X-Men: Days of Future Past

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #141-142, Annual #14

by Chris Claremont, Walter Simonson, Louise Simonson

For years, the X-Men have fought to avert a nightmarish future where robotic Sentinels herd mutants into camps...or kill them on sight. But no matter what they do, that future seems to loom ever closer. Now, all the classic tales featuring this dystopian alternate ti meline are collected in one oversized volume! Kate Pryde journeys desperately through time to prevent Senator Kelly's assassination! Franklin Richards flees to the present, pursued by the hound-master Ahab! And Excalibur ventures into the future in a last-ditch attempt to defeat the Senti nels! Plus prequels starring Wolverine and the Hulk! The future is now! COLLECTING: X-MEN (1963) 141; UNCANNY X-MEN(1981) 142; NEW MUTANTS ANNUAL 6; X-FACTOR ANNUAL 5; X-MEN ANNUAL 14; EXCALIBUR (1988) 52, 66-67; WOLVERINE: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST 1-3; MATERIAL FROM FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL 23, HULK: BROKEN WORLDS 2

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, X Men, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Fiction

285 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2014

About the author

Chris Claremont is a writer of American comic books, best known for his 16-year (1975-1991) stint on Uncanny X-Men, during which the series became one of the comic book industry's most successful properties.

Claremont has written many stories for other publishers including the Star Trek Debt of Honor graphic novel, his creator-owned Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and Aliens vs Predator for Dark Horse Comics. He also wrote a few issues of the series WildC.A.T.s (volume 1, issues #10-13) at Image Comics, which introduced his creator-owned character, Huntsman.

Outside of comics, Claremont co-wrote the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996), and Shadow Star (1999), with George Lucas. This trilogy continues the story of Elora Danan from the movie Willow. In the 1980s, he also wrote a science fiction trilogy about female starship pilot Nicole Shea, consisting of First Flight (1987), Grounded! (1991), and Sundowner (1994). Claremont was also a contributor to the Wild Cards anthology series.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Whew!
This is a Big-Boy graphic novel!
Of course, it is the Omnibus edition. Now, I'm sure there are easier ways to dip your toes into the Days of Future Past storyline, but (in preparation for the movie) I wanted the whole enchilada.
And I'm pretty sure I got it.

Apparently, this is a BIG DEAL in the X-Men universe. This tale spans several titles, and just when you think it's over (as in, years later), Marvel revives it again.
So for that reason alone, the omnibus edition is a good idea.

The original stuff was published in the early '80's (1981, I think), so it makes for some pretty tough reading.
I'm not trying to belittle it's overall importance in the Marvel universe, but you gotta admit it's pretty dry and crunchy by today's standards.

Basically, the future is crap. Mutants have been hunted to (almost) extinction, the majority of the original X-Men are dead, and humanity is being taken over by Sentinels-Gone-Wild.
In a last-ditch effort to save the world, Kitty Pryde's consciousness gets sent back in time to stop an assassination that (they believe) is the catalyst that sets their dystopian world in motion.
Does she succeed?!
Ehhhh. Sort of?
Hello, Omnibus!
Fast-forward to 1989 (again, I think) and you get hit with the Days of Future Present stories.
This was a pretty mixed bag. Mostly, because, not only are you dealing with more time-travely stuff, but you're also throwing the Fantastic Four into the mix in a BIG way.
Everything centers on the baby of the FF, Franklin Richards. Or, more accurately, an older version of Franklin.
Who should be reallreally dead.
But he's not.
In fact, he's not only not dead, but he's running around fucking up the time line in all kinds of weird ways.
Rachel Summers is another big player in this one. In case you don't know, she's Scott and Jean's daughter...from a future that may or may not happen...who got sent back in time (with the help of the same Kitty Pryde from DOFP) to save the world. In that timeline, Franklin Richards was her boyfriend.
Confused yet?
Good.

