Here's another thing about All-New X-Men that's been bugging me. I think it's my own problem and not the book's, but i wanted to put it out there.

The degree to which Cyclops is rattled by the idea that he grows up to be a radical mutant that killed Xavier feels overdone. Similarly, the way the other young X-Men have reacted to the same information seems wrong.

The problem i have with this gets into basic time travel paradox. I know Marvel doesn't go by the rules established in the 1980s anymore, but even if we throw that out, unless you believe in predetermination, it would seem that this future could only be a possible future for the young X-Men. And we're years away from the point where young Scott would be showing any signs that he'd become like old Scott. It's not like he's been a radical character all along. He's the most straight-laced of the team, and extremely loyal to Xavier. So being faced with a future where Scott goes out of control, joins Magneto, and kills Professor X would be hard to comprehend, scary, and certainly something that might cause some inner reflection, but i don't see it causing such alienation between Scott and his friends, and i don't see it depressing Scott so much.

Put it this way: if Future Rod were to show up and tell me that he wasted his life devoting himself to his job, putting in extra hours at the office, and never got to finish his Marvel Timeline project, i'd be unable to comprehend it, but i wouldn't think i was destined to turn into him. Even if Future Rod showed up and said he wasted his life working on the Marvel Timeline project and therefore never got to travel the world or write the grand symphony that he's now realized would have been a better legacy, it would give me food for thought, possibly cause me to change my behavior, but it wouldn't depress me.

Now, i know that this is the Young X-Men's first alternate universe. And maybe even with the sliding timescale they never got to see Back to the Future. So like i said, this could be because i'm too jaded by the millions of alternate future stories i've read and watched to understand why they are so affected. But it really does feel like an overreaction to me. Can anyone think of another parallel universe or alternate future story where the main characters were so devastated by what they see themselves turning into?

The only example I can think of is Sunspot- and that was a combination of traveling to an alternate future, finding out he was evil, and then returning home and accidentally injuring Sam and then finding out that Xavier thought he'd become evil in the future too.

The young X-Men have come from an era before they'd encountered any parallel timelines though, haven't they? As far as they're concerned, this is the future. Or so I'm guessing, since I'm not reading the book.

I feel like there have been other over reactions to dystopian futures and other parallel timelines before, but nothing specific comes to mind.

Yeah, i did acknowledge that this is their first time-travel/alternate universe experience. I still feel like the group is really overreacting. If you saw the way you saw the rest of the original team shunning Scott, you might agree.

There has also been some sideline conversation of time travel theory. It's been deliberately not relevant (paraphrase: "Reed Richard's latest theory is that the time-space continuum is a living being and it may be angry at us for mucking about in it so much.") but it does suggest the characters are thinking beyond this just being THE future.