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Now we really start dipping into how convoluted this story got as it went on. Remember, Volume 1 were the main X-titles, Vol. 2 were the secondary titles, and this third volume features 10 issues collected, and all 10 issues were different titles, with 6 of them being X-titles. This is where I started tuning out as a reader back in 96, and I am scared it’s going to happen again. Thankfully, a primer is given beforehand to get us all caught up on what happened in the previous two volumes.
Spoiler Warning
-X-Men #55- This is the heroes fighting back. The Fantastic Four, Avengers, and X-Men all band together to stop the stream of Sentinels coming into the city (by which I mean the New York version), and basically getting their collective asses handed to them by Onslaught. It’s weird seeing in this massive crossover little plot threads going on before the thing started still being continued, like the whole Joseph!Magneto/Rogue/Gambit triangle. I liked this fight issue, and the Andy Kubert art just kills.
-Uncanny X-Men #336- This issue doesn’t focus as much on the heroes but more on the Franklin Richards and Charles Xavier as captives of Onslaught. The heroes regroup after getting pounded, and try another attempt, which causes a crack in Onslaught’s armor, and Thor freeing Xavier. I don’t know if this is what they wanted, as it is really Onslaught unleashed right now. Apocalypse and Watcher look on from a distance. Reading this just reminded me how much I loved Joe Madureira’s original run on Uncanny X-Men. The art is purely electric, leaping off the page and just gorgeous, and I think better than anything he’ done with Marvel, including Ultimates 3.
-Cable #35- Cable and Apocalypse head to the astral-plane to confront Onslaught. Apocalypse has ulterior motives, namely, he wants to kill Franklin. So Cable shows his surprise, Sue Richards showing up and preventing Apocalypse from doing that. This works as a tie-in since it didn’t veer too far from the Onslaught story, but still kept the Cable storylines moving. This was a good tie-in.
-X-Force #58- This, however, wasn’t. It deals with the aftermath of Nate being taken by Mr. Sinister. Each X-Force member is knocked out and lives in their dreamworld (with Caliban being in Superman’s world). So, the young Charles frees them all and X-Force embarks in a new direction. Yeah, very little of Onslaught, the tag is on there to move books, but at least it was the conclusion of the issue we read before. This was a typical late 90’s comic book, bad art, silly splash pages, and corny dialogue.
-X-Man #19- See X-Force #58 for my comments on this. Franklin reaches out to someone, and X-Man answers, but it was really an Onslaught trap. I still don’t know the point of having Sinister in here to begin with, as Nate was taken away so soon afterwards. Another issue was underwhelmed with.
-Incredible Hulk #445- Another “typical 90’s comic book.” So Hulk wants to take out Onslaught for controlling his mind, people in the Hulk comics from the time make an appearance to further storylines which I never knew about since I didn’t read the title, Hulk leads some Avengers to Onslaught but Onslaught lays a mental smackdown on Hulk and he returns with his tail between his legs. Bleeh.
-Iron Man #332- This was actually the last issue of Iron Man. This issue has some cool Sentinel fights, with Iron Man and some Avengers taking on these monsters with Iron Man going off with Black Panther to make psi-shields, and having them made for his teammates in order to take on Onslaught. I enjoyed this issue, as it was just a good Onslaught tie-in and moved that story ahead while keeping the reader informed of what was going on in Stark’s life. As a sidenote, I remember hating the fact that Iron Man was cancelled (as well as Avengers, FF and Cap), but reading this, it was absolutely necessary to hit the restart the button. Tony Stark was a kid? That is just ridiculous on so many levels and I had it completely stricken from my memory. Heroes Reborn restored Iron Man back to the billionaire inventor playboy and not just some kid.
-Avengers #402- This is the second-to-last issue of Avengers, as the Avengers mobilize, with Iron Man joining them with the psi-shields, and Cap just taking out Holocaust and Post. Unlike other comics in this volume, the roughs of Mike Deodato makes this easy on the eyes, and it keeps the story focused, too. Unlike the secondary X-Titles, this keeps things moving and isn’t an unnecessary tie-in.
-Thor #502- Speaking of unnecessary, we get this. Thor is at NJ (mistake #1), with another storyline I forgot about, a humanish Thor (mistake #2), with unneeded flashback (mistake #3), Jane shows up, then Hela, then Thor shares a drink with oThor at the end. You may ask why I didn’t mention Onslaught of the huge story going on at Marvel at the time. Well, its because it was irrelevant to the actual point of the comic. This was literally a worthless inclusion in here, and spoke of one of the things that turned me off to the industry in the first place, unneeded tie-ins like this.
-Wolverine #105- This focuses on Wolverine saving a kid from the aftermath of an Onslaught attack, coming into contact with Stick to further his storyline with his bestial nature (which was a horrible idea in itself) but keeps Onslaught at the forefront with Torch showing up at the end to take on the ferocious foe. This tie-in was much better than other ones like X-Man, X-Force and Thor. It kept the Onslaught story moving, kept the Wolverine story moving, but not at the expense of the other. It was a stupid idea to have Wolvie turn more bestial, but this issue was pretty good.
-The Bottom Line- This is really where the crap started to hit the fan, with unneeded tie-ins, tie-ins that made little sense, and others that in the hand of capable writers did the best they could. Some of the art was just too over the top to be taken seriously, and this collection is a reminder why I left 13 years ago. Unfortunately, with the massive scope of Secret Invasion, some of this is being repeated, the tie-ins where maybe a page is devoted to the actual event, and since it has so many titles included, the art doesn’t stand up well at times. I’m iffy on this collection, as there was some great stuff (mainly the core X-titles, Avengers and Iron Man) but some real bad, too. I have to go mildly recommended here.
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