Legion of X #6 Review/Spoilers - Holding the Line

[Rift]

I forgot about this tie-in until I was browsing the list of new releases this week. I was hoping for a She-Hulk issue, but Legion of X is always fun, right?

The Progenitor meets up with Legion, who's chilling on Olympus Mons. After Legion snarks at him, the Progenitor asks how Legion would choose to be judged. Legion asks him to settle a debate he was having with himself, on whether he did the right thing.

Legion mostly recaps the first J-Day issue of X-Men Red, before he gets to the part where he showed up to fight Uranos. Legion's plan was to keep him busy while he siphoned some energy to boost Nightcrawler, so Kurt and the others stop Uranny's machines and save all those innocents.

Legion vs Uranos. With their great and awesome powers, they clash in infinite ways: with timelines and ideas, futures and abstractions, fists and puns, dancing and Hellion trivia. (The latter of which I won.)



Stalemate. Uranos says that if they "Make real these visions," they could become undone and erase themselves from existence, time and memory. Legion says that he already did it, back in X-Men: Legacy. Uranos is confident Legion won't do it again this time, because he has more people who respect and need him, and the hope that he can one day become a leader.

Anossy asks Legion if he'd die for the people as they are now? People he hasn't guided or sculped? His father's people? Legion hesitates, and Uranos starts picking on his daddy issues to provoke him. Legion snaps and goes for a punch, but his moment of distraction is enough for Uranos to grab him, take command, and rip him apart - atom by atom.

But then Vox Ignis swooces right in and carries Legion off, saving him. Legion's pretty pissed, since he wanted to die/have a pity party over his self-confidence issues created by parental trauma.

Meanwhile, Nightcrawler saved thousands of people on Arakko my teleporting them to the Altar. Unfortunately, all that trauma flooding in brakes the Altar. On top of that, Uranos has machines attacking the Altar from the outside. Vox Ignis tells Legion that he needs to save his people.

So Legion fixes it. But by the time he's back on Arakko, Uranos is gone and Legion is denied his revenge. But he did walk in on Storm, Magneto and the metal Avenger dude working on their plan to stop Uranos. Legion asks to help, then immediately starts guilting Mags when he doesn't get his way. Magneto tells him to take care of every one of Uranos' weapons all at once, while they fight him. Hold the line. He trusts Legion for the job.

Since Legion got some positive affirmation from a father-figure, he does the job with ease. Then Magneto dies.

Data page: "Magneto was right." That is all.

Flashback over. Legion kind of wishes it was him who died a hero's death, instead of Magneto. Is the world a better place with Magneto dead, and Legion alive? Did he make the right choice? Did he deserve to be in a book, when Hellion had nary a cameo? Luckily, Jenny is here to judge him, and he gives David a thumb's up. He also explains that Hellion may long for a book, but the safety and well-being of his people is more important than his own wants. Legion - or any character, really - can justify their own existence in Hellion's eyes, by helping the people Hellion has dedicated his life and limbs to saving.

Invigorated by Hellion's approval, Legion insults the Progenitor.

[Proxy]

Shockingly I’m going to very nice about this issue (maybe I’ve been put in a good mood by Immortal X-men?). I actually enjoyed this issue and think that it was the best issue on Spurriers run so far.
The stuff with Legion was very moving and Nightcrawler once again was being his heroic self, going above and beyond to save thousands of lives; with help from Legion which to me very low key displays the new found friendship that has developed between them.

Very tiny nitpicks that don’t matter all that much:
I would have liked the other Legionaries to be involved in the rescue/evacuation, even if did steal some of Kurt’s spotlight
I couldn’t take Legions battle with Uranos seriously. Immediately I had ‘anything you can do’ from Annie get your gun in my head and that done me in.

[Rift]

My biggest complaint is that Legion's all about his daddy issues. Like we get it, girl. That's all you talk about. Go find an old man to get approval from and move on.

[JB]

Great recap as always. I enjoyed this issue as it was more Nightcrawler going above and beyond. To think, he rescued thousands with a screwed up arm (then got another screwed up arm), fought the Eternals on Krakoa, teleported about a thousand times with Cap, and EVERYTHING else he did in Immortal. He's an absolute all-star.

