David, first appeared in New Mutants No. 25 in March 1985, created by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz. During his time at an Israeli psychiatric facility, Charles Xavier meets Gabrielle Haller. They had an affair but when Gabrielle became pregnant, she never told Charles and as a result David was raised without a father.
When David was a child, he witnessed a terrorist attack in his own home and was the only survivor. As a result of the high trauma and pain, David’s mutant gene was revealed and he destroyed the minds of the terrorists. While doing this David accidentally absorbed and linked his mind the minds of the terrorists and went through the traumatic experience of experiencing their deaths. Due to this experience, David became catatonic. Moira MacTaggert, then, cared for David at the Muir Island mutant research facility. For years David struggled with dissociate identity disorder as a result of a terrorist he absorbed. David soon learned he has multiple personalities with each having a different power.
David eventually emerged from his catatonia and was possessed by the Shadow King, a mutant who increased hatred in the world and fed off of that hatred. David, as the Shadow King, had a run-in with the X-Men and his loss resulted into David going into a coma.
Xavier and MacTaggert where reunited years later and Xavier found out that he had a son that had been hidden from him for years. Xavier then tried to help David, but his son was too strong. Xavier found out that David’s several personalities called themselves “Legion.” This name comes from the biblical quotation Mark 5:9, “My name is Legion for we are many.” David then became a founding member of the New Mutants.
David is in a constant mental battle to regain his mind and control his several identities. Each of his identities has a different power. For example, Jack Wayne is an adventurer who has telekinetic powers and Cyndi is a short tempered and rebellious girl who can control fire. David is constantly discovering new power of each of his identities and his army of subconscious grows stronger every day.
Judging from the trailers, David will seem to have a different backstory than his roots from the comics. It is obvious that David has what he believes to be a mental illness. In the trailers he is seen to be talking to several different doctors and at one point they talk ask if David is still taking his medicine. One of the doctors seems to realize that David is a mutant, and a powerful one. Knowing the X-Men Universe, the doctors are probably looking to use David rather than help him. However, it is also possible that the doctors are truly trying to help and David is just unstable from his uncontrollable powers. In the trailers, David is seen escaping from the doctor and men with guns as he runs away with a strange girl. This may be the same girl that David believes to have taken his life while he took hers. Either way, Legion looks to be an interesting show and a nice spin-off to the X-Men films.
LEGION is set to premiere on February 8, 2017 and will feature eight episodes in its first season on FX.
LEGION is set to premiere on February 8, 2017 and will feature eight episodes in its first season on FX.
Written by James Philbrick, Profile Writer -- Click to read James' posts
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