Way of X teases the reason Onslaught has been getting more powerful on Krakoa and hints at his horrible plan for the X-Men and Marvel’s mutants.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Way of X #5, available now from Marvel.
Just because the mutant population of Earth have found a level of security thanks to Krakoa, the threats posed to the mutant race haven’t gone away. In fact, many of them are amping up their plans and schemes to cause even more chaos for the mutants — with one threat planning on turning all of Krakoa against itself in the most brutal way possible.
Way of X #5 by Si Spurrier, Bob Quinn, Java Tartaglia, and VC’s Clayton Cowles teased the full weight of Onslaught’s plans to cause chaos in Krakoa — and how it all empowers him even further.
Way of X has nominally been about Nightcrawler and his allies trying to sort out the specifics of a potential mutant religion. However, things have been severely complicated by the revelation of the nefarious force driving madness and chaos into the minds of mutants: Onslaught. The dark psionic fusion of the worst parts of Xavier and Magneto, Onslaught’s return has been kept a secret by Nightcrawler and Legion, out of fear of how it would lash out to protect itself if exposed. But that hasn’t kept it from striking at various mutants — at one point even causing a massive riot to break out in the Green Lagoon that required Legion and the Xorn Brothers to end with fatal consequences.
However, the full extent of Onslaught’s plans has remained hidden — until now. Legion has relocated to Planet Arakko — formerly known as Mars — to construct a “temple” to the future of mutant-kind. When Xavier comes to confront him over the incident in the Green Lagoon (which was caused by Xavier stumbling upon the truth of Onslaught in Legion’s mind), Legion gets a little peek into the mind of his father. When he peeked through, Legion saw evidence that Onsalught’s shadow also exists in Xavier. It turns out it’s tied to resurrection — one of the “miracles” brought on by the age of Krakoa. By pooling their powers together, the Five can restore any mutant to life, allowing for a telepath to inset the mind and memories of the mutant from Cerebro into the new body.
It’s a major development and one that Onslaught has apparently been taking advantage of. When someone is restored, they are brought back from the most recent backup — meaning anything they had in their minds before the last restoration is lost. Onslaught has seemingly been feeding on those “offcuts,” growing more powerful by consuming those moments of lost life. In their place, Onslaught inserts part of his psionic presence, affecting the general psychology of the island inhabitants and quickly turning the mutant nation against itself. In many ways, Onslaught has made itself into a literal existential threat to Krakoa, trying to cause strife and pain and death all so it can grow more powerful and further spread its influence.
Onslaught even seemingly has a plan to force into the minds of the many dead mutants, giving them all the same idea as they’re resurrected — a “Cruciball,” an event that by the name alone implies a larger scale version of the deadly Crucible, by which depowered mutants may die on their feet in battle and be restored to life with their powers restored in new bodies. The suggestion of turning it into a full celebration — seemingly fusing it with the recent festivities of the Hellfire Gala — suggests that Onslaught wants to effectively force Krakoa to celebrate murdering each other and unwittingly opening themselves up to his growing influence.
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