Another classic that somehow slipped my mind, the Claremont/Byrne/Austin "Days of Future Past" storyline in X-MEN 141-142.
A 1984-esque future, where the Sentinel robots had taken over North America, and the remaining nations were about to launch a nuclear war to prevent them from taking the rest.
Published in 1980, about an impossible far away future set in 2013. Now a year in the past!
I'm glad the Claremont/Byrne/Austin team stayed together long enough to give us this and several other stories. The two-part rematch with Alpha Flight in X-MEN 139-140, this "Future Past" two-parter in 141-142, and the final story with Kitty Pride's Christmas battle with an alien in issue 143.
The sentinel-dominated dark future was interesting, as was the killing off of virtually all of the Marvel heroes, and the time-travel aspect. I loved after Jean Grey was killed off in the "Dark Phoenix" storyline (where she was actually planned by Claremont/Byrne to live, and have a daughter, until Jim Shooter editorially ruled that she had to be killed, changing the ending of X-MEN 137).
And it took awhile for Claremont to adjust to the altered ending and resolve his former longterm planning for the series. Claremont originally planned to have Scott Summers and Jean Grey have a daughter over the next year, Rachel, who would become a major character. To adjust to Jean Grey dying, Claremont in later issues has their eliminated daughter Rachel "time-slip sideways" from a parallel Earth into Marvel continuity, from an alternate future, to bring her back!
X-MEN 141-142 complete story online at:
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Uncanny-X-Men-1963/Issue-141?id=22820
