Line #40 ComicBook/DaysOfFuturePast


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4	''Days of Future Past'' is a 1981 story arc in the Creator/MarvelComics series ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen'' (issues #141-142). It's scripted by Creator/ChrisClaremont and co-plotted with artist Creator/JohnByrne. Terry Austin inks Byrne's art, with Glynis Wein providing color art.
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6	Set in the shared Franchise/MarvelUniverse, this time-travel story was the first main story featuring ComicBook/KittyPryde.
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8	In the BadFuture of 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.
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10	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 teenaged 1980 version. 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. Can Kate convince the modern X-Men of the truth and SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong?
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12	In a franchise with many such BadFuture storylines, ''Days of Future Past'' was the original, and has since been copied and directly revisited many times.
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14	The seventh entry in the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'', ''[[Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast 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 "ComicBook/BattleOfTheAtom" crossover ''was'' released in 2013 to coincide with the original setting, and involves time traveling mutants who seek to stop an apocalyptic future. Creator/BryanSinger's [[Film/XMen1 first]] ''[[Film/XMenFilmSeries 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.
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16	''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' 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 [[AdaptedOut left out of this adaptation]], her role in the story is filled by Bishop.
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18	Marvel officially revisited the story in 2015 under the title "Years of Future Past" as part of the ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'' storyline.
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20	In 2023, a {{prequel}} limited series was released, ''ComicBook/XMenDaysOfFuturePastDoomsday'', depicting the AlternateTimeline's slide into the bleak future seen in the original arc.
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23	!!Tropes:
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25	%% PLEASE read Administrivia/ExampleIndentationInTropeLists
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27	* AmbiguousEnding:
28	** Pointed out inside the story.
29	--->'''Angel:''' Does that mean we changed the future?\
30	'''Xavier:''' I do not know, Warren. Cliché though it sounds, only time will tell.
31	** 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 AllForNothing.
32	* TheApunkalypse: 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.
33	* AsYouKnow: Franklin Richards uses these exact words when explaining to Magneto how the jammer works.
34	* BadFuture: 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.
35	* BewareTheNiceOnes: Future Colossus goes absolutely berserk when future Storm is killed and throws a Sentinel out of a building.
36	* TheBusCameBack: This storyline features Blob's first time taking on the X-Men since before the original team disbanded.
37	* ButterflyOfDoom: One slightly obnoxious senator being assassinated turns America into a dystopian nightmare where New York is a mass concentration camp / graveyard.
38	* DidYouActuallyBelieve: "Foolish Mutant! Did you actually believe you could reach our inner sanctum undetected?" Said by a Sentinel as it deep-fries Future Logan.
39	* DramaPreservingHandicap: 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 SpotTheImposter when Mystique impersonates Nightcrawler.
40	* DwindlingParty: The Future X-Men start off with seven people. Franklin's incinerated by a Sentinel pretty quick, and Magneto sacrificed himself to cover their initial escape shortly before 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.
41	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: 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.
42	* EmbarrassingNickname: Katherine Pryde (in the body of her teenager self, but with her adult mind from the future) does not like being called "Kitty". She's "Kate"!
43	* TheFaceless: On the poster of the "Slain" and the "Apprehended" from the famous and oft-referenced cover, three have both the faces and names blocked over by Kate and Wolverine and 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.[[/note]]
44	* FantasticCasteSystem: The BadFuture has one. Humans are on top, then people who ''might'' have mutant DNA, then mutants at the absolute bottom.
45	* FastballSpecial: Future Colossus and Wolverine attempt it twice. The first time, it's successful. The second time... [[StrippedToTheBone not so much]].
46	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
47	** Colossus and Kitty are married in the future, and their marriage ceased 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.
48	** Magneto in a concentration camp and an ally of the X-Men. The first hints of present day Magneto getting HiddenDepths wouldn't be for a few issues more.
49	** 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”.
50	** 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 the name of the woman who raised him. In the years to come, Kurt would be revealed to be Mystique's son.
51	** Adult Kitty being called Kate. In ''ComicBook/Marauders2019'', Kitty does decide to change her nickname to Kate.
52	* FutureBadass: 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 NaiveNewcomer 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.
53	* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: The first Trade Paperback of the story omitted the Epilogue.
54	* GodzillaThreshold: 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.
