X-Men: The Onslaught Revelation #1 Review

Written By: Si Spurrier
Art By: Bob Quinn
Colors By: Java Tartaglia
Letters By: VC’s Clayton Cowles
Cover Art By: Giuseppe Camuncoli, Marte Gracia
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: September 22, 2021

X-Men: The Onslaught Revelation #1 caps the Way of X storyline with a party to end all parties. If Onslaught gets his way, the Cruci-Ball will end all mutants on Krakoa permanently and give him the power he needs to regain his full strength. Can the unlikely duo of Nightcrawler and Legion stop Onslught before the mutant utopia is wiped out?

Was It Good?

This is the first issue since the Way of X series started that felt like a return of the series’ high point in the first issue. Way of X started strong , then started to peter out because it didn’t seem to be going anywhere based on the original premise. Nightcrawler was firmly placed as a man on mission, looking for an answer to Krakoa’s decaying sense of moral center/soul/meaning, but the subsequent issues spent a lot of time with Nightcrawler asking questions and listening to answers without doing much with the knowledge. Knowledge requires action to become wisdom, and Kurt wasn’t acting on his knowledge for the majority of the series.

Here, Kurt gets off his butt, with Legion’s gruff insistence, to figure out the “devil’s” plans in their proverbial Garden of Eden. The narration from Spurrier is a bit flowery and high falutin, but it fits the developments in this story as more parable than biblical text.

“How do they defeat (assuming they do) Onslaught?” you ask. Well, it’s esoteric and mind trippy, which is par for the course when Legion gets involved. At the risk of sounding flippant, the Krakoan mutants defeat Onslaught with the power of togetherness. It sounds corny but it works much better in the execution.

Getting right to the pint, I liked this issue. It’s a great finish to bookend a great start to Way of X, and the ending promises a new kind of mutant team – The Legionaries (that’s how it’s spelled in the comic. It could be a typo or a play on Legion’s name). It appears to be a kind of mutant police force to keep any other devils from bringing the utopia so close to destruction. It’s an interesting premise, so we’ll keep an eye out for that one.

Bob Quinn’s art in this book is excellent. The movement is fluid and energetic. Character faces are distinctive and always packed with tons of emotion. And the coloring by Tartaglia is impressive when you consider there are so many scenes that flip flop between astral plane tripiness and dark hiding places.

Final Thoughts

X-Men: The Onslaught Revelation #1 caps the Way of X storyline with a parable about forgiveness and letting go of hate to cure the rot living inside you. While the narration tries a little too hard to reach biblical proportions, the outcome is thought-provoking, the execution is fascinating, and the art is top-notch. This ending to the Way of X is as strong as the first issue, and the finale sets up a new X-team that’s worth keeping an eye on.