Name

Current Alias

Aliases

At last...FREEDOM! Now...behold my hand!

Origin[]

Charles Xavier repressed his darker aspects, parts of him that yearned for power, within his psyche, but when his psychic defenses momentarily weakened, this darkness manifested as a dark entity. It first showed itself when Xavier became unconscious after an encounter withFirelord. He had not recovered from his nightmares he had been having aboutLilandra. In his weakened state he allowed this evil-self to take over and it nearly drove him insane. The Entity later resurfaced to challenge both theX-Men and theMicronauts, but it was reabsorbed by the real Xavier.^[1]

Eventually, a new psionic entity was created from the consciousness of two extremely powerfulmutants: Professor Charles Xavier andMagneto.^[1] After Magneto's global EMP, which had indirectly killed hundreds or thousands due to plane crashes and medical failures, Xavier decided to lead a strike on Magneto's new space fortress. During the ensuing battle,Wolverine slashed Magneto, and in response, Magneto ripped out theadamantium from Wolverine's bones, severely injuring him to the point that his healing factor had trouble healing him. For Professor X, this was the last straw. Having tolerated Magneto despite his countless crimes, Xavier finally snapped. He used histelepathic powers to shut down Magneto's mind, rendering him catatonic.^[10] During the psionic contact, Magneto's anger, grief, and lust for vengeance entered Xavier's consciousness, commingling with every long-suppressed negative feeling the professor had endured during the last 30 years. This aggregation resulted in a separate personality forming within Xavier: the being known asOnslaught.^[11]

Onslaught remained dormant for some time. Gradually, Xavier's frustration with his dream of mutant-human peace and harmony began to increase, exacerbated by the daily growth of anti-mutant hysteria, the deaths of dozens of mutants from the lethalLegacy Virus, and his own failed attempt to rehabilitate the mutant sociopath calledSabretooth. Xavier reached his breaking point when anti-mutant humans killed a young mutant near the grounds of theXavier Institute for Higher Learning, the secret base of the X-Men. It was at this point that Onslaught awakened within Xavier and began to manifest himself to others.^[12]

Onslaught[]

Onslaught first manifestated himself toJean Grey. His first real goal was to turn X-Men to his side, by showing them how the world was really full of hypcrisy and duplicity. Starting with Jean, Onslaught pulled her into his psychic realm while she was in the middle of conversation in a shopping center, he reasurred her that although she didn't know him they had much to discuss, Jean wasn't really convinced but decided to play along in order to learn more about the entity, Onslaught started by showing her how none of the people in the mall were actually concerned for her safety, even if she had just randomly dissapeared, he even fired a fake blast at the building to release his frustrations, he then took Jean to the anti-mutant presidential campaign ofGraydon Creed, showing him how his main advisor didn't really have any ideology regarding mutants, mocking the fact that the X-Men's "Dream" would never reach people like him. Jean countered saying that he wasn't really surprising him by showing her any of this and defended that despite there being people who would never change, Proffesor X's beliefs still were just.^[22]

Finally, as a last resort to show Jean proof he took her back to theX-Mansion and claimed that even her father figure, Xavier had his own secrets, Jean was reluctant to believe Onslaught words and eagerly dove herself into the Proffesor's mind to prove him how he was wrong, showing him the many times Xavier had relied and trusted her in the past. Onslaught then suddenly shifted the landscape taking Jean back to the early days of the X-Men, revealing to her the shocking fact that Xavier had actually being in love with her not long after she joined the team. Shellshocked from this revelation Jean accused Onslaught of being manipulating reality, with him explaning that the reason she never found out about it was because Charles himself forced his own mind to forget the memory, claiming that the Proffesor was just as much a hypocrite and a liar than everyone else around him, asking Jean to join him in his quest to create a new world order, Jean lashed out claiming that everyone had ulterior motives at one momment or another, and that he himself was no different. Realizing he wouldn't be able to get through to her, Onslaught immediatly teleported Jean back to the mall, not before engraving his name on her mind. This was the first encounter anyone had with the entity known as Onslaught.^[22]

