Legion (David Charles Haller) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, typically as an antagonist or supporting character in stories featuring the X-Men and related characters.
He is the mutant son of 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 identities exhibits different mutant abilities or powers.
The character made his live-action debut in the FX television series Legion (2017–19), portrayed by Dan Stevens.
Publication history
Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Bill Sienkiewicz, Legion first appeared following the conclusion of The New Mutants #25 (March 1985) in Moira MacTaggert's notes, leading to his full story appearance in the following issue, The New Mutants #26 (April 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."
Fictional character biography While working in an Israeli psychiatric facility, Charles Xavier met a patient named Gabrielle Haller. The two had an affair which ended amicably. Gabrielle became pregnant with David, but did not tell Charles.Uncanny X-Men #161 (September 1982)The New Mutants #1 (March 1983)
David, at a young age, lives with his mother and godfather, Daniel Shomron, in Paris until Daniel is killed in an attack by anti-Semitic terrorists. The trauma of the situation causes an initial manifestation of David's mutant powers, as David incinerates the minds of the terrorists. In the process, he unintentionally absorbs the mind of terrorist leader Jemail Karami and is rendered catatonic for years. As he recovers, David is moved to Moira MacTaggert's care at Muir Island. The trauma, possibly in conjunction with his powers, causes David to develop dissociative identity disorder, with each alter manifesting different mutant abilities.The New Mutants #27 (May 1985)
The Karami alter, which manifested telepathic abilities, struggles for years to separate his consciousness from David's. In the process, Karami attempts to unify as many alters as he could, trying to end David's catatonic state. Some of the alters resist Karami, most notably Jack Wayne, a swaggering adventurer who was telekinetic, and Cyndi, a temperamental, rebellious girl who was pyrokinetic. Karami, Wayne, and Cyndi persist as David's most prominent alters.The New Mutants #26–28 (April - June 1985)
During his time at Muir Island, David saves Moira and Wolfsbane from a fatal accident by accessing the telekinetic abilities of Jack Wayne. However, this allowed Wayne to take control of David's body and leave the island. The New Mutants track him down and convince Wayne to allow David to again assume control.The New Mutants #44 (October 1986) Soon after, David is possessed by the Shadow King. Under the Shadow King's influence, David kills Destiny and destroys 2/3 of Muir island.Uncanny X-Men #255 (December 1989) When the X-Men and X-Factor defeat the Shadow King, David is left comatose.X-Factor #70 (September 1991)
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."X-Men (vol. 2) #38 (November 1994) 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.X-Men Omega one-shot (June 1995)
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.The New Mutants (vol. 3) #3 (September 2009) Magik, a mutant able to travel across dimensions, contacts one of David's alters, "The Legion," who can alter reality at a cosmic scale.The New Mutants (vol. 3) #20 (February 2011) Magik offers to guide Legion back to this dimension, provided that The Legion would aid her by destroying her nemeses, the Elder Gods.The New Mutants (vol. 3) #21 (March 2011)
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.The New Mutants (vol. 3) #1 (July 2009) Legion battles the X-Men until Karma and Magik help him regain control of his body.The New Mutants (vol. 3) #4 (October 2009) Afterwards, he is placed in the care of Professor X, Doctor Nemesis, Danger, and Rogue.The New Mutants (vol. 3) #5 (November 2009)
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.X-Men: Legacy #244 (March 2011)
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.X-Men: Legacy #245–248 (April - July 2011)
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.X-Men: Legacy #249 (July 2011) While tracking down and re-absorbing the alters, David accidentally absorbs Rogue and suffers severe nervous damage after releasing her time.X-Men: Legacy #253 (October 2011)
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.X-Men: Legacy (vol. 2) #1 (January 2013) 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.X-Men: Legacy (vol. 2) #2 (January 2013) David, reaching the full extent of his powers, erases himself from existence.X-Men: Legacy (vol. 2) #24 (April 2014)
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 by absorbing all of David's other alters. In a desperate attempt to save himself, David seeks out the help of psychotherapist Hannah Jones.Legion #1 (March 2018) 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.Legion #5 (July 2018)
X-Men Dissassembled As the X-Men race around the globe to fight the temporal anomalies that have been springing up and to corral the hundreds of Jamie Madrox duplicates wreaking havoc, Legion arrives at the X-Mansion, seemingly in control of his powers and psyche. While the young X-Men try to ascertain what he wants, elsewhere Jean Grey and Psylocke team up to psychically purge whatever force is controlling the army of Madrox duplicates. Finding the prime Madrox imprisoned below the area where the army of duplicates are congregating, he explains that Legion imprisoned him and implanted his alters and powers into the hundreds of duplicates. However, with his control broken, Legion goes berserk in the mansion, attacking the young X-Men and ranting about a vision of the future. The rest of the X-Men arrive to help but Legion singlehandedly takes on the whole team until he and Jean Grey go head-to-head. Legion then explains that he is trying to prevent a vision of the future – the arrival of the Horsemen of Salvation – but just as Legion mentions them, the Horsemen arrive.Uncanny X-Men (vol. 5) #3 (January 2019)
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.Way of X #1–2 (June - July 2021)
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.X-Men: The Trial of Magneto #5 (February 2022)
Powers and abilities