Summary
- Marvel's new Onslaught is a force for good, becoming a multiversal hero in Weapon X-Men #4.
- A former villain, Onslaught is redeemed by absorbing the Phoenix Force. It's not just beyond Omega Level - it may be more powerful than the Living Tribunal itself.
- The new Onslaught can do "anything," setting up a new era of cosmic X-Men stories.
Warning: contains spoilers for Weapon X-Men #4!As a new era of ascending beyond Omega level. Now, even they are forced to stand aside by the arrival of a hero so powerful, they just changed the face of Marvel's multiverse.
In Weapon X-Men #4, fans meet the new, heroic Onslaught. The series has seen a group of alternate-universe Wolverines assemble to hunt a new version of the villainous Onslaught. The team are led by an older, alternate-reality Jean Grey (aka Old Lady Phoenix), whose mission is to stop Onslaught consuming the multiverse itself. However, when Old Lady Phoenix is forced to hand over her Phoenix Force powers to Onslaught, the villain is reborn as an unfathomably powerful force for good.
This Onslaught is a combination of the dying psionic essences of Magneto and Jean Grey, made up of their combined power but also their fear and rage at the point of death. In contrast, Weapon X-Men's Old Lady Phoenix has come to accept her Phoenix Force as a force of light and life. Absorbing this version of the Phoenix Force heals Onslaught's mind, resulting in a new form that is instantly remorseful for the worlds it has incinerated in the series so far. The issue ends with the new Onslaught-Phoenix vowing to explore the multiverse as a force of good.
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After 44 Years, X-Men Fully Explains a God-Tier Mutant Power
Some X-Men abilities are so powerful they're difficult to ever explain, but the franchise just did a great job of clarifying a classic superpower.
Onslaught is officially more powerful than everything except "the truly cosmic forces of the universe" - aka the Universal Abstracts like Death, the Living Tribunal, and Eternity - and even that's now in question.
X-Men's New Onslaught Is a Multiversal Powerhouse
Marvel's All-Wolverine Team Just Redeemed a Major Villain
Weapon X-Men continues the story of 2023's The Original X-Men (by Gage and Greg Land) and sees Onslaught finally defeated... by giving it exactly what it wants. This Onslaught was created on a world where a rage-filled Jean Grey destroyed Magneto's mind, combining the two at the moment of death. This created a villain with Jean Grey's psychic power, Magneto's control over magnetism, and a dark version of the all-powerful Phoenix Force. Drained by the events of The Original X-Men, Onslaught has been hopping from reality to reality, attempting to consume the psionic energy of enough mutants to regain its godlike status and steal Old Lady Phoenix's power.
The Phoenix Force is Marvel's embodiment of life and rebirth, and can rewrite reality on a whim. The X-Men have a long history with the entity, which has often chosen Jean Grey as its host.
However, in Weapon X-Men #4, Jean is seemingly betrayed by one of her all-Wolverine team. Now lacking the strength to defeat Onslaught, she's forced to hand over her powers, elevating the villain beyond godhood while also purging it of its former evil. It turns out this was Wolverine's plan all along, and Onslaught grants Jean the power to send each of the team's to their preferred reality as reward for a job well done.
It's difficult to quantify how powerful this new Onslaught is. In The Original X-Men, it claimed that it was lesser only than "the truly cosmic forces of the universe," aka the Universal Abstracts like Death, the Living Tribunal, and Eternity. Onslaught backed up this claim by destroying multiple versions of Earth as it moved between realities. However, even that was before it claimed Jean's Phoenix Force. Prior to taking Jean's power, Onslaught states that, "with the power of the Phoenix added to my own, I'll be able to do anything." Now, that's the case, but thankfully this apparently omnipotent being finds itself a friend of Marvel's mutants.
X-Men Officially Settled the 4 Most Powerful Beings in the Marvel Universe
X-Men has officially clarified the four ultimate forces in the Marvel Universe, from a godlike AI to the Devourer of Worlds himself.
Onslaught made its '90s debut by effortlessly beating the Juggernaut, then went on to fight the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Avengers, and Hulk at the same time.
