Editor’s note: Last month, Paul Wandason reflected on time travel in the film, X-Men: Days of Future Past. This week, Dan Jury brings us his thoughts on the storyline from the original comic book issues that inspired the film, The Uncanny X-Men #141-142. Take it away, Dan…
The 80s were an interesting time. The 60s and 70s had taught us to think about expanding our minds (cue Jimi Hendrix music) while the cold war and the threat of nuclear annihilation were becoming something so normal that parents told their kids about it before they went to bed. Well, at least mine did… Anyway, it seemed natural that the X-men would explore the idea of a destroyed and dystopian future and writer Chris Claremont handled the dark subject matter in the best possible way. With time travel!
Days of Future Past. Even the name sounds intriguing. A story …about the future ….that’s already happened… Whaaaaat? My mind has already exploded. And I know, I could go on and on about the differences between the 1981 book and the 2014 movie but I won’t. Both are great and some of the choices made for the film were simple updates to the story or ways to bring the old gang back together from the first X-Men film trilogy. Plus, Ellen Page was just too young to plausibly travel back to the 70s and still be an X-man.
At the time and even until 2014, one of the major reasons this story was so shocking and dark, and I’m just going to come right out and say it, was that it was the only time we’d ever seen Wolverine die. It was a pretty big deal to many people at the time and sort of still is now. More on that later though. Lets start at the beginning!
Kitty Pride was new, she wasn’t particularly a major character in the X-men world (that I can remember) and so we were already intrigued when she took center stage and declared that she was going back in time. No Flux Capacitor or Hot Tub Time Machine either, just the power of our minds. That’s some 70s free thinking there!
We open on our dystopia of 2013 and fortysomething Kate (formerly Kitty Pryde) is on a secret mission to meet up with Wolverine to carry out the final planning step in a last ditch attempt to save the world. It seems that the Sentinals have either enslaved or killed all mutants (and superheroes), and an underground resistance made of a handful of former x-men and villains are all that is left. Among them are Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Magneto, Franklin Richards (Reed and Sue’s kid) and a Chris Claremont creation, Rachael Summers who is meant to be Cyclops and Jean Grey’s daughter. She possesses similar powers to her mother which is why she comes in handy, but more about that in a minute.
The future is bleak to put it mildly. Mutants and super people are being exterminated, humans with “mutant potential” are being sterilized while rare humans with no mutant DNA whatsoever are just forced to live in a super depressing bombed out society full of downer people which is probably the worst punishment of all.
When we begin, the wheels are in motion to send Kitty’s mind back in time to put a stop to this before it begins. What is “this”? Its the day that Senator Kelly is murdered or course! The day the world turned on mutants. I wonder, if the world were destroyed today, would we know the moment it all went to crap? I hope we could pinpoint it this clearly.
Anyway, Colossus is nervous about her going (because they’re married and he loves her and junk) but Kitty’s determined to make the trip. Nothing fancy, she just lays on a table while Rachael works her crazy mind powers and Kitty’s consciousness is transported to nineteen-freaking-eighty!
Lets also all keep in mind that meanwhile, her body remains in a sleeping state in 2013. I’m assuming time runs in real time in both time periods but the book isn’t super clear on this. Regardless, while Kitty is going back in time, someone needs to make sure her body stays safe. That’s where our last remaining X-men come in.
Here’s something that always interested me. 1980 Kitty is hanging out in the danger room with the X-men gang when suddenly 2013 Kitty is zapped into her brain. This 13-year old girl immediately turns to Wolverine and says “hey, I’m from the future”. And everyone just says “okay!” and then they move on. This is ballsy writing, but they pull it off. The worst part of any time travel story is always the convincing of someone that you’re really who you say you are. Marty did it with Doc (“I know how you bumped your head!”), Arnold T800 did it not so much with Sarah and John but had to do it with Dyson (“check owwt my robot aarm!”). If its done well, its quick but reasonable to the reader.
