FX premiered its first X-Men related TV show Legion on Wednesday, which is about a man named David Haller who thinks hes mentally ill or an incredibly powerful mutant. Despite some close ties to the X-Men, David isn’t an A-list mutant in the X-Men world so below is everything you need to know.
Origins
David is an omega level mutant, but being a powerful mutant runs in his family as his father is Professor Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men. Davids mother is a human named Gabrielle Haller who met Xavier while he was working in Israel as a Doctor. The two eventually fell in love which resulted in Gabrielle becoming pregnant, but Gabrielle hid her pregnancy from Xavier until he left Israel and when David was born she hid his fathers identity from him.
David life as a child was filled with horror and tragedy as he witnessed his step father being killed by terrorists, the trauma of the situation triggered Davids psychic mutant powers. In a fit of rage David destroyed the minds of the terrorists but in the process David became psychically linked to all of his victims, experiencing the moments of their deaths while he also absorbed the mind of the terrorist leader Jemail Karami, into his own. The shock was too much for a young David and he fell into a coma and was brought to Muir Island under the care of Doctor Moira McTaggart who is a close ally to the X-Men.
Powers
The stress of using his powers for the first time didn’t just send David into a coma, his mind split into different pieces giving him multiple personality disorder. The primary personalities in Davids mind include Jemail Karami, adventurer Jack Wayne and Cyndi who is a rebellious teenage girl. These personalities fought for control for Davids mind both during and after his coma. Davids powers were so out of control that he wound inadvertently absorb the minds of people around him without meaning to. Xavier was eventually told the David was his son and he help him suppress his multiple personalities.
Although most mutants only develop one ability but because of Davids fractured mental state and his ability to absorb peoples minds he can keep adding different powers of mutants he comes into contact with. However each personality control a different power, the Jemail Karami persona has telepathy, Jack Wayne has telekinesis and Cyndi can control fire. David himself can only absorb peoples minds.
Other powers that David has manifested through his mind absorption include super strength, speed, flight, teleportation, sonic scream and reality manipulation. He even traveled back in time once to kill Magneto but ending up causing his fathers death instead and created the alternate reality called Age of Apocalypse where the villain Apocalypse ruled the world. Theres also been rare occasions were all of the personalities have merged to become “Legion” which is a quote from the bible. “I am Legion, for we are many.”
Over time David has leaned to control the personality without the help of Xavier, Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four created a device called a Neural Switchboard Wristband which allowed David to access his different powers without the split personalities taking over. But in the Avengers vs X-Men storyline in 2012 ended with the death of Xavier, it made David once again loose his grip over his personalities and abilities.
Not an X-Men
Despite his strong ties the X-Men through his Father, David tries to keep himself separate from the events and goings on of the X-Team mostly because of the dangers he poses to them and the rest of the world. Although he has been an ally to the X-Men, hes mostly been their foe in several stories through the years when another personality takes over and attacks the team. Because of this and his loner nature, David tends to keep himself isolated from the world.
In fact David doesn’t currently exist in the Marvel Comic Universe. Back in 2014 during the Legacy storyline David learns thats he gonna eventually kill all of mutant kind. So to prevent this he once again merges all of his personalities to become Legion and uses his reality warping powers to wipe himself out of existence with everyone’s memories of him gone. But with the premiere of Legion on Wednesday and its first episode having positive reviews, you don;t need physic power to know that David Haller will make his way back to the Marvel Universe in the future.
Back in July at this years San Diego Comic Con DC released a surprise Justice League trailer, while I was excited to see the first footage of Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman, I was thinking to myself that something doesn’t add up.
Back in February 2015, long before Batman v Superman came out, directer Zach Snyder released an image of Aquaman that says “Unite the Seven”. The Seven in question could refer to the Seven seas which is Aquamans kingdom but I doubt Atlantis will be a huge location for the JL movie that Zach Snyder is hyping it up on his Twitter.
The seven most likely refers to the Justice League itself which originally and always has seven members in its roster. But Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg only adds up to six so who’s missing? In the trailer there doesn’t seem to be any hint of a seventh member but we don’t see superman either so theres definitely more to come from the film. Could a surprise hero be ready for action or is Zach Snyder trying to mislead us with his teaser image?
Aside from Cyborg who DC has featured more prominently in recent years including making him a member of the rebooted Justice League in the comics, the other five are core members. Below are some superheros I think could be the likely candidates in Uniting the Seven.
Green Lantern
Green Lantern is one of the characters lined up for their own movie in 2020, and GL is a founding member of the league so its seems likely that Green Lantern could make an appearance. Just don’t ask me which Green Lantern will appear since there are 3 regularly featured lanterns: Hal Jordan, John Stewart and Kyle Rayner. John Stewart was the lantern that appeared in the Justice League cartoon so hes the one lantern that audiences will recognize and the one that might appear in the Justice League film. The 2020 lantern film will be called Green Lantern Corps and will feature Hal, John and Kyle as they are Earth based Green Lanterns as well as other lanterns from all over the Galaxy. Which ever lantern shows up first lets just hope we never see Ryan Reynolds as the character ever again!
Shazam
Shazam is the other sometime featured Leaguer with a movie due to come out in 2019. Shazam is basically the magical version of Superman. As a lesser known character it would make sense to try and built him up a bit in Justice League to excite move-goers rather than having his solo film come out and everybody have no idea who he is. But since Shazam is similar to superman it wouldn’t be good for variety if they had two heroes on the same team with similar powers and appearance.
Green Arrow
Green Arrow is another longstanding member of the Justice League who has a high profile thanks to Stephen Amell who currently plays him in Arrow. As popular as Arrow is, DC and Warner Brothers might want elevate that popularity by having Oliver Queen appear in Justice League and get more of a fan base for Arrow as well as its Spin-offs Flash, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow even tho Stephen Amell wont be playing the movie version of Green Arrow.
Martian Manhunter
J'onn J'onzz is the last remaining Justice League founding member who feels like a likely candidate thanks to his particular power set. His shape-shifting and psychic powers would be the perfect opportunity for him to be introduced at the last minute. He could be anyone and no one would know. He could turn up at the films final battle and reveal himself the JL and fight alongside them.
Zatanna
Zatanna might not be a household name but she has the benefit of being one of the limited number of female heroes with a strong association to the league and more specifically batman. Zatanna’s magic works by speaking backwards which might be interesting to see on screen and it will also be good to have magic introduced to DC Extended Universe.
Mera
Aquamans wive already has the benefit of being in the film. She has some bad-ass water based powers and is a formidable fighter. In the comic shes not associated with team, shes only ever seen when Aquaman goes back to Atlantis. It could be a good idea to make her a member of the team as to have a another female on the team. If she isn’t going to be a member if the League she should at least have some significant screen time.