Onslaught Was Originally So Powerful, It Broke the Marvel Universe
Xavier and Magneto's Worst Elements Created a Godlike Villain
As a character, Onslaught has been around since the '90s, and is one of the most powerful villains the Marvel Universe has ever faced. The original Onslaught was created when Xavier shut down Magneto's mind, combining the worst and most powerful elements of their personalities and powers. Onslaught made its debut by effortlessly beating the Juggernaut, then went on to fight the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Avengers, and Hulk at the same time, with the heroes only surviving because reality-warper Franklin Richards created an alternate universe for them to hide in (leading to a period where Marvel's most iconic heroes were all presumed dead.) That Onslaught has returned several times, always as a threat to Marvel's entire reality. Most recently, fans saw the entity in Simon Spurrier and Bob Quinn's X-Men: The Onslaught Revelation, where the psionic being took control of almost every mutant on the planet.
The first time Onslaught's name was spoken in Marvel canon was by the badly beaten Juggernaut. However, the writer of that moment - Uncanny X-Men #322's Scott Lobdell - has revealed that at the time, he had no idea who or what 'Onslaught' actually was. In Tom DeFalco's Comic Creators on X-Men, Lobdell says, "I just thought it was a cool way to open a story. ... I ended up doing that opening sequence, but I still didn't know who Onslaught was."
Marvel's new Onslaught isn't this original villain, but an even more powerful version from an alternate reality, where Jean Grey's Phoenix took the place of Xavier in facing down Magneto. It's worth keeping in mind that so far in X-Men lore, the Phoenix has proven all but unbeatable even by the cosmic force of the Marvel Universe, with hints that at its full power, the Phoenix is more potent than even the Living Tribunal. The new Onslaught was already godlike before it claimed Jean's Phoenix, making it an unprecedented force in the multiverse - one which was casually destroying entire worlds even in its weakened state.
X-Men Redefine Their Place in Marvel Continuity with New MIDNIGHT M Symbol
As a new era of X-Men lore begins, the new 'Midnight M' symbol shows how badly Professor Xavier has failed his students, and what comes next.
While this story ends with Onslaught as a force for good, that doesn't mean the story is over.
The Onslaught-Phoenix Can Continue X-Men's Cosmic Odyssey
The New Onslaught Is a Rare Bright Spot in the X-Men's Ongoing Fall from Grace
The creation of the new Onslaught has been an unusual story from Marvel, connecting the one-shot Original X-Men and now the four-part Weapon X-Men. While this story ends with Onslaught as a force for good, touring the multiverse to witness creation rather than conquer it, that doesn't mean the story is over. Indeed, the X-Men just got the most powerful ally they've ever had, albeit one whose focus is on the multiversal level.
Marvel can keep coming back to the new Onslaught to tell stories disconnected from its mainline X-Men titles - a great tool to have, given how fun it's been seeing so many alternate realities where X-Men's most iconic stories took a very different turn. It can also be a major force for good - prior to its redemption, Wolverine convinced Onslaught to tackle the multiverse's 'evil' realities first - a promise it may still be inclined to keep. Onslaught can be a huge advantage to Marvel's X-Men titles just in the variety of stories prompted by its existence.
Wolverine Names His New Son After an Iconic X-Men Hero (Who ed at the Same Time)
As X-Men introduces Wolverine's new son and daughter, their names show what really matters to Logan - including a surprise mutant ally.
That's especially true as X-Men reaches the end of its 2019-2024 Krakoan Era, and the From the Ashes era once again returns mutantkind to their usual status quo of being hunted and feared as they're forced to hide among humanity. Currently, the X-Men fanbase are split on this change, with some seeing it as a welcome return to form and others as an abandonment of the big, ambitious ideas of the Krakoan Era. Further Onslaught stories can help bridge this divide, offering up ambitious X-Men stories that don't need to be connected to any other ongoing series.
Weapon X-Men showed fans a world where Cyclops and Wolverine died fighting an alien invasion side by side and another where they became family following the marriage of their kids. That sense of variety is hugely useful to the X-Men franchise, and hopefully Marvel will use its new god-tier X-Men hero to keep telling these kinds of creative, self-contained stories.
Weapon X-Men #4 is available now from Marvel Comics.
