Post by thew40 on Nov 16, 2006 0:57:55 GMT -5
For those of you who don't know, I have an X-Men Blog, where I've been reviewing all the issues of Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, X-Treme X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, and New X-Men -- plus some of the other X-Books, various crossovers, tie-ins, and mini-series. After reading these, I then write an overview of said issues and offer my thoughts and reviews of them. Here's the URL: uncannyxperiment.blogspot.com/
Today, I just wrapped up "Onslaught." Since it's also an Avengers event, I though I'd offer up a portion of my review for you guys. It's a wee bit long, but I had a lot to say! Also, ignore where it says "LINK," as this was a beta version of what I was posting.
Take a look!
---------------------
A little over ten years ago, on the Saturday after school got out, I went out to my LCS and picked up “Onslaught: X-Men” along with Avengers # 400, Uncanny X-Men # 335 and Cable # 34. I was already jazzed about Onslaught, having glossed over the lead-in issues time and time again. I had been floored by the revelations in Cable # 33, X-Men # 53-54, and Uncanny X-Men # 334. I remember vividly staying up late that night, reading each of these issues listed above at a suspenseful pace, eagerly awaiting the next page, the next scene, the next issue!
Unfortunately, by the time the final issue of the crossover – “Onslaught: Marvel Universe” – came out, I didn’t have the entire story. I was missing bits and pieces of the crossover. This weighed on me for a long time. At comic book conventions from then on out, I sought after those few missing issues. It took me two full years, but when I left the Chicago Comic Con in 1998, I now had the entire Onslaught crossover. All I needed was time. Time to sit down and read the entire crossover in one fell swoop.
But I was entering into my sophomore year of high school at that point and time was something I just didn’t have. Too wrapped up in English, Biology, and the other comics of the day, I just never found the time to sit down and tackle them. High school ended and my on-and-off relationship with college began, but that still didn’t grant me the time – or even the strong desire – to sit down and read through it.
And then the X-Periment began. I knew that if I were to get the time and opportunity to read Onslaught, it would be with that. Thus, here we are, some ten years later. I completed “Onslaught: Marvel Universe” this morning after a full reading.
Despite what it says, Onslaught is best taken in four phases. Phase one is the opening salvo, Onslaught’s initial attack on the X-Men. Phase two is the missions and quests that bring the X-Men, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and X-Force together. Phase three is Onslaught’s attack on New York City. Phase four is the efforts of the X-Men, Avengers, and the Fantastic Four to end the threat of Onslaught.
It’s hard for me to judge Onslaught. As a whole, I think Onslaught is on the lines of a big summer blockbuster movie. It’s a little predictable, a lot of flashy special efforts, some drama, some humor, some cool characters with awesome lines, and – if you think about it too much, the whole thing falls apart.
Put into simplest terms, what is Onslaught all about? Onslaught is the story of a terrible creature born out of a moment of desperation when the darkness of two enemies (Xavier and Magneto) merged. This creature, Onslaught, manifested itself from the dark recesses of Professor Xavier, gathering together various agents, each one having a past with Xavier’s students. Onslaught's goal is to have Mutants dominate the globe, as he saw that humans were full of spite and hypocrisy. He sought the powers of Franklin Richards and Nathan Grey to fulfill this tasks. And when he glimpsed upon the world that Nathan Grey hailed from, he learned that both humanity and Mutantkind were corrupt and weak. He decided to destroy the Earth, but with the sacrifice of a number of super-heroes – mostly human, at that – Onslaught was defeated. Inadvertently, this sacrifice painted Mutants as even more vicious and became hated more than ever before.
Put this way, it sounds almost epic, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not. At least, not in a fantastic way.
