The X-Men celebrate 60 years by returning to Days of Future Past

'Days of Future Past' is one of the most highly regarded, most well-known X-Men stories of all time, and now, for the 60th anniversary of the mutant team's 1963 debut, Marvel Comics is revisiting the future timeline of the classic tale to fill in some of the blanks of the story with a four-issue limited series titled X-Men: Days of Future Past - Doomsday.

Originally told in just two issues, 1981's Uncanny X-Men #141 and #142, 'Days of Future Past' focuses on a future where mutants have been hunted nearly to extinction, with Kitty Pryde going back in time to attempt to prevent her own reality from coming to be.

For X-Men: Days of Future Past - Doomsday, veteran X-Men writer Mark Guggenheim and artist Manuel García will return to that future world to expand on the story told in 'Days of Future' past by exploring the fates of many X-Men characters who weren't seen in the original story.

“Growing up, I never thought I’d get the chance to write the X-Men as many times as I have. I particularly never thought I’d be able to play around in the amazing timeline that Chris Claremont and John Byrne brought to life in Days of Future Past,” Guggenheim states in Marvel's announcement. "I still have the most vivid memory of visiting the stationery store where I used to buy my comics and seeing Uncanny X-Men #141 on the rack. That iconic cover blew my nine year-old mind."

"My goal with this story is to fill in some missing gaps in the thirty-year period that Kate Pryde summarized in just four panels back in the day," Guggenheim concludes. "Prior familiarity with the original story won’t be required. The end result is an event that feels like the X-Men story to end all X-Men stories. At least, that’s the bullseye we’re aiming at!"

X-Men: Days of Future Past - Doomsday #1 goes on sale July 12.

'Days of Future Past' is one of the best X-Men stories of all time.