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Onslaught is most associated with the maligned Heroes Reborn storyline, but that wasn’t the end of the powerful X-Men villain’s Marvel history.
Over the past few months, the X-Men have had to deal with the returning threat of Onslaught, the dark psychic combination of Professor X and the villainous mutant Magneto. Despite a high-profile debut in one of the more infamous stories of the 1990s, this villain is one of the most powerful entities on Earth, and he remains one of the most serious threats around for the X-Men and the Marvel Universe as a whole.
The villainous Onslaught may be most remembered as the in-universe impetus for the maligned Heroes Reborn storyline, but he actually came back between then and now. Once a symbol of ’90s crossover excess, Onslaught has evolved to become a much more dynamic recurring threat, and this is how he made the heroes of the Marvel Universe behold his mighty hand again in the 2000s.
Onslaught first returned in the five-part mini-series Onslaught Reborn by Jeph Loeb and Rob Liefeld, and he was the result of Magneto and Professor X uniting once again following the depowering of most of the world’s mutant population at the hands of Scarlet Witch. His return to power made Onslaught hungry for vengeance, namely toward Franklin Richards, son of Mr. Fantastic and Sue Storm. He chased Franklin onto Counter-Earth, a parallel world that Franklin created to save the Avengers and the Fantastic Four following their initial bout with Onslaught.
Onslaught began possessing various Avengers, growing more powerful with rage as he ravaged the world that he felt robbed him of his true initial victory. Franklin scrambled to explain who he was and who Onslaught was, with the heroes of Counter-Earth skeptical due to their Reed Richards and Sue Storm not being married or having kids yet. Eventually, however, they work alongside the boy as well as some of their villains in order to defeat the powerful Onslaught. This saw Franklin return home to the 616 Universe and Onslaught trapped in a part of the Negative Zone.
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Onslaught would come back once more in a storyline involving the young Rikki Barnes. She was Counter-Earth’s equivalent to Bucky, and she had come to the 616 Universe following Onslaught’s being trapped in the Negative Zone. Rikki investigated dealings that the malicious Roxxon Corporation had involving the Negative Zone, with a voice in her dreams guiding her to do so. This was revealed to be the work of Onslaught, who had in fact created this Rikki as a vehicle for his power. The real Rikki died in the Negative Zone, and the current one was merely an Onslaught-created construct intended to help him escape the Negative Zone.
Rikki would later sacrifice herself to keep Onslaught from leaving his prison, but this wasn’t the end of the villain. He was brought forth once again when the Red Skull commandeered Professor Xavier’s corpse, unleashing the collaborative villain from Xavier’s dormant psyche. Becoming Red Onslaught, an attempt to defeat him inverted the morality of the nearby Avengers and their enemies in the AXIS crossover event. When the situation is reversed, Red Skull becomes his normal self again, seemingly ending Onslaught’s reign.
However, it’s tough to keep such a powerful villain down. Onslaught has come back in perhaps his most pivotal role yet, manipulating the actions of the mutants on Krakoa ever since Xavier turned the island into a mutant paradise. He has made them give into their darkest inclinations, and he’s even implanted parts of his own mind into the island’s populace whenever they’re resurrected. This fact was kept secret from many of Krakoa’s inhabitants, but it’s recently come to the shocking forefront as Onslaught tried to possess several mutants there.
This puts Onslaught in the position of being more prominent than he’s ever been before, having him potentially ruin all that Xavier has recently built. He’s now much more than a one-off ’90s extreme villain or a boss from Marvel vs. Capcom and instead of one of Marvel’s most powerful and terrifying threats.
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