Last week, Empire Magazine revealed 25 special edition covers for their magazine in honor of the X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST film that is releasing this May. Out of the 25 covers, 11 are characters from the Past, 13 are from the future, and one of Bryan Singer in the middle. After having a week to look at these character covers, we’re gonna go over the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from this preview. each cover links to the next one, creating a huge panoramic photo, which we’ve included as well.
You can find the full gallery at the bottom of the page.
The Good
Future Wolverine (13) – This cover gives us our first taste of Wolverine in the future. We see that after The Wolverine, he has gotten his adamantium claws back and his outfit shows a more battle ready Wolverine than we’ve seen before. The subtle yellow and blue shades throw back to his original outfit, without making it seem forced or fake.
Past Magneto (9) Â – Michael Fassbender has been the best choice to play a young Magneto and he continues to impress in the upcoming film. Some may ask why the master of magnetism needs armor when he can stop almost any bullet, but the mutant is still young and may not know how to fully control his powers yet. However, we can’t deny the presence of Fassbender in the role, especially with the iconic helmet.
The Bad
Future Sunspot (20) – Seeing as this is the first time we’re meeting Sunspot, I find his overt orange tones a bit much for the mutant and his abilities. On top of that, he’s got a really bad hair design thats reminiscent of some sort of sex offender. That high color on the back of his jacket also doesn’t look right.
Past Toad (3) – Toad has been noticeably absent since his demise in the first X-Men film. The first version was played spectacularly by Ray Park and seemed very 80’s punk look for the amphibious mutant. As the last mutant announced for the film, we see Toad used to be in the military and perhaps has some facial disfiguration. The Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver look is definitely working, but I’m not sure this Toad will be as memorable as Park’s performance.
The Ugly
Past Quicksilver (8) – This has been the worst case scenario of character translation from the books to real life. We haven’t seen him in action just yet in the film, but all pictures provided have not been favorable for the supposed son of Magneto. The Empire cover provided for the character s akin to an Animorph’s book cover, with the motion blur and separate poses. What is with his belt too? I’m not even sure.
Past Havok (2) – Havok is one of the few mutants carrying over from X-Men: First Class and it seems they tried the least on his magazine cover. The apparent photoshop effect to showcase his power set seems half-assed and the character is barely recognizable from his prior appearance. Also, he appears to be in the same mutant military unit with Toad, which could mean less screen time than we’re accustomed to. Either way, poor representation of the character.
Overall, we get some good, mediocre, and bad covers from Empire’s special DAYS OF FUTURE PAST issue, but again this has been the first look we’ve seen at some of the characters. I want to mention the Future Sentinel (25) cover gives us the most intrigue, as I would like to see the unit in action rather than still life, so I’ve chosen to leave it out on purpose, despite the burnt to a crisp look it has.
Take a look at the covers below and let us know your favorite (or least favorite)!
