Comic Book / Days of Future Past (1981)

(aka: Days Of Future Past)

9 Following

Days of Future Past is a 1981 story arc in the Marvel Comics series Uncanny X-Men (issues #141-142). It's scripted by Chris Claremont and co-plotted with artist John Byrne. Terry Austin inks Byrne's art, with Glynis Wein providing color art.

Set in the shared Marvel Universe, this time-travel story was the first main story featuring Kitty Pryde.

In the Bad Future of 2013, the United States is a dystopia, and people are divided into three groups: normal humans, humans with the potential to pass on the mutant gene, and mutants. The first ones are free, the second are forbidden to have children, and the third are either killed or held in concentration camps, with collars that turn off their powers. Everything is run by the Sentinels. And Europe has atomic bombs, ready to nuke the US to oblivion as soon as the Sentinels attempt to go outside America.

The group held in the concentration camp is composed of aged versions of the X-Men: Katherine Pryde-Rasputin (Sprite, later to be known as Shadowcat), Ororo Monroe (Storm), Peter Rasputin (Colossus), Franklin Richards (the son of the Fantastic Four's Reed and Susan Richards), new character Rachel, and Magneto (now in a wheelchair). With the help of Wolverine, still on the loose, they manage to send Katherine Pryde back in time to October 31, 1980, just before a pivotal presidential election, placing her adult mind in the body of her teenage 1980 version. On that day, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants would kill US Senator Robert Kelly, along with Charles Xavier and Moira MacTaggert, which would lead to anti-mutant hysteria. Can Kate convince the modern X-Men of the truth and Set Right What Once Went Wrong?

In a franchise with many such Bad Future storylines, Days of Future Past was the original, and has since been copied and directly revisited many times.

The seventh entry in the X-Men (Film Series), X-Men: Days of Future Past, is based on this story; however, it was released in 2014, just missing the original story's bad future setting. However, the "Battle of the Atom" crossover was released in 2013 to coincide with the original setting, and involves time-traveling mutants who seek to stop an apocalyptic future. Bryan Singer's first X-Men movie also uses elements of the story, borrowing the central plot about the X-Men trying to stop a Brotherhood plot against the Mutant-hating Senator Kelly.

In 2014 a novelization of the comic by Alex Irvine was released to coincide with the live action film, acting as a largely faithful adaption with some select changes, including young Kitty Pryde fully awake in the body of her older self.

X-Men: The Animated Series adapted the story, borrowing elements from the "X-Traitor" storyline that was being published at the same time, as a two-episode arc at the end of the first season. As Kitty Pryde had been left out of this adaptation, her role in the story is filled by Bishop.

Wolverine and the X-Men (2009) is another animated adaptation. In this series, Xavier is the one to interact with the present day, using his telepathy.

Marvel officially revisited the story in 2015 under the title "Years of Future Past" as part of the Secret Wars (2015) storyline.

In 2023, a prequel limited series was released, X-Men: Days of Future Past - Doomsday, depicting the Alternate Timeline's slide into the bleak future seen in the original arc.

Tropes:

