“The mind is the greatest weapon”
Onslaught seeks perfection – the key to a successful mission lies in its planning. His Combaticon underlings consider him aloof, but a brilliant tactician. Typically, he would rather stay in the background and observe than engage in combat, but when stirred to action he becomes a relentless, furious fighter.
Major Story Arcs
Marvel Comics Continuity
Generation 1
Generation 2
Ladybird Books continuity
Dreamwave Continuity
G.I. Joe vs. The Transformers
IDW Comics Continuity
Powers and Abilities
Onslaught, though he prefers using his mind rather than engaging in physical combat, is tremendously strong, powerful and has exceptional hand-to-hand skills. He can lift about 100 tons. In trailer mode, Onslaught can travel at speeds up to 100mph, with the range of 2400 miles. He can launch photon missiles with a range of 6500 miles, each containing three independently targetable shells, each of which has an explosive force equivalent to 3000 tons of TNT. In robot mode, he carries a sonic stun-gun that can crumble a hillside with one blast. He combines with the Combaticons to form Bruticus.
Other Media
Television
Transformers (1984)
Onslaught appears in the original Generation 1 series, with his fellow Combaticons. Starscream created Onslaught and the Combaticons after he had stolen five personality components of five renegade Decepticons from Cybertron, and put them in five military vehicles from the second world war on Earth. The Combaticon Brawl wanted to kill Starscream anyway, but Starscream was the only one who currently could give the Combaticons the energy to survive. Onslaught decided that they would obey Starscream, and Starscream tested their loyalty by ordering them to capture a few Transformers. Megatron and a few other Decepticons later attacked Starscream and the Combaticons, and the Constructicons had combined into Devastator to defeat Starscream and the Combaticons, however Onslaught and the rest of the Combaticons combined into Bruticus and overpowered Devastator and Megatron. Fortunatly for Megatron, the Stunticons had arrived, and they combined into Menasor and defeated Bruticus with a surprise attack from behind. Megatron then banished Starscream and the Combaticons from Earth and put them on an asteroid in space. In the next episode, Brawl was annoyed by Starscream’s constant whining and blasted him, and then Starscream abandoned the Combaticons and flied away. Blast-Off pulled the asteroid to Cybertron in his vehicle mode however, and the Combaticons had arrived on Cybertron. Shockwave and his forces then surrounded the Combaticons, but they formed Bruticus and overpowered Shockwave’s forces. Onslaught then reprogrammed the space bridge on Cybertron to pull Earth towards the Sun, and destroy every Autobot, Decepticon and human on it and have their revenge. When the Autobots and Decepticons heard about this, they made an alliance and used a space bridge to teleport to Cybertron. Then the Combaticons combined into Bruticus and overpowered the Autobots and Decepticons, but Starscream told them that they could only defeat him by blasting three weak spots on his back. They did this, and stopped the space bridge from pulling Earth to the Sun, and Earth went back to where it was, and the mission was successful. Then Megatron made it seem like he destroyed Bruticus, and the Autobots went back to Earth, however Megatron merely faked Bruticus’ death, and reprogrammed him to be loyal only to Megatron, and Onslaught and the other Combaticons continued to serve Megatron in later episodes.
Transformers: Energon (2004)
Known as Barricade
Games
Transformers: War for Cybertron (2010)
Appears in War for Cybertron, but only as a playable character in the Mutliplayer mode for the Leader class, with his chassis being called “Tactical Rig”, and also a playable character for the Escalation mode, as a DLC.
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron (2012)
Onslaught appears in Fall of Cybertron, and now he appears in the campaign aswell. He makes his first appearance in the third chapter, where he helps Brawl and Starscream capture Optimus Prime and bring him to Megatron. Unfortunatly for them, though, Metroplex arrived at the Decepticon base and rescued Optimus and killed Megatron, and Starscream took over as leader of the Decepticons. Then Onslaught makes another appearance in the sixth chapter, where he tells his Combaticon partners the plan on how to re-claim their Energon from the Autobots. Onslaught appears again in the next chapter, where he and the other Combaticons combine into Bruticus to stop the Autobot’s energon transport and reclaim their Energon. The mission was successful, however, the transport crashed and half of the Energon was destroyed. This angered Starscream, but Onslaught stated that if it wasn’t for him and the Combaticons the Autobots would’ve taken all of the energon and insults Starscream for his incompetence. Starscream then arrested the Combaticons. Onslaught appears in the next chapter, where Megatron returns, defeats Starscream and reclaims his leadership of the Decepticons. Onslaught and all other Decepticons are pleased to see that Megatron has returned. He makes a final appearance in the final chapter of the game, where he and the other Combaticons combine into Bruticus yet again to destroy the Ark main energon tank. It was successful, but Bruticus was then blasted out to space, and it is yet unknown where he arrived. He is also a playable character in the Multiplayer mode, and he is available for the Destroyer class, with his parts being called “Road Brawler” and his armor set is just his normal name, Onslaught. He is also a playable character in the Escalation mode.
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark (2014)
Onslaught appears again in Rise of the Dark Spark, and makes his first appearance in the fourth chapter. He appears again in chapter six, where he and the Combaticons holds off every Autobot that has attacked Kaon to re-claim the Dark Spark, so Shockwave can bring the Dark Spark to Megatron. When all Combaticons where together, they combined into Bruticus and destroyed the rest of the Autobots, and then Bruticus and Shockwave bring the Dark Spark to Megatron, and captures Cliffjumper. The Cybertron-part of the campaign takes place after War for Cybertron, but before Fall of Cybertron. The Earth-part takes place in another Universe. Onslaught is also a playable character in Escalation mode.