X-Men #50
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeX-Men #50 marks the first appearance of Post (Kevin Tremain), the self-described herald of Onslaught, making it the first comic to put a named agent of that season's central threat directly in combat with the X-Men. As a double-sized 50th-issue milestone for the volume Chris Claremont and Jim Lee launched in 1991, it served as an early, tangible staging post for the Onslaught crossover — Marvel's most ambitious line-wide event of the mid-1990s — introducing readers to the scale of menace awaiting them months before Onslaught himself appeared in full. The issue also quietly advances a long-running subplot from the Age of Apocalypse fallout: the Beast present throughout is revealed to be the villainous Dark Beast in impersonation of the real Hank McCoy, a thread that had been set in motion in X-Men Unlimited #10.
In "Full Court Press," the X-Men are thrust into a surreal dimension where they face a brutal trial by Post, the herald of Onslaught, in a high-stakes battle that pushes their limits. Written by Scott Lobdell and brought to life with intense art by Andy Kubert, inks by Cam Smith, and vibrant colors by Joe Rosas and Digital Crayon, this 1996 issue delivers a gripping, dimension-hopping showdown. The cover, penciled by Kubert and inked by Smith, captures the moment with dynamic energy.
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Written by Scott Lobdell with pencils by Andy Kubert and inks by Cam Smith — the regular creative team on the X-Men title at the time — the issue was edited by Bob Harras, who was simultaneously Marvel's Editor-in-Chief and deeply invested in the Onslaught build-up as its chief editorial architect. To mark the anniversary, Marvel produced the Deluxe edition with a metallic chromium wraparound cover on heavier-than-standard stock, a production flourish typical of the mid-1990s foil-cover era. The story title, 'Full Court Press,' reflects the issue's narrative function: it is an explicit stress-test of the X-Men, with Onslaught using Post to probe the team's limits before committing to a direct assault.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Post (real name Kevin Tremain), a massive mutant operative infected with Cable's Techno-Organic virus and recruited as Onslaught's herald.
- Written by Scott Lobdell; pencilled by Andy Kubert; inked by Cam Smith; colored by Joe Rosas; lettered by Richard Starkings & Comicraft; edited by Bob Harras.
- Published March 1996 (on-sale January 25, 1996) as a double-sized 48-page anniversary issue — the 50th issue of X-Men vol. 2, the series launched in 1991 by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee.
- The Deluxe edition features a foil-enhanced metallic chromium wraparound cover; multiple variants exist, including a gold-tinted variant, an American Entertainment exclusive variant, a newsstand non-enhanced edition, and a limited gold numbered variant (numbered out of 4,500 on the back cover).
- The 'Beast' who appears at the X-Mansion in this issue is the Age of Apocalypse villain Dark Beast (Henry McCoy of Earth-295), who had been impersonating the mainstream Hank McCoy since X-Men Unlimited #10.
- Onslaught himself appears only as a disembodied psionic entity — a floating head of psychic energy — foreshadowing his first full appearance in X-Men vol. 2 #53.
- Four X-Men — Cyclops (without his visor), Storm, Wolverine, and Iceman (with a gaping hole in his ice-form chest) — are abducted by the mutant teleporter Gateway and deposited in an otherworldly wasteland to battle Post.
- The issue was later collected as part of the 'X-Men: Road to Onslaught' reading line, situating it as a key prologue chapter in the lead-up to the 1996 Onslaught crossover event.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Gli Incredibili X-Men #82 (1997), X-Men Special #3 (1998), X-Men: Prelude to Onslaught #[nn] (2010), X-Men: The Road to Onslaught #3 (2014), X-Men: Road to Onslaught Omnibus #2 (2025)
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