X-Men #55

X-Men #55
Writing: Mark Waid
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: We open on an average citizen of New York waking up and opening his curtain to reveal a Sentinel staring right at him. It seems that Onslaught has found a way to reprogram the Sentinels to attack New York City, as opposed to just hunting mutants. The combined forces of the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Avengers observe the chaos on a rooftop. Through conversation the characters fill each other in on the fact that Franklin Richards has been abducted, and Magneto has been discovered de-aged and with amnesia. Rogue tries to comfort Joseph, who feels guilty about causing Onslaught, while Gambit wonders if she can trust Joseph. The heroes split up with some of them going off to fight Sentinels while all the genius characters retreat to come up with some weaponry to fight against Onslaught.

In what I think is the Astral Plane, Onslaught is taunting young Franklin with Charlie—the illusion he used to capture the boy. Onslaught wants to use Franklin’s powers to alter reality in some way. Over the ocean, a group of X-Men are returning from Muir Island after having gotten the Xavier Protocols from Moira MacTaggert. The Xavier Protocols are instructions Xavier created that outline the weaknesses of all the X-Men, including Xavier himself. At Four Freedoms Plaza, the science team is examining the armor Mr. Fantastic’s father used to protect himself from Franklin’s powers. On the airplane Cyclops uncovers plans for psionic armor.

Throughout Manhattan we get panels of heroes beating the tar out of Sentinels. Rogue and Joseph are working together when Gambit destroys a Sentinel that was sneaking up on Joseph. Gambit blames Joseph for Onslaught, and the three argue until Iceman defeats another Sentinel behind them. Iceman points towards Central Park, where a huge citadel appears out of thin air, an effect of Franklin’s powers. Onslaught appears at the top with a monologue about the ascension of mutantkind.

The heroes move in to attack, but Onslaught lets out a giant EMP wave that knocks out all of the electricity in the city. It also causes a huge shockwave and takes out some of the heroes like Vision and Iron Man. Another unfortunate side effect is that it shorts out the Xavier Protocols, and causes the plane Cyclops and the rest are in to plummet out of the sky. Joseph raises some debris off the heroes, and everyone stands around looking defeated. The story ends with a page of Ozymandias carving a new sculpture of Onslaught that shows him evolving.

How It Was: This actually isn’t too bad when taken on its own. Waid has a lot of characters to deal with and does a good job of keeping them all from sounding the same. With Rogue’s return to the X-titles, he wastes no time establishing the Gambit/Rogue/Joseph triangle and handles it really well. The script balances the tension and hopelessness of the heroes, while Andy Kubert draws some awesome pictures of heroes beating up Sentinels. Kubert even manages to make the heroes standing around look awesome; I love how he draws the Human Torch, long shots of the city look awesome, and he totally sells the drama of the EMP blast sequence.

Characterization and art aside, this issue still suffers from the same problems all the other ones do. Many events that seem significant end up not mattering by the end of the story. Both the psionic armor and the armor for Franklin’s power wind up being almost inconsequential, although other issues do deal with it. Do you want to know why Onslaught needs Franklin? So do I; I guess he gives the villain an excuse to be able to just do anything, but it’s not very satisfying and it doesn’t feel like it’s building towards anything. He talks about the ascension of mutants, but it’s hard to see how having an army of Sentinels attack Manhattan helps to make mutants more free. But I do love the Sentinels as villains. Also, I love how the story just skips the inevitable plane crash of Cyclops and the others; I guess it’s just assumed they’ll make it because we never see what actually happens.

This is pretty much the best an issue in the Onslaught crossover can get at the end of “Phase 1”. The character work is solid and the art is fantastic. From this point on, with the start of Phase 2, there are only three kinds of Onslaught issues. 1. Random heroes fight Sentinels or random followers of Onslaught for an issue. 2. Random heroes rescue civilians for an issue. 3. Random heroes have an inconsequential fight with Onslaught that doesn’t affect the resolution one bit. It’s definitely not as clear of a direction as Uncanny #335 left us with, and quite frankly it starts to get old after a month of every Marvel book taking place in Onslaught ravaged Manhattan with absolutely no real story progress until the end. Yes characters show up and change, things do happen, but none of it matters until the Marvel Universe one-shot at the end. Still, Waid and Kubert were able get some weight and drama out of this disorganized mess, so that counts for a lot.

