Mind Games: A Legion Sketchbook

David Haller—the son of Professor Charles Xavier—has always found it difficult to control the multiple personalities that exist within his mind. Some good, some not-so-good, he lives in fear of what he might do…and who he might become.

On January 24, writer Peter Milligan and artist Wilfredo Torres present LEGION #1—the first issue in a five-part limited series that dives into Haller’s powerful mutant personas!

Tasked with exploring the dimensions inside this character’s head, Torres has leapt into the work, utilizing an imagination as rich as the one he’s depicting. To discuss the process of bring-ing such a unique book to life, we caught up with the artist to talk all things LEGION and give you an early look at his art in the images in the gallery below.

Marvel.com: Having recently worked on BLACK PANTHER, how has it been jumping from Wakanda into the wild world of David Haller?

Wilfredo Torres: One of the best things about comics is the vast number of stories that can be told—and how they can be told—but, at their core, both of these books are about characters try-ing to discover who they might be when faced with extraordinary circumstances…only David has really weird hair.

Marvel.com: How did you and Peter come up with ways to convey Haller’s personality-related powers? And how did you approach the visuals for the co-star of this series, psychotherapist Dr. Hannah Jones?

Wilfredo Torres: Peter laid down a pretty straightforward approach to that aspect of it so I’ve just tried to translate that as best as I could.

I feel like Hannah has a bit of a Sarah Connor thing going on, so she’ll evolve as the story goes on. That’s an interesting challenge to show the reader how those layers peel back in a visual way.

Marvel.com: It sounds like a chunk of this story will take place in Legion’s mind. How have you enjoyed coming up with those mental landscapes?

Wilfredo Torres: My approach to it was that David’s subconscious mind would be populated by things he had seen in his waking life. So maybe he had a toy tank as a kid or he was fond of a particular garden or he’d flipped through a magazine somewhere and something stuck with him. I don’t know how successful I’ve been in that, but its been fun.

Marvel.com: How does it feel to work on books like BLACK PANTHER and LEGION—series that might have a higher profile because of corresponding film and TV projects?

Wilfredo Torres: It’s always cool to see things you love broadcast to a larger audience, especially in a way that really understands and values the source material. And if that brings more people into comic shops, even better!

Expand your mind with LEGION #1, by writer Peter Milligan and artist Wilfredo Torres, on Janu-ary 24!