Legion (Marvel Comics)

Legion Quest/Age of Apocalypse

Years later, David awakens from his coma, believing his psyche to be fully healed. When he had killed Destiny, David had absorbed her psyche. Destiny gave David vague prophetic guidance about the great world that could exist "if only, years ago, Professor X had been given a real chance to fulfill his dream." David understood these words as a directive to travel back in time and kill Magneto, Xavier's greatest adversary, to allow Professor X to achieve the dream of human-mutant coexistence.

As the X-Men attempt to stop him, Legion travels twenty years into the past, accidentally taking the X-Men with him. When Legion attempts to kill Magneto, Xavier intervenes and is killed, erasing Legion from existence and creating the "Age of Apocalypse" timeline. Ultimately, Bishop repairs the timeline by enlisting the aid of the new reality's X-Men to travel back in time to the moment of Xavier's murder. Bishop confronts Legion, creating a psionic loop that shows him the damage that his actions would cause. David allows the energy to incinerate him, in his last moments apologizing for what he had done.

Return

It is later revealed that David was transported to Otherplace, a timeless interdimensional limbo, and manifested thousands of alternate personalities. David wanders through Otherplace for an untold period of time, trying to return home. Magik, a mutant able to travel across dimensions, contacts one of David's alters, "The Legion," who can alter reality at a cosmic scale. Magik offers to guide Legion back to this dimension, provided that The Legion would aid her by destroying her nemeses, the Elder Gods.

David re-manifests in the physical world, although his primary personality has been imprisoned in his mindscape by his other alters, allowing the more malicious alters to control his body. One of these alters kills and absorbs the mind of a young girl, Marci Sobol, who becomes another alter within Legion. Legion battles the X-Men until Karma and Magik help him regain control of his body. Afterwards, he is placed in the care of Professor X, Doctor Nemesis, Danger, and Rogue.

Weeks later, Magik brings the Elder Gods to Earth and causes catastrophic destruction across the world. Karma awakens The Legion to fulfill its bargain, erasing the Gods from existence and resetting the world to before they had manifested. After this, David is taken back into the care and treatment of the X-Men.

Age of X

Believing that David's psyche would be healed if his alters were quarantined, Doctor Nemesis begins to catalog and contain these alters within David's mind. Unbeknownst to Doctor Nemesis and Professor X, David's mind subconsciously perceives this intervention as a threat and creates a "psychic antibody," a powerful new personality, to defend itself. The new personality has a degree of David's underlying ability to alter reality and time. Assuming the appearance of Moira McTaggert, the personality attempts to 'protect' Legion from the 'assault' on his mind by creating a pocket reality where Legion was the hero that he always wanted to be.

The alternate pocket reality, the Age of X, is a dystopia in which mutants are nearly hunted to extinction; the remaining mutants are kept alive by Legion's mutant team, the Force Warriors, who create a force wall to repel attacking human forces. Legion remains unaware that one of his personalities had created this world, and most of the mutants who had been brought into the reality by 'Moira' believed that they had always been there. After learning the truth, Legion speaks to 'Moira,' who offers to create as many universes for him as he wanted. Instead, David absorbs 'Moira' and erases the Age of X reality, restoring its inhabitants to Earth-616.

Lost Legions

With the Age of X incident underscoring the potentially apocalyptic scope of David's power, Professor X proposes a new approach to help Legion retain control of himself. Instead of isolating David from his alters, Professor X suggests that he learn to co-exist with them. To this end, Doctor Nemesis, Madison Jeffries, and Reed Richards designs a wristband that allows David to access the powers of his alternate selves without being controlled by them. However, this caused six of his alters to escape his mind. While tracking down and re-absorbing the alters, David accidentally absorbs Rogue and suffers severe nervous damage after releasing her time.

The Fiend

To aid his recovery, Professor X leaves David with Merzah, a powerful empath and telepath who ran a Himalayan monastery. While at the monastery, David gained much greater control of himself, and he stops using the wristband. Under Merzah's tutelage, David creates a facility in his mind where his alters are kept and controlled. While David is at the monastery, Professor X is killed. When Legion senses this, the mental shock causes a catastrophic release of energy that kills Merzah and everyone else at the monastery. David, reaching the full extent of his powers, erases himself from existence.