Following an encounter with the mystically-empowered criminal called theJuggernaut (Xavier's stepbrother, Cain Marko),^[23] Onslaught invaded a government-sanctionedSentinel base. He downloaded the current specifications for the mutant-hunting androids and erased portions of the memories of the employees working in the clandestine factory.^[24] Soon after, while hiding in Xavier's mind, Onslaught encountered the telepathic, telekineticNate Grey. He pulled the Professor's body from theAstral Plane, a feat never before achieved.^[13] Through X-Man's actions, Onslaught was able to escape Xavier's mind and move independently.^[14] After taking full possession of the Professor's mind and body, Onslaught-as-Xavier called together the X-Men. When they resisted his plan to turn them into soldiers fighting a total war against humans, Onslaught revealed himself to the X-Men and attempted to destroy the outlaw adventurers. The time-tossed mutant soldier calledBishop, remembering childhood stories of a traitor betraying and killing the X-Men, began to realize that the guilty party was Xavier as Onslaught. Bishop rescued his teammates. Taking Xavier's body with him, Onslaught escaped.^[25]

Once free, Onslaught created a childlike psionic projection named Charlie to gain the trust of youngFranklin Richards, a mutant possessing the latent power to alter reality. Onslaught succeeded in capturing the child despite a rescue attempt by Franklin's parents,Mister Fantastic andInvisible Woman, members of the legendary super-team known as theFantastic Four.^[26] Now carrying Franklin and Xavier, Onslaught capturedX-Man, intending to use his raw psionic power to fuel Onslaught’s plans to transform the human race into a collective consciousness. Onslaught returned to New York, reprogramming the Sentinel robots to obey his commands and form a protective circle around Manhattan, sealing off the island from the rest of the world.^[17]

The X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and theAvengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, challenged Onslaught. Their first confrontation with the entity and his minions resulted in the rescue of a now-powerless Xavier, who retained his usual benevolent personality. Onslaught evolved after Xavier was rescued and now existed as pure psionic energy contained within his armor.^[27] A second and final confrontation occurred at his Central Park citadel. After a number of attempts to free Franklin and X-Man from Onslaught's seemingly impervious armor, the heroes regrouped. Onslaught then used Franklin's powers to create a second sun that would destroy the heroes and Manhattan. During their next assault, X-ManPhoenix (Jean Grey) used her telepathy to turn off the part of the monstrousHulk's mind that contained the rationality of his alter ego, Dr. Bruce Banner. The now-savage Hulk, possessed of a near-animal intelligence and unbelievable strength, battled Onslaught and tore apart his armor. The resulting explosion of psionic energy separated Banner and the Hulk, and Onslaught was left as an energy being, immune to physical harm.^[8]

The Avenger known as the MightyThor, Asgardian God of Thunder, master of the storm and lightning, flew into the energy being, disrupting Onslaught's form. Realizing that Thor's efforts alone were insufficient to destroy their adversary, the non-mutant members of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four entered the energy field, and the Hulk-less Banner andDr. Doom (albeit reluctantly) followed. The X-Men were unable to do likewise, as it was theorized that if Onslaught, a being of mutant origin, came to possess a mutant host, he would then become unstoppable. Onslaught dissolved, seemingly destroyed, along with all the heroes who had thrown themselves into the rift. The remaining Sentinels were disabled, Franklin and X-Man were rescued, and Manhattan was returned to normal.^[8] Later, however, it was revealed that the Avengers and the Fantastic Four did not die, as had been surmised. Rather, the heroes were reborn in a pocket universe created by Franklin.^[18] The Avengers and the Fantastic Four returned to their rightful home months later, possessing only hazy memories of their time onCounter-Earth.^[28]

Onslaught Reborn[]

When theScarlet Witchdepowered most mutants on Earth, she inadvertently caused the rebirth of Onslaught. Immediately seeking out Franklin Richards and failing to kill him through the mind-controlledHuman Torch and Mister Fantastic, Onslaught quickly cornered the child in his bedroom, where Franklin once more used a toy ball as a focus to escape into aworld that was, for the most part, an exact copy of the Counter-Earth he had created. There, with the help of recreated versions of theFantastic Four, theAvengers, and their allies and foes, Franklin battled Onslaught. The fight took them to theBaxter Building, whereBucky sacrificed herself to knock Onslaught into theNegative Zone. Later, Bucky mysteriously found herself back onEarth-616 while Onslaught remained trapped in the Negative Zone. He was seen floating nearWonderland, curious of its purpose.^[19]

Onslaught Unleashed[]

When both theSecret Avengers and theYoung Allies went toColombia to investigate aRoxxon facility, Onslaught emerged from the Negative Zone and possessed Rikki's body. He revealed soon afterwards that the real Rikki had in fact died in the Negative Zone, and that the Rikki he was possessing was nothing but a construct he made so he could pull himself back to Earth. This revelation prompted Rikki to fight back only to prove Onslaught wrong. Eventually, Rikki hadGravity kill her so that Onslaught could not return and destroy the Earth.^[20]

