To better understand this scene we need to explain to our readers that Onslaught is a manifestation of Profesor Charles Xavier repressed sexuality, at the time where he started feeling attracted by his very young student Jean Grey he decided to use his superior psiquic powers to repress his inner monster. Years latter he would come back to haunt the X-Men in the famous crossover "Onslaught Unleashed", but I am digressing, let’s look again at the work of art: in this pannel Onslaught, the child devouring monster is chasing after Franklin Richards with hidden intentions, his mother, Sue Richards tries to protect him.
In the Progressive Boing article ROB! is critized for Susan’s disengaged without understanding the hidden message in the image. It’s true that her eyes are more separated that what should be normal, that her lips seem to depart from her face and that her jaw seems to be about to explote. However what the critics don’t understand is that is all a metaphor, Susan Richards was one of the first (if not the first) character to get pregnant and give birth in the Marvel Universe, if you think about it it’s quite hard to remember another femenine character whose son is still present in continuity and hasn’t disapeared with some kind of plot twist.
In this image Susan is protecting her son, saving his life in a metaphor of also giving BIRTH to him. ROB!, who never leaves anything to chance, tries to express this with a contorted face that indicates she is delivering her son for a SECOND TIME. In the image we clearly see Susan Richard’s stress while his son leaves the scene (leaves the womb) and a hand that although we know is of Onslaught also simbolizes the doctor’s hand that comes to pick her son.
In conclusion, we can clearly see this is a birth or rebirth scene.
Following that thought, we see Sue shouting at her son tu run, to get away from her, which is again a clear alegory of the new stage that we have already mentioned: a stage in which the young ones have to move away from their parents, live their own lives, start taking their decisions. This doesn’t mean that parents can competely ignore their children, on the contrary: adolescence, as it’s been said before, is a season in which sexuality blossoms in children. ROB! as a devoted father openly encourages parents to talk with their children through this simple but efective image: Sue Richards wraps Onslaught’s fist with her invisible force field as if a condom it was. An alegory that I don’t think that no one has missed.
But we have left the best for the end: Sue Richards herself. Look at that tight fist, as if it was holding a man’s member, yet another masturbation alegory. Now then, what is ROB! trying to say? That masturbation during adolescence is a healthy and natural act? Or, on the contrary, is he warning us about it’s dangers during that stage in our lifes? To know the answer you just have to look at Mrs. Richards eyes: for someone with a low education like the ignorants at Progressive Boing these eyes would look rushly drawn, one of them is lightly lower than the other. But that is far from true, these eyes evoke the ancient yinyan sign, the balance between good and bad. This
way the autor is telling us that we shouldn’t follow extreme behaviours, it illustrates parents that masturbation isn’t good or bad itself, that the important idea in this (as in many other things) is that their sons should maintain a balance, enjoying their sexuality in a healthy and responsable way without falling in obsessions.
It’s impresive to see so much wisdom in such a small drawing. This feat is only at the reach of someone who will be known for future generations as the Leonardo of the XXI century.
