A Guide to the Actual Legion Comic Characters the Series Is Based On

Our best guesses for who's who in Legion comic characters

Last year, FX premiered its X-Men franchise series Legion, about a mental patient who may actually be the most powerful mutant on the planet. Now in its second season, Legion has proven itself to be more than just your typical comic series. It’s beautiful and strange and completely unafraid to take risks. And it doesn’t set itself up to be a comic series, either. Sure, there are mutants. But it isn’t like we’ll ever see Wolverine in all his yellow and blue spandex glory. In fact, Marvel confirmed only two of Legion’s characters are based on X-Men characters.. The rest have only loose inspiration among existing characters. But with our deductive reasoning skills, we’ve managed to narrow down who exactly we think the Legion comic characters line up with on screen.

David Haller

David Haller is a schizophrenic mutant who may actually be the most powerful psychic on the planet. He’s spent time in an institution, so we know he’s crazy. We just don’t actually know how crazy he is. Although if we’re to take anything from those memory flashbacks/dream sequences, it’s a goddam lot.

Legion

[dx_custom_adunit desktop_id="RTK_K67O" mobile_id="RTK_5yk0"] David’s immense supply of powers comes in part from his ability to psychically absorb others’ consciousness when they die. It’s this ability that led to the character’s split personality disorder, in which each separate personality is in control of a separate power. We’ve yet to see this exact aspect of Haller on Legion, but there have definitely been a few hints that it’s coming.

Amahl Farouk

One of the oldest (he came to be sometime in the early 19th century) and strongest psychic mutants, Amahl’s power seems to come from his ability to parasitically implant himself into other psychic mutants. For the majority of season 1, he looked like the creepiest Mr. Potato Head on the f—ing planet. Because apparently, psychic parasites are also really into kids’ toys.

The Shadow King

Actually, the FX version of Amahl Farouk/the Shadow King is pretty close to the one presented in comics. He’s a psychic parasite, requiring a host to continue living. He’s also quite fond of food, which is a trait he passes along to each of his hosts. Because seeing some of our favorite X-Men turn into obese blobs on account of possession is always a super fun comic-y twist!

Lenny Busker

[dx_custom_adunit desktop_id="RTK_K67O" mobile_id="RTK_5yk0"] On Legion, Lenny is a figment of David’s imagination (or, more specifically, a disguise used by the Shadow King while he tinkered around in David’s brain). But she didn’t start out this way. She was actually a real patient and friend of David’s who got phased into a wall when Syd inadvertently set off a psychic blast.

One of Legion

If we’re going with comic theories, Lenny could actually be one of the first of Legion (the absorbed personalities that control David’s powers). Like Jemail Karami (the first comic personality), Lenny attempts to negotiate her freedom into a new body. Turns out the prospect of life outside of Legion isn’t very good for either of them.

Syd Barrett

What’s a TV series without a love interest? Just because Syd is in love with David doesn’t mean the two of them are going to get a happy ending any time soon. That’s because Syd has the mutant ability to swap bodies with anyone (and, as we found out in the season 2 opener, anything) she comes into physical contact with. The power has shown itself to be problematic when it comes to David.

Rogue

[dx_custom_adunit desktop_id="RTK_K67O" mobile_id="RTK_5yk0"] Sound like anyone else you know? Perhaps a certain mutant portrayed — badly — by Anna Paquin? While Syd doesn’t exactly absorb others’ powers through touch, her ability is touch-based. And technically, swapping bodies does give her the same effect as taking on another mutant’s powers. Just in a weirder, Freaky Friday sort of way.

Ptonomy Wallace

Imagine being able to remember what it was like in the womb. Ptonomy doesn’t have to imagine. He has the power of perfect memory, as well as memory manipulation. Basically, Ptonomy can crawl inside your brain and sift through every single thing you’ve ever experienced, even if you’ve blocked out those drunken dorm room parties from your consciousness.

Mesmero

If we’re considering what Ptonomy can do as a sort of mind control, then it’s pretty easy to see the similarity to Mesmero. The Marvel mutant has the ability to control people in a hypnotic state, which isn’t unlike what Ptonomy does when he decides to put someone to sleep with his mind. Analyzing memories is just a short jump from forcing people to do your bidding.

Cary & Kerry Loudermilk

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One’s a middle-aged man. The other’s a girl somewhere between her teens and early 20s. They aren’t just best friends; they actually share a single body. Fun fact: when you expect to give birth to a Native girl and actually give birth to a white boy, the mix-up can cause problems at home. It can also cause problems when it comes to figuring out who gets to drive, so to speak.

Evangeline Whedon

Okay, so Evangeline Whedon actually shape shifts into a giant dragon when she comes into contact with blood, but hear us out here. Like Cary, she’s an intelligent, productive member of society. She and the dragon are two parts of the same whole, like Cary and Kerry. And, like Kerry, the dragon is a fighting powerhouse with superhuman strength. They’re basically the exact same character.

Oliver Bird

Aka the current travel vessel for the Shadow King. Oliver is a powerful telepath (not David-level, but still) who not only has mastery over astral projection and manipulation, but he can also read others’ minds and project his own into theirs. He also has a fantastic sense of style, but that’s a different list entirely.

Exodus

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Oliver may be a less advanced version of Exodus, an extremely powerful psionic mutant in the X-Men universe. Their similarities lie in their ability to not only read and control other’s minds, but in their mastery of the astral plane as well. Exodus happens to sport some pretty sweet threads, too.

Walter "The Eye"

Walter isn’t just a telepath. He can also change his appearance to look like any other person. As far as powers go, it isn’t a bad one to have. Especially if you’re working for an evil government force and need to figure out a way to thwart the good guys’ plan while also escaping unharmed.

Jason Wyngarde "Mastermind"

Allegiance to an evil organization? Check. Psionic ability to make others see and hear whatever he wants them to? Double Check. Fancy nickname with psychic overtones? Check, check and check. If Walter “The Eye” wasn’t created to be the TV version of Jason Wyngarde “Mastermind,” then we’ll just drop our nerd card at the door.

Admiral Fukuyama & the Vermillion

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Admiral Fukuyama is the cyborg leader of Division 3. At this point, it’s still kind of up in the air whether or not he’s actually on the Summerland mutants’ team, but we’d probably put money down that he isn’t. He speaks through the Vermillion, androgynous androids who manage to be both hilarious and creepy AF at the same time.

Donald Pierce & the Stepford Cuckoos

Donald Pierce is the cyborg leader of the Reavers, a very openly anti-mutant organization, but at least we know where exactly his allegiances lie. Although he doesn’t have anything to the Stepford Cuckoos, it is worth noting the loose similarity between them and the Vermillion. But while the Vermillion only share a psychic connection to Admiral Fukuyama, the Stepford Cuckoos are actual psychics (and powerful ones at that).

Rudy

Poor Rudy only managed to last all of four episodes before biting the dust at the hands of a Division 3 agent. But during those four episodes, we got to see him show off a few amazing skills. While the Legion (and X-Men) universe seems to have an overabundance of telepaths, Rudy had the distinction of being a telekinetic. So he couldn’t infiltrate anyone’s mind, but he sure as hell could use his own to throw a giant boulder at them.

Hellion

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Like Rudy, Hellion is a powerful telekinetic who can create destructive blasts with his mind. He’s also kind of a minor character as far as the X-Men go, which, again, is right in line with what we know of our Legion buddy Rudy. Apparently, moving things with your mind just isn’t as well-received of a power as actual mind control.