B

Wolverine #104

Wolverine #104
Writing: Larry Hama
Art: Val Semeiks

What Went Down: Troll Wolverine starts off the issue climbing up the side of the Massachusetts Xavier School—home of Generation X. They’re not around, but it doesn’t matter because Wolverine is here to see Gateway. He thinks that Gateway can show him how Xavier became Onslaught. Gateway shows Logan his bullroarer, the stone on a string that he spins to use his powers, before using it to show Wolverine the memory of when he had to kill his love Mariko from back in Wolverine #57. Wolverine is overcome by the scene and falls off the roof, but Elektra saves him.

Wolverine claims this isn’t her business, but Elektra insists that he is her responsibility. They both climb to the roof again and ask Gateway to show them the truth about Xavier. Instead, Gateway shows Elektra a repressed memory of hell from back when Bullseye killed her. She sees her father and a number of dead Hand Ninjas rise out of the lava to attack her. Elektra is overcome with emotion, but Wolverine steadies her. Then Wolverine asks Gateway to show him more.

This time Gateway transports all three of them to Xavier’s mansion. Wolverine reflects on what has transpired in the last couple of months before the world becomes distorted, and Wolverine and Elektra are sucked into Gateway’s eye molecularly. Here they are shown the scene from X-Men #25 right after Wolverine had his adamantium sucked from his bones. At the moment Xavier shuts off Magneto’s mind, the two heroes’ level of perception changes. They watch as part of Magneto’s “dark essence” is transported from Magneto to Xavier. Wolverine tries to call out to Charles that Magneto planted something in him, but it’s too late and the heroes are transported back to the Massachusetts Academy.

Outside Wolverine broods because he blames himself for Xavier being pushed to destroy Magneto and getting infected as a result. Elektra brings up that at least he has an important piece of the Onslaught puzzle. Wolverine also mentions that when he saw himself lying there in the memory, it made him realize how much he missed being a normal man. Elektra tells him he still is one (Awwww).

How It Was: As with many stories in the Onslaught crossover, this issue feels like it should be more significant to the overall story, but ultimately it doesn’t really affect anything. Plus, the main revelation of the story has already been completely ruined by previous issues in the crossover where the X-Men already alluded to Magneto’s persona somehow corrupting Xavier, because of the character design obviously influenced by Magneto. Since the whole Onslaught story has been so poorly organized from the start, this issue never pays off as an important contribution plot wise.

Well, there’s still the chance that it could stand on its own merits as just a one-off story, but no, it’s pretty bad as far as that goes as well. Gateway, who is more a plot device than a character since he never talks, is wheeled out as an easy means of discovering the “mystery.” And really, there is no logic behind Wolverine thinking that Gateway would have the answer he would need in the first place. Also, it’s odd that there is no mention of Gateway’s appearance in X-Men #50, or for that matter, what the heck he was doing in that issue.

Unfortunately there are twenty-two pages to fill, so Gateway can’t just give Wolverine a straight answer to the question of “What the heck happened to Xavier.” Instead we have to sit through a number of unrelated flashbacks to once again establish that being a super hero is hard. There’s a weak attempt to set up the flashbacks as being necessary as a means of building up Wolverine and Elektra’s tolerance for pain and misery, so that they won’t be overwhelmed by the “horrifying” scene of Wolverine’s ultimate loss and Xavier’s corruption. But really most of this issue is just padding.

Worst of all, we’re still dealing with Angsty Monkey Wolverine. I like that Wolverine shares the responsibility for Onslaught since it was his injury that pushed Xavier over the edge, but nothing really ever comes from this. Furthermore, Elektra seems to have no purpose in this issue other than to give Wolverine someone to talk to and encourage him. This characterization of her as a nurturing friend never seemed quite right to me since she is normally more of a reckless thrillseeker/vicious assassin.

Most disappointing of all is the discovery that Onslaught isn’t just Xavier’s fears, dark desires, and doubts manifested; instead, Marvel had to make it clear that Xavier is a victim by having him become infected with evil by Magneto. This doesn’t work at all because Magneto isn’t really evil; he just sees coexistence between humans and mutants as impossible, and quite frankly there is a good chance that he might be right. Plus it just undercuts the impact that Onslaught has; instead of showing that Xavier, with all his power, is susceptible to the same disappointments and frustrations as anyone else, it just forces him back into the benevolent saint category by making him entirely free from blame. And really, as I’ve said before, this particular story has no effect on the larger narrative; it doesn’t play any part in the progression or resolution of the story. So it is largely disappointing.

