 |
| The cover of the first issue of the DOFP arc. |
I've been an X-Men fan since I was a little kid. I believe it's one of the best Marvel superhero teams out there. Its messages of accepting everyone regardless of who they were struck me.
The comic book series has been adapted into cartoons, video games, and a series of movies. While the most recent X-Men: First Class was a step in the right direction, the series still held the stigma of the disaster that was X3: The Last Stand. This new movie, based on Days of Future Past, is a definite step in the right direction. Long story short, I loved the movie. Instead of a straight up review, however, I'll be doing something different.
Today I'll be talking a bit about the differences between the movie and the comic that bears its name, as well as my most remembered adaptation of the story: a two episode arc of the nineties TV series.
A warning: this post contains spoilers, so read at your own risk.
Days of Future Past is one of my favorite story arcs of the comic book series. It's a bit surprising that the actual story is only two issues long. The basic premise of the arc is: in a post apocalyptic future, the last remaining mutants are being hunted down by Sentinels. The future X-Men (or what's left of them) go back in time to try to prevent the assassination of a key government official. This assassination triggers a chain of events that leads to the eventual destruction of both mutant and humankind.
 |
| The animated series. |
I first encountered this story arc as presented as episode 11-12 in the first season of X-Men: the Animated Series. It's a very simple time travel story that manages to get its point across very well. I then managed to snag a copy of the original comic book story, which was printed in the heyday of X-Men, when Chris Claremont and others made some of the comic's best arcs, including the Dark Phoenix saga.
This recent film is directed by Bryan Singer of the first two X-Men films, and features the cast of both the First Class and original trilogy continuity. It met to positive critical and audience response, with many calling it the best in the movie franchise so far. It's a breath of fresh air compared to the previous films, including the Last Stand and the two Wolverine spinoff movies. Here's where the three movies differ.
The Future
The original comic story is set in the then future world of 2013, while the movie is set in the slightly farther future of 2023. The animated version is set in an even farther future, in the year 2055, where Wolverine is the only surviving X-man from that series' team.
The comic and the film discuss how society 'works' in this future: Sentinels have enforced a genetic caste system where not only mutants, but humans with genetic potential to give birth to mutants are regulated and enslaved. There's a lot of concentration camp imagery in both films which is understandably absent in the animated series.
Given the future time, there are still a number of original X-Men still alive in the film (Prof. X, Magneto, Wolvie, Shadowcat, Bishop, Colossus, Iceman, Blink, Sunspot, Warpath and Storm) and comic (Magneto, Colossus, Storm, Wolvie, Shadowcat, Rachel Summers, Reed Richards from the Fantastic Four and his son Franklin). The animated series has Wolverine and two unnamed mutants. The mutant Forge is also a member of the resistance, and of course there's Bishop.
The Traveler
In the comic books, it is Kitty Pryde who manages to make it back to the past, thanks to the powers of Rachel Summers (Phoenix, later Marvel Girl). This time travel has something to do with Rachel's psychic abilities, but it's never really explained. It helps that at this time she probably has access to the Phoenix Force that her mother had previously. Kitty's consciousness is the one that travels back to her younger self, as back in that day she was new to the X-Men.
In the film, Kitty Pride is the one who sends back Wolverine into the past. Her new powers are not explained but may have something to do with having to phase through time instead of just space? In the context of this series, Future Kitty isn't born yet, so sending someone like Wolverine back to his old self makes perfect sense. Like the comic, it is Wolverine's consciousness that gets sent back in time.
 |
| the film version's motley crew. |
The animated series is more straightforward. Forge has built a time machine that sends Bishop back in time. It was supposed to be Wolverine, but he is too weak to do it. As Bishop goes back into the past, he temporarily loses his memory and cannot recall what he was sent back in time to do... at first. Instead of just the consciousness, Bishop's body joins too. He is held back in time by a control bracelet thingy.
The Target and the Assassins (SPOILERS)
Senator Robert Kelly is the target in both the comics and the animated series. In the film series, Kelly was utilized differently in the previous movies of the trilogy, so he couldn't have been used. Instead, Bolivar Trask is used as the pivotal assassination figure that is crucial to the story. While Trask is still present in both comics and animated series, he takes a slightly different role, although he still is credited with making the Sentinels.
Mystique is a pivotal character in all three adaptations. She is the one who inflicts the killing blow in all three. In the film, she acts alone (but is inadvertently assisted by Magneto.) In the comic and animation, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants helps her, consisting of Pyro, Blob, Avalanche and (comic only) Destiny. In the animation, this is given an even bigger twist by making Apocalypse behind the assassination attempt, as the comic makes no such connection.
Thanks to the character development in First Class, Mystique becomes the holy spirit in the trinity of Magneto and Professor Xavier. This character dynamic improves the movie considerably and makes the whole thing a lot more fun to watch.
Also, in the comics, Mystique is part of the Department of Defense (!) and has no trouble infiltrating the compound. The film Mystique takes the guise of an assortment of characters, while the animated Mystique takes the form of Kelly's secretary and Gambit.
The Sentinels
The comic Sentinels and the animated Sentinels are pretty much the same. They're about as tall as a two or three storey building. The animated series adds the Nimrod type sentinels that are advanced Sentinel models. The film has the type X Sentinels with technology derived from Mystique's shapeshifting genetics.
The movie Sentinels are great and a bit rooted in reality. They are smaller than the Sentinels that we are used to and are given technologies just a little advanced for that age. The fact that there are computers with that level of advancement in the seventies is a bit of a stretch, but I'll take it. Remember, this was the time when any kind of advanced computer system would have been quite large.
The Resolution
The film molds the story into a character study between the relationship between Xavier and Magneto, and how their status as frenemies extends from the past to the far future. Also, the story takes the time travel opportunity to unravel and put into order all of the messy continuity problems of the previous X-films. This one aspect improves the movie immensely, as it also fixes the problems introduced by The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine and gives us proper closure for the Bryan Singer X Trilogy.
The Animated series ends on a rather down note, as, despite the actions in the past, Bishop returns to the future as if nothing had changed. Forge tells Bishop, however, that he can just try again. The events of this episode also lead into the finale for the first season, which pits the X-men against the Sentinel Master Mold. This future time will later be revisited by Cable and others in a second season arc of X-Men.
The comic ends on an ambiguous note. Later, other survivors from this timeline make their way onto the main Marvel Universe, notably Rachel Summers, who has her own little comic crossover arc called Days of Future Present.
No comments:
Post a Comment