I wonder if Duggan had seen this in advance? This week's issue of Iron Man is a big fight scene, Tony in a Sentinel Buster mecha vs Sentinels. Beast in a Sentinel vs other Sentinels was basically the same thing!
About a year, a TV news programme in episode 1 mentioned Xavier died "last year" And of course it has to be long enough for Jean's pregnancy, as she wasn't expecting in X-Men 1992's finale.