The monster haunting David Haller (Dan Stevens) is revealed on Legion. We’ve seen horrific hints of the creature on the FX series inspired by the son of Professor X in the comics.
Legion paid off in a massive way, especially for longtime X-fans. But there’s something strange and new coming from the producers inspired by one of strongest mutants.
The big bad revealed – will it lead to the return of Professor X?
Before we continue here’s a SPOILER ALERT!
If you have not seen this week’s Legion episode stop reading now.
Seriously.
OK.
Here it comes.
In the comics David is Professor Xavier’s son born with multiple powers. Trauma triggered David to develop multiple personalities, each one seizing control of one of his powers. David was once seized by an psychic entity known as The Shadow King. This infamous villain was our number one unusual suspect behind this show’s mind games.
This week it was confirmed. Shadow King. It’s eerie when characters even say the name on screen. This iconic villain was created by the legendary team of Chris Claremont and John Byrne in Uncanny X-Men #117 in a flashback tale of Professor X’s encounter with Farouk in Cairo – and the first time we saw a duel on the astral plane.
The episode picked after last week’s twist.
David remains trapped in an astral plane prison after last week’s big reveal: Lenny was actually the monstrous man aka the parasite aka the demon with red eyes – but he wasn’t alone.
David created a new personality – and he’s British. The cool companion helped a frantic David remain calmer and piece together the missing pieces of his past. David (via giant astral plane chalkboard) reveals the monster is an enemy of his biological father who thought has been defeated. The monster actually hid within David as a baby like a parasite feeding off the mutant power within David while driving him crazy. The story plays out on the chalkboard and seems to pay homage to the villain’s first appearance in comics.
Oliver (Melanie’s estranged husband) revealed this parasite is Amahl Farouk and actually called him by his comic book code-name: The Shadow King.
Team David scored a huge victory. A device helped David isolate the parasite. Looking like a tiara, this device looks like the one Beast put on a Jean Grey after her psychic duel with Professor Xavier in the Dark Phoenix Saga. Xavier and Hank attempt to install psychic circuit breakers to hold the Phoenix entity in Jean’s mind. It didn’t work and the rest if comic book history.
Just when you think the Shadow King is imprisoned, David and his allies are safe – Division 3 storms in led by the interrogator from the first episode who survived the explosion. When David’s friends and his beloved Syd are threatened, it appeared the Shadow King cracked the prison…or is David letting out the monster against his enemies?
Big burning questions:
Is David in control of the Shadow King?
Who are David’s adoptive parents? Did they know Xavier? Did they know their new child was a mutant?
Is Professor Charles Xavier David’s real father? Is Gabrielle Haller (Xavier’s lost love and a world famous attorney in the comics) David’s mother?
Are producers paving the way for Professor Xavier to appear on the series even in flashback?
Who are Melanie and Oliver? The estranged scientists don’t resemble any characters from X-Men comics but could she be inspired by Dr. Moira MacTaggert? In the (X-Men: First Class, Apocalypse) films, Moira (Rose Byrne) is a CIA agent. In the comics Moira is a genetic researcher and former lover of the Professor. The scientist version of Moira appeared briefly in X-Men: The Last Stand. The events of that film didn’t happen when history was changed in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Could this mean another tragic mutant son could appear in future seasons? Proteus aka Mutant X? In the comics Moira had a mutant son she kept locked away because he possessed host bodies and burning through them until their are charred husks. Proteus has the power to warp reality. Can you imagine Legion vs Proteus? Can you imagine what Noah Hawley and his team could do with a character and power set like Mutant X?
This inspires a big question which just hit me as I wrote the last one: Is Legion set in the original timeline of the first three films?
While I’m throwing out crazy ideas – could Melanie Bird be a code for a famous bird from X-Men canon: the Phoenix?
OK I went too far.
Legion airs Wednesdays at 10pm on FX. The series has already been picked up for a second season.
By Editor