The FF, Excalibur, the X-men, X-Force, and the New Mutants band together and...do stuff.
I'm not going to claim to have a good grasp on what happened in this one, or even if I understood how any of it was resolved.
Seemed to me, it was just more Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey-stuff.
And you can't really fix anything in these kinds of stories, because someone else (presumably a bad guy) can just jump right back in and un-fix it again, right?

There's a couple of newer stories at the end that feature Wolverine and Jubilee, among others.
These were much easier to read!
Possibly, because they weren't originally drawn on cave walls?
So, I don't really know whether they were really any good, or if I was just so freakin' relieved not to have to slog through the old stuff anymore.
At the time, I thought the stories were like manna from heaven, but feel free to take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Was this worth reading?
Absolutely! I feel like I've climbed Everest!
Will I read it again?
Not a chance, Bub...

[JB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful art, a compelling story, a post apocalyptic setting. This and much more in one of the most classic of X-men tales.

The first part of the book, which is the actual Days of Future Past is my favorite. I really enjoyed the prequel miniseries. The miniseries revisits the dystopian world of the original Days of Future Past story. After that, this book offers a short story featuring Bruce Banner aka the Incredible Hulk in a beautiful little story in the same afwul world all the other stories in this book take place in.

This is one is for the X-men fans and for people who want to read a classic Marvel story. Chris Claremont and John Byrne at their best.

[Nate Meadows · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now THIS took me back! It's easy to forget how fresh this story was back then, but it's my earliest and clearest memory of a Marvel dystopian alternate timeline. It was so good in fact they have since beat that idea to death over and over again. To think the whole Days of Future Past storyline was only TWO ISSUES LONG and it is better than most of the 30 plus arcs they do now. Wish they would get back to solid standalone comics and didn't rely on crossovers so much. Claremont had a writing style that may irk some people, characters say and think everything that happens around them, sometimes stating the obvious, but he was good at plots. The Omnibus edition also comes with Days of Future Present, Excalibur: Days of Futures Yet To Come, Wolverine: DoFP prequel, and a short Hulk: Broken Worlds story. None of them match the original but Future Present and Excalibur are decent. Wolverine sucks and the Hulk story is actually pretty good but only a few pages long.

[Jon Boon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird. Other reviews seem to be for a different collection of stories.

Anyhow, the one I read is a pretty new collection, with the original story and subsequent tales riffing on the theme: Franklin Richards fleeing to the past, pursued by Ahab. Excalibur travelling to the future to attempt defeating the sentinels. Also 2 recent prequels of the 'future' time line of the original DoFP. A Hulk one shot. More substantially, an excellent Wolverine story that ties in nicely with the original DoFP.

Some of the middle stuff's a bit wobbly in comparison, but it's all beautifully presented here, with some interesting appendices of extra artwork and notes.

[Sharon Powers · Rating 4 out of 5]

THERE ARE 3 BOOKS THAT COVER THE X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST MATERIAL. THIS IS ONLY ONE OF THE THREE NECESSARY TO UNDERSTAND THE WHOLE STORY LINE (for my own personal reference to keep from getting them confused, because two of the titles are EXACTLY the same, the third is similar), this is the second book I review of the three:

THE BOOK: The issues in this X-Men hardbound book include: X-Men 141 (1963), Uncanny X-Men 142 (1981), New Mutants Annual 6, X-Factor Annual 5, X-Men Annual 14, Excalibur 52 and 66-67 (1988), Wolverine: Days of Future Past 1-3, Material From Fantastic Four Annual 23, and Hulk: Broken Worlds 2.

Even though the titles of these first two books are the same, their contents are different. When you compare the contents of this book with the first X-Men book, much of the Uncanny X-Men issues are eliminated. This book is dramatically different from the first book in that only Uncanny X-Men #141 and 142 are the same. All of the other collected issues in the large book cover other material, notably, about the Wolverine and Hulk.

