This is the first issue of The Mighty World of Marvel, volume two, a MarvelUK monthly from June 1983. Its first volume had started of as a weekly comic in Britain, reprinting the adventures of the Hulk, Spider-man and the Fantastic Four on the 7th of October 1972. The line up of strips had changed many times, but always under the bold title "The Mighty World of Marvel" with different heroes sharing the lead with the Hulk, until the 24th of January 1979 ,under the editorial control of Dez Skinn, issue 330 became simply Marvel Comic. 22 weeks later it became a monthly magazine now called Marvel SuperHeroes, issue 353 cover dated September 1979. Sales held together quite well for many years with the Avengers reprints being the strong lead strip. Captain Britain returned to MarvelUK in this magazine and towards its end its line up was the strongest ever with The Avengers, X-Men black & white reprints and Night Raven text stories written by Alan Moore. But in May 1983 issue 397 was to be the last.
The title was rebranded "The Mighty World of Marvel" number 1, second series, with cardboard covers and full colour strips. These suffered at the time from printing problems, as did the weekly comics from MarvelUK, where the colour layers didn't match up to the artwork. Making what looked like a poorly rendered 3D effect. This was later rectified. Bernie Jaye, the then editor of MarvelUK monthly range, had a brilliant idrea. She took the very popular X-Men from the cancelled Marvel SuperHeroes, as a lead story. With the second story she would print a hard to find, in Britain at least, limited series from America. Starting first with "Vision and Scarlet Witch". The "Wolverine" limited series would follow, then "Cloak & Dagger", "X-Men/Micronauts" and "Magik" limited series. In her eyes the best of both worlds, ideal for the casual reader and hard collector who didn't live near a specialist comic shop. Captain Britain by Alan Moore/Alan Davis replaced the X-Men when "The DareDevils" merged with MWOM in issue 8. It must have been thought that readers of the X-Men would already be buying the American original version.
The classic X-Men tale "Days of Future Past" headlined the first issue. The story set in 1980 & 2010 in the original American series is a beautifully crafted comic strip by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, from their final year working together. Their ideas and visions would send shocks outwards to many future stories and become the latest X-Men film storyline. The dates would be changed to 1983 and 2013 in the British magazine, to update the story to the cover date. Although there where many instances where the original date was not changed causing a little confusion. This brings me to why I'm reviewing this story now, I have since October 2002 been rereading all my MarvelUK collection in order, with early MWOM weekly issues up to this monthly from 1983 and all titles in-between. Creating a comic time slip of thirty years. It's been great to see the differance in styles between then and now. This story kind of celebrates this task. A fitting story that highlights my childhood and adulthood.
The set up was this, in the future, Sentinals run America. Splitting the population into three groups; H, humans allowed to bred; A, anamolous humans; M, mutants, hunted down, killed or interned in prison camps. The adult Kate Pride rendezvous with Wolverine, who now works for the Canadian Resistance Army, after a run in with thugs called Rogues. Logan is part of a plan to stop the Sentinal from extending their power base to beyond Americas borders. Kate returns to a concentration camp with medical supplies and a hidden "jammer". Most superheroes are dead, with only a few X-Men surviving ,(Kate Pride, Storm, Colossus, Franklin Richards & a mysterious young girl called Rachel) lead by their old enemy Magneto. As well as stopping the Sentinals in the future, part of the plan was to send Kate's psyche to 1980 to stop the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly by Mystiques newly formed Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, which they believe to have ignited the mutant paranoia that lead to a Mutant Control Act in 1984 and a Sentinal program.
X-Men in past fought the Brotherhood, while the future X-Men take on the Sentinals as they attempt to destroy the ruthless robots primary base, the Baxter Building. Franklin is murdered by an attacking Sentinal. The X-Men fall and die one by one in the old headquarters of the Fantastic Four, failing to end the robotic giants schemes, leaving an unconscious Kate in the arms of Rachel, with a very bleak future. In the past the X-Men have better luck, defeating the Brotherhood as Kate Pride, in the young teenage body of Katie Pride creates a temporal anomaly, stopping the procog Destiny from killing the Senitor.
Claremonts intricate plot leave many questions to be answered. His characters with their individual moral stands are crafted beautifully, giving depth to the young and older selfs. Magneto could have lead the 1980 Brotherhood, but it works so much better that he doesn't. Allowing the reader to see how important the changes are in the future. In future X-Men tales this possible timeline would be drawn again with changes. Magneto would, for a time, join the X-Men, Rachel would re-appear, turning out to be the daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey. Yes try and work that one out! John Byrne draws a grim future and a brighter, atleast on the surface, past. He marked the images of the young and older X-Men wonderfully. This classic tale is a perfect master class of a comic book.
The very last page just tops it all off. An epilogue of epic proportions. Senitor Kelly meets the President of the United States to discuse the mutant problem with Sabastian Shaw, even though he himself is secretly a mutant, who's Shaw Industries will design and build new Sentinal robots to stop the mutant menace, The President introduces the man to head this covert opperation, under the code-name of "Project Wideawake" as Henry Peter Gyrich. With five shadow lit panels Claremont and Byrne shape the future of the Marvel universe. Simply perfect.
