Writer: Zeb Wells
Penciler: Diogenes Neves
Publisher: Marvel

“The Return of Legion 3: Cognitive Therapy”

Legion is back, and his many personalities fully intend to kill everyone who defeated him the first time– starting with Danielle Moonstar. Thanks to a mishap with the local townfolk and M-Day, Dani is now powerless and trapped in a city jail cell. Legion is now free and knows where she is. How will Dani survive?

Fair warning: My reviews often summarize entire issues, and are thus heavy on spoilers.

The issue begins with Legion’s Jack Wayne personality taunting Dani, threatening to rape her before he kills her. Despite being powerless, however, Dani is more angry than fearful, and tells him to bring it on! This scenario is rendered a bit moot, however, when Cannonball and Sunspot come blasting through the walls and dropkick Legion into next week. Dani thanks her teammates for the rescue, but then Sam does something incredibly stupid. He thinks that Dani is safe locked inside of the jail cell that Legion just had her cornered in, and decides not to let her out. Needless to say, Dani is a little upset.

Cannonball: Heap Big Bastard

What follows is Sam & Bobby tag-teaming against Legion and his many personalities. One of those personalities sits on the ground and begs for the duo not to hurt him, but is secretly using his powers to remotely attack Dani in the jail. With nowhere to run, Dani is nearly impaled through the head, but is quickly rescued by Magma and Magik. After realizing that Dani is still under attack, Sam and Bobby rush back to the jail, but Sam is greeted by Dani’s left hook to the jaw. Dani then runs out to find herself enough guns to give Rob Liefeld a chubby.

That’s for the smallpox-infected blankets!

Magik remembers that Karma’s mind is still trapped inside of Legion, and decides that maybe it’s time to rescue her. Sam & Bobby inform her that everyone who goes near Karma’s body becomes pulled in to Legion’s mind via Karma’s mental powers, and warn Magik to stay away. Magik doesn’t listen, and teleports to Karma’s body. She immediately gets pull in to Legion, and becomes trapped among Legion’s many personalities. She then summons her soul sword and kills a few of her more hostile mind-mates.

First of all, I want to commend Neves on not only drawing Legion’s freaky signature eyebrows, but drawing a few close-up panels that make his eyes look like how most artists draw Professor Xavier’s. It’s not often you can look at a comic book character’s relative and think “yeah, that’s definitely his son.” I also have to give credit to Adam Kubert and Justin Ponsor for the cover, which features a humorous amount of guns and a few John Woo doves for good measure.

As for the story, Wells is crafting not only a reunion of some old characters, but he’s clearly recalling as much old continuity as possible. Not only do the characters reference specific details from their pasts (some of which eludes me, but doesn’t make the story any less enjoyable), but Sunspot is actually being called “Bobby” again instead of “Berto.”