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If memory serves, that reprint omitted the last page of #142, with Shaw and Gyrich and the birth of Project: Wideawake. Why????

Some thoughts on the final page of issue #142:

For many years Sebastian Shaw's actions were puzzling to me, in that he's a mutant who pretends to be a human and who is actively involved in the federal government's Project Wideawake and the construction of mutant-hunting Sentinels. I never quite understood how Shaw could be such a traitor to his fellow mutants.

Shaw makes a lot more sense to me in the year 2020. He feels very much the equivalent of Trump's senior advisor Stephen Miller, a man who, even though he is Jewish and the descendant of immigrants, is very chummy with white supremacists and who aggressively advocates for xenophobic government policies.

So now I see that Shaw is basically a wealthy, arrogant, elitist SOB who thinks he is better than everyone else and who is perfectly happy to sell out his fellow mutants for his own political & financial benefit.

I'm not going to comment on #142, since I only read it as an adult.

So, my old friend #141... A quality tale. Kicks off with moody art. Recaps how we arrived at the dystopian future with economy and eloquence. Future versions of well-known characters was (then) an unusual kink in the tale. We then get the further delicious twist of Kate going back to take over her past self, the ingenue X-Man Kitty. This story element really is a bit of genius. Kitty was so new to the team, yet here we have her suddenly as the most age-hardened character in the tale. After the Terminators and Twelve Monkeys and Continuum and a fistful of other sci-fi tales, going back to the save the future isn't as unusual an idea as it once was, but the concept of the old psyche possessing the younger self still seems fresh. There seemed a really pressing imperative for the X-Men not to mess this up. They had to prevent the assassination. And then we get a nice ending to set up the next part of the tale with the appearance of the new Brotherhood. Great issue that deserves its elevated status as a classic.

Way to make a guy feel old.

"Days of Future Past" is a great story but Claremont "tainted" it for me when "Rachel" became "Rachel Summers." So, like the end of the Dark Phoenix storyline, it's one of those stories I really like that ended up being a...problem.

(Rachel Summers is still around in the current X-Men titles! It amazes me. These alternate/possible future characters never go away! And I hate them!)

Looking back, so many iconic images inside an iconic cover. 141 is on my list of top 10 comics of all time (with FF 51, Spider-Man 33, Daredevil 181, FF 236, etc.). 

At that time I didn't think too much about the politics... I was 9 or 10 (UXM 141 and 142 were published in France in 1984).

I just found it was a great story... with a depressing end. I understood Sentinels would happen anyway because of Shaw and Project Wideawake. I'm glad to see how it ended by reading Elsewhen.

I remember thinking the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants were real bad guys...

Even worse, spotty distribution in the UK meant I missed out on getting #142 so I didn't read the conclusion of the story for many years afterwards.