Still, there are a few similarities between the two books: the two follow the same theme of the "mutant issue," that of hatred of what is different and factions with radically different views on how best to resolve the hatred of mutants. And, of course, the two issues of the Uncanny X-Men #'s 141-142 where Kitty (AKA, Kate) travels through time to stop the apocalypse; the two timelines are also virtually identical. Also, the sentinels, as tools of bigoted and evil men, and who work to do away with mutants, are ever present in all time lines.

Franklin Richards, son of Mr. Fantastic, develops the power to project dream selves to other locations and times. A good portion of the book deals with Franklin Richards (son of Mr. Fantastic, one of the original Fantastic Four and Sue Richards--invisible woman). Franklin, we soon learn, has developed the power to project "dream selves" wherever he wishes--needless to say, this causes confusion to other super mutants who know him as a little boy or the man he has already become.

Franklin's exploits continue as he runs from the "hound-master Ahab." Ahab, "...a mutant hunter sent from the future...is the Guardian [sent]...by the Master Sentinel to prevent any mutant time travelers from escaping into the past..." (p.83).

Now, Ahab sets after Franklin. This, undoubtedly is one tie-in to the time traveling theme which has only tan- gentially, thus far, been connected to Kitty/Kate trav- eling back in time. Remember that in the first book, Franklin is one of a handful of mutants left alive.

We get to see some of the disbanded, original X-Men who have reunited into a group that they call, X-Factor: Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Jean Grey and Iceman. They, too, get to tangle with Ahab and his "hounds," and even a couple of Sentinels as they help the other super mutants--and the search for Franklin continues. Then, with the sudden arrival of Banshee, Sunspot, Warlock, Boom-boom, Cannonball, Cable, Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman, we see that they have tracked down and possess the unconscious and much sought-after Franklin [Note: Sunspot is one of the "new" mutants who appears in the upcoming movie, X-Men: Days of Future Past.]. To prevent Ahab's continued assaults, the X-Men and company destroy the discovered "Tesseract Pocket...a small dimensional anomaly" where Ahab hid his machineries and army.

The groups of super mutants, in this book, are numerous and include the following: The Fantastic Four, The original X-Men, The New X-Men, Alpha Flight, X-Factor, Power Pack, and Excalibur (as well as a plethora of bad guys, the most important of whom belong to the "The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants:" Mystique, Destiny, Blob, Pyro and Avalanche.). In fact, it is Mystique's group that causes all the problems with the chain of events that triggers the Armageddon, as the group targets Senator Kelly for death, and battles with the Uncanny X-Men: Wolverine, Colossus, Storm, Angel, Night Crawler and Sprite (AKA: Kitty/Kate Pryde).

Complications of group dynamics occur when one member leaves a group and joins another. Or, morphs into another character and has different powers and a new name. Or, dies and is resurrected. Or, isn't really dead, but was just "lost." Or, isn't really dead, but just in a cocoon and the character we see was really just a clone. Or...well, you get it. A lot of variables occur to the individual members of the groups.

All the issues featuring these groups have great story lines, but what we are looking for, here, is the thread that ties them all together--the time traveling of Kate (Kitty) Pryde into the past, and the complications of alternate time lines and others who time travel (like Rachel who travels back to ascertain why the time travel for Kate didn't work to fix the problem.).

In addition to Franklin's involvement in the book that I spoke about, above, an awful lot of the book comprises story lines about Jean Grey (as Marvel Girl/Phoenix/Dark Phoenix/The Black Queen) [who marries Scott Summers/Cyclops and has a daughter: Rachel Summers who is also known as Rachel Grey (who inherits her mother's telepathic and telekinesis abilities, as well as her mother's code names: Phoenix and Marvel Girl).]; additionally, Rachel and her mother, Jean, have mother-daughter issues, and then there is an additional complication with Rachel's involvement with "Phoenix Force."

In the final pages of the book, we get a special three part series entitled, WOLVERINE: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST. In actuality, it is the PRELUDE to Days of Future Past storyline(s). (I would have placed it at the beginning of the book, not the end...oh, well. I'm not the publisher.) Anyway, in it we get to see what led to the main story in issues 141-142 of Uncanny X-Men: Days of Future Past. The trilogy also provides the explanation for why Logan goes to Canada and why Magneto is wheelchair bound by the time we get to the main story in the primary two issues (141-142). [I know I'm jumping the gun on this, but I really loved this three part series!]