Don’t get me wrong. Onslaught is a great read, but it suffers from more than a few problems. First, among all things, Onslaught himself is a very flat villain. He makes long-winded speeches, unleashes devastating attacks, and is evil purely for the sake of being evil. He hates humans because Magneto hates humans. He later hates Mutants because he thought they were stupid in some alternate reality. There’s nothing to him. At times, it does seem like the writers want to flesh him out, to make him more interesting. But these times are few and far in between. He goes from being a real threat, really coming out and kicking ass to being a plot device for “Heroes Reborn” in a matter of issues. Even the concept of Onslaught’s creation is shaky. Sure, he seems cool, but the moment you really start to think of how silly it is, the more you begin to question why Onslaught even exists.
Secondly, some of the issues drag on and on endlessly and needlessly. Issues of Fantastic Four never end, each one serving to be too long and too complex for their own good.
The constant use of illusions gets old fast. There are cliches galore, especially in terms of dialogue. Plus, the whole story gets very predictable when the foreshadowing grows out of control.
But there is some good in all of this. While I know that Avengers and Fantastic Four fans roll their eyes at this story, it serves well as a development for the X-Men. It gives humans yet another reason to hate Mutants. It allows for various subplots – Rogue/Gambit, for one – to take another turn as the story begins to coalesce. Bishop’s quest to stop the traitor, the aforementioned Rogue/Gambit relationship, the Dark Beast’s plans, Cable/Apocalypse, X-Man/Sinister . . . a good couple more all get some time in the sun.
Also, Captain America shines through as a true leader and super-hero. He’s written very well, I feel. His doubts during the Post and Holocaust battle take him onto a more human level, while his abilities and very attitude on both the field and among the other heroes makes him larger-than-life. A great scene is during the final battle with Onslaught when Cap kinda takes a second to look around and be honored to work alongside such great heroes.
Then there’s Thor, who really embodies the Thor I’ve really pictured. A hero, a warrior, more than willing to throw himself into the maw of danger and destruction. In fact, most of the big Thor moments in Onslaught are actually the best all-in-all, including his freeing of Xavier from Onslaught and his being the first sacrifice.
The sacrifice scene in it of itself is well done, allowing each of the various characters a moment to shine before they go off to be drawn by Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, and Whilce Portatio. Hank and Jan share a moment, as do Reed and Sue. Quicksilver yelling for Crystal when she enters Onslaught is particularly heart wrenching, despite how crappy their marriage was. Even Teen Iron Man gets a nice exit, grabbing Doctor Doom and zooming right him right into Onslaught with him.
There are also terrible characters. While the X-Men, the majority of the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four are all well written, Doctor Doom comes off as uber-lame. He’s the total exaggeration of what and who his character is and puts even the kookiest villains to shame during his appearances. On top of that, Quicksilver comes off just as badly. He is written like a cliché.
The writing various from issue to issue, of course, and while most of it is mostly, there are some parts that are worse than others. The Punisher, Generation X, X-Force, and the two Spider-Man books all suffer from lagging stories and/or stories that are very much unnecessary.
I’ll also be honest when I say that as a geeky X-Fan, I really wanted to see X-Factor, X-Force, Excalibur, and Generation X jump in with the X-Men and help them against Onslaught. If only for a few pages . . . [sigh]
On the art front, we’ve got mostly all winners. Carlos Pacheco on Fantastic Four, Ian Churchill on Cable, Joe Mad on Uncanny, Andy Kubert on X-Men, Andy Kubert on the Onslaught one-shots, Steve Skorce on X-Man, and Chris Bachelo on Generation X. Where can you go wrong? Well, Steve Epting on Avengers, Angel Medina on Hulk, Joe Bennet on Iron Man, Val Semeiks on Wolverine, and Castrillo on X-Force. These artists, whether or not they’re good now and whether or not they’re guest pencilling, are pretty bad in terms of creating dynamic and interesting forms of art.
And this is definitely a case when you can see just how much a good colorist and inker can make or break the art. Andy Kubert’s art can off as rather flat thanks to poor inking. Plus, the colors on Avengers and Iron Man are horrendous. Why in the world are these two books not colored in the same way that X-Men and Avengers are? The quality – or lack there of – is terrible. At least one full panel and a number of characters and objects in the Avengers aren’t colored at all.
