Legion (Marvel Comics)

Legion
Artwork for the cover of New Mutants vol. 3, 21 (January, 2011 Marvel Comics) 
Art by Dave Wilkins
Publication information
Publisher Marvel Comics
First appearance New Mutants #25 (March 1985)
Created by Chris Claremont (Writer)
Bill Sienkiewicz (Artist)
In-story information
Alter ego David Charles Haller
Species Human Mutant
Team affiliations Muir Island X-Men
X-Men
Notable aliases Daniel Haller, Cyndi, Rodney, Ian, Lucas, Fanya, Jack Wayne, Boris, Zachary, Sylvester, Jemail Karami
Abilities

Legion (David Charles Haller) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is the mutant son of Professor Charles Xavier and Gabrielle Haller. Legion takes the role of an antihero who has a severe mental illness including a form of dissociative identity disorder, in which each of his alternate personas controls one of his many superpowers.

The television series Legion premiered on FX network in 2017. The lead character is portrayed by Dan Stevens. The series is developed, written, directed, and produced by Noah Hawley.

Publication history

Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Bill Sienkiewicz, Legion made his debut in New Mutants #25 (March 1985).

In 1991, Legion was assigned to be a co-starring character in the newly revamped X-Factor, as a member of the eponymous superteam. However, writer Peter David was uncomfortable with this, and ultimately editor Bob Harras independently came to the conclusion that Legion should not be used in the series. David explained "I don't mind building a story around [Legion], but working him into a group - you're really asking for a bit much from the reader. Believing that a group of people will come together to form a team is enough of a suspension of disbelief... 'Oh, by the way, one of them is so nuts he shouldn't be setting foot off Muir Island'... that's asking the reader to bend so far he will break."[1]

Fictional character biography

Charles Xavier met Gabrielle Haller while he was working in an Israeli psychiatric facility where she was one of his patients. Xavier was secretly using his psychic powers to ease the pain of Holocaust survivors institutionalized there. The two had an affair that resulted in the birth of their son David. Xavier was initially unaware of this, as Gabrielle never told him she was pregnant.[2]

When he was very young, David was among the victims of a terrorist attack, in which he was the only survivor. The trauma of the situation caused David to manifest his mutant powers, incinerating the minds of the terrorists. In the process, he absorbed the mind of the terrorist leader, Jemail Karami, into his own. Being linked to so many others at their time of death, he was rendered catatonic, and remained in the care of Moira MacTaggert at the Muir Island mutant research facility. The trauma caused David's personality to splinter, with each of the personalities controlling a different aspect of his psionic power.[3]

Karami struggled for years to separate his consciousness from David's. Using David's telepathic abilities, he reintegrated the multiple personalities into David's core personality. Some of the personalities resisted Karami, and two proved to be formidable opponents: Jack Wayne, a swaggering adventurer, who commands David's telekinetic power, and Cyndi, a temperamental, rebellious girl who controls David's pyrokinetic power. Wayne intended to destroy Karami's consciousness to preserve his own independent existence within David's mind. Neither personality succeeds, and Karami, Wayne, and Cyndi continue as David's dominant personalities.[4][5]

During his time at Muir Island, David emerged from his catatonia. Soon after, David was possessed by the Shadow King, who used his powers to psychically increase the amount of hatred in the world and feed on the malignant energy. During this time, the Shadow King, as David, killed the mutant Destiny. The X-Men and X-Factor fought the Shadow King, and, as a result, David was left in a coma.[6]

Legion Quest/Age of Apocalypse

When Mystique tracked down David years later to get revenge for "his" murder of Destiny, he awakened with his fractured mind healed. David had a new goal, to help his father realize his dream of human-mutant coexistence by killing Magneto, Xavier's greatest opponent, before he had a chance to amass power. He traveled twenty years into the past, when Xavier and Magneto were orderlies at the mental hospital. In the process, he loses his memory. Magneto then accidentally triggers his memory, causing David to go on a rampage, attacking Magneto and revealing the existence of mutants to the public decades too early. Several X-Men who were pulled back in time with him were unable to prevent him from attacking Magneto. Xavier, however, leaped into the path of the psi-knife (the focused totality of Legion's psionic powers) and was killed in Magneto's place, causing the formation of the Age of Apocalypse timeline.[7]

Due to being trapped in the past by David's actions, Bishop enlisted the aid of the new reality's X-Men to travel back in time to confront Legion again. Bishop seized Legion's psi-blade and drove it into his own chest, allowing Legion to see the future that he caused. In his last moments, David apologized for what he did. David's mother, Gabrielle Haller, described having a "maternal loss" afterward, implying she miscarried before giving birth to David.

