Born David Charles Haller
Within the
Marvel Universe, he was the son of
Charles Xavier and the Israeli ambassador to Great Britain, Gabrielle Halle. Legion led a harrowing life of torture and dismay and eventually destroyed himself in a
time travel plot to prove his love to his father.
Like his father, David was born a
mutant, and like Xavier David’s powers are mentally based. He was telepathic,
pyrogenic, psionic, and
telekinetic. Near the end of his life Haller even exhibited mental powers such as
teleportation and time travel. Unfortunately, where Xavier’s mind is strong and stable, his son’s shattered mind could not control the vast powers that it contained. Because of the
shock and trauma that David suffered at a young age the various personalities his mind split into controlled his various abilities.
Raised by his mother, David’s parents met when Xavier was traveling the world and briefly stayed to help the
American Red Cross efforts in Israel. Xavier left
Israel without knowing Gabrielle was pregnant, and Gabrielle kept the secret of his son until many years later. At the age of ten, while living with his mother in
Paris, terrorists bent on killing Israelis overran his home. They killed David’s godfather, which sparked a
neurological change in Legion. Being a mutant, this released his mutant power from its dormant state. He used this ability to incinerate the brains of the terrorists, but found that he made a psychic connection with each of his victims. He was able to feel the traumatic pain of their death. This placed David in a catatonic state.
During David’s coma, the consciousness of his victims awoke within him. Specifically, the mind of the leader for the terrorist squad, Jemail Karami. Using David’s telepathic abilities, Jemail was able to read David’s mind, discovering it to peaceful and child-like. He also read Gabrielle Halle’s mind, David’s mother, and deduced that she also was a good person. This prompted him to change his
anti-Semitic beliefs and begin working on reviving David’s poor shattered mind. He discovered that the trauma to David’s mind split it into multiple personalities, and that each personality controlled a different power that David possessed. Eventually Jemail was able to fuse most of the personalities back together and restore David’s mental stability.
David’s mother sent him to live with Dr. Moira MacTaggert on
Muir Island, knowing that Dr. MacTaggert was a mutant research specialist. There, David began manifesting his psionic abilities again, this time absorbing the minds of handful of people. One of these people was David’s own mother. Moira contacted
Charles Xavier, who arrived with the
New Mutants to try to control the situation. Once arriving, Xavier realized the boy was his son, and attempted to help. Legion (the multiple personalities within him calling themselves this from the quote in the bible, "My name is Legion for I am many".) absorbed most of them, leaving Professor X and
Mirage to venture into David’s mind to free everyone. The two eventually freed everyone’s mind to its rightful body, leaving David, his personalities, and Jemail Karami the only inhabitants of Legion’s mind.
After much rest David’s mind began to heal itself, the personalities fusing back together. This enabled the realization the further extent of his power. Although still emotionally scarred, David finally felt in control of his life. He used his new abilities to go back in time in an effort to prove the love of his father, Charles Xavier. He went back to a time in Israel when his parents were just meeting and planned to murder the mutant who would become
Magneto, his father’s most heated enemy. Unfortunately, he accidentally killed Xavier instead, thus negating his existence. The events that he had set into action would begin the so-called "
Age Of Apocalypse" which was eventually restored by the time-displaced mutant
Bishop.
After Legion's death, David's multiple personalities ran rampant throughout
Israel until the mutant hero Sabra and hero team
Excalibur convinced them to let go of this world.
Although his time in the Marvel Universe was Brief, I always enjoyed reading stories about Legion. Those comics always seemed psychodelic in the art design, while the story reflected this tortured, scared little boy. His death heavily impacted Xavier, and has helped to shape the
X-Men books in a more realistic and somber approach.