Alongside the official Marvel NOW! Captain America announcement, the X-Men lineup gets refreshed with a bit of a surprise Friday morning. The Marvel NOW! X-Men: Legacy title is the most drastically different of the November relaunches so far, abandoning the team cast led by Rogue and replacing it with Professor Xavier's fractured son Legion. Legion has a huge array of psychic-based abilities, from telekinesis to pyrokinesis, from teleportation to time travel; the kicker, though, is that he's also completely fractured, and each of his myriad abilities is controlled by a corresponding personality... and they're not all very nice.
Si Spurrier and Tan Eng Huat are the creative team for the new title, marking Spurrier's first ongoing for Marvel Comics. The writer spoke with MTV Geek in his first interview, revealing more about the legion of possibilities (sorry) for the newest X-title.
The title's modus operandi won't drastically shift, though the lead character obviously has.
"In the past the title has been principally preoccupied with Xavier,
then Magneto, then Rogue... Now it's David's turn," Spurrier told MTV Geek. "The whole point of
doing things this way is that we get a really unique perspective on the
Marvel Universe in general and its mutanty side in particular. I tend to
think things take on a richer, more truthful flavour when they're being
processed through a character's direct filter, and it opens the door
(or in David's case, ha, doors) to a lot of interesting new stories."
David Haller's story will have him clashing with "familiar faces" from the X-Verse, but more importantly with familiar "concepts" from throughout the X-Men's history. As for David himself? Spurrier looks forward to trying to define exactly who he is, at his core.
"I hesitate to say too much about him because part of the journey we’ll
be taking is about meeting this amazing guy properly for the first time," said the writer. "He’s got a fascinating setup: he’s one of the most powerful beings in
the Marvel Universe but he can’t trust his own brain. That’s a
fantastic, and often spooky, tension."
Haller will pay homage to his Muir Island roots with a firmly Scottish accent, "sarcastic sniping" and "black gallows humor." Spurrier also sees him as a good guy overall, someone who wants "to make the world a better place."
"So, what’s his goal?" Spurrier poses of David.
"There’s obviously a redemptive arc in there, to cover all the horrible
collateral damage he’s caused during his messy life. More importantly,
there’s the practical consideration of how he can function in the real
world without accidentally tearing the universe a new s#!thole. Again, I
can’t say too much about that, but I think we’ve found a way to turn
David’s personal torment into a dynamic, intense, relatable struggle."
On Marvel.com, Spurrier got deeper into the problems, and possibilities, of David as a character.
"You mentioned the multiple personality thing, and—yeah. Historically,
that’s always been David’s “thing.” This guy has pretty much every
conceivable power accessible to him, but each one is under the control
of a separate dissociative personality, many of whom want nothing more
than to take over control of the host," the writer told Marvel. "Different writers have handled
that setup in very different ways, and that’s part of the problem of how
best to approach writing David as a cool, proactive, interesting but
empathetic character. Frankly, all too often in the past he’s been used
as a walking, talking plot point: the Angry Young Liability, the Ticking
Time Bomb, whatever. The real trick with this brand new start was to
find a way to rationalize—and, yes, visualize—David’s mental condition,
so it’s not just this Deus Ex Machina to be deployed whenever we need a
problem or a solution. If we’ve done it right—and I think we have—it
should provide just as much drama, conflict, action and explodo as the
more classical “external” adventures our guy is off having at the same
time."
As for oppostion, the writer is keeping coy about the big bad Legion will face, but assures readers it is very bad.
"Yes. Yes, there is. But I can’t say who it is. Or what it is. Or where
it is, or where it comes from. But it’s… yeah. It’s pretty nasty. And
you won’t see it coming."
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