Guide to Legion, David Haller (Early Access for ALL Patrons!) (Patreon)

I'm back with a brief guide for an obscure character - yet, he's one who has been getting an outsized amount of attention thanks to having his own television show...

Legion, David Haller - The Definitive Reading Order and Collecting Guide 

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Because this a brief guide with potentially wide appeal, I've decided to release it to all Patrons as a thanks for your amazing support these past few months!

David Haller is a son that Professor Charles Xavier never knew he had until his introduction in New Mutants #26-28 - and neither did we! 

Haller is the product of Xavier's brief (and somewhat unethical) affair with his patient and eventual colleague Gabrielle Haller, a noted attorney (and, later, an ambassador). When the Haller family becomes the target of terrorism, David unconsciously defends himself with his prodigious mutant powers. 

David's survival comes with a steep cost - his psyche becomes fractured by a post-traumatic dissociative disorder and his nascent powers are shattered along with it.

This is how we (and the New Mutants) meet David - a teenager in a coma, a boy in arrested development, and a trio of subconscious personalities all fighting for control of his body and his powers.

After his introduction, Legion becomes the unwitting driver of two of the biggest X-Men stories of the 90s. 

First, he is manipulated by the Shadow King in a storyline that climaxes in the Muir Island Saga, which results in the reunification of the X-Men teams in the blockbuster X-Men (1991) #1.

Then, a few years later, a vengeful David awakens from a vegetative state determined to travel to the past to murder Erik Lehnsherr, who we know as Magneto, convinced that it will lead to a stable life for his mother and father. That plan goes awry, and as a result we wind up in the Age of Apocalypse.

Legion is neither seen nor heard from in continuity for over 15 years after that fateful alternate reality story, until his return over the course of the first few arcs of New Mutants in 2009 and then in Age of X before graduating into his star-making turn anchoring X-Men: Legacy at the start of Marvel Now.

He returned to the spotlight earlier this year in a limited series, and it seems he may be back this November in the relaunch Uncanny X-Men.

Every one of those appearances is detailed in this guide, so you can read only the most-significant Legion stories. Or, if you want, you can track own every page where he's ever cameoed!

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What's up next for comic guides? I've been feeling stuck up against a number of Marvel guides with tricky continuity, but I'm almost through with a guide for a DC character who has made big news in the past few months.

As always, I value your feedback - both on this new guide and in general. Don't hesitate to comment to let me know your thoughts.

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