STORY: "Inquiring Minds" (22 pages)  Onslaught finally takes over Professor X's body, signalling the start of his big campaign.  He starts off by defeating the Juggernaut.

What you need to know:
This carries on from Uncanny X-Men #334, where Juggernaut arrived at the Mansion and Xavier was acting eccentrically.  We join the story with Phoenix whisking Juggernaut off to a psi-shielded chamber (apparently, the one where he lived when he was preparing for the Z'Nox invasion), so that she can examine him without interference from Onslaught.

Xavier gets very angry watching news coverage about Graydon Creed's campaign and assorted other anti-mutant activities.  All of this finally triggers Onslaught to take over his body.  The idea is that it's bringing all of his frustration about the recent anti-mutant storylines to a head.  Onslaught then easily defeats Juggernaut by the simple device of ripping off the Crimson Ruby of Cyttorak, and severing his link to its power. 

In fact, this shouldn't work, because the Juggernaut's power was never dependent on being in continual contact with the gem.  He's even thrown it into orbit before, in an attempt to stop people interfering with it, and it never seemed to do him any harm.  But that's what the plot calls for, so that's what happens.  Juggernaut is then sidelined into his own little strand of the Onslaught crossover, a solo story in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #12, where he gets his powers back.

Onslaught ends the issue by summoning the X-Men to meet with him (posing as Xavier, of course).  This leads into Onslaught: X-Men, where general chaos ensues, and Onslaught is revealed as the X-traitor from Bishop's timeline.  The X-Men don't get slaughtered after all, and Bishop's timeline is averted - if it hadn't been already.

In a remarkably anticlimactic plot development, the Beast simply powers his way out of the cell by yanking the chains out of the wall, and then exiting through the trap door.  He claims that there was "no point in breaking loose before" because he could never have made it through the wall.  That seems a bit questionable anyway - it's just ordinary brick, after all.  But in any event, wouldn't it have been at least more comfortable to get out of the chains?  If only to be ready for when the Dark Beast eventually came back?  (After all, if he wasn't planning to come back, why bother leaving a water supply?)

Anyhow, once he gets out of the cell, the Beast is confronted by an off-camera character who says "Where do you think you're going?"  Logically it must be Fatale, the Dark Beast's sidekick, since the next time we see the Beast, in X-Factor #125-126... he's back in prison.  X-Factor finally rescue him in X-Factor #126.  So in other words, the whole "escape" subplot from the last two issues is a complete waste of time.  Or perhaps nobody even bothered to tell the X-Factor creators that it was happening.

Comments:
Well, it's better than a lot of the Onslaught issues.  The build-up to Xavier finally turning evil is handled quite nicely, and the Juggernaut is used well.  On the other hand, the Beast subplot is a mess, even without taking the X-Factor crossover fiasco into account.  And the whole thing suffers by association - it's part of "Onslaught", a truly bad crossover, and whatever merits this issue may have, they aren't enough to make it worth slogging through the rest of the arc.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X (last in Uncanny X-Men #334; next in Onslaught: X-Men, then in Uncanny X-Men #335, then in Fantastic Four #415)
Bishop and Iceman (both last in Uncanny X-Men #334; both next in Onslaught: X-Men, then in Uncanny X-Men #335, then in Avengers #401, then in Fantastic Four #415)
Cannonball II, Cyclops and Phoenix III (all last in Uncanny X-Men #334; all next in Onslaught: X-Men, then in Uncanny X-Men #335, then in Excalibur vol 1 #100)
Gambit (last in Uncanny X-Men #334; next in Onslaught: X-Men, then in Uncanny X-Men #335, then in Excalibur vol 1 #100)
The Beast (next in the second story in X-Factor vol 1 #125, then in X-Factor vol 1 #126, then in Fantastic Four #416, then in Uncanny X-Men #337, then in issue #57)
Storm (last in Uncanny X-Men #334; next in Onslaught: X-Men, then in Uncanny X-Men #335, then in Cable #34, then in Incredible Hulk vol 2 #444, then in Uncanny X-Men #336, then in flashback in Onslaught: Marvel Universe, then in Cable #36, then in issue #57)
Wolverine (last in Uncanny X-Men #334; next in Onslaught: X-Men, then in Uncanny X-Men #335, then in Wolverine vol 2 #104-105, then in flashback in Onslaught: Marvel Universe, then in Uncanny X-Men #337, then in issue #57)

VILLAINS
Onslaught (last behind the scenes in Fantastic Four #414; next in Onslaught: X-Men)
The Juggernaut (between Uncanny X-Men #334 and X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #12)
The Dark Beast (between Uncanny X-Men #334 and Onslaught: X-Men)
Fatale (between X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #10 and X-Factor vol 1 #124)

Revised: 9 April 2005

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