It was nice seeing Legion gaining the confidence he needed and that it was him handling the machines while Magneto and Storm handled Uranos. I have to agree with Proxy though about the battle with Uranos. It reminded me of some of the sillier X of Swords competitions, but I like that they ended at a stalemate and all of that happened within seconds, allowing him to assist Kurt with his rescue work. Good stuff!

[jwatson]

This wasn't a bad issue but i've come to the conclusion i just don't like this legion. I just really do not. During the whole fight i was rolling my eyes thinking he is this deep during his narration but utterly clueless in real scenes. Like i honestly tried to even feel bad about him because of magneto death but i ended up thinking "naw, he couldn't even ride such an excellent death coattails. " It was just so over the top and i think it would have worked better if there was a narrator or Craig was watching it and those descriptions are what he was saying as he felt completely overwhelmed by the battle happening around him that was somehow being projected to his thoughts or something but it felt like legion was not only patting himself on the back but rubbing himself at the same time. I mean dude is so like i guess triggering for me i even rolled my eyes at "it would have been nice if he asked first but..." i was like yup, thats legion even when nightcrawler is saving countless lives Legion has to let you know it's at the cost of him being violated but yay it's okay this time cause lives saved. Then why even mention it. And the daddy issues, wow, i haven't seen these kind of daddy issues since jessica found out she wasn't clint bio daughter but Natalie was on OLTL and that was told better. 0_0

[Proxy]

Great recap as always. I enjoyed this issue as it was more Nightcrawler going above and beyond. To think, he rescued thousands with a screwed up arm (then got another screwed up arm), fought the Eternals on Krakoa, teleported about a thousand times with Cap, and EVERYTHING else he did in Immortal. He's an absolute all-star.

He is indeed! Putting all he’s done into context throughout the different issues, Kurt has been an absolute BAMF during this event Definitely living up to his hero reputation.

[gonnagiveittoya]

For being dealt a mortal injury Mags sure did seem that have a lot of time to talk to everyone before he died

[Dante Milton]

This was a great issue for Legion, with a good balance of showing the extent of his power and how he is limited by his own insecurities. I liked the "fight" with Uranos showing just how wild a fight between two overpowered beings would be, and I'm glad it didn't take up the entire issue. I loved the scene with Magneto and seeing just how hungry David is for approval, although I would have liked a brief acknowledgement of their complicated history. I wish the timeline of this event was a lot cleaner. Pimentel's art was very good, though he draws David a bit too buff, and colorists always forget about his heterochromia.

[DarkMagnus]

Mags was (is?) a omega class Daddy. Obviously David will feel better with him than with Charles.

[JB]

This wasn't a bad issue but i've come to the conclusion i just don't like this legion. I just really do not. During the whole fight i was rolling my eyes thinking he is this deep during his narration but utterly clueless in real scenes. Like i honestly tried to even feel bad about him because of magneto death but i ended up thinking "naw, he couldn't even ride such an excellent death coattails. " It was just so over the top and i think it would have worked better if there was a narrator or Craig was watching it and those descriptions are what he was saying as he felt completely overwhelmed by the battle happening around him that was somehow being projected to his thoughts or something but it felt like legion was not only patting himself on the back but rubbing himself at the same time. I mean dude is so like i guess triggering for me i even rolled my eyes at "it would have been nice if he asked first but..." i was like yup, thats legion even when nightcrawler is saving countless lives Legion has to let you know it's at the cost of him being violated but yay it's okay this time cause lives saved. Then why even mention it. And the daddy issues, wow, i haven't seen these kind of daddy issues since jessica found out she wasn't clint bio daughter but Natalie was on OLTL and that was told better. 0_0

The "it was about here when Nightcrawler dropped the ball" line annoyed me. Like whatever man, Kurt is the MVP.

[jwatson]

The "it was about here when Nightcrawler dropped the ball" line annoyed me. Like whatever man, Kurt is the MVP.

Yes! it's like i really do want to root for him but he is always digging on the other characters or it's always some oh but my life.