Trauma

For unknown reasons, David survives. His mind is again fragmented into many alters, including a malicious new alter, Lord Trauma. Lord Trauma aimed to take over David's mind and body. David is helped by psychotherapist Hannah Jones. While Jones was ultimately able to help Legion defeat Trauma, she remained trapped in David's psyche, while her body is in a vegetative state. To thank Jones, Legion places her psyche into a dream state where she achieves her biggest goals.

Reign of X

After the X-Men establish Krakoa as a mutant nation, Legion is captured by members of Orchis, who create a psychic weapon that they use to manipulate Krakoa's mutants. After rescuing Legion, Nightcrawler learns that the weapon is a restored Onslaught.

After the Hellfire Gala, Legion joins the Scarlet Witch and Proteus in enhancing Cerebro. They give it the ability to copy the minds of mutants who died prior to its creation and potential mutants who died before their X-Gene activated, enabling them to be resurrected.

Personalities

The following characters are different personalities of Legion that have appeared thus far, each one manifesting different powers:

• Jemail Karami (Personality #2) is a terrorist with telepathic abilities.
• Jack Wayne (Personality #3) is a roustabout adventurer who possesses telekinesis. This personality was often quite dangerous and would not hesitate to hurt or kill others if it would allow him to remain independent/free from David's control. Jack Wayne was later subsumed by the personality Lord Trauma.
• Cyndi (Personality #4) is a rebellious girl who possesses pyrokinesis. This personality of Legion has a crush on Cypher.
• The Legion (Personality #5, which claims to be Legion's "real me") can warp time and reality. Magik nicknamed this personality the "God-Mutant."
• Sally (Personality #67) is an obese woman who possesses immense strength.
• Lucas (Personality #115) can channel sound into energy blasts.
• Personality #181 can enlarge himself to an undetermined size. This was the first power Legion utilized with the Neural Switchboard Wristband.
• Johnny Gomorrah (Personality #186) can transmute objects into salt.
• Time-Sink (Personality #227) can manipulate time.
• Personality #302 can move at supersonic speeds.
• Styx (Personality #666) can absorb the consciousness of anyone he touches, turning that person's body into a shell that he can then control. The possessed individual can still access any special abilities they have, and there does not appear to be a limit to the number of individuals simultaneously controlled. David considers this manipulative personality his most dangerous, because it is clever, cruel, and extremely ambitious. Styx was able to become independent from Legion, manifesting as a desiccated corpse, and tried to take control of Legion himself, so that he could use Legion's reality-altering powers to remake the world according to his will. Legion, using the power of his Chain personality, managed to trick and reabsorb Styx.
• Personality #762 is a pirate who can generate acidic gas.
• Personality #898 is a centaur.
• Delphic (Personality #1012) is a blue-skinned, seemingly-omniscient female seer who will answer any three questions from supplicants.

Legion personalities that have not been assigned numbers include:

