Well, this is fun!
Seriously, why did no one tell me before how awesome and adorable Kitty Pryde was?
Or how hard-arse, grouchy, yet quippy, chatty, teasing, complex, and hunky Wolverine truly was? (All that hair and muscle - don't panic, guys, but I might have a crush on him, as I never had on Hugh Jackman). Wolvie/Logan was the original bad boy with a heart of gold.
Or how brilliant a fighter, leader, and hero Storm was?
Or how much of a not-arsehole Cyclops was, at least not always?
Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner is still sweet, if creepily intrusive. Speaking of, Professor X is VERY creepy. And kind of a dick.
The 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' trade paperback starts off with Cyclops/Scott Summers, at Jean Grey's funeral, recapping everything that had been going on with the X-Men before, up to 'The Dark Phoenix Saga', in abridged versions. Next the X-Men take a trip to Hell, as you do, if unwillingly, in homage to 'Dante's Inferno'. Next Wolverine goes back to Canada, with Nightcrawler tagging along, and together with the superhero team Alpha Flight they fight the Wendigo. Kitty and Storm/Ororo Monroe also spend time together as civilians. Next is the famous 'Days of Future Past' storyline, which is only two issues long, but still pretty great, with Kitty - specifically, Kate, her older self from a dystopian future, containing relevant social commentary - as the hero. Indeed there would be no story without the women - we also have Storm at her finest, in both the present and the future, as a respected team leader, and Mystique as the leader of the evil mutants in the present (one of whom is also a woman, Destiny, a precog), and Rachel as the telepath/telekinetic who sends Kate's mind into her past self's body in a desperate act to change their dark future, thus setting off the plot. Smart, clever, shocking, grim, and creative for Marvel comics at the time. And last but certainly not least is the issue which pays homage to 'Alien', where Kitty, alone in the X-Men's mansion at Christmas, faces off against a demon that will not stop until it has killed her. Bloodily and gruesomely.
'Alone, on Christmas Eve, Kitty Pryde underwent a rite of passage--
-- A supreme test of her abilities, her intellect, her courage, her... self.
She passed'.
Thank you, Chris Claremont, with your excessive narration and prose, that sums it up nicely!
Also, 'When you're alone, Kitty Pryde, no one can hear you scream!' But still she triumphs!
I've overly simplified these stories, but that's because I wish for others to read and discover them at their fullest and best for themselves. This 'X-Men' comic collection is feminist, especially for its time, and I get the idea that, as well as being about prejudice and how flawed (yet brilliant, stubborn, and hopeful) humans are, 'X-Men' is about how the good guys don't always win, or if they do, it isn't without heartbreaking sacrifices.
The X-Men are good teammates and friends, like a family, each containing their own individual, colourful personalities. These misfits, these outcasts who fight to save a world that hates and fears them, are worth rooting for.
I love that in 'The Uncanny X-Men' issue 'Rage!' (part of the Wendigo storyline), Storm refuses the advances of a street harasser. She gives him his own little rain cloud, leaving him wet as she walks off to join her female friends. It happens in one page, and the creep is never seen again - good! Storm actually says, "Why won't you take "No" for an answer?" How is it that in some respects this comic from as early as 1981 is more progressive than nowadays?
Not so great is the shipping of Kitty and Colossus/Peter Rasputin. She's thirteen in this comic, and I'm unsure of Colossus's age, but in his regular, non-steel form he is drawn like an adult. That is damn creepy.
'X-Men: Days of Future Past' - one of the reasons to read comics. Plentiful, palatable, colourful, over-the-top, superhero fun, with a dark edge which predates 'Watchmen'. Forget the awful film adaptation, which betrays, undermines and sidelines Kitty's character, and serves to put the spotlight entirely on Jackman's Wolverine YET AGAIN, by having him steal her rightful role. THIS is quality 'X-Men'. Quality entertainment.
Final Score: 4/5
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