X-Men: First Class Finals 1-4

[Leoparis]

This was analysed and discussed earlier:
https://www.chronologyproject.com/phpbb ... php?t=4236
https://www.chronologyproject.com/phpbb ... php?t=4280
https://www.chronologyproject.com/phpbb ... php?t=4318
https://www.chronologyproject.com/phpbb ... php?t=4339
viewtopic.php?p=31099#p31099

The "One hour later" caption on the last page is absurd as the preceding pages are taking place before AA 11. Beast just received an employment offer from Brand Corp. Unfortunately it's common for chronology inserts to try to span a longer time than necessary, to connect with key moments, like the last page of First X-Men 5 or the Illuminati issue by Bendis set in 1972 mentioning Krakoa.

Yes, the pages preceding the last page may be recast as Jean's dream (there's enough evidence allowing such an interpretation) but if so, this doesn't prevent her dream from being a flashback to 1971 as well. So, either Jean is having this dream of past events one hour before the last page, either you ignore the "One hour later" tag. The latter is simpler to index. The former preserves the caption and smooths the continuity errors.

On these Michael made this comment, which is a good summary, "There were other problems with the First Class: Finals series--Jean didn't seem to know who Xavier's "sweetie" in Scotland was (even though she had already met Moira by this point), Warren's parents were described as being alive, no one seemed to know Magneto was alive even though this was after FF 104, etc."

Let's review the actual evidence to see how we can get around these objections:

Angel says only this, "Gotta start figuring out how Worthington Enterprises works. Pop's going to be mad that I didn't take any business classes here." This would be flippant, but maybe he's referring to his father's ghost. Sometimes people do speak of the dead as if they're still around, watching and judging them "from above." Warren thinks his father is going to judge him from beyond the tomb for his lack of expertise.

Iceman says, "It's the ghost of Magneto." He's describing an empty animated armor after all, this does not imply he thinks Magneto is dead. Besides, the X-Men were not there in FF 102, they might still rely on the end of the Savage Land adventure in X 63, showing Magneto's apparent death in an explosion.

Xavier, "I was visiting an old colleague of mine in Scotland."
Jean, "Does your old colleague wear perfume, perhaps...?"
That reads like Jean knows Moira. Her previous sentence "I'm thinking he's got a sweetie over there" can be written down to feigning ignorance or teasing Warren with information only she knows.

At the end, this dialogue is more of a problem,
"So when are we going to do the real ceremony, with our families?"
"Next month. We had to schedule around Warren's parents."
Supposedly Cyclops means they had to delay the ceremony by one month because they had to bury Warren's mother. Or, more gruesome, the body of the father had to be exhumed to find evidence of poisoning and this refers to the joint reburial/burial of both.

The second story shows Scott not used to Jean's telepathy but also the Man-Thing. The Scarlet Witch interview could be related to her rejoining the Avengers in A 75. This is 1970 or later.
The flashforwards in part three could be windows into alternate realities/futures. The third one, showing Falcon with the Avengers, looks like it follows A 181 but has the wrong Ms Marvel costume. Unless it's after A 177 and the Falcon happened to be with Steve that day.

If it is Howard the Duck and Beverly--who else could it be--then Scott and Jean must have gone through the portal to the future and go back to the present when they cross a portal again because the Howard the Duck and Beverly couple only comes about after the start of New X-Men. In that case the flashforwards may be contemporary and can be used to place Man-Thing, Howard and Bev.

But I did not find a single moment in time that can fit for all three lineups. The presence of Phoenix puts her cameo between Jun 76 and Oct 78. The presence of the Champions before Jan 78. Ms. Marvel is not involved with Avengers before A 171, May 1978.

Howard, Beverly and Man-Thing appear together in HTDMAG 7 and their appearance in X:FCF 3/2 could be either at the beginning or the end of that story. Between HTDMAG 6 & 7 for simplicity's sake. This 1980 date would make the glimpses into flashbacks (easier to index than flashforwards).