Anatomy of an Ad - Years of Future Past

By Art Adams

1980 - Uncanny X-Men - "Days of Future Past"

Uncanny X-Men #141-142 (1980)
“Days of Future Past”
Writer/Plotter: Chris Claremont
Artist/Plotter: John Byrne
Inker: Terry Austin

After enjoying Bryan Singer's take on this X-Men classic,  I thought I'd have a read over of the original material. Days of Future Past kicks off in the far flung future of the 21st century known as 2013, which might have seen like the future in 1980, but oddly enough, it's now our past.

Kate Pryde travels through a post-apocalyptic New York City. The Sentinel robots have gone well beyond their mandate and have become tyrants over North America. She meets up with Colonel Logan of the Canadian Resistance Army and they set in motion a desperate plan as the world is prepared to nuke North America to prevent the Sentinels from expanding their grasp.

Society has crumbled and taken an almost medieval feel with horses pulling buses and people being divided into classes: M for Mutants, A for Anomalous who have the mutant gene potential, and H for clean humans. In this nightmarish future, the X-Men and other heroes, including the Avengers and Fantastic Four, have fallen before the might of the Sentinels.

This future sequence introduces Rachel (which would later be retconned to Rachel Summers, the daughter of Scott and Jean Grey). Using her telepathic gifts, Rachel sends Kate's consciousness into her past self. To contrast that terrifying future vision, we witness the newest X-Man, Kitty Pryde, as she's put to the test in the Danger Room. To the team’s delight, she phases through all its deadly threats and passes. The consciousness transfer then happens and the X-Men react as the youngest of their team seems hurt.

Kate's consciousness take over Kitty's body and after a brief reunion, she tells them of her future and that the assassination of presidential candidate Kelley will trigger the Mutant Control Act and make that nightmare future come true.

Meanwhile, Mystique has assembled a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (Avalanche, Blob, Destiny, and Pyro) to kill Kelly. The X-Men then set out to stop Mystique. After an awkward start without Cyclops’ leadership (who was still on his leave after Jean’s death), the team comes together to defeat Mystique.

But, just when you thought things were getting better, we flip back to the future where the Sentinels have caught up with our rag-tag group of mutants and despite a valiant effort, they are slain, adding more dramatic imperative to what’s occurring in the “present”. There’s a very touching set of panels depicting the surviving Rachel hidden in an alley with the unconscious Kate, and she feels her teammates die. The climax shifts to Kate Pryde who's the one who can stop Destiny from killing Senator Kelly. As she’s a temporal anomaly and beyond Destiny’ precognitive senses, she stops Destiny and rescues Kelly. In the aftermath of this attack, Senator Kelly along with Sebastian Shaw (the mutant Black King of the Hellfire Club) work with Henry Gyrich to establish the anti-mutant program called Project Wideawake.

This story’s really about friendships and loyalty and keeping Professor Xavier’s dream alive, it’s also about compassion. Kitty Pryde is the pivotal character in this story as she’s the newest X-Men, she’s a great character through which to approach this story, it’s also fun to see the contrast between Kitty and Kate and her sudden awareness of the future she will have with the X-Men.

I completely forgot that the Angel was still part of that team at that point, not that he plays a significant part, but it was interesting to see him. Another interesting tidbit is the interaction between Nightcrawler and Mystique that suggested they have an intertwined past.

Marvel Comics' APRIL 2014 Solicitations - 1980s Goodness

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN EPIC COLLECTION: GHOSTS OF THE PAST TPB
Written by TOM DEFALCO, BOB LAYTON, CRAIG ANDERSON, PETER DAVID, STAN LEE, LOUISE SIMONSON & DANNY FINGEROTH
Penciled by RON FRENZ, BOB LAYTON, PATY COCKRUM, SAL BUSCEMA, BOB MCLEOD, MARY WILSHIRE, GREG LAROCQUE & MIKE HARRIS

