When it comes to iconic stories, they don’t come much bigger than X-Men‘s Days of Future Past. The 1981 story depicts a dark future where humanity’s persecution of mutants leads to genocide, with Kitty Pryde traveling back to the present to avoid this dystopian outcome.
Now, Marvel is retconning Days of Future Past in a big, explosive way, explicitly rewriting perhaps the most iconic X-Men story of all time with some major consequences…
Marvel Just Retconned the Iconic X-Men: Days of Future Past
In today’s Battleworld #5 – from Christos Gage, Marcus To, Rachelle Rosenberg and Travis Lanham – the assembled heroes finally manage to win over godlike villain Korvac, convincing him to do something better with his powers. At the conclusion of the comic, Korvac travels to the universe of Days of Future Past, permanently changing the outcome of the story.
Korvac specifically appears midway through the events of Uncanny X-Men #142, preventing the canon deaths of Wolverine and Storm in this timeline by destroying the Sentinel which – in the original story – acted as a trap for the freedom fighters.
The comic’s backmatter clarifies that Korvac’s intervention has created a new reality, codenamed Earth-813, in which the X-Men’s fight for freedom was interrupted by the former villain joining their side. Korvac has near total control over reality, implying the dark ending of this alternate world just got flipped on its head.
Our Take on X-Men’s Bold New Universe
For decades, Days of Future Past has been the dark threat hanging over X-Men comics – the outcome they’re fighting to prevent. Now, it’s spinning off into a diametrically opposed ending.
Indeed, writer Christos Gage muses, “Oh Korvac… do you always learn the wrong lesson? Signs point to yes.” This suggests that Korvac hasn’t ‘saved’ the X-Men of Earth-813, but rather kicked off a new dystopia that fans are likely to see soon.
Days of Future Past is one of the pillars of X-Men lore, but now the story ends in a truly divergent way – with an omnipotent antihero from another dimension suddenly appearing and putting the mutants back on top. Look out for a dedicated follow-up series soon, as it’s likely Marvel has big plans for how Battleworld just rewrote the ending of X-Men‘s Days of Future Past.
Battleworld #5 is available now from Marvel Comics.