In the three part story we get to see the Wolverine we all know and love, Jubilee (Jubilation Lee) [along with "Leech," and Everett Thomas, Code Name, "Synch"], Emma Frost, Madelyne Pryor (The Red Queen) [Note: In one alternate time line, Colossus was married to Madelyne Pryor with whom he had a child--the child's name?...Franklin, one of the last survivors in, Days of Future Past.], Shinobi Shaw (son of Sebastian Shaw), Lord Zemo, Magneto and Magneto's daughter, the Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximov).

These three issues portray for the reader, the "relocation camps" for mutants, the monstrous sentinels as they work their way through plans to annihilate all mutants (a "Cataclysm Engine" as a new and terrifying weapon against the mutants.), and the "Reborn Council of the Chosen." Finally, we get to see the dynamic interpersonal relationships that cause such trouble for hero and villain, alike: for example, Wolverine and Amiko, and Magneto and his "daughter" (Wanda Maximov, the Scarlet Witch).

Magneto convinces Wolverine to rescue his daughter from the sentinel headquarters, and all the hidden little secrets come to light in the effort to rescue one woman. In a dramatic conclusion, that woman, the Scarlet Witch, once released, utilizes her powers to destroy the "Cataclysm Engine."

(2) Book 2: X-Men: Days of Future Past: [Same title, different content--Yes, I reviewed another book with the same title, but it does, indeed, have different content.] The book, a hardback book, is durable, glossy, and just beautiful ...and it is much, much bigger than book 1. The one extra thing I LOVED about this book was the inclusion of a special three part series entitled, Wolverine: Days of Future Past, a prelude to the Days of Future Past story arc. A really great inclusion in the book!

I would buy this book again (even though it is not inexpensive at $28.96) and have no regrets. I give this book 4.5 stars out of 5-rounding off for my goodreads rating.

If you would like to see the graphic images I included in my blog post, you can see the whole review (with all three books, together) as well as information about new characters in the movie, X-Men: Days of Future Past. See it on my blog at Sharon's Love of Books: http://sharonsloveofbooks.blogspot.co...

[Chaitanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you thought X-Men: Days of Future Past (movie) was mind-boggling bury your head in the book, its an whole other Spaghetti pasta. I'm fairly positive I didn't understand more than half of the book & I'm even more certain I don't care.

This is by no means a bad book. It is actually quite engaging in the first part. I think it was written in 80s & the whole aspect of dystopian future in comics must have hit the nail. I really like that quite a bit. And then 2nd, 3rd, 4th..god knows how many more revivals.

Days of Future Present was a roller-coaster ride. There was time travel, Fantastic Four gets into the mix, baby Franklin & older Franklin, I still am not sure who's dead, maybe both versions. I don't know why he's totally messing up the timeline even when dead??
Oh yeah, and then there's Rachel who's like the Phoenix force embodied daughter of Scott & Jean from possible future and also, she's lover of Franklin (who btw, is son of Reed & Susie).
These folks travel together and we meet more X-Men, X-Force, Excalibur & X-Factor?maybe X-yz
And that Ahab guy was weird w/ hounds and all. I still don't know how he escaped the Sentinels. And any wrong can be corrected & any correct can be wronged? Meaning, villains bend something corrected by heroes and the other way round. If I think about it its like watching all Terminator movies together. There were actually time jumps in every other page (I'm thinking if there were in same page..hmm)

The end had couple of stories w/ Wolverine, Magneto teaming up and that was fun (mostly, because it was direct) & also a Hulk story which was weirdly cute.

It's still a good read and I totally understand the waves this work created in the X-Men universe. But, reading these many versions is like crawling in 6flags, Disneyland & Universal. And it took me around a month to finish it. Quite scary actually as I read comic books in a day or two.

