After Onslaught - Where are they now?

 A couple years ago, Source Material podcast host Jesse Starcher invited me to join him, Mark Radulich and Chris Armstrong on the Radulich in Broadcasting Network show to read and discuss the complete Onslaught epic. I was excited to revisit one of the greatest comic epics of my youth, break out the back issues in my basement and try to fill in some of the blanks in my collection.

As we were winding down, I decided to put together this look at what happened next for a lot of the characters involved.

If you've never read Onslaught or would like to go back and read it again, you can bookmark this page and come back. While you're reading, try to imagine heartwarming music and the text appearing over a still image of the character, like in those “based on a true story” movies.

Professor X: Professor X remained Bastion's prisoner into the “Operation: Zero Tolerance” event. At some point Bastion attempted to interface Sentinel technology with the mutant-detecting Cerebro, which resulted in Cerebro becoming sentient. Professor X would be broken out of prison by a new incarnation of the Brotherhood, on the run from Cerebro. He eventually reunited with the X-Men and they fought and defeated Cerebro. During that storyline, Nina, from “Onslaught: Epilogue,” restored his telepathic powers.

Franklin Richards: Despite the stellar child-rearing skills we witness from Nathaniel Richards in “Cable” #36, he decided to place his orphaned grandson in the custody of the Massachusetts Academy in the pages of “Generation X.” There he befriended former Morlocks Artie and Leech and joined them on a reality-hopping adventure alongside the alien Tana Nile, Howard the Duck and Man-Thing in the “Daydreamers” limited series.

X-Man: Nate Grey's series lasted 75 issues, and he apparently sacrificed himself to save the Earth. Stop me if you've heard this one before, but he returned. He joined the revived New Mutants for a while and recently was a key figure in the short-lived “Uncanny X-Men” revival prior to “House of X” and “Powers of X.”

Hulk: Separated from Bruce Banner, the Hulk started channeling massive amounts of energy and giving off crazy levels of radiation, apparently due to his connection to Franklin's pocket dimension. He later took over a small island in the Florida Keys, which the inhabitants seemed cool with after he saved them from a hurricane. The Hulk briefly became Apocalypse's horseman War, then merged with Banner once again in “Heroes Reborn: The Return.”

Iron Man: The “Iron Boy” experiment didn't work out, and when the other heroes returned – in the deceptively titled “Heroes Return” limited series – Iron Man Classic was back in the fold, although it was later revealed he remembered Iron Boy's exploits, despite the younger Tony coming from a different Earth. Comics.

Dark Beast: The unreal McCoy was broken out of prison by Havok and became a part of his new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Havok eventually returned to the side of the angels, and Dark Beast would continue to clash with various X-adjacent foes. He was later recruited for Norman Osborn's Dark X-Men.

Joseph: Spoiler alert: HE'S NOT MAGNETO! When Holocaust destroyed Avalon, Magneto's comatose body was rescued by Astra, an original recruit to the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. She wanted to destroy Magneto, but had to restore him to health to clone him. I dunno, seems like whacking him with a rock while he was in a coma would have been easier. Anyway, Magneto returned and tried to mess with the Earth's electromagnetic spectrum. There was a big fight, dubbed “The Magneto War” and Joseph sacrificed himself to fix the damage. And still, nobody liked him. Then he came back, most recently appearing in the latest version of “Uncanny X-Men.”

Onslaught: For the 10^th anniversary of the Onslaught event, Jeph Loeb wrote and Rob Liefeld drew “Onslaught Reborn,” in which the Scarlet Witch's “No more mutants” proclamation caused the entity to reform. He sought revenge on Franklin Richards and they both wound up on the “Heroes Reborn” world. Apparently defeated by that reality's Bucky, Onslaught worked his way back to the 616, where he was defeated by the Secret Avengers and Young Allies in “Onslaught Unleashed.” When the Red Skull stole the late Professor X's brain in “Uncanny Avengers,” he manifested as the Red Onslaught, prompting the “Axis” crossover.

Red Norvell: Jesse's favorite character discovery from Onslaught was leading the charge to find the missing Asgardian gods as “Thor” reverted to its original title of “Journey into Mystery” with issue 503. He died the same issue, and came under the control of the Egyptian god Seth. But Red got better.

Phil Urich: His “Green Goblin” series lasted only one more issue. He gave up the identity and later worked with a support group for young, former heroes. That didn't work out for him. He returned to New York, started working with his uncle, Ben, at “Front Line” and wound up becoming the new Hobgoblin while trying to impress a girl. He went full villain and was later killed by OG Green Goblin Norman Osborn.

Wolverine's nose: It came back.

Avengers: Even though a bunch of former members didn't disappear, the Avengers were not reformed after the Onslaught events. In the real world, one assumes this was an effort to not steal the spotlight from the “Heroes Reborn” title. In-story, the explanation was provided in the 1999 “Avengers” annual, in which the Black Widow tries unsuccessfully to recruit a new team, including Beast, Angel, Iceman, Ant-Man, She-Hulk and War Machine and the government attempts to annul the Avengers' charter. The potential roster hinted at – including a guilt-ridden Black Widow, Daredevil, a drunken Hercules, a bitter Quicksilver and more – could have been interesting.

Check out the podcasts episodes here:

Source Material #239 - https://youtu.be/UdeAmmQgUVE

Source Material #241 - https://youtu.be/9gllaFwQuk4

Source Material #242 - https://youtu.be/BLnVue0chm4

Source Material #243 - https://youtu.be/R36sSiwAv48