The X-Men have reached that level of comic book stardom where they have their own ecosystem of memes (not in the dumb joke way, but in the infectious ideas way). The longer you’ve been reading the books, the more of them you know. So, for example, there’s “Welcome to the X-Men, (insert mutant here), hope you survive the experience,” there’s every time you’ve read, “the sum totality of my psionic powers,” or Wolverine saying. “I’m the best there is at what I do.” There’s so many little ideas and catchphrases that have become a huge part of Marvel’s merry mutants. Much like the Avengers, the team even has their own rallying call, one that was introduced at their beginning: “To me, my X-Men.”
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For years, this phrase was usually uttered by Professor X, calling together his students for battle. While it doesn’t have the style of something like “Avengers Assemble” or “Titans Together” (that alliteration, though), there’s always been something about it that fit the team. The X-Men are a found family, gathered under the aegis of Xavier (well, at first; now Cyclops, Storm, and other team leaders have all said it), and the personal pronouns in there drive that home. That possessiveness is usually supposed to be ingratiating, but that has been twisted into something dark. 30 years ago, one of Marvel’s most maligned ’90s events showed readers that there’s always been something not quite right about it, changing its meaning to something wicked.
“Onslaught” Was the Beginning of a Sinister Change
The ’90s were all about the X-Men, so it was no surprise that 1996’s biggest event came from their comics. Most Marvel fans of the day were buying at least one of the flagship X-titles, so building an event there would put the most eyes on it. This led to “Onslaught”, a story that had been building since the end of the “Age of Apocalypse”, which would reveal that Professor X was the all-powerful villain who had been behind all of the problems the group had been facing.
Onslaught: X-Men #1 was about the X-Men learning the truth about their mentor and the most important scene in the comic started out with Xavier calling the team to him with their classic rallying call. Suddenly, instead of being their call to action, it became something different. There was a domineering feel to it; no longer was Xavier the kindly mentor, he was something else, something that saw the team as little more than his property. That was actually the entire point of this scene – he wanted them to join his mission to destroy humanity and allow mutants to rise up – and it delivered better than anyone could have imagined.
I remember reading the story way back when and getting a chill at this scene. In X-Men (Vol. 2) #53, which had come out two months before this book, readers had been reminded of Xavier’s forbidden love for the teen Jean Grey and that, combined with this utterance of the group’s rallying call, made it something terrible. Before, there was an affection to it and now all of that was gone. It was sinister and that feeling would be reinforced as the years have gone on.
Professor X has proven to be a terrible person in the years since “Onslaught”, with numerous sins hidden from the X-Men coming home to roost. There was an impression that Xavier had been using the team the whole time to make his dream come true; they were cogs in a machine. Instead of the family the group had seemed, they were his mutant strike force, a group brought together for the express purpose of fulfilling the mission that Charles Xavier had set for himself. Their rallying cry plays into this beautifully. “Onslaught” changed something readers thought was wholesome into something nefarious.
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