History Comicbook / DaysOfFuturePast

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Future Colossus goes absolutely berserk when [[spoiler:future Storm is killed]] and throws a Sentinel out of a building.

* DwindlingParty: The Future X-Men start off with seven people. Franklin's incinerated by a Sentinel pretty quick, Magneto sacrifices himself shortly thereafter. Wolverine is incinerated by a Sentinel with contemptuous ease. Storm's shot through the chest, and Colossus dies shortly thereafter. At story's end, only Rachel and Kate are left alive.

* LukeIAmYourFather: Mystique and Nightcrawler finally meet. Raven reveals she knows Kurt's identity and she hints at a relationship of some kind between the two, but stops short of outright revealing she's his mother.

* HiredByTheOppressor: An alternate future was created in which the anti-mutant robot Sentinels took over the United States and killed or captured most of the superpowered mutants living there. One mutant, Rachel Summers, was turned into a "hound". The Sentinels use her psionic abilities to hunt down other mutants.

* HopeSpot: 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 Congress as unconstitutional. This wouldn't last.

* TheFaceless: On the poster of the "Slain" and the "Apprehended" from the famous and oft-referenced cover, three are blocked over by Kate and Wolverine and can't be identified.[[note]]Speculations: 1) the picture behind Kate, labeled "Slain", has a pointed headdress and curly hair, likely making it the Scarlet Witch; 2) the one between that and Magneto's picture, blocked by Wolverine with only a spiked tuft of hair visible, is most likely Quicksilver; 3) 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.[[/note]]

* TheFaceless: On the poster of the "Slain" and the "Apprehended" from the famous and oft-referenced cover, three are blocked over by Kate and Wolverine and not identified.

-->'''Angel:''' Does that mean we changed the future?\\

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: 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 congress as unconstitutional.

%%* TerminatorTwosome: Some years later, Rachel Summers moved to the past as well, trying to escape from that horrible future... and the hyper-advanced sentinel Nimrod followed her, to make it happen as it was meant to.

* HomageShot: The cover art for #141, with its wall of wanted posters (mostly marked 'slain' or 'apprehended') is rather famous and recognizable, and has been homaged by numerous other comic book lines (including both ''Franchise/StarWars'' and ''Franchise/StarTrek''), particularly when a BadFuture story is being told.

''Days of Future Past'' is a 1981 ''ComicBook/XMen'' storyline (published in ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen'' #141 and #142, following on from the ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga''), by Creator/ChrisClaremont and Creator/JohnByrne. This time-travel story was the first main story featuring ComicBook/KittyPryde.

The story, written in 1980 and first published in early 1981, was set in 2013. The United States [[OppressiveStatesOfAmerica 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 blast the US as soon as the Sentinels attempt to go outside America.

The story, written in 1980 and first published in early 1981, was set in 2013. The United States [[OppressiveStatesOfAmerica is a dystopia]], and people are divided into three groups: normal humans, normal 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 blast the US 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), Rachel (not given a surname here, but later revealed to be the daughter of Cyclops and Jean Grey) 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 teenaged 1980 version. She tells the others that, on that day, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants would kill the US senator Robert Kelly, along with Charles Xavier and Moira [=MacTaggert=], which will lead to the anti-mutant hysteria.

MeanwhileInTheFuture, the X-Men escape from the concentration camp, but leave Magneto behind to cover their escape. Franklin dies during the next Sentinel attack. Ororo, Peter, and Logan sneak into the Sentinel headquarters, the Baxter Building (the former base of the FF), realizing too late that the Sentinels allowed them to do so to capture and kill them. Wolverine, Storm and Colossus die, while Rachel remains outside, protecting the unconscious Katherine Pryde.

In the present, the Brotherhood breaks into the Congress during a hearing on the "Mutant problem," but the X-Men turn up and fight it out, eventually defeating most of the Brotherhood, while Mystique escapes. Destiny, who left the fight earlier, attempts to kill Kelly, only for Pryde to save him at the last moment. Moments after she saves him, her adult mind returns to the future, restoring her teenaged identity.

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: It's mentioned Kate and Piotr had kids in the bad future... and outlived them. ''Days of Future Past: Doomsday'' reveals that they had a son named Charles (aka Sprite) and a daughter named Jean (Goliath), who inherited the powers of their mother and father, respectively. It also shows how they died: [[spoiler: though they were strong enough and capable enough to take down a Sentinel together, said Sentinel used its last energy to kill them both, right in front of their parents]].

In July 2023, a prequel mini-series was released called ''Days of Future Past: Doomsday'', which depicts how things happened.

!!Tropes in ''Doomsday'':
* DeathByCameo:
** Many just in Issue #1 to start:
*** Kate and Peter's children who were unnamed and TheGhost in the original, are named and appear just to show their deaths.
*** Cyclops, Angel, and Banshee, who were only photos labeled "Slain" on the famous cover and then names on tombstones, each have their deaths shown ''graphically''.
*** While the deaths listed previously were all vicious, at least they were all relatively quick. Spider-Man's was slow and brutal.
*** Phoenix was never even mentioned in the original as she died in ''The Dark Phoenix Saga'' and it was meant to be permanent then. Her presence in ''Future Past'' references her ''[[MythologyGag What If...?]]'' survival and death.
*** After ''Phoenix Saga'', Mastermind wouldn't appear in canon again until [[ComicBook/FromTheAshes 1983]]. His presence and death here connects with Phoenix's described previously and below.
* EyeScream: The radiation from the nuclear blast [[spoiler: that killed Phoenix/Jean-Grey(?) also destroyed Cyclops']] eyes which then had to be surgically removed, leaving him with empty sockets.
* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: [[spoiler: Angel]] gets ripped in two by a Sentinel.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler: A Sentinel seizes and throws Cyclops onto a huge spike.]]
* MythologyGag:
** ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' describes Phoenix surviving instead of dying on the moon, [[spoiler: then later she and Mastermind are killed by a nuclear bomb which also destroyed Pittsburgh, all of which happens here.]]
** ''Days of Future Past'' role-playing games describe the mutants allying with Nick Fury and SHIELD to attempt at forming a resistance movement against the Sentinels, which is hinted at in Issue #1.
** The original mentions Kate and Piotr had children but outlived them, with nothing else told about them. ''[[ComicBook/SecretWars2015 Years of Future Past (Secret Wars)]]'' in 2015 featured them being a son and daughter, which is what they are here.

** The original mentions Kate and Piotr had children but outlived them, with nothing else told about them. ''[[ComicBook/SecretWars2015 Years of Future Past (Secret Wars)]]'' in 2015 featured them as a son and daughter, and who each inherited the powers of their mother and father respectively, which is how they are shown here (but differently named).