The X-Men’s 5 Darkest Futures, Ranked

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The X-Men are known for their time-travel adventures, and many of their most popular stories involve preventing terrible futures. From iconic tales like “Days of Future Past” to events like the “Age of Revelation,” they’ve explored and altered timelines more than most heroes focused on time travel. Characters like Cable and Bishop wouldn’t even exist without these kinds of stories, and there are plenty more examples. With so many potential apocalypses explored, it’s interesting to consider which of these dark futures are the most devastating.

Okay, so as a huge X-Men fan, I’ve been thinking a lot about the really bleak possibilities for the team. Today, I want to share my ranking of the five worst potential futures they’ve faced. Now, I’m focusing specifically on those dark, alternate timelines – not ‘What If?’ scenarios or entirely separate universes, though those all technically become different worlds in the grand scheme of things. And to keep things manageable, I’m sticking to how these futures were originally presented – there have been so many additions and retcons over the years that it would just get messy. With all that sorted, let’s jump in and explore the most disastrous futures awaiting the X-Men!

5) “Days of Future Past”

It feels unfair to rank the X-Men’s most famous alternate future as the worst, especially given how bleak it is. This future saw the Sentinel Program, originally intended to protect humans from mutants, ultimately enslave the entire country. The Sentinels viewed mutants as enemies and humans as potential threats. The world was on the brink of nuclear war to stop the Sentinels from spreading, and people were imprisoned in concentration camps. Despite its darkness, this future is limited to the United States, while the other realities on this list have far wider impacts and result in significantly more deaths.

4) “Age of Apocalypse”

When the Legion went back in time intending to kill Magneto, they accidentally killed Professor Xavier, drastically changing the world. In this altered reality, Apocalypse conquered North America, establishing a cruel society where mutants ruled over humans from birth. He also routinely ordered mass killings, resulting in millions of deaths. This timeline demonstrated how bleak things could become without Professor X’s vision for peace, and just how dangerous Apocalypse truly was. Despite the grim circumstances, this reality ranks fourth because there was a reasonable possibility of victory.

3) “Here Comes Tomorrow”

This bleak future was the dramatic ending to Grant Morrison’s acclaimed work on New X-Men. Taking place 150 years in the future, the story depicts a shattered world on the brink of extinction, with both humans and mutants nearly wiped out. The remaining nations exist as warring dystopias. The destruction was masterminded by Sublime, a collective intelligence of Earth’s earliest microscopic lifeforms. Sublime almost succeeded in destroying the planet and reshaping reality using the power of the Phoenix, but Jean Grey stopped them just in time. Despite her victory, the damage was severe, leaving most of the X-Men dead and Earth’s future uncertain.

2) “Age of Revelation”

This grim future stands out because it offers no hope – things only continually decline. Revelation, inheriting power from Apocalypse and able to reshape reality with his words, began by conquering the United States. He then unleashed a gene bomb that horribly transformed people into mutants, killed them outright, or turned them into monstrous beings. But that was just the beginning. His ultimate goal was revealed to be converting the entire world into an extension of himself, merging all life and the planet into a single entity – Revelation. In this future, Revelation completely wins, and life as we understand it ends entirely, leaving only his warped consciousness.

1) Powers of X

As a huge X-Men fan, I was completely blown away by Powers of X. It totally changed everything by revealing Moira MacTaggert wasn’t who we thought – she was a mutant who could essentially reset her life after death! She spent lifetimes trying to prevent a terrible future she foresaw, one where mutants and humans were doomed to conflict. What’s really wild is that humanity, desperate to avoid being replaced, ended up merging with technology. They became these emotionless, knowledge-collecting beings – almost like machines themselves. And the really scary part? They were all heading towards becoming part of the Phalanx, this massive, galaxy-spanning artificial intelligence.

If Moira hadn’t died, Earth would have been completely taken over by the Phalanx. Humans and all their descendants would have ceased to exist. This is the bleakest possible future because it assumes endless conflict between mutants and humans, ultimately leading to the loss of everything that makes us human. It’s a world where machines control everything, destroying love, happiness, and all genuine emotion, leaving only cold information and a hollow existence that goes on forever.

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2026-01-11 01:40