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. 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 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. 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. 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. When the X-Men and X-Factor defeat the Shadow King, David is left comatose.
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
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