“Days Of Future Past” Went From A Throwaway Story To Reshaping The X-Men Franchise
“Days of Future Past” started as a mere excuse for Uncanny X-Men artist John Byrne to draw some giant killer robots, and it ended up becoming one of the most influential comics ever made. Byrne wanted to do a story starring the Sentinels, but writer Chris Claremont said, “Nah, Sentinels are wimpy,” to which Byrne replied, “No, you write them wimpy.” To prove Claremont wrong, Byrne plotted a story about a possible future where the X-Men have all been murdered by the Sentinels, which were at least considerate enough to place their headstones in a neat sequential line for plot exposition purposes.
Only Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, and a few others are still alive in the far-out year of 2013, and by the end of the story, even the unkillable canucklehead gets turned into a metallic skeleton. Luckily, a familiar-looking telepathic mutant called Rachel manages to send Kitty’s mind back in time to prevent the assassination that convinces the U.S. government to pour its entire budget into mutant-killing devices. And so, this dark future is prevented … or is it? “Days of Future Past” was so popular that it spawned several grammar-defying sequels, including but not limited to “Days of Future Present” (1991), “Days of Future Tense” (1996), “Days of Future Now” (2005), and “Years of Future Now” (2015).