Onslaught Revelation[]

Some time after Professor X revealed the existence of the mutant island nation ofKrakoa to the whole world, the anti-mutant organizationOrchis introduced Onslaught in their society as an "invasive exotic" that would accelerate its fall,^[21] anchoring him inside the broken mind of the mutantLost to limit his power and allow him to get into the island undetected.^[7] As the "Patchwork Man," Onslaught preyed on the negative emotions of mutants, amplifying them to the point of causing self-destructive behaviors and savage cultural movements among Krakoans,^[21] all the while feeding on the parts of mutant psyches lost during resurrection and leaving a part of himself to fill the gaps.^[29]

The Patchwork Man's presence eventually caught the attention of Xavier, who sentNightcrawler to investigate the threat. Both Xavier and Nightcrawler initially believed the Patchwork Man to be Xavier's erstwhile son,Legion, but that suspicion was put to rest after Nightcrawler saved Legion from Orchis, which led Legion to confide to Nightcrawler that the Patchwork Man was actually Onslaught.^[21] Legion, working withXorn andZorn, set a trap for Onslaught by merging the minds ofLoa andMercury to entice him. Though the bait worked, Onslaught was able to escape and caused a fight betweenFabian Cortez and Lost atStacy X's orphanage.^[30] Later, Onslaught possessed every mutant in theGreen Lagoon during a meeting between Legion and his father, forcing David and the Xorn brothers to kill everyone there in order to free them from his control.^[31]

Legion eventually realized what Onslaught was doing and told Nightcrawler, who, in a moment of epiphany granted by Cortez's augmentation powers, saw a way to defeat the entity. However, that solution was lost when Nightcrawler sacrificed himself to preventPhobos from falling onArakko (Mars). Already knowing that would happen, Nightcrawler saved Cortez so he could trigger the epiphany again after his resurrection. Having possessed most mutants in the island,^[29] Onslaught threw a party to end all the parties: the Cruciball. By the end of the Cruciball, everyone would kill everyone else just for the thrill of it, but they wouldn't be resurrected, as Onslaught planned to use Xavier to delete all the mind backups.

Onslaught possessed the abilities of hismutant progenitors,Professor X andMagneto.^[27] By absorbingFranklin Richards andX-Man (Nate Grey), twoOmega-level mutants, he also added their immense powers to his own.^[16] In his prime during hisoriginal assault, Onslaught fought the combined forces ofEarth's heroes, including theAvengers, theFantastic Four, and theX-Men; managed to create a second sun; and physically matched a Banner-lessHulk.^[8]

Astral Plane Tap: Ability to tap into the enormous psychic resources of the astral plane in order to manipulate matter and energy.

• Astral Travel: Capable of forging psi-links to travel in astral form.
• Material Astral Projection: Give substance to astral energy to solidify psychic forms or forge protective psi-armor and evenpull the astral projections of other telepaths into the physical world.
• Psychometry: Can read residual thought imprints left on objects touched by people.
• Dimensional Sense: Capable of sensing dimensional rifts or anomalies.

Telepathy: Onslaught is able to read minds and project his own thoughts into the minds of others in vast distances with little to no resistance from even the most powerful telepaths.

• Telepathic Illusion: Ability to create realistic telepathic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring.
• Telepathic Camouflage: Ability to mask himself, and other people's presences from those around him. Can telepathically disguise himself, making his appearance to those around him quite different (changing the appearance of clothing, as well as more involved disguises).
• Mind Blast: Ability to place large amounts of information in another mind.
• Mind Control: Ability to control the minds of others upon mere concentration. This power can also allow him to completely shut down several peoples' minds, making it appear as if time has stopped. Onslaught's telepathic control was so powerful that he was one of the few to completely controlHulk (albeit in a calm state), despite the green goliath's immense resistance to psychic manipulation.^[32]Professor X andMagneto are particularly vulnerable to Onslaught's control, since it was born of them.^[7]
• Mind Possession: Ability to possess the mind of another, and use that being's body as his own.
• Mind Alteration: Ability to alter the minds of others by force of will.
• Mental Amnesia: Ability to cause loss of particular memories, and amnesia in another person or even in a group of people. Powerful enough to make a person have total mental paralysis.
• Mental Shield: Ability to erect a psychic barrier for protection of the telepath and of other minds that is sufficient to protect him from other Omega-Level telepaths. In summary, it refers to the erection of mental blocks preventing the free access to the conscious and subconscious mind of someone.
• Psionic Blasts: Can project psionic force bolts which have no physical effects but which can affect a victim's mind so as tocause the victim pain or unconsciousness and can even kill an adversary. Even without being fully evolved, his psionic blasts affected Juggernaut even though Juggernaut was wearing his helmet which had protected him from very powerful psychics, slowing him down enough for him to hit Juggernaut.
• Astral Projection: Ability to astral-travel and communicate with others astrally through his own will, or through contact with the thoughts and memories of others. In the astral realm, he can use his powers to create "ectoplasmic" objects. He cannot engage in long range astral projection on the earthly plane.
• Mental Detection: Can sense the presence of another superhuman mutant within a vast but as yet undefined radius of himself by perceiving the distinctive mental radiations emitted by such a being.