X-Men fans go for it: 3.25/5!

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know exactly what I was expecting with this collection, but it wasn't what I found.

First of all I realized there was a different collection I had wanted to read - the one with all the ratings - and I don't know how these two volumes compare - so reviewing this one only for now.

First - it did include the original x-men story. But wow it reads old - the garish colors, the tired plot, the not especially good art.

And then there was the sequel plots - I mean I knew Rachel came from the future. And I subscribed to Excalibur and X-Factor and even Power Pack at one point - but I don't remember these stories. So Franklin Richards goes back in time kind of and causes accidental mayhem? I do wish these stories were better - but mostly they were lame-ish and again with art that I apparently no longer appreciate.

But there were snippets of good story in between - mostly involving the New Mutants.

And then we get the prequel - with the really bad Wolverine art but otherwise a more modern feeling story.

And then we end with the snippet of a Hulk story - which was just great.

So a mix bag that didn't end up feeling classic at all.

[Lance Grabmiller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Collects Uncanny X-Men #141-142 (January-February, 1981), X-Men Annual #14 (July 1990), Excalibur #52, 66-67 (July 1992 and June - July 1993), Wolverine: Days of Future Past #1-3 (December 1997 - February 1998) and material from Fantastic Four Annual #23, New Mutants Annual #6, X-Factor Annual #5 (all July 1990) and Hulk: Broken Worlds #2 (July 2009) as well as other miscellaneous stuff.

Kinda hard to figure out when to read this in the chronology of my collection, and so I decided to read it around the time all the annuals came out since they encompass the "Days of Future Present" story line that is the core of this book. Starts with the now classic "Days of Future Past" story from 1981 and then slowly moves downhill from there. The Days of Future Present stuff is still good, but the Excalibur stuff is a bit mixed and I hated the Wolverine material (primarily due to the silly art).

[Andres Castro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gran compendio de una de las historias más icónicas de los x-men, enfocado en Kitty pride, la hija de jean Grey y Scott Summer y Franklin Richards hijo de Reed y Su de los cuatro fantásticos tratando de cambiar el futuro dominado por los centinelas, el compendio inicia con la obra y luego agrega el poder de Franklin Richards alterando el universo principal de Marvel, me gustó mucho ver los cuatro fantásticos y la primera x force, si bien mi calificación fue baja por qué la historia es algo confusa y se requiere de mucha lectura de esta etapa antigua de los x men y Los cuatro fantásticos.

[Zach Benson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Talk about diminishing returns. This omnibus has the original Days of Future Past, Days of Future Present, and some other later sequels and tie ins. I essentially gave up after Days of Future Present, skimming the art (there was some Alan Davis Excalibur art in there). The original short Future Past story is light fun, simple and straight forward. It gets convulted and uneven with Future Present, but wrapping up with some great Art Adams art. It's downhill from there, terrible art (exception is the Alan Davis issue of Excalibur), incoherent story, mountains of meandering exposition.

[RumBelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Omnibus has a fantastic variety of graphic novels. Not only was the Days of Future Past collection there, but also stories about the Hulk, Wolverine and more. I liked this because of the variety of art displayed. Of all the stories here, and apart from the Days of Future Past story-line, which was why I read it, I enjoyed the Fantastic Four and Wolverine books the most. So many different stories made this a really interesting collection to read through.

[Sergeant Apone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man, talk about disappointing. There are many crossover stories that I could care less about in here. . I hate The Fantastic Four, and they show up much too often. Overall, even the original Days of Future Past story hasn't aged well. Back to the drawing board.

[Jamie Connolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monster of a story. I gotta say, for all the size and scope and difficulty keeping timelines in order, this book deserves 5 stars. But I gave it 4 stars.

[Hunter Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aside from the original stories, this is just cruft filter. The Wolverine story comes closest to being something. Opt for a smaller trade paperback.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s cool but it’s a lot.