The overall design of Onslaught is pretty cool, I’ll give them that. It’s a pet peeve that his mid-crossover transformation is half-ignored, but I guess I can blame that on a memo or e-mail just making the rounds.
So, where do I stand on Onslaught? I’d have to say that for all the good things about, there’s an equal amount of bad. I can’t help but be swept up in the excitement of the story, but I also can’t help but be bothered by the flaws of it. I think it had potential to be something better and indeed, it may have been planned to be. But at the end of the day, it quickly became a vehicle for “Heroes Reborn.” (A quick note of “Heroes Reborn” – it was the darkness before the dawn. Sure, it was crap, but at least Jim Lee’s art was pretty. And the aftermath brought that amazing Busiek/Perez run on Avengers)
There is a deep thought in Onslaught, but you have to be eagle-eyed to catch it. At times, it comes off as a “twilight of the gods,” as it were. The heroes are made to parallel the ancient gods of old, now fading into the annals of history . . . until the next year, when they come back, better than ever.
Final thoughts on Onslaught? It was a fun ride, if not convoluted and disappointing at times. It had some great moments, but some crappy ones too. Out of ten (one being “The Draco” and Ten being “The Dark Phoenix Saga”), I’d say it’s a firm 5.
READ ORDER: Cable # 33; Avengers # 400; X-Men # 53; Uncanny X-Men # 334; X-Men # 54; Onslaught: X-Men; Uncanny X-Men # 335 (pages 28-29); X-Factor # 125 (pages 1-12); Uncanny X-Men # 335 (rest of issue); X-Factor # 125; Cable # 34; Hulk # 444; Avengers # 401; Fantastic Four # 415; X-Factor # 126; Excalibur # 100; X-Man # 18; X-Force # 57; Wolverine # 104; Generation X # 18-19; X-Men # 55 (page # 1-17); Amazing Spider-Man # 415; Spider-Man # 72; X-Men # 55 (rest of issue); Uncanny X-Men # 336; Cable # 35; X-Force # 58; Punisher # 11; X-Men Unlimited # 12; Hulk 445; X-Man # 19; Iron Man # 332; Avengers # 402; Fantastic Four # 416; Wolverine # 105; X-Men # 56; Onslaught: Marvel Universe
~W~
Today, I just wrapped up "Onslaught." Since it's also an Avengers event, I though I'd offer up a portion of my review for you guys. It's a wee bit long, but I had a lot to say! Also, ignore where it says "LINK," as this was a beta version of what I was posting.
Take a look!
---------------------
A little over ten years ago, on the Saturday after school got out, I went out to my LCS and picked up “Onslaught: X-Men” along with Avengers # 400, Uncanny X-Men # 335 and Cable # 34. I was already jazzed about Onslaught, having glossed over the lead-in issues time and time again. I had been floored by the revelations in Cable # 33, X-Men # 53-54, and Uncanny X-Men # 334. I remember vividly staying up late that night, reading each of these issues listed above at a suspenseful pace, eagerly awaiting the next page, the next scene, the next issue!
Unfortunately, by the time the final issue of the crossover – “Onslaught: Marvel Universe” – came out, I didn’t have the entire story. I was missing bits and pieces of the crossover. This weighed on me for a long time. At comic book conventions from then on out, I sought after those few missing issues. It took me two full years, but when I left the Chicago Comic Con in 1998, I now had the entire Onslaught crossover. All I needed was time. Time to sit down and read the entire crossover in one fell swoop.
But I was entering into my sophomore year of high school at that point and time was something I just didn’t have. Too wrapped up in English, Biology, and the other comics of the day, I just never found the time to sit down and tackle them. High school ended and my on-and-off relationship with college began, but that still didn’t grant me the time – or even the strong desire – to sit down and read through it.
And then the X-Periment began. I knew that if I were to get the time and opportunity to read Onslaught, it would be with that. Thus, here we are, some ten years later. I completed “Onslaught: Marvel Universe” this morning after a full reading.