• Adaptational Badass: While Magneto in the original comic remains largely helpless thanks to his inhibitor collar and is killed when he agrees to cover their escape because he'd just slow them down, the 2014 novel version has him get his collar removed to regain his powers and destroy the Sentinels in the city in a final attack that he may have survived in.
• Adaptation Expansion: The 2014 novelization expands on the backstories and thoughts of the X-Men in both time periods, specifically with Young Kitty Pryde fully conscious in her older self's body and actively playing a part in the future narrative as opposed to being comatose in the original comic.
• Ambiguous Ending:
  • Pointed out inside the story.
    Angel: Does that mean we changed the future?
    Xavier: I do not know, Warren. Cliché though it sounds, only time will tell.
  • The epilogue has Senator Kelly inform Henry Gyrich, Sebastian Shaw, and the President that he still views Mutants as a threat, implying that the X-Men’s rescue was All for Nothing.
• The Apunkalypse: The story begins with Kate running into "rogues", humans who operate outside the Sentinel-controlled society, and who plan on killing her. They're dressed like typical 80s punks, with day-glo mohawks and ripped leather jackets.
• As You Know: Franklin Richards uses these exact words when explaining to Magneto how the jammer works.
• Bad Future: The Sentinel-controlled future of this story is one of and easily the most famous of the X-Men's disturbingly large number of these.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Future Colossus goes absolutely berserk when future Storm is killed and throws a Sentinel out of a building.
• The Bus Came Back: This storyline features Blob's first time taking on the X-Men since before the original team disbanded.
• Butterfly of Doom: One slightly obnoxious senator being assassinated turns America into a dystopian nightmare where New York is a mass concentration camp/graveyard.
• Danger Room Cold Open: The first scene of the X-Men in the present is them practicing in the Danger Room, with Kitty wandering in mid-session.
• Death by Adaptation: The 2014 novelization has Rachel ultimately killed by the Sentinels versus being one of only two future survivors in the comic.
• Did You Actually Believe...?: "Foolish Mutant! Did you actually believe you could reach our inner sanctum undetected?" Said by a Sentinel as it deep-fries Future Logan.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Wolverine is badly burned by a firey hand construct created by Pyro. The damage shakes him up enough that he can't use his senses to Spot the Imposter when Mystique impersonates Nightcrawler.
• Dungeon Bypass: The X-Men decide to put Kitty through her paces in the Danger Room. She's so scared she just runs through it. With her eyes closed the whole time, much to Logan's amusement.
• Dwindling Party: The Future X-Men starts with seven people. Franklin's incinerated by a Sentinel pretty quickly, and Magneto sacrifices himself to cover their initial escape shortly before Wolverine is incinerated by a Sentinel with contemptuous ease. Storm is shot through the chest, and Colossus dies shortly thereafter. At the story's end, only Rachel and Kate are left alive.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Pyro makes his debut in this storyline and is referred to by the other characters as an Englishman rather than the Australian he would eventually become.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Katherine Pryde (in the body of her teenage self, but with her adult mind from the future) does not like being called "Kitty". She's "Kate"!
• The Faceless: On the poster of the "Slain" and the "Apprehended" from the famous and oft-referenced cover, three have both faces and names blocked over by Kate and Wolverine so the identities can only be speculated.^note The picture behind Kate, labeled "Slain", has a pointed headdress and curly hair, likely making it the Scarlet Witch; the one between that and Magneto's picture, blocked by Wolverine with only a spiked tuft of hair visible, is most likely Quicksilver; Xavier is the only remaining possibility for the one in the bottom left corner, completely blocked over by Wolverine. The poster was listing only well-known Marvel mutants of that time, so that would exclude Rachel, a completely new one debuting in this story; and in 1981, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were still counted as among the most prominent Marvel mutants, as it would be decades later that they'd be retconned as being not-mutants. Plus, Future Past came just after The Dark Phoenix Saga so Jean Grey was already Killed Off for Real then.
• Fallen States of America: Thanks to the Brotherhood's assassination attempt, America gets taken over by Sentinels.
• Fantastic Caste System: The Bad Future has one. Humans are on top, then people who might have mutant DNA, then mutants at the absolute bottom.