[David Caldwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a huge collection. The collection includes Uncanny X-Men #141-142, X-Men Annual #14, Excalibur issues # 52 & 66-67, Wolverine: Days of Future Past #1-3, and material from Fantastic Four Annual #23, New Mutants Annual #6, X-Factor Annual #5, and Hulk:broken Worlds #2. With additional bonus materials, it clocks in at just under 400 pages.

From the reviews I have read, it seems to be a toss-up whether this has too much or too little left out of the collection. Let me also say, if you think you are going to be reading a graphic novel version of the movie, think again. The movie was based on the original story and while it is not bad by any means, it does change a lot of the details. One last little bit before my review. I started reading and collecting comics way back in 1979 and continued into the mid-90s before getting out for a variety of reasons.

The original 2 issue story was always one of my favorites. It introduced a lot of things that influenced the Marvel universe and it was a really good story. Any fan of the X-Men should read it. 'Nuff said.

So lets look at the rest of the stories included. The next batch focuses for the most part on two characters, Rachel Summers(Phoenix) and the adult Franklin Richards. Both have travel back through time from that dystopian future. The stories range from interesting but not really that important to very nice additions to the overall story. The artwork has a huge range of styles. In fact, it will be an easy guess to say that there will be something that everyone hates in it. Hopefully there will also be something that you really like as well since it covers almost every style of comic book art. (If you don't like comic book art, why would you read comic books?)I am still wondering why part 3 happened before part 2 in the second story arc.

The collection ends with a couple of stories that provide background information for the original story. One features a preliminary story from Wolverine's series and the other is a Hulk story set in the future. The Wolverine story is interesting and does tell how Magneto ends up in a wheelchair, but in the long run felt awkward. It seems hard to believe that supervillains would still be operating out of Sentinel controlled America. In fact, it brings the question of why the Sentinels were able to capture/kill so many super powered beings. The villains at least should have fled to North America at least. It could have set up a whole story line of the bad guys making a last stand after the heroes fell (and failed) there. (On a side note, why would anyone ever call themselves Evil Mutants? It would be like walking into a bank with a T-shirt saying "I am a bank robber" on it.) The Hulk story was a hidden gem for me. It is a rare feel-good story for the Hulk. The Hulk goes on a 'rampage' just to do a good deed.

For me, I think this was a comprehensive collection. Did it have too much? Could it have added more? Those answers are up to each reader to decide. For me, it was enough. Like I mentioned before, the artwork was all over the board for me. It ranged from horrible, overly-stylized and flat characters to gorgeous comic book artwork. To sum up, this was a nice blast from my comic book collecting days with a lot of things that I missed after I quit collecting(or from the time I was cutting back).

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The three star rating is for the book as a whole, which has the original Days of Future Past storyline, and several other stories inspired by this story. Days of Future Past when looked at in isolation is a 5 star story. This was Claremont and Byrne's last great story together, and features an X-Man from a dystopian future who travels back in time to prevent that particular future from ever happening. Although the story is told in only two issues, there are a lot of great moments that take place. The dark future is well thought out, and all of the characters get moments to shine. This two part story is easily among the most beloved X-Men stories.

As for the rest of the material, the quality is all over the place. The longest story is a four part storyline that features the return of Franklin Richards (or does it?) from the future. Although the fourth part of this story is quite good, the first three parts are mostly treading water. This story could have easily been condensed to maybe a two part story. Another story happens shortly before the future portrayed in Days of Future Past takes place. Not a terrible story, but it mostly exists to answer questions that were never really asked by Days of Future Past. There are some other odds and ends, including a reprinting of promotional and unused art, as well as art from collectible trading cards that were all the rage in the early '90s. The extras are nice to have, and it was great to see the covers from the various reprinting of this story over the years.

