Mystique by Rebekah Isaacs

Mystique by Phil Noto

Mystique by Gene Gonzales

1984 - Uncanny X-Men #177

By Chris Claremont, John Romita Jr. and John Romita Sr.

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.

1990 - Whatever happened to the Excalibur graphic novel

I have no idea! :) I searched my usual sources, but couldn't come up with anything, so thought I'd cast a wider net and see if any readers that might know whatever happened to this project?

The Excalibur hardcover graphic novel was announced in Marvel Age Preview #1 and listed as shipping in December 1990:

“Chris Claremont and Alan Davis continue their Excalibur collaboration with the biography of Kurt Wagner – Nightcrawler, from his birth to his rescue at the hands of Charles Xavier. We will finally learn more of the mysterious connection between Nightcrawler and Mystique!”

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.

Hey Mike: Madelyne Pryor, Mastermind, and Mystique

Mike: Maddie Pryor was a child that showed up in Avengers Annual #10. She was in one panel. The location was the hospital where Jessica Drew had taken Carol Danvers after Rogue wiped her memory and powers. I've always wondered what that was about.

Jay: From my article on Avengers Annual #10 (marvel1980s.blogspot.com/2010/08/1981-avengers-annual-10.html):

“Interestingly, there’s a little girl in the hospital who’s called “Maddy Pryor” and of course any X-Fan worth their salt will recognize that name… turns out those Claremont was a fan of the folk band, Steeleye Span, and of their popular lead singer, Maddy Prior.”

Obviously Claremont liked the name enough that it stuck with him. Also note that this Maddy Pryor had brown hair and was obviously the wrong age (which could be explained by the fact that Madelyne was a clone of Jean Grey created by Mr. Sinister.

Mike: I've also wondered why Mastermind was messing with Mystique in the X-Men: From The Ashes storyline. Throughout that story, he was getting revenge on the X-Men by manipulating them and their colleagues until eventually making them think that Madelyne Pryor was Phoenix reincarnated, but what part did Mystique play in all this? It was Uncanny X-Men #170. She was dreaming she was chased down and hunted like a wolf by Jason Wyngarde and Lady Jean Grey. She wakes to find that Rogue had left her for Prof X. Did Mastermind manipulate Rogue to the good? And to what end?

Jay: Great questions. And I’ve got some answers from the infamous X-Men Danglers FAQ (http://www.oocities.org/area51/rampart/8644/zclaremontdang.html). Apparently, that scene was meant to as a “foreshadowing for a plot planned for Ms. Marvel, which Claremont also wrote at the time.  When Ms. Marvel was canceled, the plot was dropped.  Mastermind wanted revenge on Mystique because her arms shipping business was siphoning profits from the Hellfire Club.”

Hope that helps!