But it's like Legion, what about your own hesitation even here. WIll that give you insight into how Charles had to make choices for the better good. Why not just end Uranus and yourself if you could and save countless others like Kurt did many times in this event alone from the issues i have read. Also the sarcasm felt like he was basically like "good, but simple kurt." good people can be simple but don't have to be simple minded so i really didn't like that implication. Then after all that when he could have been the martyr and hero he apparently wanted to be he then waxes poetic on if it should have been him or magneto. I didn't know someone with so many personalities could be a narcissist. But david feels like the worst personality in his head and i would never believe him being the weakest mind in there after this issue so it's time to put on his big boy underoos or something.

[BobbysWorld]

Yes! it's like i really do want to root for him but he is always digging on the other characters or it's always some oh but my life.

But it's like Legion, what about your own hesitation even here. WIll that give you insight into how Charles had to make choices for the better good. Why not just end Uranus and yourself if you could and save countless others like Kurt did many times in this event alone from the issues i have read. Also the sarcasm felt like he was basically like "good, but simple kurt." good people can be simple but don't have to be simple minded so i really didn't like that implication. Then after all that when he could have been the martyr and hero he apparently wanted to be he then waxes poetic on if it should have been him or magneto. I didn't know someone with so many personalities could be a narcissist. But david feels like the worst personality in his head and i would never believe him being the weakest mind in there after this issue so it's time to put on his big boy underoos or something.

To be fair, a case could definitely made for why somebody who's spent most of his life being seen as just one of a crowd or the guy with the infinite personalities absolutely WOULD be self-obsessed and fixated on his 'core' self - because he's so used to people not regarding him as an individual and so he's like, well someone's got to even if its just me.

From that angle, it'll be interesting to see if this issue marks a turning point in Spurrier's characterization for him, because the primary theme of it was David realizing he's now being regarded by people as just himself as a totality. Not one out of a Legion, but just HIM, they're actually seeing him and his actions as those of an individual....which in his own words, is pretty much all he's ever wanted. So....now according to Spurrier, he's got it. What does he do with that NOW, has a lot of potential.

Course, if Spurrier doesn't do anything with that shift in character trajectory and just goes right back to continuing on in the same vein as David's been characterized in previous issues, yeah, eventually, his co-star Kurt has every valid reason to just snap and go "Kid, you're venting your Daddy issues to a guy whose mother threw him in a river as a baby and whose own father literally only had him as a get out of jail free card. Read the room."

[jwatson]

To be fair, a case could definitely made for why somebody who's spent most of his life being seen as just one of a crowd or the guy with the infinite personalities absolutely WOULD be self-obsessed and fixated on his 'core' self - because he's so used to people not regarding him as an individual and so he's like, well someone's got to even if its just me.

From that angle, it'll be interesting to see if this issue marks a turning point in Spurrier's characterization for him, because the primary theme of it was David realizing he's now being regarded by people as just himself as a totality. Not one out of a Legion, but just HIM, they're actually seeing him and his actions as those of an individual....which in his own words, is pretty much all he's ever wanted. So....now according to Spurrier, he's got it. What does he do with that NOW, has a lot of potential.

Course, if Spurrier doesn't do anything with that shift in character trajectory and just goes right back to continuing on in the same vein as David's been characterized in previous issues, yeah, eventually, his co-star Kurt has every valid reason to just snap and go "Kid, you're venting your Daddy issues to a guy whose mother threw him in a river as a baby and whose own father literally only had him as a get out of jail free card. Read the room."

From this post to spurrier's desk. I for one hope this is rock bottom and from here David realizes he can make the type of amends he wants to see from others in himself, to heal himself because even if others don't accept when you come from a genuine place your heart and soul are calm and you can accept where they are and step accordingly.

[Cyclone_Ablaze]

This Issue was Ok.

The way I have interpreted this issue is that Legion was mad or sad that he didn't get his Pity Party and his Thunder was stolen by everyone else. Kinda Lame.

[Kingdom X]

My biggest complaint is that Legion's all about his daddy issues. Like we get it, girl. That's all you talk about. Go find an old man to get approval from and move on.

Yeah this was the first time I was really like… David please be serious. It’s one thing if Charles is in the room acting shady and triggering you, but you’re telling me that all someone has to do is call you a disappointment/ failure and your omega-level ass immediately starts shaking and crying?