While David was considered deceased, some of his alternate personalities remained trapped between life and death, manifesting as spirits. When the spirits started terrorizing Israel, Excalibur was called to stop them. After learning that the spirits were refusing death, Meggan used her empathy to calm their rage, convincing them to go "towards the light."[8]

Return

Sometime later, Legion is discovered alive and trapped in a concrete box by the reformed New Mutants as they are investigating a possible mutant case in Westcliffe, Colorado. After accidentally absorbing Karma and trying to protect a little girl called Marci, who is trapped within his mind as well, David, now beset with an army of split personalities, tries to take control of his body through a doll named Moira, which enables its 'holder' to gain control of David's body and use his or her powers at will. Moira has come into Marci's possession and is coveted by the other personalities, particularly the more vicious and free-wheeling ones—especially Jack Wayne, who had become the ringleader for the struggle of control over David's body and powers.[9]

After escaping his cell, David flies off to kill Dani Moonstar.[10] One of Legion's split personalities revealed that when Bishop used Legion's psychic blade, David and Bishop fell out of reality and descended into Limbo, the cosmic place known as "no-time". The elder Bishop would die during the passage and Legion absorbed his mind as he had done before with Jemail Karami. The psychic blade also devastated David’s mental landscape, undoing all the healing work done on his mind by Karami and Professor Xavier. Instead of four personalities, David now had thousands vying for control in his mind. (Jack Wayne at least found his way back to Legion in Limbo after leaving Jerusalem, although the fates of Karami and Cyndi have not been clarified). Legion wandered through Limbo for an untold period of time, trying to make his way back home. During his journey, his "bad" personalities would occasionally slay other beings they encountered, then absorb and enslave their minds inside of David’s, but it didn't reveal how Legion managed to return to the present timeline. When Magik is absorbed into his mind as well, she begins killing off some of the more hostile personalities, including Jack Wayne, to get to Karma and Marci. Eventually Marci leads the girls to David, who has been locked away by the other personalities. They then manage to get a hold of the doll that controls his body; Karma and Magik return to their bodies, and David is taken into the care of the X-Men.[11]

Following the aftermath of Utopia, the X-Club, along with Rogue and Danger, are repairing David's mind by isolating the other personalities from each other, much to the delight of David. It is revealed by Karma, during a session with Kavita Rao, that Marci was a little girl from Westcliffe who helped David by keeping him company when he came back from the "no-time", but one of the other personalities within Legion ended up murdering her, so Marci became permanently trapped within his mind. Before Karma and Magik left his mind, Karma killed the entity who murdered Marci using Magik's soulsword. Both lie to Kavita, saying Magik killed him. With nowhere to return to, and as the only independent and non-violent personality inside him, Marci is allowed to keep David company as a source of comfort and stability while the other personality fragments are separated and isolated from them.[12]

Utopia

Legion is cared for by Danger, who assesses his personalities and sedates him in the prison section of Utopia, along with Sebastian Shaw, Empath, and Donald Pierce.

Second Coming

Legion appears in "X-Men: Second Coming" as one of the X-Men fighting Bastion's Nimrod Sentinels. With the Nimrod army relentlessly appearing from a portal hell bent on destroying the mutants on Utopia, Charles Xavier is tasked with mobilizing his son to aid in their battle against the sentinels. This is because of the X-Men's need to employ Legion's unique powers, despite his apparent instability due to his dissociative identity disorder (DID). Legion is airdropped into battle, employing two of his many personalities, each containing a different power.[13]

Rise of the New Mutants

It was revealed that Magik is the one responsible for bringing Legion back to Earth after she located and made a secret agreement with "The Legion", the God-Mutant personality and arbiter of the Age of Apocalypse. Magik would show Legion the way back to Earth in exchange for his later assistance against her nemeses, the Elder Gods. The God-Mutant allowed himself to be locked away in David’s mind until the time was right to repay what he owed her, leaving the rest of Haller’s personalities unaware of the true circumstances of their return.[14]

