X-MEN #56: Twilight of the Gods

Magneto faces the past as Xavier prepares to face Onslaught!

Originally Published September 1996

Onslaught's Sentinels continue to terrorize New York City. Standing in their way is Joseph, the nice guy version of Magneto.

But as Joe is discovering, there are limits to his fabulous magnetic powers.

In describing the situation later, he pontificates on the nature of evil that supposedly once lived inside of him, and how it is now seemingly being carried around by Onslaught, a harsh reality to confront.

While the Sentinels have Joseph and his ladyfriend Rogue on the ropes, they are rescued by an unexpected source...

That's right: Onslaught is such a big hairy deal that Dr. Doom is joining the fray. What, is he gonna cry about all the damage being done to Manhattan? That'd be weird.

But yes, there is only room for one world-conquering megalomaniac on this planet and Doom is concerned that his spot at the top is being sniped by the big purple guy. He does, however, express a bit of respect for the erstwhile Master of Magnetism.

After all, Doom goes around in metal longjohns, naturally he wants to stay on Magneto's good side 

It is revealed that Joseph has been debriefing Captain America on all this. Steve's take: You were a bad dude, Joey, but you're all right now. Still, there are others Joseph maybe needs to square things with more.

Back at Onslaught Central, the big guy with the yellow speech balloons -- whose appearance is "wavering in mid-transformation" because I guess Andy Kubert didn't see how Joe Madureira had changed his look last week -- has gotten his hands on the ultimate prize, the baddest and hottest and coolest telepath going with the best hair, Nate Grey, aka X-Man.

Nate brags that he's beaten everyone Onslaught has thrown at him -- Holocaust, Post, Fatale and even a brainwashed Havok (aka Havok) -- but Onslaught concedes that all those minions suck and he didn't beat anybody noteworthy. Gee, and here I thought Onslaught was hiring the best people.

'Slaught is interested in Nate not primarily for his unbeatable psychic powers, but because he comes from the Age of Apocalypse world where mutants were on top. Onslaught wants to see what that was like so he can re-create it here on regular world.

Back at the Good Guy Base (or the rubble that passes for it) Charles and Joseph have a long-awaited heart-to-heart. Charles assuages Joseph's soul by telling them that sure, he was once a font of near-genocidal hatred, but isn't it worse that Charles was the vessel through which that hatred found form?

Joseph asks the $64,000 question: Was I really that bad?

The answer is... it's complicated. But when he wonders aloud whether he will someday go back to  his murderous ways, Charles says, "Look around at where it ended up... and you tell me."

It's poignant that perhaps Joseph might actually learn from his mistakes this time around.

At the Citadel on Slaught, our bad guy is binge-reading the Age of Apocalypse through X-Man's eyes. He's a little disappointed at the way it all ended: with in-fighting, pro-human resistance, and mutually-assured destruction.

At Four Freedoms Plaza, the heroes are ready for the next big push. Iron Man has designed some psionic armor based on the designs Xavier left at Muir Island, and everyone else has something to do, probably.

But as Jean notes, Charles appears to be sneaking off on his own. He goes to see Onslaught to make one final plea to him -- that humanity's extinction is not mutantkind's gain.

To his surprise, Onslaught agrees, albeit in a somewhat dramatic manner.

You see, after shotgunning the whole Apocalypse scenario where mutants on top was not any better, he's decided to scrap the whole project and pivot.

Further Thoughts:

We don't often think about Onslaught as a "sequel" to Age of Apocalypse, but canonically they very strongly tied this one back to that. That crossover was such a big deal in 1995 that its shadow loomed over 1996 even as it took place in an alternate reality, and it was impossible to do a story about a mutant world conqueror without at least acknowledging "hey, we just did this and it would have some effect on the present goings on." That's interesting.

Also interesting is the recknoning of Magneto. I mean look, we all know that one of these days, Joseph is going to go away and Mags will be back in his red and purple kit, but to have the Fabio version sit in contemplation of his past misdeeds is a strong character beat. I wasn't in touch with every single comic reader out there but it felt like people were rooting for the guy.

Stories where the bad guy literally wants to destroy the entire world are usually a bit too far over the top to take seriously -- like why, why would you ever want that? But in this case I actually buy it. Onslaught isn't Apocalypse, he doesn't really want to rule. As he said in his introductory moments, he is rage, and that rage has been stoked by the idea that seemingly every permutation of the dream ends in destruction, so why not just skip to the chorus and destroy it all? After all, you are a massively powerful psionic entity whose entire being seems disconnected from this physical realm anyway, it's not beyond the scope of your abilities or desires to just torch the whole planet out of frustration. I get that. 

So this pivot makes sense and sees us into our big climactic battle. The Onslaught story is ultimately pretty flickin' crazy in its excess, and you would never see its like again because of how mannered, manicured and grounded comics became in the ensuing years and decades, but it's been a wild ride.