X-Men: Days of Future Past by Chris Claremont

Book 9 started, Book 8 finished

X-Men: Days of Future Past by Chris Claremont (Author), John Byrne (Illustrator)
Published by Marvel, 2012 (1980)

OK, a little back story.  I first read these in 1982 or 3.  My friend Marc had a full set of X-men going back to the original ones and may still have them.  I loved the alternate future as told in volumes 142 and 143 and this little story arc helped set the stage for years of storylines in the escalating paranoia over mutants and the fear of the different.

Throughout these stories are the introduction of Kitty Pryde to the X-men.  I forgot she was only 13 when she came to Xavier’s school.  I hated her at first and I hated her superhero name, Sprite.  Still feel mostly the same.  I like her much better when she grows up a bit.

# 138 – Elegy – This is Jean Grey’s funeral and Scott Summer’s narrative of her entire story as Marvel Girl, Phoenix and Dark Phoenix.  It’s a serious reminder of how the X-men used to think in a narrative form back in the day.

Annual #4 – Nightcrawler’s Inferno – The X-men go to Hell - Dante’s Inferno to be precise.  If memory serves, I read this not long after reading the inferno so I thought it was brilliant when I was 16.  Now, it’s enjoyable but a little light.

# 139 – Something Wicked This Way Comes! & #140 – Rage! – Wolverine and Nightcrawler help Alpha Flight fight a giant Yeti looking thing.

#141 – Days of Future Past – This is the classic X-men tale set in a dystopian future of last year, 2013.  North America is ruled by the Sentinels, our cities are in ruins, most mutants and other super beings are either dead or enslaved and the rest of the world is ready to declare nuclear war to stop the Sentinels from spreading out.  This is some wonderful stuff and the basis for this year’s new X-men movie.

#142 – Mind Out of Time – Kate Pryde is 46 and goes back in time to her teenage body to convince the X-men to help her prevent the death of Senator Robert Kelly at the hands of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (stupid name).  I wonder who all will die in the movie …..

#143 – Demon – Kitty Pryde runs from a thing that looks just like Alien on Christmas Eve.  Yawn.

5-stars for Futures Past.  3-stars for the rest.