Age of X

When Xavier and Doctor Nemesis attempted to treat Legion's DID, it resulted in the creation of a new personality that attempted to 'protect' Legion from this 'assault' on his mind, the new personality assuming the appearance of the deceased Moira McTaggert and using its ability to warp reality to create a new world where all Legion's personas had a body for themselves and Legion could be the hero that he always wanted to be. Unfortunately, this 'heroic' status consisted of Legion being one of the mutants responsible for generating a force wall to cut the mutants off from continuous assault and persecution from the rest of humanity, to the point that 'Moira' was creating random soldiers simply for Legion and the other mutants to kill them and create the impression that they were 'safe'. Legacy, the alternate Rogue, discovers the truth of this world. With this information, Magneto releases Xavier and Kitty Pryde, who had been imprisoned, and Xavier subsequently convinced Legion to absorb 'Moira' back into himself and restore reality to its original form.[15]

Lost Legions

Legion was given a Neural Switchboard Wristband that was engineered by a collaboration of Doctor Nemesis, Madison Jeffries and Reed Richards. By keying in a number, this device stimulates cells in the thalamus and neocortex, creating a one-way link between Legion's own mind and one of his sub-selves. This way Legion can utilize power sets without being overwhelmed by the personality. It was later revealed that six of David's personas escaped with corporeal bodies when reality was shifted back to normal.[16] With the help of the X-Men, Legion began to hunt down and reabsorb all of these rogue personas, but, while absorbing the last one, he accidentally absorbed Rogue along with it, and, after releasing her, he suffered a massive shock to his nervous system. Rogue stated that, while she was inside Legion, she was connected to thousands of types of powers and there are more being born all the time.[17]

Avengers vs. X-Men

Legion recovered at some point and was seen with his father. When the Phoenix approached the Earth to choose a host, it caused all the omega level telepaths to suffer great pain and Legion was one of them. At some point, Xavier took David to Merzah the Mystic to help him control his vast powers.

With the help of Merzah, David gains a great amount of control over his powers by constructing a prison in his mind and locking away many sub-personalities while using needled gloves to drain the persona of its power. However, when a Phoenix Force-possessed Cyclops killed Professor X, the mental shock caused Legion to lose control and free all the evil personalities. This caused the death of Merzah the Mystic and many others. Unknown to David a new persona emerges and kills another persona. One by one, the Legion personas take control of David's body and start wreaking havoc around the world. David takes his body back over and finds out that he is in China. There he is attacked by people and helped by an unknown entity who uses a dead goat to build a body for itself. However, the stranger begins to insult David's father and kill some of the people. David defeats the persona and uses its power to knock out the people and read the mind of the stranger to find it full of hate for him, his father, and mutants in general. David finds out there are two twin mutants in need of help. David decides to help them and takes control of his power once and for all.

After finding his way to Japan, Legion is ambushed and captured. David learns that the twins are not prisoners but the heirs of Logan's old enemy Ogun. Legion notes that the twins are not doing what they do willingly and convince them they have free will. Legion also admits to himself that his father wasn't perfect and just because he died doesn't mean he was, and there is no harm in trying to be better. This allows David to gain more self-confidence, which makes him mentally stronger and able to beat another persona and drain it and use its power. Legion asks the twins to accompany him in his journey and the twins accept his offer. However, the same entity that David met tricks the X-Men to make them think that Legion was going to hurt the twins, so that they attacked the location, demanding that Legion step away from the twins.

In the final issue of X-Men: Legacy, Legion, reaching the full extent of his powers, decides to erase himself from existence by never being born, but there is still an aspect of himself living within Blindfold's mind.[18]

Trauma

However, Legion's attempt to erase himself from existence apparently only resulted in the creation of a yet new personality known as "Lord Trauma" that presumably prevented David's plan and is now threatening to take over his mind and body by absorbing all of David's personalities and powers. In a desperate attempt to save himself, David seeks out the help of renowned young psychotherapist Hannah Jones to delve into his fractured mind and fight back this dark personality.[19]

Powers and abilities

Doctor Nemesis, Blindfold, and Professor X among Legion's alters.

Legion is an Omega-level mutant[20] who has multiple personalities. The first alter to manifest, Jemail, was the mind of a terrorist that David absorbed into himself. According to Karma, the only ways he can absorb other people into his mind is if he is right next to them when they die or through telepathy.[12] Two others, Jack Wayne and Cyndi, have made themselves known, but it is unknown how many other alters may exist. The manifestation of Legion's individual powers are each associated with a different alter, and each alter controls a different power. The cumulative powers of all his personalities make him one of the strongest mutants in existence.

Legion's core personality took control of his splinter personalities' powers when he traveled back in time.