• Fastball Special: Future Colossus and Wolverine attempt it twice. The first time, it's successful. The second time... not so much.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Colossus and Kitty are married in the future, and their marriage ceases to be along with the whole timeline. This was written years before their romance in the normal timeline (in fact, Kitty had met the X-Men during the Dark Phoenix Saga, moved to the mansion... and this is her first adventure as a member of the team). Still, that romance was also began by Claremont, who had a long run in the X-Men, so it can be either that he took advantage of a loose plot point he had left years ago, or that he planned it all along.
  • Magneto in a concentration camp and an ally of the X-Men. The first hints of present day Magneto getting Hidden Depths wouldn't be for a few issues more.
  • Future Wolverine appears a bit cold to Rachel. It would be revealed that of the surviving X-Men, Logan was the only one who did not forgive Rachel for her past as a “Hound”.
  • Nightcrawler notes that Mystique looks quite similar to him. Mystique's response to this is to not only reveal that she knows Nightcrawler's real name but also the name of the woman who raised him. In the years to come, Kurt would be revealed to be Mystique's son.
• Future Badass: All the characters (except those who have died), but most notably Kitty Pryde. At this point, she was still a new character, the token teenager Naïve Newcomer who has no idea about anything the adult superheroes do; and all of a sudden we see her as one of the last remaining members of the resistance in a future dystopia.
• George Lucas Altered Version: The first Trade Paperback of the story omitted the Epilogue.
• Godzilla Threshold: It's acknowledged that sending Kate back is a serious risk, and will erase everything that's happened in the last thirty years. But the situation is just that awful.
• Gone Horribly Right:
  • In the original timeline, the Brotherhood killed Kelly to make humans scared of mutants. And it worked. But fear didn't make humans bow down in obedience, fear made humans cross the Godzilla Threshold to end the Mutant threat.
  • Also, the government designed the Sentinels with the programming to "do whatever it took" to end the mutant threat. The Sentinels concluded that this meant to take over the government themselves and wipe out any super-powered people, mutant or not, as well as those who supported them.
• Grave-Marking Scene: There's a lot in the concentration camp with the graves of the Sentinels' victims: Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm, Charles Xavier, Scott Summers, Steve Rogers, Kurt Wagner, Susan Richards, Reed Richards, Lorna Dane, Peter Parker, Henry McCoy, etc.
• Heel–Face Turn: Magneto in the Bad Future. At this point, in the regular comics, he was not an anti-hero yet, he was still a full-time villain, but Claremont was busy sowing the seeds of his Heel–Face Turn.
• Hope Spot: In retrospect. In the original version of events, after Kelly was assassinated, his supporters tried to make the Mutant Registration Act law, and it was immediately struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. This wouldn't last.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Though the Sentinels have taken over the United States by 2013 and killed and imprisoned numerous mutants and other superpowered beings, it has to be remembered that it was ordinary humans who started the ball rolling after Senator Kelly's assassination. Indeed, Rachel Summers' flashbacks in later stories show the US military eagerly and gleefully massacring mutants before the Sentinels even took over, such as when the X-Mansion is destroyed in an artillery barrage and Charles Xavier, Illyana Rasputin, Nightcrawler and his pregnant wife Amanda Sefton are killed by the army, with Rachel being the sole survivor, or when Rachel is later used as a "Hound" to detect fleeing mutant civilians, who are subsequently massacred by the military.
• Humble Goal: Peter Rasputin, married to Katherine Pryde, is concerned about the possible consequences of their victory. If all reality is rewritten and that future never comes to pass, that would include their marriage.
  Katherine: That's a risk we have to take. What does the love of two people matter against the lives of billions?
  Peter: I am selfish. It matters to me.
• I Will Only Slow You Down: According to Wolverine, why the now-paraplegic Magneto stayed behind.
  Wolverine: He knew what he was doin' when he agreed to cover our escape. His wheelchair would've slowed us up too much.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: A Sentinel shoots a huge metal spike through the future Storm.
• Irony: Future Magneto being in a wheelchair is a double one. The most obvious is the Master of Magnetism stuck to a metal chair. The second is how Magneto ends up becoming much like Xavier in the end.
• Killed Offscreen: Future Colossus' death is not shown, but Rachel senses it happening.
• La Résistance: Canada, with some help from Great Britain, are running a resistance army against the Sentinels. Future Logan's part of it.
• Meanwhile, in the Future…: A consequence of the unusual type of time travel. Besides, Kate made the trip early in the first issue, and we still need to know what things are going on in that bad future.
• Mind Probe: The future Sentinels use encephalo beams (a favoured Agony Beam device used by Ultron) to determine whether their prisoners are telling the truth or not. Unlike Ultron, though, their use isn't painful to the subject, and pretty quick.