Telekinesis: Telekinetically, Onslaught is capable of very fine control over objects; he can disassemble complex devices explosively (separating every last component, such as screws, nuts, circuit boards, etc.), and just as quickly and easily assemble complex devices. This also has enabled him to even attain awareness and control over objects as small as individual electrons in an atom. For instance, Onslaught could detect if a seal was hermetic, or not, by checking for the presence of penetrating oxygen molecules. He could even detect and discern individual oxygen molecules, and determine the atomic weight of molecules, by the amount of atoms present. On larger levels, Onslaught can levitate great weights, into the tons, but his upper limit has remained undisclosed.

• Psionic Spikes: Ability to create destructive psionic spikes that destroy the physical objects that the spikes come into contact with.
• Telekinetic Force-Fields: Ability to create protective force shields that could deflect even the most powerful of attacks (even filter bacteria from the air). The upper limits of this ability remain unknown, but it is believed that he could probably protect himself from harm at the ground zero detonation of a 1 kiloton nuclear warhead (4.18 terajoules of energy from the heat, concussion, and radiation effects) with ease. Onslaught has also displayed such control over the fields as to shape them precisely, even to conform very closely to his body’s form. There does not appear to be any correlation between field strength and the thickness of the telekinetic fields.
• Concussive Blasts: Can project his telekinetic energies as powerful blast beams directed from his brain that could apparently affect matter with concussive force.
• Telekinetic Flight: By levitating himself, he can fly at incredible speeds.
• Intangibility: Can phase through solid matter by mentally shifting his molecules around another object's as he moves forward.
• Telekinetic Holograms: His mental fine motor skills are so acute that he can mentally manipulate dust particles and water vapor to refract light-waves and create holograms.

Magnetokinesis: Onslaught has the power to shape and manipulate magnetic fields that exist naturally or artificially. He can draw magnetic force from outside himself, or can also generate magnetic force within himself. Onslaught's power is psionic and physiological in nature. He can lift, move, andalter objects. Onslaught can project metal at an unparalleled velocity andplace tremendous pressure on metallic substances to liquefy and reshape them, manipulate the iron-enriched blood-flow to one's brain to induce aneurysms or unconsciousness, redirect the flow of blood through one's brain to alter thoughts and perceptions or blank a person's mind completely, levitate a person or control a person's actions by manipulating the iron in their bloodstream, remove the iron from the bloodstream entirely through a person's skin, control ferrous particles in the atmosphere, alter the Earth's magnetic field which extends into space as the magnetosphere, prodigiously increase his own strength to superhuman levels, and achieve a wide range of other effects.

• Magnetic Force-Fields: Onslaught usually protects himself with a personal force field that he can quickly expand to protect large areas. His force field has withstood the effects of multiple nuclear weapons, volcanic eruption, the depths of space and attacks from multiple Avengers or X-Men, including Phoenix, Thor, and even Galactus.
• Organic Iron Manipulation: Onslaught can control the iron within any organic matter which allows him to have full control over an opponent's body. Onslaught has also demonstrated the ability to control the blood flow within one's body thus causing them to die a painful or even quick death.
• Electromagnetic Spectrum Manipulation: Onslaught has some ability to project or manipulate any form of energy that is related to the electromagnetic spectrum. He canfire andabsorb bolts of electricity and magnetic force, reverse lasers and other forms of radiation or energy, create enough intenseheat as infrared radiation to level a city, and becomeinvisible bydeflecting visible light around his body. Heat or infrared radiation, is part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which also includes visible light, radio waves, ultraviolet light, gamma rays, and x-rays. Onslaught can project any of these. Onslaught can maintain total control of an entire planet's electromagnetic field and can manipulate it accordingly. He has also dispersed a "flame cage" created by the Human Torch, but whether he had simply expanded his personal force field or employed something else entirely is unclear. Onslaught once used his powers tocreate a stable wormhole between two points in space.
  • Electromagnetic Sight: Onslaught can perceive the world around himself as patterns of magnetic and electrical energy. He can perceive the natural magnetic auras surrounding living beings.
  • Electromagnetic Pulses: He also has creative uses of his powers such as using his telekinesis to channel the Earth's magnetic field through the electro-current of his brain and generate devastating electromagnetic pulses.