• Absence is an alien/demon creature with its eyes sewn shut who claims to have traveled through different realities and can siphon heat and love.
• Bleeding Image is a living voodoo doll who can redirect and amplify the pain from any injury he inflicts on himself onto his victims. Bleeding Image later gains independence, but is destroyed by Magneto.
• Chain is effectively a human virus who turns anyone he touches into a copy of himself with a new weapon. The power dissipates when the original is dealt with.
• Chronodon is a dinosaur with a clock on its face. Based on its name and appearance, it can be assumed that it can manipulate time in some way.
• Clown is a surly-looking clown who can blast energy from his mouth.
• Compass Rose can locate any person and teleport to them.
• The Delusionaut is a train driver with a billow stack for a head who uses the smoke that he exudes to create realistic illusions. He manifested outside of Legion to help him at one point, and eventually was one of the personalities that volunteered to meld together to form Gestalt.
• Drexel is a foul-mouthed simpleton with super-strength.
• Endgame is a huge and aggressive armor that instantly manifests the perfect counter to any attack executed against it.
• The Fiend/"Charles Xavier" is a dangerous personality David created following the mental shock of the death of his father Professor X. The Fiend manifests as either a yellow goblin-like creature or in the guise of Professor X. The Fiend has significant psychic abilities, including precognition and possession, and can kill other Legion personalities in Legion's mind, absorbing their power. Eventually, the Fiend became independent from David and tried to help him retain more control of himself.
• Findel the Finder can find anyone across the galaxy.
• Gestalt is a powerful fusion of several Legion personalities with the core personality of David himself, allowing the abilities of these personalities to manifest simultaneously under David's control. Legion created Gestalt to successfully repel an attack on his mind.
• Hugh Davidson is a stereotypical prepster with a long prehensile tongue.
• Hunter is a macho-man personality David's mind created to replace Jack Wayne, when that personality was subsumed by the Lord Trauma personality.
• Hypnobloke is a gentleman with flashing swirls for eyes who wears a top hat and carries a pocket watch. He has the power of hypnotic suggestion.
• Joe Fury is an angry young man who can generate flame and other types of energy, and whom David struggles to repress.
• Kirbax the Kraklar is a demonic creature that can fly and generate electricity.
• Ksenia Nadejda Panov is a Moscovite heiress, discus-throwing champion, caviar exporter, and torturer of puppies. She has the ability to generate ionic scalpels from her fingers.
• K-Zek the Conduit is an android with the ability of far-field, concentrated wireless energy transfer (or WET).
• Lord Trauma. Trauma was eventually destroyed.
• Marci Sabol is a normal human girl who befriended David, but was killed and absorbed into him by the White Witch Doctor. She has significant influence within David's mindscape.
• Max Kelvin is a crotchety old man whose eyes protrude when he uses his powers of plasmatic flame generation.
• Moira Kinross/X is a mother figure created by David's mind to protect his mindscape from tampering. This persona, which could warp reality, became independent from David and created the dystopian pocket reality dubbed Age of X where David was seen as a hero. Within this pocket reality X was practically omnipotent, altering the mindsets and personalities of the fabricated entities in her reality.
• Mycolojester is a plant-like entity with the attire of a jester, who can emit toxic spores from his skin. These spores act as a powerful nerve gas, but can be dissipated by water. This personality volunteered to help David by merging with several other personalities to become Gestalt.
• Non-Newtonian Annie is a skinny purple woman dressed in pink clothes and cloaked in a "zero-tau nullskin" that does not conform to the law of conservation of energy (e.g., kinetic energy that hits it is immediately amplified and reflected directly back on its source).
• Origamist is one of the most powerful personalities in David's mind. He is a reality-warping sumo wrestler who can fold spacetime, allowing, among other things, instant teleportation of any object to any location.
• Protozoan Porter is a large green leech-like being who can teleport by disassembling himself into minuscule ameboid-like parts that reassemble after reaching his destination. This personality volunteered to help David by merging with several other personalities to create Gestalt.
• Pukatus Jr. is a small cherub-like demon who can vomit an acidic substance.
• Skinsmith can produce artificial skin on any surface or bend/alter the skin of others.
• Specs is a nervous young man with large glasses who can see through solid objects. This personality develops a romantic interest in Magma.
• Susan in Sunshine is a young girl with the ability to manipulate emotions.
• Tami Haar is a nightclub singer who is a friend and companion to David. She appears to have a master knowledge of David's mindscape, which among other things allows her to manifest in the real world.
• Tyrannix the Abominoid is a small hapless Cthulhu-like creature with telepathic powers. When David traveled within his mindscape, he often used Tyrannix as a backpack. Tyrannix was the first personality to volunteer to help David by melding to create Gestalt.
• The Weaver is a large arachnid creature who is wreathed in bright light. The Weaver can change and refabricate reality itself, and it is ultimately revealed to be either David's core self or a mirror of David. When David and the Weaver unite, he can observe and alter all time and space at will; David, aware of the extent and implications of this godlike power, attempted to unmake himself by erasing his own birth. For unknown reasons his attempt failed (it may have been undermined by other aspects of David's psyche), in the process creating the Lord Trauma personality.
• The White Witch Doctor is a murderous white man dressed as a witch doctor who killed Marci Sabol and absorbed her psyche into Legion, creating the Marci Sabol personality.
• Wormhole Wodo can open a wormhole between two points anywhere in the galaxy, allowing near instantaneous travel between them.
• Zari Zap is a young punk woman with short, spiked hair who can manipulate electricity.
• Zero G. Priestly is a robed priest who floats upside down and can control gravity.
• Zubar is a personality that likes to call himself "the Airshrike" and has the power to levitate himself.