The Hobgoblin is back! The high-flying villain is after Norman Osborn’s journals — and he’s targeted Mary Jane and the pregnant Liz Osborn! Plus: Mary Jane reveals the secrets of her childhood! The Scorpion attacks as J. Jonah Jameson ties the knot! Spidey battles the symbiotic alien costume in a senses-shattering showdown! The Kingpin strikes after the Beyonder turns a skyscraper to gold! Spidey faces the cosmic power of Firelord! The new Spider-Slayer attacks the person he believes to be Spider-Man: Mary Jane! And things get downright silly when Spidey must deal with Spider-Kid, Frog-Man and the Toad, and track a thief to…the suburbs! Featuring the return of Black Fox and Crusher Hogan, and the debuts of Silver Sable and Slyde! Collecting AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1963) #259-272 and ANNUAL #18-19, and WEB OF SPIDER-MAN (1985) #1 and #6. 472 PGS./Rated T …$34.99

NIGHTCRAWLER #1
CHRIS CLAREMONT (W) • TODD NAUCK (A)
Cover by CHRIS SAMNEE

NIGHTCRAWLER IS BACK!
Newly- returned from the afterlife, veteran X- Man Kurt Wagner finds himself in a world that’s a far cry from the one he left: Professor Xavier is dead, Cyclops is on the run, and the X- Men are divided. But determined not to let his new lease on life go to waste, Nightcrawler hits the road alongside Wolverine, eager to right some wrongs and safeguard the future mutantkind…and he’s going to do it by the means he loves most: swashbuckling, lady- charming and—of course—BAMFing!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …2.99

STAR- LORD: TEARS IN HEAVEN
DOUG MOENCH (W)
BILL SIENKIEWICZ & TOM SUTTON (A)

• Star- Lord’s sensational seventies adventures conclude in explosive fashion!
• Caught in a battle between corrupt humans and vengeful beast- men, must Star- Lord break his code against killing in order to save innocents?
• Star- Lord defends his mentor, the Master of the Sun, against his own people — the same race that killed Star- Lord’s mother!
• Star- Lord must solve the riddle of a world whose people perform good deeds to literally ascend to “heaven” in the cloudlands above!
• Collecting MARVEL SPOTLIGHT (1979) #6- 7, MARVEL PREMIERE #61 and material from MARVEL PREVIEW #18.
104 PGS./Rated T+ …$7.99

INFINITY GAUNTLET OMNIBUS HC
Written by JIM STARLIN, RON MARZ, TERRY KAVANAGH, ANN NOCENTI, PETER DAVID, ROY THOMAS, DANN THOMAS, MARK GRUENWALD & BOB BUDIANSKY
Penciled by RON LIM, GEORGE PEREZ, TODD SMITH, TOM RANEY, DAVE ROSS, RICK LEONARDI, DALE KEOWN, TONY DEZUNIGA, CHRIS MARRINAN, DAN LAWLIS, DAVE HOOVER, GREG CAPULLO & BRET BLEVINS

Death has released Thanos from her cold embrace, and he plans to repay her by murdering half the universe! But even as the Mad Titan gathers the six Infinity Gems from across the galaxy, assembling them into the Infinity Gauntlet and gaining truly godlike powers, a host of heroes gather to oppose him — including the Silver Surfer, Adam Warlock, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Dr. Strange and the Hulk! Even with Dr. Doom, Galactus and the universe’s cosmic powers aiding them, can Marvel’s mightiest possibly prevail against Thanos the all-powerful? At long last, the fan- favorite cosmic event is collected in its entirety! Collecting SILVER SURFER (1987) #34- 38, #40 and #44- 60; THANOS QUEST #1- 2; INFINITY GAUNTLET #1- 6; CLOAK AND DAGGER (1988) #18; SPIDER- MAN (1990) #17; INCREDIBLE HULK (1968) #383- 385; DOCTOR STRANGE, SORCERER SUPREME #31- 36; QUASAR #26- 27 and SLEEPWALKER #7. 1248 PGS./Rated T+ …$125

X- MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST PROSE NOVEL HC
Written by ALEXANDER IRVINE
Adapted from the graphic novel by CHRIS CLAREMONT & JOHN BYRNE

In a dark and dangerous post- apocalyptic future, the mutant- hunting killing machines known as the Sentinels rule America with an iron fist. Almost all mutants, super heroes and villains have been exterminated. Only a handful remain to fight against their oppressive robotic overseers —and most of those are powerless, locked in mutant concentration camps. Now, Kate Pryde must travel back in time and warn the present- day X- Men of the coming danger — and hopefully prevent this horrible future from ever taking place! Experience the classic, genre- defining X- Men event like never before in this new adaptation!
304 PGS./No Rating …$24.99

Daniel Govar's Kate Pryde and Lockheed

http://danielgovar.com/comics/kate-pryde-lockheed/

Media: Copic Sketch brushes and ink washes on Arches hot press. Size: 14 x 20 in.

"A personal piece for a change. The storyline from Days of Future Past featuring Kitty Pryde of the X-Men after the Sentinels had all but wiped out mutantkind, really stuck with me over the years. It was always a favorite, but I envisioned a future where Kitty was still fighting the good fight with Lockheed all grown up and kicking ass as a dragon and her rider."

And here's the inked version:

1981 - Uncanny X-Men: Days of Future Past

Uncanny X-Men #141-142
January- February 1981
“Days of Future Past”
Writing: Chris Claremont (plot and script) and John Byrne (plot)
Penciler: John Byrne
Inker: Terry Austin

While a lot of fans classify the Dark Phoenix Saga as the ultimate X-Men storyline, I’d argue for a two-issue, cross-time story called “Days of Future Past”. Both Claremont and Byrne are at the top of their game, coming off the Dark Phoenix Saga storyline and still telling outstanding stories.

This story introduced an apocalyptic, dystopian future set in 2013 where mutants are confined to concentration camps and marked with the letter M to indicate their mutant status. The post-nuclear holocaust devastation wasn’t limited to mutants as a number of non-mutant super heroes had been killed by Sentinels enforcing Project Wideawake.

Recognizing their dire situation, a ragtag group of mutants (Wolverine, Kate Pryde, Magneto, Colossus, Storm, Franklin Richards, and Rachel Summers) put into motion a desperate plot to prevent this nightmarish future from ever occurring. Claremont and Byrne in those future sequences, really capture that hopelessness and their defeated feeling.

The use this nightmarish future to up the stakes of this story’s initial problem which is to stop Senator Kelly’s assassination at the hands of the new Brotherhood of Mutants under the leadership of Mystique. Kate Pryde’s essence is sent back through to time to temporarily inhabited her past self, long enough to tell the X-Men how it all came about. “We fought. We lost. We d-died. And now... seeing you all alive -- oh God, I didn't think it would hurt so much.”

In the present time sequences, the character interactions are well done, especially capturing the leaderless X-Men (with Cyclops still on leave) and Storm taking the leadership reins.

They also manage to have a bit of levity in a rather dark themed comic book as Kitty Pryde takes on the Danger Room on her own and beats it!

At this point in their relationship, there was a lot of strife between Claremont and Byrne, but that also forced them to be at their best as they challenged each other. Byrne’s last issue would be Uncanny X-Men #143 and they would part on difficult terms. So looking back, it’s an amazing story to view the collaborative talent they had and also to realize that while they may have gone their separate way, they were never quite as good as this run.

And with the early buzz that Bryan Singer is considering this story as source material for the latest X-Men movie, there’s no better time to check out this truly revolutionary 1980s story.

Some other notes:
- The story’s title was apparently inspired by the Moody Blue’s Days of Future Passed
- Uncanny X-Men was the first appearance of the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and of Rachel Summers
- Interesting to see Mystique teasing at a shared past with Nightcralwer, but that would be an unresolved plot point that would be left dangling forever.