Legion - Secret Lives - Perry Kent

I don't really know much about Legion, but I thought the prompt of an erratically powered psychic ending up in a mental ward was interesting. Here is my crack at it.

Panel 1

Interior, day. A stark white room with David sitting across a small table from a male psychiatrist. The psychiatrist is dressed in a gray sweater and has a distinctive mole on his face. The psychiatrist writes on a clipboard while staring at David.

1. PSYCHIATRIST: How are you feeling today, David?

Panel 2

Dark, exterior. The panel edges are fuzzy, indicating a vision. The psychiatrist's face is twisted in a grotesque snarl of aggression. He stands over another man in an alleyway, blood dripping from his fist.

2. PSYCHIATRIST: You dare come near my woman?

3. PSYCHIATRIST: You want to fuckin' mess with me? Is that what you want?

Panel 3

Interior, day. Back in the white room, David looks over at the psychiatrist (out of the panel) with wide-eyed fear. This panel and the next should have similar poses.

4. DAVID (quietly): No.

5. PSYCHIATRIST: What--

Panel 4

Dark, exterior. The panel edges are fuzzy. A man's pulverized face stares out of the panel in terror as the psychiatrist grabs ahold of his shirt.

6. PSYCHATRIST (op): I'm gonna rip you apart you little bitch. Your face is gonna be hamburger!

Panel 5

Interior, day. David leaps away from the table shouting in fear as he covers his face.

7. DAVID (shouting): Please no! Get away! Get away!

8. PSYCHIATRIST (OP): I need some orderlies in here, now!

- END -

LEGION-David Press

PAGE ONE.

1.1:

A black panel. Perhaps there's a way to tease a shadow lurking behind blackness. A tease of...the Shadow King? 

V/O CAPTION: What are you seeing, David? 

1.2: 

We're looking at a car smashed up against a tree. The front window is broken and there's a shadow of a person slumped over the wheel. Let's not make it too gory okay? Let's have the car be a 2009 Ford Crown Victoria. 

NO DIALOGUE.

1.3: 

We're in the car now and it hasn't crashed into the tree. There are two passengers. One is a woman wearing all white, EMMA FROST, and the other is a young girl--possibly her daughter--in a similar outfit. 

V/O CAPTION: David?

1.4:

Now a glitch. Same shot, but this time let's have the girl in the passenger turn into DAVID HALLER. The one as designed by Sienkiewicz. His hair is almost touching the top of the car. 

NO DIALOGUE.

1.5:

From David's perspective: He's flying through the windshield, shattered glass all around him. 

SFX: KRRSSH! 

1.6:

Still from David's perspective: he's looking at a giant pile of rocks that, presumably, he's about to be dashed across, because he's flown out of the window. 

V/O CAPTION: It's okay. 

1.7 CUT TO:

A hospital room where we see David on a bed and sitting next to him is a PSYCHIATRIST complete with Moleskine notebook and perfectly tailored suit. 

SHRINK: It's just a dream, David.

CAPTION  (V/O): In other news, known Mutant refugee Emma Frost died today in an apparent car accident. 

END

Why Legion?

Over the last six weeks or so I've been inhaling the work of Noah Hawley. I've read his two most recent novels, The Good Father and Before the Fall, and watched two seasons of Fargo--which were great. 

His latest TV adaptation is the obscure X-Men villain David Haller, or Legion, premiering on FX this Wednesday. It looks refreshingly Kubrickian, so I'm excited to see it. 

Legion is a schizophrenic telepath and telekinetic created by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz and is the son of Professor X. There's more background in this great article by NY Magazine's Abraham Riesman. 

So the prompt for today is: Imagine you're in a psych ward for multiple personality disorder, but you're not really sick. You have the ability to enter other people's minds, thinking that you're someone else. You're having an "episode". What does it look like? Or whatever you want.