Equipment

Following the Age of X, David briefly used a Neural Switchboard Wristband engineered by Doctor Nemesis, Madison Jeffries, and Reed Richards. This device allowed Legion to utilize a personality's power set for several seconds without being overwhelmed by that personality. However, he soon abandoned this and attempted instead to develop a more organic control over his personalities.

Origin of name

Legion's name is derived from a passage in the Christian Bible (found in Mark 5 and Luke 8). In it, Jesus asks a man possessed by many evil spirits what his name is, to which the man replies "I am Legion, for we are many".

Ultimate Marvel

The Ultimate Marvel incarnation of Proteus is a composite character with elements of Legion. This version is David Xavier, the son of Moira MacTaggert and Charles Xavier.

Ultimate Universe

An alternate universe version of David Haller from Earth-6160 appears in Ultimate Wolverine. This version was killed in a landslide alongside his mother Gabrielle Haller and transferred his consciousness into computer code. Sometime later, Beast found David's consciousness in cyberspace and convinced his personalities to work together. David's consciousness was placed in the Opposition's network, where his personalities worked together as "The One" to treat psychological issues.

Television

• Legion via David, Lucas, and an original personality named Ian, a young mute boy with pyrokinesis, appears in the X-Men: Evolution episode "Sins of the Son", voiced by Kyle Labine. This version's body transforms to reflect the personality controlling him. Additionally, due to the series' younger target audience, his connection to Professor X is toned down.
• A character partially based on Legion named Takeo Sasaki appears in Marvel Anime: X-Men,^{[dubious – discuss]} voiced by Atsushi Abe in the Japanese version and by Steve Staley in the English dub. Similarly to Legion, Takeo is the son of Professor X. Additionally, while Legion himself does not appear, he is stated to be responsible for creating "Demon-Hall Syndrome", a mutant affliction that manifests secondary mutations, such as multiple personalities, uncontrolled physical mutations, and psychological instability.^{[citation needed]}
• David Haller / Legion appears in Legion, portrayed by Dan Stevens as an adult; Tobias Austen and Noah Hegglin Houben as an infant; Sebastian Billingsley-Rodriguez as a toddler, Christian Convery, Luke Rosseler, and Jacob Hoppenbrouwer in different stages of his childhood; and Alex Mulgrew as a teenager. This version was diagnosed with schizophrenia instead of dissociative identity disorder whose reality-warping abilities are often confused with psionic abilities such as telepathy and telekinesis. Throughout the first season, he enters a relationship with body-swapping mutant Sydney Barrett and discovers the Shadow King has lived in his mind since childhood before the latter possesses another psychic mutant named Oliver Bird. In the second season, David pursues the Shadow King, only to join forces with him to avert a future plague and become more psychopathic. In the third season, David starts a cult and recruits a mutant with time-traveling capabilities called Switch to help him warn his parents Professor X and Gabrielle Haller. However, he puts his mother into a catatonic state. Eventually, he confronts his father before attempting to kill the Shadow King for ruining his life, but reconciles with him instead, creating a new timeline in the process.
  • Additionally, an alternate reality version of David resembling his comic book counterpart appears in the episode "Chapter 18", also portrayed by Stevens.

Solo series

X-Men Legacy volumes 1–4 were rereleased as Legion: Son of X volumes 1–4 in 2018.

Storylines