THIS WEEK IN NERD

In which Ashley breaks down nerdier corners of pop culture.

Uncanny X-men issues #142 and #143 and a semi-review of the new movie, X-men: Days of Future Past

 

 

In issue #142 and the beginning of issue #143, the X-men catch the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants before they kill the anti-mutant Senators during a meeting at the Pentagon. To quickly recap, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants wants to establish a pro-mutant mentality by killing people, which isn’t very productive. The 1980’s X-men are thwarting the Brotherhood’s plans while the X-men of the year 2013 are being attacked by Sentinels while escaping a Sentinel-run anti-mutant internment camp. Okay.

 

While the 1980’s X-men are trading blows with the Brotherhood, Professor X quickly scans Kitty Pryde’s mind and confirms that her consciousness is indeed her future self. The future X-men are on their way to a rendezvous with the Canadian rebel group, but are planning on attacking the Sentinel headquarters at the Baxter building (former Fantastic Four hangout).

 

Past X-men end up defeating the Brotherhood, but end up losing Kitty Pryde and one of the main anti-mutant Senators. The Senator (Senator Kelly) is being held hostage by one of the Brotherhood members, but Kitty Pryde ends up saving the day. The future X-men make their way to the inner sanctum of the Sentinel HQ, only to be detected by the enemy. Storm and Wolverine die and Colossus goes super-psycho killer on the Sentinels, but it isn’t enough – he dies too. Only Rachel (the psychic) and the unconscious body of Kate Pryde are alive. After the past X-men save the day, Kitty Pryde’s conciousness returns to her past body.

 

A month has passed, and even though the X-men saved Senator Kelly’s life, the President establishes a top-secret group devoted to the research of robotic Sentinels.

Scary-ass Sentinel

 

Ultimately, the X-men never really accomplished what they were after – peace. Don’t be sad! This story actually takes place in an alternate timeline and was never really a part of the real storyline.

 

 

Magneto and Professor X

 

Now on to the movie adaptation of the Days of Future Past. After watching the trailer, I can just tell this movie going to be full of feels. I also noted a few key differences: Wolverine is going into the past instead of Kitty Pryde and Senator Kelly (he was the Senator that turned into the rubbery guy in the previous X-men movies) is replaced by Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) who is in fact the creator of the Sentinels. The cast looks phenomenal, but I think this is actually my hormones speaking, so we’re just going to chalk it up the actors being SUPER talented. Ahem.

 

Peter Dinklage as Bolivar Trask (Tyrion would hang his head in shame)

 

I will, however, be holding my breath until the movie comes out. There’s not a whole lot of comic book material to cover an almost three-hour movie without stretching some of the story, and I’m very interested to see how the ending will turn out. My guess is that Wolverine will wake up in the future and then cue the credits. What I find equally disturbing is that Quicksilver is on the cast list, but Scarlet Witch is not AND they cast a different actor as Quicksilver for the Avengers 2 movie. The one good thing is that this is one of the first major superhero movies to introduce time-travel and has a very unique opportunity to provide better insight to previously underrated characters, i.e. to right some wrongs and bring back some dead peeps, but they could equally use this to fuck-up the characters even more. I would expect an even bigger event for the next X-men movie because Days of Future Past includes so many cameos such as Bishop, Sunspot, and Blink. I also predict that the Team Mutant or Team Sentinel will become a “thing”, much like Team Edward or Team Jacob.

 

One thing is for sure: I’ll definitely be seeing this on opening weekend (May 23, 2014), like the ever-eager fan girl that I am. Go Team Mutant!

 

Later, nerds!-AK