Earth's Mightiest Show Bonus Reading Guide: Stories of Future Past!

This week's episode of Earth's Mightiest Show takes a trip back to the future! Marvel fans submitted their favorite storylines about time travel in Marvel comics, including such classic events as Days of Future Past and the Age of Apocalypse. And now, here's where you can find those books -- right on Marvel Unlimited!

Days of Future Past

A classic X-Men story from the '90s, the "Days of Future Past" arc began with UNCANNY X-MEN #141 in 1980. It kicked after Jean Grey, well, kicked the bucket, following the Dark Phoenix Saga and Kitty Pryde becomes the newest and youngest member of the X-Men. The creative team of Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Terry Austin presented a dystopian future in which mutants were persecuted against and imprisoned in camps. Kitty's future self tries to get the present-day X-Men to stop it all from happening.

"Days of Future Past" has long been a fan-favorite X-story, in addition to it being a classic time travel tale. You may recognize this iconic John Byrne cover:

Age of Apocalypse

Another time travel story for the X-Men means another disturbing dystopia, which might be a redundant phrase, but these futures are anything but bright for our marvelous mutants. Professor X's son Legion travels back 20 years to kill Magneto -- but instead, his own father, Professor X, is the one who dies. His death changes the timeline completely, and Apocalypse comes to power ten years before he had in the original timeline, spurring the Age of Apocalypse. Factions of mutants resist Apocalypse, including one group led by none other than Magneto.

Marvel.com has a reading guide all set up for you, but you can start with 1994's X-MEN #38.

Marvel 2099

In yet another dystopian future -- because what fun would a happy future be? -- Marvel imagined a universe over 100 years in the future, one overtaken by corporations and corruption. But the heroes of Marvel 2099 were here to make the future a better place. The story began in 1992 with SPIDER-MAN 2099 #1, with Miguel O'Hara donning the Spidey suit. (You may recall that he made a cameo at the very end of "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" -- if you stayed past the credits, that is!)

Start with Spider-Man 2099, then read through the event to see who else showed up in this dark future:

If you love the past, the future, and all the other times and places the Marvel Universe can take you, tune in to Earth's Mightiest Show every week to see even more! You can watch on Marvel.com, Marvel's YouTube Page, and Facebook -- remember to use the hashtag #EarthsMightiestShow!