• Mutually Assured Destruction: On the international level (merely mentioned): the USA and Europe are each holding the sword of Damocles over the other.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: As Blob drops down toward Colossus, he reveals that he's been training himself to manipulate his mass. This ability would be largely forgotten in his future appearances.
• No Name Given: Rachel pointedly is never given a last name so that Claremont could reveal that she was Rachel Summers later on.
• Not Wearing Tights: Nobody does so in the bad future. The X-Men who were imprisoned wear jumpsuits, while Logan's wearing casual clothing.
• OOC Is Serious Business: One of the first indicators to the X-Men that something is seriously wrong with Kitty is when she hugs Nightcrawler (having previously been terrified of him).
• Outgrowing the Childish Name:
  • Future Kitty Pryde no longer goes by that. She's "Kate".
  • Inverted in the 2014 novelization which has Young Kitty Pryde confused when the others call her Kate.
• Outliving One's Offspring: It's mentioned Kate and Piotr had kids in the bad future... and outlived them.
• Pretender Diss: Blob is not impressed by the new line-up of X-Men, even mockingly claiming that he could take them all out by himself at one point.
• Psychic Block Defense: Mystique gets the drop on Xavier by using a device that produces a forcefield that prevents him from reading her mind. While he does sense the energy field, by that point Mystique is already close enough to use Knockout Gas on him.
• The Reveal: Future Kate doesn't know which Brotherhood member killed Robert Kelly, and the story keeps it a secret right up until the attempt. Turns out it's Destiny.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant:
  • Mystique had previously been Ms. Marvel's nemesis. With Carol's series cancelled and Carol herself in limbo, Mystique becomes the X-Men's problem in this story and never looks back.
  • At this point, Henry Peter Gyrich had been best known to comics readers as a former government liaison to the Avengers whose Obstructive Bureaucrat tendencies and Fantastic Racism towards super-powered individuals led to the team briefly disbanding. The President placing him in charge of Project Wideawake in the epilogue would end up causing him to be more regarded as an X-Men adversary to the point that he wound up being the one behind the Sentinels in the 90's cartoon.
• Schizo Tech: An early shot in the future shows a bus being pulled across New York by horses, to show things have gone pretty horrible for everyone, not just the mutants.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The whole point of the story.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Played with. While in the original comic Magneto is killed when he agrees to stay behind because he'd only slow them down the 2014 novelization has both young Kitty save him and leaves it ambiguous on whether he died in his final attack on the Sentinels after regaining his powers.
• Straw Misogynist: Blob is initially averse to joining the Brotherhood under Mystique, scoffing that he won't take orders from a "broad".
• Storming the Castle: Averted. The future X-Men try to get into the secured headquarters of the Sentinels and defeat them... but it's a trap, and they're all slain one by one.
• The Straight and Arrow Path: Destiny uses a crossbow in the Brotherhood's attack. In fairness, she's an elderly lady with no other fighting powers.
• Stripped to the Bone: The infamous shot of Future Wolverine getting his flesh blasted off by one shot from a Sentinel, first as the cover for issue #142, and reproduced inside. He got better...eventually.
• Super Registration Act: This story is one of the very first depictions of a Super Registration Act in comics, which kicks off the Bad Future plot in earnest. The Mutant Registration Act depicted here is probably the most extreme form of one of these, with ordinary humans with the mutant gene being barred from having kids and mutants being rounded up into concentration camps.
• Symbolic Cast Fadeout: As shown by the page image, every big-name mutant at the time that wasn't Wolverine is either listed as slain or apprehended.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Storm twice moves to prevent Wolverine from using lethal force against the Brotherhood.
• Tonight, Someone Dies: Warned in the cover of the second issue: "This issue everybody dies!" And in the grand tradition of comics, this is technically true... ish.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Despite being saved by Kate, Kelly decides to back Project: Widewake, stating that if there were no mutants at all, his life wouldn't have been threatened in the first place.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Mystique manages to escape, free to plot again another day.
• We Have Reserves: Destroy one Sentinel, destroy a hundred, a thousand, it does not matter. Their number is overwhelming.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Barely visible on the famous cover is Havok labeled "Apprehended" like Kate, Colossus, Storm, and Magneto. Unlike them, Havok doesn't appear and is not mentioned in the story.
• You Shall Not Pass!: The X-Men do this to the Brotherhood when they try to kill Kelly.