The year was 1979 (although the cover says 1980.) At this time The X-Men was still a struggling book for Marvel and most readers breezed by the multi-layered stories of Chris Claremont and John Byrne in favor of what ever Spider-Man was doing.
I myself was hooked the addictive pencils of John Byrne and further seduced by the pen strokes of Terry Austin. In my opinion the greatest artistic tag team ever. If I was hooked on the art of the X-Men , I was in absolute love with Claremont's writing. Though like my fellow X-Men readers, I was still in shock from the death of Jean Gray/Phoenix.
With out being psychic you could tell that The Dark Phoenix saga had been to these guys what Off The Wall had been to Michael Jackson. The DPS was about the best anyone could do or ever hope to. Still Claremont, Byrne and Austin followed up with 3 scary tales that were memorable and one of the best Wendigo stories...
Little did any of us readers suspect that Claremont, Byrne and Austin would give us the comics equivalent of a Michael Jackson Thriller. A masterpiece that would eclipse even their previous best. That story line that would make Phoenix a distant second best storyline was THE DAYS OF FUTURE PAST!
Out of no where Claremont shoves the Marvel Universe ahead 30 years into a dark , bleak world where heroes and villians alike have finally been killed or captured by the mutant hunting sentinels.
The images of Byrne's super heroes and villains with x's drawn over them almost looks comical. I remember saying to myself "Yeah right. They killed Reed Richards, The Thing , Spider-Man and The Hulk?" But later in the same book as Kitty passes the graves of all these slain heroes, it hits home that these few remaining X-men are on their own. As a reader you also felt cut off from the Marvel Universe and you wonder how and if this night mare will end?
It ends...beautifully and is one of the best stories every told.
Someone please tell all these hot shot Marvel guys who come up with these summer block buster story arcs that great stories really can be told in two or three issues. Try a good two issue story arc sometimes.
From the cover which is a comics classic now to the story itself...this 2 issue non-event has inspired hundreds of other comic book stories and covers.
X-Men 141 and 142 still stand...as maybe the best X-men story ever told, one of the best Wolverine stories ever rendered, and of Just 2 of The Best Comic Books Ever!
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