Superhuman Strength: Onslaught possesses vast superhuman strength of unknown limits. Onslaught can lift well in excess of 100 tons easily without using his psionic, magnetic, telekinetic or reality altering powers to increase his strength. While using those powers to enhance his strength, the upper limits of Onslaught's strength are unimaginable. While not fully evolved, he demonstrated sufficient strength to overpower the fully poweredJuggernaut and with one punch hit him with enough force to render him unconscious and send him flying from Canada to New Jersey. He later used his claws to easily skewer the Juggernaut and rip out Cain's Cyttorak gem from his body. In his physical prime, Onslaught was able to match the extremely enraged Banner-less Hulk, the only one endowed with enough power to surpass his might and destroy his armor, whereas gradually unleashed more power to restrain entire ensembles of heroes in the process. Therefore, even though it was an impressive feat of raw power, Onslaught was ultimately overpowered when the Hulk's rage reached a peak.

Impervious Armor: After completing his physical evolution, Onslaught’s armor wasnigh-invulnerable and near impossible to crack. The only exception was a blow from an enraged Banner-less Hulk. However, some were capable to cause damage when Onslaught was in an unstable vulnerable mid-evolution flux. Finally, Onslaught used the Hulk's phenomenal strength to destroy Onslaught's armor so that he could fully evolve. Hence it presumably means Onslaught could not evolve by himself and the Hulk needed to overcome the villain's powers.

Mutant Absorption: Onslaught had the ability to absorb any mutant into his being and gain their powers for himself.Franklin Richards andX-Man were two mutants that he consumed to increase his vast power.^[27][16][8]

• Reality Manipulation: From Franklin Richards, Onslaught gained the ability to warp reality on a potentially cosmic scale. He created a second sun out of nothing.^[8]

Super-Genius Intelligence: Onslaught possesses the combined genius intellects of both Charles Xavier and Magneto, granting him the same expertise and knowledge of each. With his genius intelligence and vast background, he could master his powers better than inexperienced wielders, such as the reality manipulatorFreedom Ring or the infant Franklin Richards.^[1]

• Formidable hand-to-hand combatant: Onslaught is possesses the knowledge of combat that both Xavier and Magneto have learned over the years.
• Strategist: Onslaught is particularly adept at using all of his powers in combat situations, typically preferring to combine certain aspects of different abilities for different situations. Onslaught is a skilled manipulator with and without his powers, and has tricked his enemies into doing exactly what he wished to do multiple times. When combining his genius level intellect and his telepathic abilities, Onslaught could detect any anomaly and immediately apply his counter-measures. As an example, Onslaught tricked Thor to free a captured Professor Xavier, who presumably represented a suppressing element, so that he could evolve and employ the full power that he had absorbed.^[27] He could also manipulate the heroes to destroy his armor so that he could evolve into a being of pure psionic energy.

• While Onslaught could increase his powers by absorbing mutants, non-mutants had the adverse effect. Onslaught was weakened and ultimately defeated when leagues of non-mutant heroes (and involuntarily Doctor Doom) entered him in an act of self-sacrifice.^[8]

• At the end of theOnslaught event, it was theorized that if amutant were to be absorbed by Onslaught's energy form, Onslaught would in turn become invincible. However, of the members of theAvengers who selflessly sacrificed themselves to defeat Onslaught, two were mutants:
  • Scarlet Witch, although it has been suggested that her Hex powers somehow shielded her.^[8] Decades later, her mutant status was retconned to a mutate "masquerading" as a mutant.^[33][34]
  • Namor, although he is ahumanmutant/Atlantean hybrid, which could have caused complications.
• Moira MacTaggert was possibly a factor in Onslaught's creation. She had a fear of shatteringXavier's psyche during their early encounters after she had allowed him to read her mind (years before Xavier mind wipedMagneto) and eventually unleashing "something unexpected on the world."^[35]

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