“ | I beg your pardon?! My strategy is brilliant! | „ |
~ Onslaught to Starscream. |
Onslaught is a minor antagonist in the Transformers franchise. He is the leader of the Combaticons, a Decepticon gestalt subgroup that creates the combiner Bruticus.
Onslaught and the rest of his Combaticon squad are a group of former Decepticon political prisoners whose original bodies were destroyed. Starscream retrieved their sparks from prison storage and implanted them in derelict vehicles from Guadalcanal.
In the G1 Transformers cartoon, he speaks with a faux British accent, voiced by S. Marc Jordan. This accent is completely dropped in his Aligned incarnation.
Biography[]
G1 Cartoon[]
Through unknown means and for unknown reasons, Onslaught, the Combaticons and several other bots were all taken prisoner by Megatron, with their original bodies being destroyed and their sparks being put into storage.
Starscream, in an attempt to take control of the Decepticons with his own troop, broke into the prison storage and took the components necessary for five Combaticons, destroying the storage room afterward. He then placed the Combaticons' sparks into five different derelict vehicles from the Battle for Guadalcanal during World War II. The other Combaticons were placed into various land and air vehicles, while Onslaught was placed in a troop transport truck. All of the Combaticons then reformatted to form a tank, jeep, rocket pod, helicopter and missile carrier, respectively, with Onslaught being the biggest. Starscream anticipated that the Combaticons would attempt to betray him, so he left out reformatting their energy absorbers and told the Combaticons that only he could install them.
Onslaught agreed to have the Combaticons serve Starscream, emphasizing that the arrangement would be temporary. The six then captured several Autobots and Decepticons whom to steal energy absorbers from. Angry that his troops had been captured, Megatron ordered an attack on Starscream with Devastator as his ace, but the Combaticons form their own combiner, Bruticus and overpower the other Decepticons. However, just as they claim victory over Megatron, the Stunticons show up by forming Menasor and sucker-punching Bruticus. Megatron then exiles Starscream and the Combaticons to an asteroid, where the six bicker amongst each other until Starscream leaves.
Despite Onslaught advising against leaving the asteroid, Starscream leaves in a huff, and Onslaught decides to stop caring about him after an off-handed insult. The Combaticons manage to make their way to Cybertron using Blast Off as a tether and confront Shockwave. They then defeated him and his sentinels, taking control of the Decepticon HQ on Cybertron. In order to take revenge on the Autobots and Decepticons, Onslaught hacked the Decepticon space bridge and attempted to alter its polarity using his turret as a controller, thus causing the Earth space bridge to pull the planet toward the sun. The Autobots and Decepticons decided to confront the Combaticons on Cybertron, with Starscream explaining that Bruticus' weak spot is on his back, which Optimus Prime uses to down him. Megatron and Starscream managed to put on a ruse and fake Bruticus' destruction with a hologram, and Starscream was ordered to reprogram Bruticus to be loyal to Megatron in return for being accepted back into the Decepticon ranks.
Marvel Comics[]
Onslaught was first seen in the UK-exclusive story "Second Generation", as part of a vision of the future from the Matrix experienced by Optimus Prime and Buster Witwicky, which was also monitored by Shockwave and the Decepticons. He made his full debut in US Issue #24, when he and the other Combaticons accompanied Megatron in attempting to steal the hydrothermacline. They ended up battling Optimus Prime and the Protectobots in virtual reality. Although Onslaught was "killed" by Hot Spot in the simulation, the incident ended with the death of Optimus Prime and the Decepticons claiming their prize.
Onslaught next came to prominence in the UK-exclusive story "Ladies' Night", when he and the Combaticons were sent under Soundwave's command to destroy the volcano where Galvatron and Ultra Magnus lay entombed. After several of his troops were damaged by three human females, he prepared to kill them in revenge but was stopped by the Throttlebots. This led into the subsequent US storyline where he and the Combaticons pursued the Throttlebots. They tracked them to a car yard but were resisted by the Protectobots, who had been sent to arrest the Throttlebots as renegade, and the anti-robot team RAAT. The subsequent fight saw the Combaticons defeated by Blaster and the Protectobots while RAAT took the low-on-fuel Throttlebots into custody. Onslaught thus pursued the Protectobots for revenge and the Combaticons actually defeated them by forming Bruticus, only to be defeated themselves by Blaster.
In Issue #41, new Decepticon commander Ratbat appointed Onslaught as field commander, leading the Decepticons in a mass attack on the Autobots stationed on the moon. He made his last appearance in the main comic during the Underbase Saga, guarding the captive Buster Witwicky at the Decepticons' island base. He is generally assumed to be among the older Transformers deactivated off-panel by Starscream. However, the UK annual text story "Prime Bomb" shows him working for Scorponok in his plan to use an intelligent bomb to destroy Optimus Prime.
The post-movie version of the character appeared in "Space Pirates" as one of the senior Decepticons gathered together by Soundwave for his plan to attack the supposedly undefended Autobot base on Cybertron, who instead ended up fighting an invasion by the Quintessons alongside the Autobots.
Appearance[]
Onslaught is a leader-class Decepticon, being 50% taller than the rest of the Combaticons in order to serve as the torso for their Combiner form Bruticus. He is typically navy blue with purple and moss-green accents, with fluctuating amounts of black and silver on his guns, joints, etc. His visor is either red or orange, depending on continuity, and his speech synthesizer is covered by a mask.
Onslaught transforms into an 8-10 wheeled missile carrier with a rotating detachable turret. When in robot mode, this turret attaches itself to his back and the wheels from his vehicle mode are attached to the backs of his limbs.
Personality[]
As the leader of the Combaticons, at worst he usually commands the minimal amount of respect necessary to merge with them to form Bruticus of their own volition. Besides Swindle, the other Combaticons respect him enough to compliment him out loud and follow his orders without question.
Onslaught takes his leadership role very seriously, to an exploitative extent. He will usually stand back and allow the other Combaticons to handle the close-quarters combat while shooting at his enemies from a distance in his vehicle mode. This reluctance to get his hands dirty has resulted in him being tackled and knocked over while in his truck form multiple times. Only when all of Onslaught's current plans are exhausted does he result to close-quarters combat, which has garnered the negative reputation of other Decepticons thinking he is bloodthirsty. While taking pride in his strategic mind, he talks about himself more often than other Decepticons and comes off as somewhat vain.