55	* GoneHorriblyRight:
56	** In the original timeline, the Brotherhood killed Kelly to make humans scared of mutants. And it worked. But fear did not make humans bow down in obedience, fear made humans cross the GodzillaThreshold to end the Mutant threat.
57	** 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 take over the government themselves and wipe out ''any'' super-powered people, mutant or not, as well as those who supported them.
58	* GraveMarkingScene: There's a lot in the concentration camp with the graves of many people dead years ago: Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm, Charles Xavier, Scott Summers, Steve Rogers, Kurt Wagner, Susan Richards, Reed Richards, Lorna Dane, Peter Parker, Henry [=McCoy=], etc.
59	* HeelFaceTurn: Magneto in the BadFuture. At this point, in the regular comics, he was not an anti-hero yet, he was still a full-time villain, but Claremont was busying sowing the seeds of his HeelFaceTurn.
60	* 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 the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. This wouldn't last.
61	* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: 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.
62	* HumbleGoal: Peter Rasputin, married with 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.
63	-->'''Katherine:''' That's a risk we have to take. What does the love of two people matter against the lives of billions?\
64	'''Peter:''' I am selfish. It matters to me.
65	* IWillOnlySlowYouDown: According to Wolverine, why the now-paraplegic Magneto stayed behind.
66	-->'''Wolverine:''' He knew what he was doin' when [[HeroicSacrifice he agreed to cover our escape.]] His wheelchair would've slowed us up too much.
67	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: A Sentinel shoots a huge metal spike through [[spoiler:the future Storm]].
68	* {{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.
69	* KilledOffScreen: Future Colossus' death is not shown, but Rachel senses it happening.
70	* MeanwhileInTheFuture: 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.
71	* MindProbe: The future Sentinels use encephalo beams (a favoured AgonyBeam 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.
72	* MutuallyAssuredDestruction: On the international level (merely mentioned): the USA and Europe are each holding the sword of Damocles over the other.
73	* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: 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.
74	* NoNameGiven: Rachel pointedly is never given a last name so that Claremont could reveal that she was Rachel Summers later on.
75	* NotWearingTights: Nobody does so in the bad future. The X-Men who were imprisoned wear jumpsuits, while Logan's wearing casual clothing.
76	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: 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).
77	* OutgrowingTheChildishName: Future Kitty Pryde no longer goes by that. She's "Kate".
78	* OutlivingOnesOffspring: It's mentioned Kate and Piotr had kids in the bad future... and outlived them.
79	* PretenderDiss: Blob is not impressed by the new line-up of X-Men, even mockingly claiming that he could them all out by himself at one point.
80	* PsychicBlockDefense: Mystique gets the drop on Xavier by using a device that produces a forcefield which prevents him from reading her mind. While he does sense the energy field, by that point Mystique is already close enough to use KnockoutGas on him.
81	* TheReveal: 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 [[spoiler: Destiny]].
82	* SchizoTech: 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.
83	* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: The whole point of the story.
84	* StrawMisogynist: Blob is initially averse to joining the Brotherhood under Mystique, scoffing that he won't take orders from a "broad".
85	* StormingTheCastle: Averted. The future X-Men try to get into the secured headquarters of the Sentinels and defeat them... [[spoiler: but it's a trap, and they're all slain one by one]].
86	* TheStraightAndArrowPath: Destiny uses a crossbow in the Brotherhood's attack. In fairness, she's an elderly lady with no other fighting powers.
87	* StrippedToTheBone: 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.
88	* SymbolicCastFadeout: As shown by the page image, every big name mutant at the time that wasn't Wolverine is either listed as slain or apprehended.
89	* ThouShaltNotKill: Storm twice moves to prevent Wolverine from using lethal force against the Brotherhood.
90	* TonightSomeoneDies: Warned in the cover of the second issue: "This issue everybody dies!" And in the grand tradition of comics, this is ''technically'' true... ish.
91	* UngratefulBastard: 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.
92	* VillainExitStageLeft: Mystique manages to escape, free to plot again another day.
93	* WeHaveReserves: Destroy one Sentinel, destroy a hundred, a thousand, it does not matter. Their number is overwhelming.
94	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: 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 story.
95	* YouShallNotPass: The X-Men do this to the Brotherhood, when they try to kill Kelly.

Context ComicBook / DaysOfFuturePast