Some of the powers alter the host body physically, such as lycanthropy or a prehensile tongue. According to Cannonball, this is a relatively new ability. Some of the other powers include super speed, flight, X-ray vision, heat absorption, super strength, matter animation and sonic scream. Dr. Nemesis claims that Legion instinctively created a doll named Moira; when one alter gains control of the doll, it controls the body.[21] Using the soulsword given to her by Magik, Karma went inside Legion's psyche and liberated an unknown alter imprisoned deep within him. This persona turned out to be Legion himself, displaying a different behavior and appearance, marked by his peculiar eyebrows. This "true Legion" persona could warp reality and wiped the Elder Gods from existence, later resetting the universe to a state before the Elder Gods first appeared on Earth.

After the Age of X has ended, David was given a Neural Switchboard Wristband which was engineered by a collaboration of Doctor Nemesis, Madison Jeffries, and Reed Richards. By keying in a number, this device stimulates cells in the thalamus and neocortex, creating a one-way link between Legion's own mind and one of his sub-selves. This allows Legion to utilize power sets without being overwhelmed by the personality.

In the current X-Men: Legacy volume, David was shown to have greater control over his powers, but lost this control due to the mental shock of his father's death. New sub-personas were shown with powers of their own.

Personalities

The following characters are the different personalities of Legion where each one has a different power:

  • Through the personality of terrorist Jemail Karami (the name given to Personality #2), he has manifested telepathy.[22]
  • Through the personality of roustabout adventurer Jack Wayne (the name given to Personality #3), he has manifested telekinesis[23] It was later revealed that Jack Wayne was subsumed and became Lord Trauma's puppet.
  • Through the personality of the rebellious girl Cyndi (the name given to Personality #4), he has manifested pyrokinesis. This personality of Legion had a crush on Cypher.[23]
  • Through the personality of The Legion (the name given to Personality #5 and Legion's "real me"), he can warp time and reality. Magik nicknamed this personality as the "God-Mutant."
  • Through the personality of Sally (the name given to Personality #67), he has the appearance of an obese woman with Hulk-like super-strength and increased muscle mass.[24]
  • Through the personality of a punk rocker named Lucas (who was classified as Personality #115), he can channel sound blasts that are referred to as "Acoustic Aggressive" by the Nimrod Sentinels.[25]
  • Through the Personality #181, he can enlarge himself to an undetermined size. This was the first power Legion utilized with the Neural Switchboard Wristband.[26]
  • Through the personality of Johnny Gomorrah (the name given to Personality #186), he can transmute his enemies and objects into salt.[27]
  • Created as a contingent against Dr. Nemesis's tampering, Moira Kinross/X (Personality ???) was created to protect Legion's mindscape. A powerful Reality Warper who became independent from David and created the dystopian world dubbed Age of X, acted as David's mother, who would be seen as a hero within this world. All by building a pocket reality that X could control near undisputed, being a powerful mentalist in her own right, she was able to beat Professor X in psychic battle with ease, as well as alter the mindsets and personas of fabricated entities both natural and unnatural in her reality.[28]
  • Through the personality of Time-Sink (the name given to Personality #227), he has the ability of time-manipulation.[29] This personality was able to become independent from David but he was eventually found and absorbed into David.[30] David was ultimately forced to stop using Time-Sink's powers since the personality would always fight David to get back his freedom.[31]
  • Through Personality #302, he has rapid-punching abilities.[29]
  • Through the personality of Styx (the name given to Personality #666), he has the ability to use a touch of death to absorb the spirits of his victims after which he can continue to control the victim's body. This personality was able to become independent from David and even tried to trick David in order to absorb Moira Kinross/X personality, so he could use her powers to remake the world according to his will but he was eventually found and absorbed back into David.[29]
  • Through Personality #749, he has the ability to discharge electricity.
  • Through Personality #762, he becomes a pirate with the ability to belch an acid gas.
  • Through Personality #898, he becomes a centaur.
  • Through Personality #993, he has the ability to emit gaseous materials at high speeds.
  • Through the personality of Delphic (the name given to Personality #1012), he becomes a blue-skinned seemingly-omniscient seer willing to answer three questions to supplicants. She also gives off what appears to be electric discharges.
  • Absence is an alien/demon creature who claims to have traveled through realities and stars. Absence's power is to "siphon off heat and love."
  • Bleeding Image is a living voodoo doll who amplifies pain from any injury he inflicts on himself, pain that will be felt by his victims. This personality was able to become independent from David but he was eventually found and stated to have been destroyed by Magneto.[32]
  • Chain is a human virus turning anyone he touches into a copy of himself with a new weapon. The power dissipates when the original is dealt with. This personality was able to become independent from David but he was eventually found and absorbed into David.[33]
  • "Fiend/Charles Xavier" is a persona created from the mental shock of Professor X's death. Having the power of precognition, as well as other absorbed from killing other personalities in Legion's mind, it has been shown to be immune to telepathy, as it was unaffected by Blindfold when she rendered all the sub-personalities to fall asleep, and attacked her, causing Blindfold a psychic-trauma. He has the form of a yellow little goblin-like creature with unknown power. This personality also contained a part of Professor X who calls David his "son."
  • Chronodon is a dinosaur with a clock on its face. Based on its name, it can be assumed that it has time manipulation.
  • Clown is a surly-looking clown that can blast a light energy from his mouth.
  • Compass Rose can locate any person and teleport to them.
  • Drexel is a foul-mouthed simpleton with super-strength.
  • Through personality of Endgame, he wears or becomes armor with the sentence "Terminus est" written on it and has the ability to counter any attack executed against him, such as increasing strength with a melee attack or changing his form with a magnetic one. This personality was able to become independent from David but he was eventually found and absorbed back into David.[34]
  • Findel the Finder can find anyone across the galaxy.
  • Gestalt is more a merging of other personas with Legion's core personality, than another sub persona. David's gestalt form recombines the other fractured parts of consciousness with himself giving it an eerie amalgamation of all those frangible bits accumulated into his current psychic appearance, as well as accumulating their powers.
  • Hugh Davidson is a stereotypical prepster with a long prehensile tongue.
  • Hypnobloke is a strange gentleman with flashing swirls for eyes in a top hat and carrying a pocket watch. His powers are that of hypnotic suggestion.
  • Kirbax the Kraklar is a demonic creature with the ability of flight and electricity generation.
  • Ksenia Nadejda Panov is a Moscow heiress, discus champion, exporter of caviar, and torturer of puppies. She has the ability to generate ionic scalpels from her fingers.
  • K-Zek the Conduit appears to be an android with the ability of wireless energy transfer (or WET) and electrical absorption.
  • Marci Sabol is a normal girl that David Haller had once met. She became trapped in his mind when she was killed by one of Legion's other personalities.
  • Max Kelvin has the appearance of a crotchety old man. His eyes protrude when he uses his powers of plasmatic flame generation.
  • Mycolojester is a plant-like entity with the attire of a jester. He has the mutant power to emit toxic spores from the skin pores on his body which acts as a powerful nerve gas. However, its effects can be dissipated by water.
  • Non-Newtonian Annie is a skinny purple woman dressed in pink clothes. She has the power to be cloaked in a zero-tainullskin that deflects any attack, and according to the law of the conservation of energy, kinetic energy is redirected.
  • Origamist is a sumo wrestler who can warp reality, and fold space time.
  • Protozoan Porter is a strange-looking near octopoid-like personality with physiological resemblance to a leech. He has the ability to teleport by disassembling into multiple little bits of ameboid like particles then reassembling them at a given destination.
  • Pukatus Jr. is a small cherub-like demon that can vomit an acidic substance.
  • Skinsmith controls the ability to generate and bend the skin of others.
  • Through the personality of Susan in Sunshine, becomes a blond girl with the ability of sense, augment and manipulate the emotions of others around her and converting it into destructive power.[35] This personality was able to become independent from David but she was eventually found and absorbed into David.[36]
  • Tyrannix the Abominoid is a Cthulhu-like creature with telepathic powers.
  • The Weaver One of the more powerful splinter personalities roaming Legion's mind. Revealed to be David's core self within the myriad of fractured psyches created by his mind. When the two are united Legion has power enough to reweave the very fabric of existence to his will. Its full capabilities are as of yet unknown, as Haller only used its power to try to unmake himself by erasing his own birth.
  • Wormhole Wodo can open wormholes across the galaxy.
  • Zero G. Priestly can control gravity.
  • Zubar has the power to levitate himself.
  • The Delusionaut is a train engineer with a billow stack for a head who can create illusions via the smoke that he exudes.
  • An unseen persona has the power to heal others which David uses to heal an old man from his psychic tumor.
  • Another unseen persona had the power of Astral Harpoon Projection, which discharged an energized arrow that left users in an electrocuted-like state.
  • Through the personality of Joe Fury, he becomes a very unstable and dangerous young man with psionic powers.
  • Tami Haar is a nightclub singer and occasional good-time girl. She considers herself one of the stronger alters of David and appears to be one of the few to know David's mindscape.
  • Hunter is a persona created to take the place of Jack Wayne when the latter was subsumed by Lord Trauma.
  • Lord Trauma has the ability of bringing out the worst traumas from a living being, drawing power in the process from the psychic energies. This personality became independent from David and is currently trying to absorb all David's personas by subsuming them in order to gain control over his body. Those who are subsumed by Lord Trauma change substantially and become Trauma's puppets.

