Days of Future Tense

 America, it's 2013: do you know how old your comics are? Yes, here we are already, in the second decade of the 21st century, the era of mutant internment camps and giant robots. It's an unbelievable thirty-two years since this legendary storyline sealed the reputation of Claremont and Byrne's X-Men as one of the most influential and beloved titles of the 80s.

Not only is this much-referenced two-parter set to be the inspiration for the next X-Men movie blockbuster, it is echoed by the new hit title by Brian Bendis, whose work on the Avengers franchise was the subject of recent posts on Place. So how are the merry mutants faring in the ominous future world of 2013?

 In All-New X-Men, the original ( or "First" ) class travel into their own future to discover how sour Xavier's dream has become. Professor X is dead ( again) and Cyclops is a mutant terrorist on the side of Magneto and Emma Frost. To be honest, this title didn't grab me and with the economically punishing frequency of its publication, I didn't bother to continue with it. Stuart Immonen draws it all very prettily and Bendis captures the charm of the original team but I just don't see how the concept can have any longevity. Marvel have previously produced charming and funny X-Men First Class series; another one of those wouldn't have gone amiss.

 I got more enjoyment out of the fourth issue of The First X-Men, the continuity implant by Christos Gage and Neal Adams. Two of my S3 boys were scoffing at Adams' portrayal of Wolverine whereas I wish some of the supporting cast had been fleshed out beyond their intriguing designs. But I get an atavistic thrill seeing Adams draw Sentinels again:

The grotesque mutant Virus owes a lot to The Twilight Zone, Spider-Man's Mindworm  and Kirby's Kreations, like Modok or the Misfit. The storyline is rather predicable, however. I expect Magneto will swing by at the end to help Xavier thwart Virus and the Sentinels. Poor Holo will doubtlessly meet a tragic fate, setting an out-of-character Sabretooth on a path of piracy and murder.

 For my money, Wolverine and the X-Men remains the most entertaining comic within the franchise. With its amusing conceit of Wolverine-as-headmaster, the title has deftly referenced many of the most popular tropes in the concept's long, long history- from the Hellfire Club, Wendigos and Living Islands to murder mysteries, space opera and boarding school stories. 
At present, it's echoing the earliest Lee-Kirby issues with Frankenstein's Murder Circus. The carnival freak show that was once a haven for the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants also shelters the witch Calcabrina- an heir to all those Claremont stories about Margali and Jimaine Szardos, about Illyana Rasputin and Storm's magical heritage. Furthermore, the comic also features four of the six X-Men from the corner box of issue 141 above.

Writer Jason Aaron is also unafraid to poke fun at the Marvel Universe as a counterpoint to the dark and often violent characters in this blackly witty comic.In issue 19, various candidates are interviewed for teaching posts:  Blade, the Son of Satan, Ghost Rider and Werewolf by Night all have comedy cameos. Delightful though it is to see some of the Goth superstars of the 90s being mocked, I winced a little at the Alpha Flight jibes, particularly Puck's " I can do somersaults really fast! Stand back!" Byrne's Canadian non-team was one of my favourites in the early 80s, for all that it prefigured the grim and gritty movement that still plagues the humourless, po-faced New 52.  I think Aaron would be well-suited to reviving the moribund Legion of Super Heroes - but more on that another time.

I will be trying Paul Cornell and Alan Davis's take on Wolverine in the spring. I'm sure it will have the same respect for Claremont's work that Aaron demonstrates. I just think it's a pity that there isn't an all-ages X-Men title in the marketplace.

Coming soon: the LSH; the Fifth Doctor vs. Pazuzu; and Justyce is served.

All images are presume copyright of their respective owners