Legion #1

Writer: Peter Milligan

Artist: Wilfredo Torres

Colorist: Dan Brown

Published by: Marvel Comics

Legion is one of those X-Men characters that I will admit I know more from reading up on him than I do from actually reading books that he is in. As everyone should know by now, Legion is the illegitimate son of Professor Charles Xavier who suffers from both physical and psychological trauma, as the small recap explains. The one thing to know, he suffers from a psychological disorder called dissociative identity disorder, and all these identities have their own power set making him an Omega-level mutant.

This book starts off with Legion in the middle or what appears to be a small county in Pennsylvania and his powers are going haywire. Milligan gives us hints of what is to come in Legion’s inner-monologue as we follow along the chaos: he needs to get somewhere, but he doesn’t know where. All the while he is trying to escape one of his personalities, Lord Trauma who is portrayed by black word balloons throughout the issue.

This is only one part of the book. The other, as we learn very quickly, is the purpose of Legion’s so-called quest: he is seeking out the professional help from a very well known psychologist to the stars: Dr. Hannah Jones. In Legion’s mind, he believes that she will be able to help him take control of his life. However, Lord Trauma has different ideas, and you see throughout the issue that he is able to manifest himself outside of Legion’s sphere of influence which will lead to trouble I’m sure.

The pacing of the issue, I would say, is near-perfect for a first issue in a mini-series - we already know, for once, that this series will be 5 issues long. Milligan does a great job setting up the character of Legion and Dr. Johnes right off the bat, and gives us glimpses of what Lord Trauma is capable of doing, establishing him as a formidable antagonist for the series.

Art duties for a book on Legion can sometimes be tricky, but Wilfredo Torres is up to the task. Legion having so many different power sets will always lead to some spectacular visuals under a steady hand and that is what Torres brings to the table. Everything is sufficiently weird to work.