Despite what it says, Onslaught is best taken in four phases. Phase one is the opening salvo, Onslaught’s initial attack on the X-Men. Phase two is the missions and quests that bring the X-Men, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and X-Force together. Phase three is Onslaught’s attack on New York City. Phase four is the efforts of the X-Men, Avengers, and the Fantastic Four to end the threat of Onslaught.
It’s hard for me to judge Onslaught. As a whole, I think Onslaught is on the lines of a big summer blockbuster movie. It’s a little predictable, a lot of flashy special efforts, some drama, some humor, some cool characters with awesome lines, and – if you think about it too much, the whole thing falls apart.
Put into simplest terms, what is Onslaught all about? Onslaught is the story of a terrible creature born out of a moment of desperation when the darkness of two enemies (Xavier and Magneto) merged. This creature, Onslaught, manifested itself from the dark recesses of Professor Xavier, gathering together various agents, each one having a past with Xavier’s students. Onslaught's goal is to have Mutants dominate the globe, as he saw that humans were full of spite and hypocrisy. He sought the powers of Franklin Richards and Nathan Grey to fulfill this tasks. And when he glimpsed upon the world that Nathan Grey hailed from, he learned that both humanity and Mutantkind were corrupt and weak. He decided to destroy the Earth, but with the sacrifice of a number of super-heroes – mostly human, at that – Onslaught was defeated. Inadvertently, this sacrifice painted Mutants as even more vicious and became hated more than ever before.
Put this way, it sounds almost epic, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not. At least, not in a fantastic way.
Don’t get me wrong. Onslaught is a great read, but it suffers from more than a few problems. First, among all things, Onslaught himself is a very flat villain. He makes long-winded speeches, unleashes devastating attacks, and is evil purely for the sake of being evil. He hates humans because Magneto hates humans. He later hates Mutants because he thought they were stupid in some alternate reality. There’s nothing to him. At times, it does seem like the writers want to flesh him out, to make him more interesting. But these times are few and far in between. He goes from being a real threat, really coming out and kicking ass to being a plot device for “Heroes Reborn” in a matter of issues. Even the concept of Onslaught’s creation is shaky. Sure, he seems cool, but the moment you really start to think of how silly it is, the more you begin to question why Onslaught even exists.
Secondly, some of the issues drag on and on endlessly and needlessly. Issues of Fantastic Four never end, each one serving to be too long and too complex for their own good.
The constant use of illusions gets old fast. There are cliches galore, especially in terms of dialogue. Plus, the whole story gets very predictable when the foreshadowing grows out of control.
But there is some good in all of this. While I know that Avengers and Fantastic Four fans roll their eyes at this story, it serves well as a development for the X-Men. It gives humans yet another reason to hate Mutants. It allows for various subplots – Rogue/Gambit, for one – to take another turn as the story begins to coalesce. Bishop’s quest to stop the traitor, the aforementioned Rogue/Gambit relationship, the Dark Beast’s plans, Cable/Apocalypse, X-Man/Sinister . . . a good couple more all get some time in the sun.
Also, Captain America shines through as a true leader and super-hero. He’s written very well, I feel. His doubts during the Post and Holocaust battle take him onto a more human level, while his abilities and very attitude on both the field and among the other heroes makes him larger-than-life. A great scene is during the final battle with Onslaught when Cap kinda takes a second to look around and be honored to work alongside such great heroes.
Then there’s Thor, who really embodies the Thor I’ve really pictured. A hero, a warrior, more than willing to throw himself into the maw of danger and destruction. In fact, most of the big Thor moments in Onslaught are actually the best all-in-all, including his freeing of Xavier from Onslaught and his being the first sacrifice.
The sacrifice scene in it of itself is well done, allowing each of the various characters a moment to shine before they go off to be drawn by Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, and Whilce Portatio. Hank and Jan share a moment, as do Reed and Sue. Quicksilver yelling for Crystal when she enters Onslaught is particularly heart wrenching, despite how crappy their marriage was. Even Teen Iron Man gets a nice exit, grabbing Doctor Doom and zooming right him right into Onslaught with him.
