Legion (David Charles Haller) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, typically as a villain or supporting character in stories featuring the X-Men and related characters. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Bill Sienkiewicz, the character first appeared in New Mutants #25 (March 1985).
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 was portrayed by Dan Stevens in the FX television series Legion (2017–19), which was developed, written, directed, and produced by Noah Hawley.
Publication history
Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Bill Sienkiewicz, Legion first appeared at the conclusion of New Mutants #25 (March 1985) leading to his full story appearance in the following issue: 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, was living with his mother and stepfather in Paris when his home was attacked by terrorists and his stepfather was killed. The trauma of the situation caused an initial manifestation of David's mutant powers, as David incinerated the minds of the terrorists. In the process, he unintentionally absorbed the mind of the terrorist leader, Jemail Karami, into his own. Being linked to so many others at their time of death, David was rendered catatonic for years. As he slowly recovered, he was moved to the care of Moira MacTaggert at the Muir Island mutant research facility. The trauma (possibly in conjunction with the nature of his reality-altering powers) caused David's mind to dissociate chronically until it became Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), each alter manifesting different mutant abilities.
The Karami alter, which manifested telepathic abilities, struggled for years to separate his consciousness from David's. In the process, Karami tried to unify as many alters as he could, trying to end David's catatonic state. Some of the alters resisted Karami, most notably Jack Wayne, a swaggering adventurer who was telekinetic, and Cyndi, a temperamental, rebellious girl who was pyrokinetic. Ultimately Karami, Wayne, and Cyndi continued to exist as David's most prominent alters.
During his time at Muir Island, David saved Moira and Wolfsbane from a fatal accident by accessing the telekinetic abilities of his Jack Wayne alter. However, this allowed Jack Wayne to take control of David's body, and he left the island. The New Mutants tracked him down and, after a struggle, convinced Wayne to allow David to again assume control. Soon after, David was possessed by the Shadow King. While under the Shadow King's influence, David killed the mutant Destiny and destroyed 2/3 of the island. When the X-Men and X-Factor defeated the Shadow King, David was again left in a coma.
Legion Quest/Age of Apocalypse
Years later, David awoke from his coma believing his psyche fully healed. When he had killed the mutant precog 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.