Once more we follow Professor X’s son, David Haller,into the trenches and into his true coming of age story. Issue 21 left us off with David preparing to fight the twisted creature pretending to be his father and we jump into the fray right where we left off. For the first time in his life he recently had a questionable grip on his powers by living the mantra of ‘I Rule Me’ which has now turned from rule into equality. Regardless if he wants to admit it or not, in order to pull forth his true powers he is embodying his father’s dream.
It would appear the Golden Xavier has infested enough people with his hatred that he launched a nuclear attack in order to provoke counter attacks and attempt to erradicate all life on the planet. This time, though, Haller has called in help. It’s not the first time he’s asked for help but it’s the first time he’s asked all of the X-Men for help in a way that wasn’t manipulative and actually worked. One of their earliest missions was taking out a warhead so this was child’s play to the X-Men teams. The way Haller was able to have everyone come together in the face of the false Xavier’s hatred felt satisfying in a way that even an issue earlier would have felt false. That is the kind of character development Spurrier keeps throwing at us.
In the end the mutants defeat the host this false Xavier has created and prevented the end of the world. However, the creature is still on the loose and Legion is refusing to allow him to go on and return in the future and follows him into the dreamscape. Here they do battle and while at first it would appear that Haller is winning, we quickly come to a startling discovery.
The issue comes to a close with the Mindworm having actually been born. Since the beginning, this is the fate that has been prophesized for our young mutant and its outcome is supposed to only end in the death of Blindfold and all of mutant kind or with the death of David at her hands. With how many personalities David has though and how the Mindworm is tied to him that could very well be a false front and we’ll see a happy ending for these two afterall. Would I put money on that? Not at all. Spurrier has been writing a tragedy since Day 1 and while I’d love to see a moment of happiness for the two lovers he’s been developing for the run of this book, I wouldn’t put money on it.
It’s sad to see this book so close to its finale. I’ve loved that Spurrier has taken a character I couldn’t stand and make him one of the most interesting parts of Marvel right now. This is a testament to good story telling and while I’ll mourn this book’s close, I can’t wait to see how it wraps up.
X-MEN LEGACY #22
Writer: Simon Spurrier
Artist: Khoi Pham
