Warning: Contains spoilers for Legion of X #2
The son of Professor Xavier, the almost-omnipotent mutant known as Legion (David Haller), is embarking on a path to become the God of the X-Men. After regaining his often-slippery sanity and using his abilities to create a literal paradise on Krakoa, Legion has been accosted by a mysterious figure called Mother Righteous who is promising him an even greater power that could turn David into an actual god.
David Haller is the son of Professor X and Israeli ambassador Gabrielle Haller. Legion is one of the strongest Omega-level mutants, having the ability to create spontaneous mutations with various powers. Every time he generates a new mutation, David also creates a new persona (or alter) to govern it, resulting in Dissociative Identity Disorder and more than 200 personalities residing inside his mind, each one an Omega-level mutant. Over the years, Legion’s unstable condition and immense power created many problems for himself and the X-Men (including accidentally generating the Age of Apocalypse timeline). After the Nation of Krakoa was established, David moved there, and despite his father Charles’s lack of trust he was able to maintain control and help Krakoa flourish. Legion created a real Utopia better than Krakoa, a special pocket dimension in the Astral Plane called the House of L, existing in his mind and accessible through a gate on Arakko. This became a major attraction for Krakoans, who use it as a space to freely express themselves without the constraints of a physical body.
Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner), who is one of Legion’s most trusted friends, uses the House of L to preach his philosophy of “The Spark”, and later made it the base of operations for his own peace-keeping agency called “The Legionnaries”. However, the Astral Plane can be a dangerous place, and Legion’s activities have attracted the attention of Mother Righteous, a self-proclaimed trader, who deals with spirits, spells, demons, and more importantly, gods. In Legion of X#2, by Si Spurrier, Jan Bazaldua, and Federico Blee, Mother Righteous makes Legion an offer: she will give him “the power to be better“, to make a real difference for his people, in exchange for faith and gratitude towards her.
While Mother Righteous’ offer (and her price) is not very clear, she does specify that she trades in ideas, and even explains that “gods” are nothing more than “ideas that turn belief into power“. Legion of X has been dealing with the concept of gods in many ways, showing that the mutants of Arakko have a complicated relationship with divine beings, and reinforcing the idea that the “gods” of the Marvel Universe are metaphysical abstractions taken form through the output of faith from believers. Mother Righteous’ references to belief and faith as the foundation of gods, then, could be a hint that she is offering Legion the chance to be worshipped as a God by the people of Krakoa.
Such an outcome could have interesting consequences. Legion already holds powers on the level of a god, and he has built an actual paradise that leads his fellow Krakoans who use the House of L to see him as a divine being of sorts. Also, Nightcrawler is on a quest to give Krakoa its own form of faith (even if he calls it philosophy), and his close relationship with Legion means that Kurt could see David as the answer to his questions. All these plot strands could come together and make Legion rise up to the position of religious figure for Krakoa (with Mother Righteous’ help), meaning that the son of Professor X could soon become the official god of the X-Men.
Legion of X #1 is available now from Marvel Comics!