[Christopher E. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a completion purchase as it remains to the day of this review the only colour printing of the X-Men backup story in "Days of Future Present." Do not take this rating as an account of the original "Days of Future Past." It remains undoubtedly one of the greatest X-Men stories of all time. Unfortunately, this is one of the worst ways in which to own a copy as it's saddled with sequel stories of variable quality. "Days of Future Present" is awful and rushed, published out of order and with serious art hurdles. The last chapter improves with Chris Claremont and Art Adams taking over, but even it has a few missteps of its own. Scott Summers' and Sue Storm's respective laughable hound costumes, for example. The backup story in X-Men Annual 14 ends up being more meta than I'm sure editors would have liked as Wolverine tells off the main antagonist over how stupid his actions are. The Excalibur arc is good, but - like the original story - is best collected within a full creative run and the more-modern spinoff isn't worth much of your time. Grab "Days of Future Past" for sure. But without the baggage, or included with Claremont and John Byrne's brilliant work on "Uncanny."

[Douglas Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collected volume could easily have jettisoned over half of the issues it presented and been more enjoyable. The original two issue story from Uncanny X-Men is lovingly presented first. Next, a collection of four summer annuals were included that for the most part are highly unreadable due to lackluster storytelling and sequential art. Only the last issue is good, the other three issues' plot should have been summarized in a buffer page. An unnecessary issue of Excalibur follows which explains the Phoenix Force and again suffers from truly terrible art. Two classic issues of Excalibur are collected in which the British mutant team journey through time to the horrific DOFP future, and are a hidden gem in this volume! The book wraps up with the inclusion of a Wolverine miniseries set as a prequel to the original storyline. These three issues suffer from extra wordy dialogue and 1990's Marvel art style.
I loved the parts of this volume that were done with excellence, but the majority of this collection is dreck and should have either been summarized or excluded all together.

[Bob Fantastic · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an epic and beautifully put together collection. The title story is one of the best comic books in history. It is, however only 2 issues long. They are a perfect 2 issues and present a story that would shape marvel and the x-men through today. However there are 300 more pages to this collection and none of the rest reach that quality. The pages focused on the Fantastic 4 are the weakest section as they feel quite dated.
The Excalibur chapters are however fantastic even if they require some knowledge of some obscure marvel characters to get what's going on. The final more modern story focused on Wolverine and Jubilee was much better than I anticipated.
This collection of Days of the Future Past gives the perfect original story, then shows how that story shaped the marvel universe. It is worth reading but with some weak moments its price could dampen its appeal to all but the biggest fans.

All that said look for some great Dr Who and Star Wars references inside!

[Daniel Roman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this book 3 stars, not so much because of Days of Future past itself, but because of the actual edition of the book, and the way it was organized. The Days of Future Past arc (including DoFP, Days of Future Present, and the conclusion in Excalibur) was awesome. The fact that this particular binding of all these comics ended, however, with a relatively anti-climactic Hulk comic, as well as an arc for Wolverine after the DoFP story proper had ended, made it feel a little jumbled. There was also an issue in the midst of Days of Future Present centered around Wolverine and Jubilee, which, while cool, wasn't chronologically in order with the few other issues around it.

For that reason, 3 stars! DoFP is a super cool storyline all the way through, and there were some genuinely jaw dropping twists which caught me totally by surprise. This particular collection, however, could have been better with just a little more attention paid to the way the issues in it were organized.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book collects several different comic titles over 30 years of publication. This is necessary as the story of the Sentinels has been an occasionally featured theme across the Marvel universe. Seeing them all together allows a quick-view of this storyline and also shows how drawing styles and scripting have changed over the years. Unfortunately it also means the narrative is pretty confusing. As this was a featurette in various titles you have a constantly changing cast, each with their own backgrounds and sub-stories. The nature of the time-shifting story means you're not 100℅ clear on which parts of the DoFP story you're in until quite far into it. This collection is an interesting idea, but to fully understand it you would need to be a die-hard Marvel fan who probably read the original stories as they were released.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's really interesting to see how a two-issue idea became such a strong part of the Marvel universe where so many other things are mutable. The middle stories in the collection dealing with Franklin Richards and Rachel Summers are nicely done. They get a touch confusing, rightly so, without breaking the fourth wall and straying from the internal logic of comics. The Excalibur issues add another nice layer to the story as well. The last few issues in this collection are really bad though. They supposedly fill in some of the details of what happened in the future world before Kate Pryde's big move, but while the art is more modern, the dialogue is out of the Golden Age with uncharacteristic and uneccessary narration, not to mention a few confusing instances of jumbled grammar that turn the monologues into nonsense. Still the rest of the collection is great.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a meaty graphic novel that took me a long time to make it through. The original Days of Future Past story, the one the movie was ostensibly based on, is only two issues long. Marvel filled out the rest of the tome with related stories from throughout the Marvel Universe. As someone who was not a huge comic book fan growing up, it was difficult to follow all the mutant teams across the Marvel Universe. That being said, most of the stories hold up pretty well, and the final tale, a Hulk installment, is particularly touching. I wish Marvel had had the courage to center the movie around Kitty Pride, as the comic had done, but I suppose Hugh Jackman is just too much of a star to pass over.