D+

Fantastic Four #415

Fantastic Four #415
Writing: Tom DeFalco
Art: Carlos Pacheco

What Went Down: We enter on Franklin Richards and Charlie—the mental projection Onslaught is using to trick Franklin—in the middle of a gypsy circus. A woman named Magda—most likely Magneto’s former wife and the mother of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch—warns Charles that the child is innocent. The entire circus turns out to be an illusion created by Franklin as a test of his reality manipulating powers. When he hears his family’s ship return, Franklin abandons the illusion and runs to greet them.

At this point in FF continuity you should know that the team is hanging out with a Skrull named Lyja and Mr. Fantastic’s father Nathaniel Richards. Professor X shows up at the FF’s waiting room asking to see Mr. Fantastic while the Avengers are calling on the com line. Scott Lang, the current Ant-Man of the time, answers the call from Bishop, Iceman, and a number of Avengers. They try to warn him that the Professor is a threat, but Onslaught knocks Scott unconscious.

In another room, Xavier insists that Franklin must join his School for Gifted Youngsters. When Reed and Sue refuse, Xavier reveals himself as Onslaught and attacks them. The X-Men/Avengers arrive, and all the heroes split up to locate Franklin, Onslaught, and Scott Lang. Crystal, the Human Torch, and Nathaniel find Scott Lang unconscious, but they are all defeated by Onslaught. Lyja tries tricking Onslaught by taking Franklin’s appearance, but she, the Thing, and Hawkeye are also defeated. Bishop and the Invisible Woman check Franklin’s room; they find Onslaught and appear to defeat him by having Bishop rechannel Sue’s invisible force fields as energy blasts. Xavier appears weakened, but it’s a trick and he takes out the two heroes.

Outside Four Freedoms Plaza, the Watcher and Apocalypse discuss the significance of Franklin and his powers to “rearrange the molecular structure of matter.” Apocalypse notes that this must be hard for Uatu because he actually cares about the Fantastic Four, but he is not allowed to help them.

Franklin is alone eating cookies when Charlie comes to take him. Iceman and Mr. Fantastic attack Onslaught, but the villain makes it so Franklin cannot see any of them. The other heroes recover, and they all attack Onslaught in unison. It looks like they’re going to prevail, but at the last second Onslaught lets loose an energy blast that knocks them all out. He takes Franklin away.

How It Was: Well Onslaught comes to capture Franklin as part of his master plan. What part of that plan? We’ll never know, but basically at this point he is just a plot device that lets the villain do anything and get away with it. Fantastic Four’s biggest problem is that it has too many extraneous characters that serve no other purpose in this entire crossover.  Poor Lyja, Nathaniel Richards, and Scott Lang are left just standing around until the next issue of FF shows up to finish off all their subplots right before the title reboots. I do like the central idea of attacking the team through Franklin, their most innocent and vulnerable member, but surely capturing Franklin has been done to death after four hundred issues; it just doesn’t feel very exciting or original.

There are some major problems with the story structure as well. What possible reason would Onslaught have for pretending to be Charles Xavier when he’s supposed to be so powerful? It’s obvious from the start his ploy isn’t going to work, so really he is just wasting everybody’s time. The gypsy circus also feels like a waste; sure, I guess it’s supposed to be a subtle hint about Magneto’s connection to Onslaught, but it hasn’t really been established that Magneto or Magda were gypsies, only that their children were raised by gypsies. Also, the Avengers lose half their members between calling FF headquarters and showing up there, which is a strange tactic for facing the greatest threat ever to the Marvel Universe. And right after the X-Men and Avengers show up, they decide to split up? It really doesn’t feel like they’re treating this threat seriously if they’re leaving members like Wasp and Giant-Man behind and breaking off into groups of two and three. The fights are okay, but really they all boil down to one of the FF using his or her powers to detect Onslaught, followed by all the heroes getting thrashed. The mislead with Xavier feels forced since they could’ve just tried to knock him out. Even the end is a little bit of a dud when the heroes rally and then they’re all defeated in one panel.

Carlos Pacheco’s art is great when it comes to the heroes and the fortress itself, but I have to say he draws the weakest looking Onslaught of just about everyone at Marvel. His Onslaught seems small, and he doesn’t draw the face right, going for a red face with white features as opposed to the cooler shadowed face under the helmet that most of the other Marvel artists give him. This issue gets the job done, but it’s not exactly a gripping read. This story just feels rushed and it has too much baggage in the form of characters and plots that have nothing to do with the Onslaught story.

C+