Mentality

Legion has been described as having multiple personality disorder.[37]

Origin of name

Legion is named[5] after the Biblical demon Legion. A man possessed by many evil spirits was asked by Jesus what his name was, to which he replied "I am Legion, for we are many."

Other versions

Ultimate Marvel

The Ultimate incarnation of Proteus is a combination of Legion and Proteus from the mainstream comics. His mother is Moira MacTaggert and his father is Charles Xavier. He possesses Proteus' reality warping power and is named David Xavier. He escapes his mother's facility, looking for his father, and murders hundreds to discredit him. David is later crushed by Colossus, while possessing S.T.R.I.K.E. agent Betsy Braddock inside a car.[38]

Age of X

The Force Warriors. Alternate versions of Unuscione, Hellion, Rachel Summers, Legion, and Psylocke

In the Age of X reality, Legion is a member of the Force Warriors, a select group of telekinetics who rebuild the "Force Walls" (telekinetic shields that protect Fortress X) on a daily basis. Unlike his 616 counterpart, there is no trace of the other personalities shown. When Magneto reveals that he too has questions regarding the origin of Fortress X, Legion and the Force Warriors arrive and relieve him of his command. It is then revealed that the Age of X was in some small way created by Legion himself. A flashback reveals that in the 616 universe Professor X was arguing with Dr. Nemesis regarding the latter's containment and deletion of Legion's other personalities in an effort to stabilize him. While Dr. Nemesis claimed that everything was going according to his plan, Professor X was unconvinced and entered Legion's mind. There he found the other personalities dead and their rotting corpses left in their containment units. This surprised Dr. Nemesis who claimed that when a personality was deleted it should simply disappear. Professor X was then attacked by what he called a "psychic antibody" a natural defense against Nemesis's deleting of the personalities. The antibody then took on the face of Moria MacTaggart and claimed that it would make a world where Legion could be happy. Professor X tried to warn Nemesis about the antibody's power but was unable to. The antibody then reshaped Utopia into Fortress X and inserted itself as Moria and the supercomputer X. Before Legion or Professor X could get any answers out of "Moria," she made the Force Walls fall. The human armies began their attack and tried to destroy the universe in the box with the intent of creating a new safe place for Legion to live happily forever. David absorbed her, taking her powers to revert the Fortress X to the normal reality, with a few modifications.[39]

In other media

Television

Live action

Legion, a live-action television series, premiered on FX in 2017. Produced by 20th Century Fox Television and Marvel Television,[40] the series takes place in a warped reality (depicted as perceived by the titular character) and runs "parallel" to the X-Men film universe, with further connections to take place in season two.[41][42] In February 2016, Dan Stevens was cast as the eponymous lead character.[43][44] The series was picked up by FX in early 2017 with 8 episodes.[45] In the series premiere, David is captured from the Clockworks mental facility, where he has been since a suicide attempt, by an anti-mutant government unit known as Division 3 which wants to harness David's abilities for themselves. David is rescued by a team of rogue mutants and taken to the "Summerland" training facility, where he develops a romantic relationship with body-swapping mutant Sydney "Syd" Barrett (Rachel Keller).[46] In "Chapter 7", David learns that his biological father is a powerful psychic mutant whose nemesis the Shadow King has lived in his mind like a mental parasite since he was a little boy.[47] In the episode "Chapter 8", Shadow King is able to leap from David's body and ends up possessing the body of fellow psychic mutant Oliver Bird (Jemaine Clement), and promptly drives away from Summerland. In the episode's coda, a sphere-like drone traps David inside it and absconds with him.[48]

In the second season, David is found by his friends and it is revealed that the drone was sent by Syd from the future.[49] He also begins to pursue the Shadow King during Summerland's alliance with Division 3, but learns that he must work with him due to a plague in the future.[50] In the last couple episodes of season 2, the more psychopathic nature of David is explored, and he is revealed as a villain. Showrunner Noah Hawley later revealed that he has always looked at David as a villain.[51]

