphor for marginalized groups who are unjustly discriminated against. Right? But in this case, fears of mutants are very valid. It’s not that an evil mutant was defeated by a good mutant. It’s that Professor X—supposedly the most saintly leader ever—accidently created a being so evil that it “killed” over a dozen of the biggest superheroes in the world. Yes it makes for drama and irony. But overall, isn’t the lesson therefore that mutants are inherently a danger to the world and should be controlled?
Afterwards, Xavier is hauled off by the government and that’s supposed to be such a sad scene. Yet if you think about the implications seriously, that would be very obvious and sensible.
Which is where Bastion comes in, the next big bad for Operation: Zero Tolerance. He was the mystery figure who had been leering in the shadows here and there, slowly preparing for the following summer’s required crossover. More on that next post, because it never ever ends…
November 20, 2024
A garbage sandwich with a side of trash.
The Onslaught story, as complex as it is supposed to be, would have been a neat two issue series. Instead, this four volume story spewed across several titles crawls to its climactic moment that's going to be immediately undone by the next event, the somehow even worse Heroes Reborn: Captain America.
The build among the many issues, pre-Onslaught, was fun, well-paced and intriguing, but as soon as they began Onslaught Phase One, the story dragged, repeated itself, dragged some more, and was rife with cliche action dialogue, pointless action scenes, and all the grace of fan fiction written by a fourth grader. Every author in this collection, even the ones I'm not especially fond of, have done much better work than what's represented here.
I would rate this similarly to the AvX era in 2013ish, as one of the worst X-crossovers in the titles' history. If you're looking at a review for volume four, you've probably read the first three, and I don't blame you for wanting to finish it. But, on the off chance that you haven't even picked up volume one yet, don't. Leave this whole series on a shelf and move on to something better.
The Onslaught story, as complex as it is supposed to be, would have been a neat two issue series. Instead, this four volume story spewed across several titles crawls to its climactic moment that's going to be immediately undone by the next event, the somehow even worse Heroes Reborn: Captain America.
The build among the many issues, pre-Onslaught, was fun, well-paced and intriguing, but as soon as they began Onslaught Phase One, the story dragged, repeated itself, dragged some more, and was rife with cliche action dialogue, pointless action scenes, and all the grace of fan fiction written by a fourth grader. Every author in this collection, even the ones I'm not especially fond of, have done much better work than what's represented here.
I would rate this similarly to the AvX era in 2013ish, as one of the worst X-crossovers in the titles' history. If you're looking at a review for volume four, you've probably read the first three, and I don't blame you for wanting to finish it. But, on the off chance that you haven't even picked up volume one yet, don't. Leave this whole series on a shelf and move on to something better.
January 2, 2023
The big fight was simply an excuse to reset a number of the main characters (and outsource them?).
There was some follow-up with the X-men team and what happened to Charles.
Then a weird inclusion of Heroes Reborn Iron Man.
There was some follow-up with the X-men team and what happened to Charles.
Then a weird inclusion of Heroes Reborn Iron Man.
July 23, 2024
What's that smell? Oh wait, it's the writing in these issues! I like my comics as serious as the next guy, but when the characters are this serious, this dramatic, without any trace of humor whatsoever then it's totally laughable. If I were buying monthlies back then I would have quit!
September 25, 2025
I loved to see all connected and that they're willing to make sacrifaces (although I know most of the comics death aren't forever) but it was a good plot that I would love to see in the MCU in the future
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 25, 2017
A great storyline.
August 27, 2017
This storyline is supremely stupid, but there are some good moments included in this collection and its mostly harmless superhero nonsense.
January 9, 2021
Epic!!!
I wish it was more but I guess the next epic breaks down what happens to Onslaught and the others.
I wish it was more but I guess the next epic breaks down what happens to Onslaught and the others.
June 11, 2021
Enjoyed the story, ending was a little over the top...
June 12, 2024
the end of this event was a little.... underwhelming
December 1, 2025
definitely an interesting story! a lot was going on but it was nice to get some background on onslaught this is the first time I hear about this character
September 25, 2018
This was a worthwhile finish to the Onslaught Epic, which was both an interesting crossover and the beginning of the pattern of event fatigue for Marvel comics, though not for a while. Despite what came later, though, this was good, even if some of the last minute bits were a little bit arbitrary. There were moving moments as heroes (seemingly) gave up their lives, and some interesting issues in the aftermath that set up some things that I do remember (so I guess I was still reading at the time, just not this, because it was too big of an event over too many titles I wasn't reading). Overall, I enjoyed this whole event, and this volume, in particular.
November 28, 2015
This is the incredible final chapter in the Onslaught saga, and all of Marvel's toughest heroes have to band together, many of them offering up the ultimate sacrifice, to stop one of the gravest threats their world has ever faced. Then, even after the battle officially ends, there are a ton of epilogues, mostly in the pages of various X-Books, showing how Marvel's ordinarily merriest but now melancholy mutants are dealing with the repercussions of what happened and the departure of their mentor and leader. Hints are made as to the next big threat that the X-teams will deal with as Bastion makes the opening moves that will lead to Operation Zero Tolerance.
October 25, 2014
I didn't get it at all. I probably just needed a few pages in this volume to explain the pocket universe or even some of the turmoil within onslaught/franklin's psyche. It was extremely clumsy that the 'world without heroes' included the xmen and spidey at least. Were they not heroes?? What motivation would franklin/onslaught have for such editorial convenience, and also deaging/resetting those heroes he saved?
It was just a bit weird.
It was just a bit weird.
September 12, 2010
Where the last few volumes have been kind of weak, this wraps up the Onslaught saga with a little more direction. Still, the conclusion is not entirely satisfying.
January 25, 2016
This still feels messy, and plot threads are frequently wrapped up with deus ex machina devices...for no apparent rhyme or reason. Bleh.
December 31, 2013
missed that this was book 4, now I'm need to pick up the beginning after reading the ending
July 31, 2017
Final chapter, finally some real action. I feel like this collection could have been all much much shorter which would give it much more impact. Also, after the final battle, we lost again more time with a story that does lead us nowhere instead of showing us how we get Avengers and ff4 back.
I guess for a second-time reader with a great interest to see all the little details this is a good collection, nevertheless for a first-time reader has myself it becomes a bit of an effort to get to the end.
I guess for a second-time reader with a great interest to see all the little details this is a good collection, nevertheless for a first-time reader has myself it becomes a bit of an effort to get to the end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews