This is it, the culmination of the Onslaught Saga and the issue that leads to… well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. As with the first two installments of this story (here and here), Captain America serves mainly as field leader and—as emphasized in Avengers #402—supporter of morale among his fellow heroes and the population at large.
This status continues in this issue, as the X-Men take point in confronting Onslaught, a powerful psionic entity made up of the darker sides of Professor Xavier and Magneto.
After a valiant effort, it seems the premiere mutant team is down for the count—but they have friends, as explained by our narrator, Uatu the Watcher.
The assembled Avengers and Fantastic Four, alongside Doctor Doom, provide an impressive front for the final battle. Cap’s here, checking to make sure everyone’s ready, Thor has decided to go shirtless, and the Black Widow is standing in front like the all-powerful being she must think she is.
To be fair to Doom, he does devise an interesting plan to have Vision and Rogue merge…
…which actually does enough damage to Onslaught for Cap to order one more joint attack.
Uatu waxes poetic as he describes the cooperation of Earth’s mightiest heroes to face their boldest threat ever (although Galactus and the Beyonder may disagree)…
…and even though each of them appreciates the very high probability that this fight is their last, they fight nonetheless, without hesitation or regret.
(Cap looking up and seeing Sam flying overhead is a nice touch.)
But it is the Hulk—the one Onslaught revealed he was very afraid of, as revealed in Incredible Hulk #445—who really changes the game, “defeating” Onslaught in fisticuffs, resulting in the Hulk splitting from Bruce Banner and Onslaught shedding his physical form completely. Thor flies into his psionic form in an attempt to contain his energy, followed by Ben and Johnny…
…and eventually most of the Avengers, including the Falcon, Namor, and Captain America, who issues the team’s famous battle cry for possibly the last time.
And if Doom thinks he’s just going to suck up Onslaught’s power, Hawkeye’s got a thought about that… and the two of them, along with Iron Man, join the other Avengers.
Why didn’t the X-Men join their fellow heroes, you ask? As Reed explains, their mutant nature would only make Onslaught stronger. (What about the Scarlet Witch, then? Magic or something—or maybe the first sign that she was never really a mutant? And don’t get me started on Namor, supposedly “the first mutant”…)
After Reed, Sue, and Bruce Banner jump in, the X-Men unleash their full might on Onslaught, destroying him—and, presumably, all of the heroes contained within him. But wait, Franklin Richards is doing something with his reality-altering powers… what could it be?
When Xavier tries to comfort the boy afterwards, we see a certain blue ball on the ground…
…that Franklin is very attached to, as seen in the final page with the Watcher, speaking enigmatically about legacy, memories, and heroes gone but yet reborn.
Hey, “heroes reborn,” that has a nice ring to it. I wonder if that has anything to do with this…
As many of you doubtlessly know, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four were soon “reborn” in second volumes of their titles, taking place in a new universe that may or may not have something to do with Franklin and his new favorite toy. (The behind-the-scenes story of how and why these four titles were outsourced to creators from Image Comics who walked out on Marvel Comics several years earlier is fascinating; for background and critical perspective, see this article and this video.)
Stay tuned for coverage of the second volumes of Captain America and Avengers, while you ask yourselves, will our heroes ever return?
ISSUE DETAILS
Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1, October 1996: Scott Lobdell and Mark Waid (writers), Andy Kubert and Joe Bennett (pencils), Dan Green, Art Thibert, Tim Townsend, and Jesse Delperdang (inks), Steve Buccellato and Team Bucce (colors), Richard Starkings and Comicraft (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Collected in: Avengers Epic Collection: Timeslide and X-Men/Avengers: Onslaught Omnibus.
THE VIRTUES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 
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