Animation

  • Legion appears in the X-Men: Evolution episode "Sins of the Son" voiced by Kyle Labine. Legion's backstory remains mostly unchanged, although David Haller is a fairly normal boy with no visible mutant powers. In the episode, David appears to be kidnapped by a Scottish punk named Lucas, but in reality Lucas and David are one and the same. David's body can somehow change to match whichever of his multiple personalities is dominant, with personality and body shifts sometimes happening at random. The mechanism behind this ability is never fully explained, although it is possible that David is using strong psionic abilities to alter people's perception of his appearance rather than actually changing as Mastermind had done when first trying to avoid being discovered. His personalities sometimes appeared in two places at once, supporting the control-of-perception theory. Only three personalities were shown. As David has no obvious powers of his own, Lucas possesses telepathic and telekinetic powers, as well as pyrokinetics while Ian, the third personality, is a young mute boy who is also a pyrokinetic. As Lucas is shown capable of both telepathic and pyrokinetic powers, it is possible the Lucas persona may have access to the powers of other personalities (if any beyond these three exist). Lucas lured Professor Xavier to Scotland and tricked him into locking David's other personalities away, leaving Lucas free to be himself. It was never explained what Lucas's goals were after this. The show has stopped production before his storyline could be further explored.
  • Legion is mentioned in Marvel Anime: X-Men. He is the root cause of something called "Damon-Hall Syndrome". This condition affects mutants that develop a secondary mutation causing multiple personalities, uncontrolled physical mutation, and psychological instability. There is a vaccine which Beast created to stop its progress. It should also be mentioned that one of the main antagonists of the series named Takeo Sasaki (voiced by Atsushi Abe in the Japanese version and by Steve Staley in the English Dub) is the son of Professor X and Yui Sasaki (a scientist in mutant research). This character is similar to Legion in many ways except for design and name, and is also similar to Proteus in terms of his reality-warping powers. He attended his mother's school for mutants where he was a classmate of Hisako Ichiki and an incident with Takeo being picked on by the other children resulted in a fire that burned the nearby neighborhood and had included a small burn on Hisako's hand. Mastermind planned to use a near-comatose Takeo to warp reality so that the mutants can rule the world. Takeo's powers go out of control enough for him to kill Mastermind and for the entire facility he was in to collapse as he emerges as a colossal energy being. Learning that Takeo hates him for being born into a world where his powers cause him so much suffering, Professor X blames himself for causing Takeo pain. The X-Men try to attack Takeo, but are easily defeated. Professor X then prepares to destroy Takeo's mind and kill him, fully intending to die along with his son. Jean's presence manages to revive the X-Men and give them courage to fight on against. Hisako recalls her friendly past with Takeo and insists that Takeo is a good person who can be saved. Her feelings cause her armor to generate a brilliant light, reaching Takeo and bringing him back to his senses. He and Charles are able to reconcile and Takeo's body is destroyed. Before his death, Takeo is able to reassure Yui and Charles that he is all right.

Collected Editions

X-Men Legacy

TitleMaterial collectedPublication dateISBN
X-Men Legacy, Volume 1: Prodigal X-Men Legacy (vol. 2) #1–6 May 7, 2013 978-0785162490
X-Men Legacy, Volume 2: Invasive Exotics X-Men Legacy (vol. 2) #7–12 September 17, 2013 978-0785167181
X-Men Legacy, Volume 3: Revenants X-Men Legacy (vol. 2) #13–18 December 3, 2013 978-0785167198
X-Men Legacy, Volume 4: For We Are Many X-Men Legacy (vol. 2) #19–24 May 6, 2014 978-0785154327

Other Series

TitleMaterial collectedPublication dateISBN
X-Men: Legion Quest Uncanny X-Men #381–321, X-Men #38–41, X-Men Unlimited #4–7, X-Men Annual #3, X-Factor #107–109 and Cable #20 April 17, 2018 978-1302910389
X-Men: Age of X Age of X Alpha #1, X-Men Legacy #245–247, New Mutants #22–24, Age of X Universe #1–2 and Age of X Historical Logs January 11, 2012 978-0785152903
X-Men: Legion - Shadow King Rising New Mutants #26–28 & #44, Uncanny X-Men #253–255, #278-280 and X-Factor #69–70 January 30, 2018 978-1302909550