There are also terrible characters. While the X-Men, the majority of the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four are all well written, Doctor Doom comes off as uber-lame. He’s the total exaggeration of what and who his character is and puts even the kookiest villains to shame during his appearances. On top of that, Quicksilver comes off just as badly. He is written like a cliché.
The writing various from issue to issue, of course, and while most of it is mostly, there are some parts that are worse than others. The Punisher, Generation X, X-Force, and the two Spider-Man books all suffer from lagging stories and/or stories that are very much unnecessary.
I’ll also be honest when I say that as a geeky X-Fan, I really wanted to see X-Factor, X-Force, Excalibur, and Generation X jump in with the X-Men and help them against Onslaught. If only for a few pages . . . [sigh]
On the art front, we’ve got mostly all winners. Carlos Pacheco on Fantastic Four, Ian Churchill on Cable, Joe Mad on Uncanny, Andy Kubert on X-Men, Andy Kubert on the Onslaught one-shots, Steve Skorce on X-Man, and Chris Bachelo on Generation X. Where can you go wrong? Well, Steve Epting on Avengers, Angel Medina on Hulk, Joe Bennet on Iron Man, Val Semeiks on Wolverine, and Castrillo on X-Force. These artists, whether or not they’re good now and whether or not they’re guest pencilling, are pretty bad in terms of creating dynamic and interesting forms of art.
And this is definitely a case when you can see just how much a good colorist and inker can make or break the art. Andy Kubert’s art can off as rather flat thanks to poor inking. Plus, the colors on Avengers and Iron Man are horrendous. Why in the world are these two books not colored in the same way that X-Men and Avengers are? The quality – or lack there of – is terrible. At least one full panel and a number of characters and objects in the Avengers aren’t colored at all.
The overall design of Onslaught is pretty cool, I’ll give them that. It’s a pet peeve that his mid-crossover transformation is half-ignored, but I guess I can blame that on a memo or e-mail just making the rounds.
So, where do I stand on Onslaught? I’d have to say that for all the good things about, there’s an equal amount of bad. I can’t help but be swept up in the excitement of the story, but I also can’t help but be bothered by the flaws of it. I think it had potential to be something better and indeed, it may have been planned to be. But at the end of the day, it quickly became a vehicle for “Heroes Reborn.” (A quick note of “Heroes Reborn” – it was the darkness before the dawn. Sure, it was crap, but at least Jim Lee’s art was pretty. And the aftermath brought that amazing Busiek/Perez run on Avengers)
There is a deep thought in Onslaught, but you have to be eagle-eyed to catch it. At times, it comes off as a “twilight of the gods,” as it were. The heroes are made to parallel the ancient gods of old, now fading into the annals of history . . . until the next year, when they come back, better than ever.
Final thoughts on Onslaught? It was a fun ride, if not convoluted and disappointing at times. It had some great moments, but some crappy ones too. Out of ten (one being “The Draco” and Ten being “The Dark Phoenix Saga”), I’d say it’s a firm 5.
READ ORDER: Cable # 33; Avengers # 400; X-Men # 53; Uncanny X-Men # 334; X-Men # 54; Onslaught: X-Men; Uncanny X-Men # 335 (pages 28-29); X-Factor # 125 (pages 1-12); Uncanny X-Men # 335 (rest of issue); X-Factor # 125; Cable # 34; Hulk # 444; Avengers # 401; Fantastic Four # 415; X-Factor # 126; Excalibur # 100; X-Man # 18; X-Force # 57; Wolverine # 104; Generation X # 18-19; X-Men # 55 (page # 1-17); Amazing Spider-Man # 415; Spider-Man # 72; X-Men # 55 (rest of issue); Uncanny X-Men # 336; Cable # 35; X-Force # 58; Punisher # 11; X-Men Unlimited # 12; Hulk 445; X-Man # 19; Iron Man # 332; Avengers # 402; Fantastic Four # 416; Wolverine # 105; X-Men # 56; Onslaught: Marvel Universe
~W~
