Onslaught was a sentient psionic entity created from the consciousness of two extremely powerful mutants: Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto. During a battle between the X-Men and Magneto's Acolytes, Wolverine slashed Magneto, and in response, Magneto ripped out the Adamantium from Wolverine's bones, severely injuring him to the point that his healing factor had trouble healing him. For Professor Xavier, this was the last straw. Having tolerated every one of Magneto's evil actions, even his recent actions that had killed hundreds of people across the globe in a single day, he finally snapped. He used his telepathic powers to shut down Magneto's mind, rendering him catatonic. During the psionic contact, Magneto's anger, grief, and lust for vengeance entered Professor 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 Professor Xavier: the being known as Onslaught.
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 lethal Legacy Virus, and his own failed attempt to rehabilitate the mutant sociopath called Sabretooth. Xavier reached his breaking point when anti-mutant humans killed a young mutant near the grounds of the Xavier 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.
ONSLAUGHT
Following an encounter with the mystically empowered criminal called the Juggernaut (Xavier's stepbrother, Cain Marko), Onslaught invaded a government-sanctioned Sentinel 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. Soon after, while hiding in Xavier's mind, Onslaught encountered the telepathic, telekinetic Nate Grey. He pulled the Professor's body from the astral plane, a feat never before achieved. Through X-Man's actions, Onslaught was able to escape Xavier's mind and move independently. 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 called Bishop, 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.
Sometime after Professor X revealed the existence of the mutant island nation of Krakoa to the whole world, the anti-mutant organization Orchis introduced Onslaught in their society as an "invasive exotic" that would accelerate its fall, anchoring him inside the broken mind of the mutant Lost to limit his power and allow him to get into the island undetected. 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, all the while feeding on the parts of mutant psyches lost during resurrection and leaving a part of himself to fill the gaps.
The Patchwork Man's presence eventually caught the attention of Xavier, who sent Nightcrawler 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. Legion, working with Xorn and Zorn, set a trap for Onslaught by merging the minds of Loa and Mercury to entice him. Though the bait worked, Onslaught was able to escape and caused a fight between Fabian Cortez and Lost at Stacy X's orphanage. Later, Onslaught possessed every mutant in the Green 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.
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 prevent Phobos from falling on Arakko (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, 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.
POWERS & ABILITIES
Powers
Onslaught possessed all of the mutant abilities of his progenitors Professor X and Magneto. He later also added the powers of the Omega-Level mutants Franklin Richards and Nate Grey to his, making him incredibly more powerful. In effect, with few appearances while in his prime, Onslaught managed to create a second sun from nothing and physically match a Banner-less Hulk.
-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 even pull 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 peoples' presence 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 control Hulk (albeit in a calm state), despite the green goliath's immense resistance to psychic manipulation.[30] Professor X and Magneto are particularly vulnerable to Onslaught's control, since it was born of them.[8] -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 to cause 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. -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. -Magneto kinesis: 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, and alter objects. Onslaught can project metal at an unparalleled velocity and place 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 can fire and absorb bolts of electricity and magnetic force, reverse lasers and other forms of radiation or energy, create enough intense heat as infrared radiation to level a city, and become invisible by deflecting 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 to create 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 a fully powered Juggernaut 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 his Cyttorak gem from his body. In his physical prime, Onslaught was capable to match an extremely enraged Banner-less Hulk, who is extraordinarily strong at this level. However, though this was an impressive feat, Onslaught was ultimately overpowered when the Hulk's rage reached a peak.
-Impervious Armor: After complete physical evolution, Onslaught’s armor is nigh-invulnerable and near impossible to crack. The only exceptions were blows 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 his armor so that he could fully evolve. Hence it presumably means that he could not evolve by himself, and the Hulk needed to overcome his powers.
-Mutant Absorption: As a psychic entity, Onslaught had the ability to absorb any mutant into his being and thus permanently gain their powers for himself. X-Man and Franklin Richards were two mutants that he consumed to increase his vast power. Someone absorbed is completely dominated without consent when their willpower is inferior to the control exerted.
-Reality Manipulation: Ability to manipulate reality itself. Reality warping powers on a potentially cosmic scale. His abilities are so powerful that he can create "pocket" universes in alternate realities (A pocket universe is a cosmos that does not equal our own in size). However, he never demonstrated this level of power. Upon utilizing this power his maximum feat was to effectively create a second sun from nothing. -Telepathic Immunity: Onslaught's mind is immune to all traces of telepathy due to his armor, especially to the duplicate of Magneto's helmet, so that it is effectively impossible to manipulate or read it. However, his telepathy is capable of exiting his armor, thus allowing his psionic power to be used on other beings.
Abilities
-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 super-genius intelligence and vast background, he could master his powers better than inexperienced wielders, such as the reality manipulator Freedom Ring or the infant Franklin Richards.
-Formidable hand-to-hand combatant: Onslaught is possessing 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. He is a skilled manipulator with and without his powers. He 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 countermeasures.
