Art by Diogenes Neves, Edgar Tadeo, and John Rauch
- Name: Douglas Ramsey
- Code Names: Cypher
- First Appearance: New Mutants #13 (Mar ’84)
- Powers: Understands all language
- Teams Affiliation: New Mutants, X-Factor
About
The intrinsic nature of superhero comic books requires action. It is great character development when the Avengers sit around the dining room table and talk about their feelings, but that needs to be balanced by punching. The implications for mutants are such that their abilities need to have some use in combat situations, even if logic would dictate that not all mutations would assist in beating people up. This inherent narrative need can be subverted to great effect if handled well as Grant Morrison did with Beak in New X-Men. However, when a character is effectively worthless for half of an issue, it builds resentment and the X-Men have no greater example of that than Doug Ramsey, the New Mutant known as Cypher.
Doug could have gone his whole life without knowing he was a mutant. Sure it might have been strange that he could understand all the conversations happening in the kitchen of his favorite fajita place, but it wouldn’t have outted him as a mutant. Through mutual hobbies, he met Kitty Pryde and the two became fast friends. Kitty was excellent at designing hardware and Doug excelled with multiple software languages. Professor Xavier discovered that the boy’s intuition was really a mutant ability but decided to keep quiet, not everyone was cut out for the life of a mutant.
Art by Sal Buscema, Tom Mandrake, and Glynis Wein
Over at the Massachusetts Academy, Emma Frost had different ideas for the Ramsey boy. Emma invited Doug to visit the academy and he brought his good friend Kitty in tow. Pryde was distrustful of Ms. Frost’s offer, Frost was the first evil mutant she encountered after all, but went along to help her friend. Emma used the opportunity to capture Kitty and the other New Mutants who had come to rescue their friend. They were able to escape, but not before the White Queen wiped Doug’s mind of all memory of the event.
He could have live in ignorance of his abilities, if not for the appearance of a being from outer space who would change Doug’s life forever. During a slumber party at Xavier’s, the alien Technarch, Warlock, crashed into the grounds of the school and the New Mutants quickly worked to hid the body. Unfortunately, Warlock awoke and became infecting objects with the Transmode virus to consume them. The New Mutants couldn’t reason with Warlock and decided to cut the pretense with Doug. They sent Cannonball to tell him he was a mutant, that his best friend was also a mutant, that the school up in the hills was actually a mutant training ground, that they were superheroes in training, that aliens were real, and that he was the only one who could deal with it. He did not take it well.
Art by Bill Sienkiewicz and Glynis Wein
Doug refused to believe all of this until he came to Xavier’s and was able to meet Warlock face to face. The alien explained his culture and history and Doug sympathized with him, they would become fast friends. Doug soon enrolled at Xavier’s School and took the codename Cypher, but it was a difficult transition for him. His passive powers made him a liability and he didn’t have the physical prowess to keep up with his teammates. His abilities were useful in many situations, but when things resorted to violence he felt worthless. Warlock tried to help him by allowing Doug to wear him like power armor but it did little to help his feelings of inadequacy. There was the risk of infection by the Transmode Virus but Cypher didn’t care, he just wanted to feel useful.
Art by Art Adams, Bob Wiacek, and Glynis Wein
Eventually, the New Mutants ran across a creature named Bird Boy, a large avian beast who only spoke in squawks. Encouraged by Wolfsbane, whom Doug had been courting, he helped the New Mutants interact with Bird Boy and Doug was encouraged by his ability to help his friends. His work with Bird Boy went so well that the creature was able to explain his origin to the New Mutants and rallied them to go after his cruel creator, the Ani-Mator. As often happens a fight broke out on their mission, Doug saw the Ani-Mator pull a gun on the distracted Wolfsbane. He jumped into action and pushed Rhane out of the way, only to get chastised for putting himself in danger. She didn’t even realize Cypher lying there bleeding out from the bullet he took for her. Cypher’s great liability turned tragically fatal.
Art by Bret Blevins, Terry Austin, Glynis Oliver
In preparation for the Necrosha event, Selene resurrected Cypher with an altered personality. She intended to use him to settle an old score, by killing his former New Mutants teammate Magma. His powers got an upgrade, allowing him to become an expert in hand-to-hand combat by reading body language and willfully reprograming the Transmode virus, allowing him to keep its’ ill effects at bay. To him, everything was language The New Mutants were shocked to see their long lost friend but were eventually able to overcome Selene’s control with the power of friendship. That team, their love for him, all of them, they were his language.
Art by Diogenes Neves, John Rauch
After coming back, Cypher seemed colder than he had been. In a battle with Cameron Hodge during Second Coming, Doug convinced Warlock to kill Hodge and his men, forcing his friend to cross a line he promised never to cross. Doug also joined X-Force during the event on a suicide mission to stop Nimrod’s Sentinel invasion. Doug was forced to face these inner demons when the New Mutants faced a tyrannical version of him from an alternate dimension known as True/Friend. The New Mutants were able to overcome True/Friend but the glimpse into the future left a deep impact on Doug.
Art by Felix Ruiz and Val Staples
The New Mutants soon disbanded and Doug felt lost. He feared what he could become and it had driven him to the point of suicide. Coincidently, Serval Industries corporate superhero team, X-Factor, needed help dealing with a situation involving Warlock and turned to the best man for the job. Cypher and Warlock would end up joining X-Factor, and Warlock developed a crush on his teammate, the living Danger Room called Danger. Danger was eager to understand sexuality but Warlock was too shy to make a real move. Danger turned to Cypher to help her understand and Doug showed her how to speak the language of love. Warlock was understandably upset when he found out about their tryst but in the end, he forgave Doug. After all, his self/soulfriend was just about the only person who really understood him.
Art by Carmine DiGiandomenico, and Lee Loughridge
Must Read
I’m just going to come out and say it. I don’t really like anything Doug has been in since his resurrection. I thought Zeb Wells reintroduction of the character was just plain bad and his expansion of Doug’s powers with wordplay regarding language was groan inducing. The DnA New Mutants was a real step down in quality from the rest of the stuff Wells was doing and Doug just wasn’t an engaging villain. I also thought All-New X-Factor was pretty mediocre and Doug’s role in the book never felt important. That really just leaves me to recommend the Claremont New Mutants yet again so why not just read #21, Slumber Party. It introduces Cypher and Warlock and their friendship is just the absolute best thing about Cypher. It is on Marvel Unlimited and was collected about 15 different ways since it works as the coda to Demon Bear.
Art by Bill Sienkiewicz
Ranking
Pam from the TV show Archer once called Cypher “the gayest X-Man”, and the use of gay as an insult aside, it is a high-profile pop culture example of the public perception of the character. When you have a guy with knives in his hand right down the hall, being able to read Latin just isn’t all that interesting. There has been a ton of great character work with Cypher but writers have to struggle to make him interesting, often at the expense of other, more inherently interesting, characters. Louise Simonson said that she killed him because fans hated the character and that she never saw a positive reception to Cypher until after he was dead. He has accrued enough goodwill through being in seminal stories that I want to see him in things more than, say, Northstar but everyone above that works a lot better in superhero comics. That’s why Cypher ranks as the new number 32 in the Xavier Files.
Cypher was requested by Kalean on Patreon. Thanks for the request. If you want to cut to the front of the line like Kalean, we have a Patreon if you want to support it and get a line cutting reward for just a $1 pledge. We just hit our first goal and are now working toward the $25 dollar goal where I review X-Books every week in some form, maybe even interpretative dance.
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Next week we have some fun in Murderworld with Arcade! See you then!
Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