References

  1. ↑ O'Neill, Patrick Daniel (February 1992). "Peter David". Comics Interview (105). Fictioneer Books. pp. 19–20. ISSN 1052-5548.
  2. ↑ Uncanny X-Men vol. 1 #161 and New Mutants vol. 1 #1
  3. ↑ New Mutants vol. 1 #27
  4. ↑ New Mutants vol. 1 #26-28
  5. 1 2 "Legion". www.marveldirectory.com.
  6. ↑ Muir Island Saga, involving Uncanny X-Men #278-280 and X-Factor #69-70
  7. ↑ "Dreams Die!". X-Men. Legion Quest. 2 (41). February 1995.
  8. ↑ Excalibur (1st series) #121
  9. ↑ New Mutants vol. 3 #1
  10. ↑ New Mutants, vol. 3 #1–2.
  11. ↑ New Mutants vol. 3 #4
  12. 1 2 New Mutants vol. 3 #5
  13. ↑ New Mutants vol. 3 #14
  14. ↑ New Mutants (3rd series) #21
  15. ↑ X-Men: Legacy #245-248; New Mutants #22-23
  16. ↑ X-Men: Legacy #249
  17. ↑ X-Men: Legacy #253
  18. ↑ X-Men: Legacy #24
  19. ↑ Legion #1
  20. ↑ New Mutants, vol. 3 #4
  21. ↑ New Mutants, vol. 3 #1–5
  22. ↑ New Mutants, vol. 1 #26
  23. 1 2 New Mutants, vol. 1 #27
  24. ↑ New Mutants, vol 3 #3
  25. ↑ New Mutants, vol. 3 #14
  26. ↑ X-Men: Legacy, vol. 1 #248
  27. ↑ X-Men: Legacy, vol. 1 #249
  28. ↑ Age of X: Alpha #1
  29. 1 2 3 X-Men: Legacy, vol. 1 #253
  30. ↑ X-Men: Legacy (Vol.) 1 #250
  31. ↑ X-Men: Legacy #253
  32. ↑ X-Men: Legacy #252
  33. ↑ X-Men: Legacy #251
  34. ↑ X-Men: Legacy #253
  35. ↑ X-Men: Legacy #249
  36. ↑ X-Men: Legacy #251
  37. ↑ "Professor X". Marvel.com. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  38. ↑ Ultimate X-Men #15-19 (2002)
  39. ↑ New Mutants (Vol. 3) #24
  40. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (14 October 2015). "'X-Men' Marvel TV Dramas Set: FX Orders 'Legion' Pilot, Fox Developing 'Hellfire'".
  41. ↑ Huver, Scott (2016-06-30). "Simon Kinberg Talks Star Wars Canon, Teases FX's 'Very Different' X-Men Series 'Legion'". Moviefone. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  42. ↑ "Bryan Singer, Peter Rice in Edinburgh Talk FX's 'Legion,' Start of 'X-Men' Movie Franchise". Hollywood Reporter. 2016-08-25. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  43. ↑ "Dan Stevens, Aubrey Plaza & Jean Smart Cast in FX Networks' Pilot for 'Legion'". News - Marvel.com.
  44. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (February 22, 2016). "'Legion' FX Pilot Casts Amber Midthunder". Deadline.
  45. ↑ "FX NETWORKS PICKS UP 'LEGION' TO SERIES". Marvel. May 31, 2016.
  46. ↑ Hawley, Noah (director); Noah Hawley (writer) (February 8, 2017). "Chapter 1". Legion. Season 1. Episode 1. FX.
  47. ↑ Gordon, Dennie (director); Jennifer Yale (writer) (March 22, 2017). "Chapter 7". Legion. Season 1. Episode 7. FX.
  48. ↑ Uppendahl, Michael (director); Noah Hawley (writer) (March 29, 2017). "Chapter 8". Legion. Season 1. Episode 8. FX.
  49. ↑ Mielants, Tim (director); Noah Hawley & Nathaniel Halpern (writer) (April 3, 2018). "Chapter 9". Legion. Season 2. Episode 1. FX.
  50. ↑ Amirpour, Ana Lily (director); Noah Hawley & Nathaniel Halpern (writer) (April 10, 2018). "Chapter 10". Legion. Season 2. Episode 2. FX.
  51. ↑ https://ew.com/tv/2018/06/12/legion-season-2-finale-noah-hawley-interview/
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