STORY: "Onslaught, phase 2: Twilight of the Gods" (23 pages)  It's the build-up to the final fight with Onslaught.

What you need to know:
Dr Doom turns up to lend a hand against Onslaught, as he sometimes does when other major villains are in danger of derailing his own plans.

Joseph is disconcerted by the thought that he used to be like Onslaught and Dr Doom.  He has a nice chat with Professor X (who was separated from Onslaught earlier in the crossover) about how he feels.

Nate Grey gets a scene with Onslaught, for no particular reason other than to remind us that he's in the crossover.  The upshot is that Onslaught scans Nate's mind and finds out about the Age of Apocalypse.  He's deeply unimpressed - he'd always figured that a mutant dominated world would be a bit better.  Onslaught doesn't seem to grasp the point that the Age of Apocalypse was ruled by Apocalypse rather than mutants in general, but perhaps he just never scanned that deeply before flying off the handle.  Anyhow, this leads Onslaught to decide that the mutants don't deserve to live either, so he's just going to kill everyone and be done with it.

The story finally gets resolved in Onslaught: Marvel Universe, which turns on the contrived plot device that mutants can't fight Onslaught, so it has to be the Avengers and the Fantastic Four.  (Who include some mutants, actually, but we'll politely let that slide.)

Comments:
Another Onslaught issue, and at least it's the last one.  Really, very little happens in this story, other than Onslaught going even more mad.  It comes across as an exercise in killing time so that the finish can come in Onslaught: Marvel Universe instead.  At least we get some mildly interesting conversation between Joseph and Xavier to fill the space.

An underwhelming way for Waid to go out, though - scripting the penultimate part of a dreary crossover.  This can't be what he had in mind when he signed on for the book.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X, Phoenix III (both last in Uncanny X-Men #336) and Cyclops (last in Incredible Hulk vol 2 #445; all next in flashback in Onslaught: Marvel Universe, then in Uncanny X-Men #337)
Rogue (last in Uncanny X-Men #336; next in flashback in Onslaught: Marvel Universe, then behind the scenes in Uncanny X-Men #337, then in Magneto #1, then in Magneto #4, then in issue #58)

GUEST STARS
Franklin Richards, the Invisible Woman, Mr Fantastic (all last in Fantastic Four #416), Nate Grey (last in X-Man #19), Captain America (last in Incredible Hulk vol 2 #445) and Giant-Man I (last in Avengers #402; all next in flashback in Onslaught: Marvel Universe)
Dr Doom (in flashback between pages of Fantastic Four #416)

SUPPORTING CHARACTER
Joseph (last in Uncanny X-Men #336; next in flashback in Onslaught: Marvel Universe)

VILLAIN
Onslaught (last in Avengers #402; next in flashback in Onslaught: Marvel Universe)

Written: 7 April 2005

back | next