X-Men Legacy has been a new and interesting take on the series since it hit the current Now! relaunch 10 issues ago. Instead of focusing on a team of  X-Men, we now just follow Xavier’s son Legion. The character of Legion used to annoy the hell out of me but Simon Spurrier’s take on him has completely changed my outlook. Being able to see how much he has to fight to use his powers and watching him develop and follow his point of view has been done through some absolutely amazing writing and the internal struggle as illustrated by Paul Davidson has helped to make this title.

In X-Men Legacy #11, we found that Legion had a new goal. With his visions of an apocalyptic future that he would be the cause of, it would appear that he has been searching for a cure to his powers. Legion is willing to take a pill that has been developed by a group of anti-mutants and he appears to be willing to lose his powers in order to prevent this scenario from happening.

Of course there’s a twist. A book about a mutant losing his powers and no longer being one of the most powerful mutants in the world would probably get dull pretty quick. That being the case we find out that the figurehead of the organization is truly just that, as someone else is pulling his strings. The Red Skull is behind the entire movement and is using it with his combined powers of Charles Xavier to try to manipulate the world into another anti-mutant uprising in order to gain more power for himself. Legion’s answer? He doesn’t care – give him the pill already!

So with the man who butchered his father’s remains offering him salvation, you’d think there might be something else going on, and of course there is. Right as he is about to take the pill, his quasi-girlfriend Blindfold shows up with a team of mutants to save him. What they failed to realize is that the Skull had orchestrated all  this in order to have his puppet killed on national television with mutants to be blamed. Right as this occurs, Legion plays the first of his aces. He brings back the mutant from issue #8 whose power was to take credit for everything. He put this mutant in place to take credit for all of the good the organization had done and was able to defeat the Red Skull’s plans.

Again though, a madman with a limited amount of Xavier’s powers just won’t let this drop. As they begin to fight, things take a turn. The creature in Legion’s mind, who has been able to use his powers, takes this moment to make good on a deal they had struck where he can use Legion’s body for 1 minute. He uses this time to soundly defeat the Skull. His reasons aren’t for good though. He plans on using his powers to take over the Red Skull’s body with Xavier’s mind attached.

Great.

Quickly though Legion is able to have the X-Men there hold him back enough for the minute to pass and give him a chance to regain control of his body. During this struggle the Red Skull is, of course, able to get away (if he didn’t that wouldn’t be too good for the upcoming Avengers titles that he’ll be popping up in.)

He explains to Blindfold that the entire event had been a setup from when he had recently used his precognitive abilities. It was stopping the Red Skull that had mattered to him, and he feels that he will be able to prevent the end of the world at his hands by learning to better use his own powers.

Once again this is one of my favorite books on the shelves. Amazing writing and art can turn a previously dull character into something I constantly want to know more about. With this story arc coming to a close, I’m eagerly awaiting to see what is going to be coming up next!

X-MEN LEGACY #12
Writer: SIMON SPURRIER
Artist: Paul Davidson