STORY: "Full Court Press" (36 pages)  Cyclops, Iceman, Storm and Wolverine are abducted and tested by Onslaught's herald, Post.

What you need to know:
The Onslaught storyline takes centre stage for the first time.  Unfortunately, they still haven't worked out what the plot is going to be, so we get an incomprehensible issue based on Onslaught testing some of the X-Men for... some reason.  As Onslaught eventually turned out to be an aspect of Professor X, it's hard to see what he hopes to achieve here which couldn't have been equally well achieved by just getting everyone to pop down to the Danger Room.  But again, expecting the Onslaught storyline to make sense is like expecting a sealion to tapdance.

Post makes his debut, as Onslaught's herald.  As things turned out, he's really more of a Cable villain than an X-Men villain, and he needn't detain us much.  His origin story involves him getting a blood transfusion from Cable which infected him with the techno-organic virus; this in turn allows him to control all the little machines that float around him as his armour.

There's another psychic entity floating around with Gateway, apparently trying to arrange opposition to Onslaught.  The whole idea was dropped without any explanation.  With extreme charity, the character might be read as Onslaught himself, although even then his dialogue doesn't make any sense - if he is Onslaught, what is "the coming" that Gateway's supposed to be preparing the X-Men to fight?

Iceman's chest is shattered while in ice form, leaving him with a dent.  This makes him understandably reluctant to change back to his human form in case the obvious happens.  Eventually, Emma Frost helps him change back, over in Uncanny.

We're told that Chamber was dropped back off at the Generation X school after his abduction last issue.  The idea is that Onslaught rejected having Chamber there because he was vulnerable to telepaths.

It's suggested that the location of Onslaught's test must be a place of power for him.  Again, this is never followed up or properly explained.

This is a double-sized issue, since it's issue #50.

Comments:
You've probably gathered by this point that I don't have much time for the Onslaught storyline, a confused and ill-thought-out mess which only ever worked because readers gave it the benefit of the doubt and assumed it must all be heading somewhere.  In retrospect, it stands revealed as near-total gibberish. 

This issue is basically a big fight scene.  It verges on (perhaps intentional) self-parody when Cyclops announces that Onslaught is playing right into their hands, because of the hours they've spent in the Danger room "battling opponents without discernible faces, without motives!"  Well, they got that bit right, anyway.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X (last in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #10; next in Uncanny X-Men #331-332, then in Wolverine vol 1 #102)
The Beast (next in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #10) and Bishop (next in Uncanny X-Men #331; both last in X-Men vs Brood #2)
Gambit (between Uncanny X-Men #330-331)
Cyclops (last in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #10) and Phoenix III (last in X-Men vs Brood #2; both next in Uncanny X-Men #331, then Phoenix in Wolverine vol 2 #97, then in flashback in Wolverine vol 2 #98, then both in Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #1-4, then in Uncanny X-Men #332, then in Wolverine vol 2 #101)
Archangel (last in Cable #31; next in Uncanny X-Men #331 and #333, then in issue #53)
Cannonball II (last behind the scenes in Cable #32; next in Wolverine vol 2 #99-100, then in Uncanny X-Men #332, then in Wolverine vol 2 #101, then in Uncanny X-Men #333-334, then in issue #54)
Iceman (last in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #10; next in Uncanny X-Men #331-332, then in Wolverine vol 2 #101, then in Uncanny X-Men #333, then in Storm #4, then in Uncanny X-Men #334, then in issue #54)
Storm (last in X-Men vs Brood #2; next in Uncanny X-Men #332-333, then in Storm #1-4, then in Cable #33, then in Uncanny X-Men #334, then in issue #54)
Wolverine (last in X-Men vs Brood #2; next in Wolverine vol 2 #97-100, then in Uncanny X-Men #332, then in Wolverine vol 2 #101-102, then in Wolverine vol 2 #102½, then in Wolverine vol 2 #103, then in Uncanny X-Men #333, then in Storm #1, then in Storm #4, then in Uncanny X-Men #334, then in issue #54)

GUEST STAR
Gateway (next in Wolverine vol 2 #104)

VILLAINS
Post (Kevin Tremain; first appearance; chronologically between Cable #31-32)
Onslaught (behind the scenes; last behind the scenes in Cable #31; next behind the scenes in X-Force vol 1 #52)

GUEST APPEARANCE
The Banshee and Chamber (behind the scenes; both next in Uncanny X-Men #331)

OTHER CHARACTER
An unidentified psionic entity

Written: 5 January 2005

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