10 Comic Book Arcs That Went On Too Damn Long
2. Onslaught (And Heroes Reborn)
The Onslaught event was another case of Marvel attempting to shill out as many different titles as they could. If you wanted to follow the story of what happened when Professor X and Magneto merged psyches and transformed into an insane killing machine, you would have to be willing to buy thirty-seven issues from twenty-two separate series. We were originally planning on listing those twenty-two titles right here, but it took up almost the entire word count for this entry.
Onslaught was not particularly enjoyed by many comic book readers at the time, but it actually led into an even bigger flop. The ending of the story saw almost every Marvel hero that wasn't in the X-Men sacrificing their lives to defeat Onslaught, the half-Professor X / half-Magneto monstrosity. This left Marvel without the Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, or pretty much any of the core Avengers.
That was until Heroes Reborn, an attempt to recreate flagship heroes for the new Image comics generation of the nineties. Captain America and Co. returned from the pocket dimension that they had hidden in while they pretended to be dead, with all-new, all-different, EXTREME looks and personalities.
There's nothing worse than a lame, bloated superhero event like Onslaught, except for one that leads into an even lamer, more bloated superhero event like Heroes Reborn.
Speaking of story arcs that lead into story arcs...