[Sean Wicks · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the primary DAYS OF FUTURE PAST story and had this just been that, I would have given this 4 or 5 stars. Part of the problem is that the DAYS story-line is only covered in a 2 issue arc. However this book is packed with additional crossover issues that are not easy to follow - especially once it gets into the whole Franklin Richards/Rachel Summers plot. They didn't exactly lose me, but they did lose my interest quickly and I found it a chore to keep going (although I did because I was hoping somewhere along the line it would pick up again). It almost redeems itself near the end with a more recent "prequel" series.

So as a whole, I am forced to give this book a low rating. DAYS OF FUTURE PAST itself though is still great.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found myself, after then main original set of comics, flipping through the text and just looking at the art. And the art wasn't that great. Seriously, out of context this was trash. The big emotional hooks were for characters I didn't recognize (and who sometimes went entire issues without being named) or ones I knew of but didn't care about. I am honestly shocked that this is what is considered classic comics storytelling, and also reminded why even today I tend to mostly avoid the costume pervert books. It seems that any time I pick up a major even book from Marvel or DC it just makes me want to avoid Marvel and DC books for the most part.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a big lovely collection including the classic Claremont/Byrne story and a group of other stories of varying quality that were based on it, or inspired by it, or were some-which-way influenced by it. There's a very good Wolverine sequence, a four-part hot mess called "Days of Future Present," a nice Excalibur piece, and a Hulk story is included because... he's green, I guess? In any event, the two-part original leads off the book, nicely bold and glossy and sturdy, with the words "Stan Lee Presents" above the title, just as God intended. It's one of the all-time great graphic stories, and is the yardstick against which the film should be measured. 'nuff said.

[Lil Old Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

First set of stories was great! You get to see the origins of the days of future past concept and it was easy to sit back and enjoy the story.

Big chunk of the middle, though, I was pretty lost. I'm just a casual comic book lover, you see, and these series just assumed I knew everything about everything and just jumped right in and I was lost lost lost.

Ended strong, though, with the Wolverine stuff. Things were explained along the way, and the drawing style and story-telling style was much easier for me to digest.

I assume this is an excellent collection of stories of you are a X-Men buff. If not, be prepared for a bit of a slog through it.

[Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The original story is fine enough but I just couldn't make it through the rest of the collection. The writing is bad enough at times but the style - dense text, terrible costumes and hair and that horrible way they had of drawing comics in the 80s. Everything feels very static and unnatural.

It's a big collection but you have to be a big X-Men fan to get through it all and having little personal connection to the X-Men world I just couldn't do it. Plus, for such an influential and famous story it's a little underwhelming. Hmmm.

For the fans.

[Chuckie Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always like revisiting Days of Future Past because it was really the birth of time travel and new era with the X-men. Even though it's such a short tale, it manages to be extremely epic. This hardcover edition was nice cause it included the FF, Xfactor, and new mutants crossover, which is a really nice continuation of the DOGP storyline, where we get to learn more about Franklin Reed and Racheal Summers and their importance to the future.