Disturbingly, its Wolverine who thinks that she must be telling the truth because she “smells different”. Hey Logan, try not to advertise the fact that you’ve been going around smelling little girls, okay? Its creepy and you should be ashamed of yourself.
Anyway, with Professor X in the picture there’s rarely any lying allowed so after they meet up with him, he’s quick to confirm she’s really from the future and we’re able to get past this minor detail and continue on to saving the world. The task is simple, head to Washington and stop the Brotherhood, led by Mystique, from killing Senator Kelly …and Professor X and Moira MacTaggert but they’re really just there for bonus points.
I’ll admit, the 1980s sections of the story are not the most interesting. We’ve seen it already and we know where everyone stands from every X-men comic that came out before it. The most compelling part of this story was always the future timeline for me, not the stuff in the past. Let me sum it up shortly so we can get on with the good stuff. Basically the Brotherhood makes a move on Kelly, the X-men are ready nearby to stop it and a super duper mutant rumble breaks out. Good? Good.
Meanwhile, back in 2013, the dying starts right away. First to go is Franklin with a laser beam to the body by a big bad Sentinal. Then, after some lightning bolts and a claw to the neural cortex, we’re good to go. On to the next location, the Baxter Building, former hangout of the Fantastic Four, and current Sentinal stronghold. Why pick THIS moment, while you’re protecting a sleeping time traveller, to stage a suicide attack on the bad guys’ base, you might ask? I have no idea. Seems irresponsible to me but then again I’m not really a risk taker.
Next to fall is Logan. Fastballed toward a Sentinal and then burned to a crisp until only a pile of adamantium bones are left to drop to the floor. This hit me hard when I was a kid and I think it hit a few other people too. It comes so quickly in just 2 short panels. Even now I have to turn the page back a few times to take it all in. As I said earlier, it was the first time anyone had ever witnessed the limits of Logan’s healing powers and it would be 33 years later until we would ever see Wolverine die again. SPOILER ALERT in case you haven’t read the super spoilery name-says-it-all “Death Of Wolverine” series.
Moving right along, Storm is next to bite the dust (harpoon through the chest) and Colossus off camera almost immediately after that. “He’s dead. So quickly.” Rachael says with her psychic ability delivering the news to her lips. She grips the still sleeping Kitty as she waits for the Sentinals to find her too. If Kitty dies here, her 1980 body will be returned to her younger self. And if she’s successful, the same.
This is where we leave our 2013 group, with more questions than answers. And this is the dark and traumatizing Days of Future Past that I love.
Back in “present day” 1980, the action is coming to a close. It looks like Senator Kelly will be alright and as expected 13-year old Kitty’s mind is back, but why? Have they changed the future or is 2013 Kitty simply dead in her own time and no longer able to be there? The film was less ambiguous unfortunately but don’t blame Hollywood. Audiences like clean resolutions and studios have tickets to sell and bills to pay.
A short epilogue tells us that perhaps it’s the latter. Sebastian Stan will now be working closely with Senator Kelly to make sure that neither his life or the nation is ever threatened by mutants again. Its time to build some freaking robots!
Its always interesting to gauge where a writer (and artist) views importance by how much real estate they allocate to various aspects of the story. For Claremont it seemed that the relationships were key to him. He spent time on a Colossus and Kitty goodbye as well as young Kitty’s anxiety and repulsion to Nightcrawler’s physical appearance, which seems kind of forced and weird nowadays. In contrast there was very little time taken to explain the time travel process or go into detail about the plan itself. Even major deaths were over and done with in 1 or 2 panels max.
This isn’t out of character either since X-men in general has always been less about the “how” and more about the “how do we feel?”. It is a relationship saga which focuses on humans and mutants who are different from each other, struggling to live and love together.
Although in recent years its been exploited simply as a tool to retcon past unwanted storylines, when used wisely, Time Travel as a plot device is a great way to explore humanity’s mistakes with the journey back in time signifying the ultimate way of saying “I’m sorry”.
Latest posts by Dan Jury (see all)