STORY: "Onslaught, phase 1: Invasion" (23 pages)  Onslaught's Sentinels conquer Manhattan, while the X-Men team up with the Fantastic Four and the Avengers to fight them.

What you need to know:
Joseph and Rogue turn up in Manhattan.  They were picked up by a combined X-Men/Avengers team in Avengers #401.  You might have thought that that scene really belonged in an X-Men chapter of the crossover, but that's not the way things worked in the mid-nineties... 

Joseph is duly appalled by Onslaught's actions, since he's meant to be the innocent Magneto.  In theory he ought to have an interesting role to play in this storyline because (at this point) he was meant to be the real Magneto - minus the elements that were stripped out in issue #25 and became Onslaught.  Unfortunately, he never really gets much to do in this story, because ultimately it all has to come down the Avengers and the FF.

Gambit takes an immediate dislike to Joseph.  Partly that's because Joseph is an obvious threat to Gambit's relationship with Rogue.  Partly, it's because he's jealous that Magneto has been able to put his past behind him.

Onslaught has kidnapped Franklin Richards (in Fantastic Four #415), and he's trying to get Franklin to help him create an alternate world.  This is the pocket dimension that ends up holding the Heroes Reborn world, where Avengers, Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Captain America will spend the next year.  Why does Onslaught want to create a parallel universe?  Er... well, it's got to come from somewhere.  There's a vague suggestion that it's going to be a sanctuary for Onslaught, but it's never properly explored.  At the same time, Onslaught also announces that mutants are going to conquer the world.

Another bunch of X-Men arrive back in New York after appearing in Excalibur vol 1 #100.  In that issue, they picked up the Xavier Protocols, a set of plans by Xavier for how to kill the X-Men.  The idea is that they contain Xavier's instructions on how to kill him if he should go rogue.  Nonetheless, Cyclops is duly unsettled by the idea of Xavier quietly planning to kill all his followers.

The issue ends with our favourite precognitive, Ozymandias carving a statue of Onslaught standing over the wreckage of the world.  Just in case you hadn't got the point that he's really dangerous.

Comments:
Yes, well.  It's "Onslaught", a crossover that Scott Lobdell later called "a work in progress."  A less tactful but more accurate description would be "a total mess."  It often seems as though the writers are working from different plot outlines.  Major plot points fall through the cracks between stories - as became obvious with Marvel published the Road to Onslaught one-shot, which contained a synopsis of a completely different story from the one that actually saw print.  But at least it was one that explained what the Sentinels and Gateway were doing there.

Anyhow.  The ongoing story gets a token advancement with the return of Rogue and Joseph, and Gambit's reaction.  Otherwise, it's lots of fighting, and lots of references to events in other titles.  It could be a lot worse, but there's not much to it independently of the crossover - and the crossover sucks.

This is actually Mark Waid's final issue as plotter.  He sticks around to script the next issue over a Scott Lobdell plot. 

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X (as Onslaught; last in Fantastic Four #415), Cyclops, Phoenix III (both last in Excalibur vol 1 #100) and Rogue (last in Avengers #401; rejoins the X-Men; all next in Uncanny X-Men #336, then Cyclops in Incredible Hulk vol 2 #445)
Archangel (last in Excalibur vol 1 #100; next in flashback in Avengers '99, then in Uncanny X-Men #337, then behind the scenes in issue #57)
Bishop (last in Fantastic Four #415; next in Uncanny X-Men #336, then in Fantastic Four #416, then in flashback in Onslaught: Marvel Universe, then in Uncanny X-Men #337, then in issue #57)
Cannonball II (last in Excalibur vol 1 #100; next in Cable #36, then behind the scenes in Uncanny X-Men #337, then in issue #57)
Gambit (last in Avengers #401; next in Uncanny X-Men #336, then in Incredible Hulk vol 2 #445, then in flashback in Onslaught: Marvel Universe, then in Uncanny X-Men #337-338, then in issue #58)
Iceman (last in Fantastic Four #415; next in Uncanny X-Men #336, then in Fantastic Four #416, then in Incredible Hulk vol 2 #445, then in flashback in Onslaught: Marvel Universe, then in flashback in Avengers '99, then in Uncanny X-Men #337, then in issue #57)
Psylocke (last in Excalibur vol 1 #100; next in Uncanny X-Men #336-337, then in issue #57)

GUEST STARS
The Avengers: Captain America, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, Thor, the Vision (all last in Avengers #401), Ant-Man II, the Black Widow, the Wasp, Crystal, Giant-Man I, Hawkeye (the latter six last in Fantastic Four #415) and Iron Man III (last in Iron Man vol 1 #331; all next in Uncanny X-Men #336 except Ant-Man, who appears next in flashback in Fantastic Four #416, the Black Widow and the Wasp, who appear next in Avengers #402, Captain America, who appears next behind the scenes in Thor #502, and Crystal, who appears next in Incredible Hulk vol 2 #445; between pages, Thor appears behind the scenes in Fantastic Four #416)
The Fantastic Four: Mr Fantastic, the Human Torch II, the Invisible Woman and the Thing (all between Fantastic Four #415 and Uncanny X-Men #336; between pages of this story, Mr Fantastic and the Torch appear in flashback in Fantastic Four #416, then all four appear in flashback in Generation X '96)
Franklin Richards (between Fantastic Four #415 and X-Man #19)

SUPPORTING CHARACTER
Joseph (between Avengers #401 and Uncanny X-Men #336)

VILLAINS
Onslaught (last in X-Factor vol 1 #125; appears between pages behind the scenes in Amazing Spider-Man #415, then in Spider-Man #72; appears between pages in X-Man #19; next in X-Man #19)
Ozymandias (between Uncanny X-Men #335 and Cable #34)

Written: 7 April 2005

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