Origin
When Kitty Pryde moved to New York she attended Stevie Hunter’s dance lessons. It was considered a good influence that she should meet & befriend other kids her age. One of those friends was Douglas Ramsey. It just so happened that Doug also happened to be a computer genius, on a par with Kitty’s own intellect. So when she wasn’t caught up in the X-Men’s fights, Kitty began to hang out with Doug. Neither of them realized that Doug’s natural gift for computers was due to his mutant ability to understand and communicate in any language. On one occasion they were using the computers at Doug’s house to hack into something Top Secret. Kitty used Doug’s natural ability to hack into the government computers at Project: Wideawake and activated a Sentinel. Doug innocently joked that he didn’t want to know what she’d done. Kitty’s interference had forced Henry Peter Gyrich & Sebastian Shaw to destroy the activated Sentinel, thereby wasting millions of dollars worth of investment. Unaware of the chaos he’d help to cause, Doug treated Kitty to snacks and soda in the kitchen, but Professor Xavier sent an angry telepathic message to her reminding Kitty of her training sessions. Doug said a hurried goodbye to Kitty as she ran out the door, but he was unaware of the real reason that she was in a rush.
Creation
Cypher was created by Chris Claremont and Sal Buscema and first appeared in The New Mutants #13 (1984).
Character Evolution
Douglas felt very out of place amongst his team-mates, feeling as though his mutation was useless. Warlock’s arrival proved him wrong as only he could understand the gentle alien and their friendship would come to mean a lot to him. Selfless and brave, he sacrificed his life to save Kitty and his death affected the X-Family for a long time. Resurrected intermittently, the last time left him with extra powers, causing him to become semi-clairvoyant and telepathic and intensifying his mutation to the point where he translates everything around him as language.
Major Story Arcs
Kidnapped
He was also unaware of how much Kitty had grown attached to him. Yet he was aware of how much he liked her. When he was offered a scholarship to attend the prestigious Massachusetts Academy, Doug ran to visit Kitty. While the X-Men & New Mutants were enjoying Christmas-like festivities inside, Doug tapped on the frosted window and Kitty ran to meet him by the back door. He was so excited when he told her his good news, so he couldn’t understand it when she appeared alarmed. Kitty insisted that she attend the open day along with Doug, since she didn’t want to reveal that she knew the Head Mistress of the Massachusetts Academy was Emma Frost, the White Queen of the Hellfire Club & mortal enemy of the X-Men, as that would also mean revealing her own secret dual life.
While neither Doug nor Kitty knew was that he was a mutant, both professor Xavier & the White Queen had detected his presence. Professor Xavier wasn’t concerned about the need to train him (like with more dangerous powers), yet the White Queen had also discovered that Doug was a mutant, and saw him as an opportunity to lure Kitty Pryde into her school. By the time Kitty & Doug went to visit the Massachusetts Academy, the Beyonder had kidnapped all of the Earth’s heroes, including the X-Men. Seemingly with no-one to come to their aid, the White Queen kidnapped both the teenagers. Using her telepathic powers to block Kitty’s ability to phase, the White Queen tied Kitty to a chair and demanded that she leave Xavier’s to become her pupil. While taunting Kitty, the White Queen revealed what she had done to Doug. He was kept in a telepathic induced fantasy; Doug believed he was romantically dancing with Kitty. He had remained free to wander around the campus, while the White Queen had twisted his feelings for Kitty to keep him placated.
Back in New York, Magik had used her spells to send her Astral Form find her missing best friend, Kitty. Upon discovering that Kitty was held captive, she convinced the New Mutants to travel to Massachusetts and help her free Kitty & Doug. Although Doug was exposed to some of the fighting between Cannonball and Jetstream of the Hellions, the White Queen continued to use her telepathy to wipe his memory. So by the time the New Mutants had successfully rescued Kitty, Doug was unaware of what was happening and extremely confused.
The Newest New Mutant
He never revealed the reason why, but Doug decided not to attend the Massachusetts Academy after all. Life seemed to continue as normal until one night Cannonball appeared in the middle of the night. To Doug’s amazement his half-naked friend confessed his secret identity, told him the truth about Xavier’s and that he was also a mutant. Cannonball then flew Doug to Xavier’s School for the Gifted and took him into the secret sub-basement levels.
When the others saw Doug, they rallied around him to see if he was okay. Doug snapped back. His whole world had been turned upside down in the space of a few minutes and he was angry. However, his initial anger passed when he discovered an alien robot hiding in the Danger Room. Doug used his mutant power of languages to program the Danger Room and create images to communicate with the alien. Amazingly the alien reciprocated and told them about him. In that busy night, the New Mutants gained two more members; the technarch alien Warlock and Doug Ramsey who became known as Cypher.
Cypher
Not long after he joined the school, Cypher was invited along to a Lila Cheney concert in New York. The New Mutants were lucky enough to go backstage where Cannonball saved Lila from a falling amplifier during the sound-check. Strange events continued during the concert when Vrakanin aliens appeared to attack Lila & her band. The gig climaxed with Lila, the band, and Cannonball disappearing into a blinding bright light. With Warlock’s help, the rest of the New Mutants managed to follow their missing teammate. Lila had teleported Cannonball across the galaxy into the safety of her Dyson Sphere. However, the rest of the New Mutants were let floating in space. Warlock saved them, and when they landed Cypher was keen to spend time deciphering the alien languages inside the Dyson Sphere. However, they soon came under attack by more Vrakanins. While Cypher managed to escape unseen, half the team had been kidnapped.
By the time they caught up to the others, the plot had been unveiled. Lila had planned to steal the Earth with a gigantic teleporter and sell it to the highest alien bidder. The Vrakanin had double-crossed her. Although she saw the error of her ways, the teleporter had been damaged during the fight between the New Mutants and the Vrakanin. The whole Dyson Sphere began to glow white as the Earth was in the process of being teleported onto the site of the Dyson Sphere. All the New Mutants, the Vrakanin and Lila’s band were powerless to do anything about it. However, after being exposed to the alien languages written around the Dyson Sphere, Cypher had begun to understand it. The teleporter was part of an old alien technology that existed before Lila had made it her home. Cypher discovered the instructions for the teleporter and hurriedly began to translate while operating the alien machine at the same time. Everything appeared to have disappeared in a blinding white light when Cypher succeeded in de-activating the teleporter. The light faded, and the others rushed to praise him. On his first adventure with the New Mutants, Cypher had saved the entire planet Earth.
Legion
Officially inducted at Xavier’s School, Cypher didn’t get the spend much time adjusting to his new home. He and half the New Mutants traveled with Professor Xavier to Scotland. On Muir Isle they were introduced to Gabrielle Haller and her autistic mutant son David. Tom Corsi & Sharon Friedlander had mysteriously fallen into a coma, and they believed that child-like David was the reason why. Unfortunately, Moira MacTaggert & Wolfsbane were next to fall victim to David’s uncontrollable powers. Professor Xavier and Mirage used their powers in tandem to dive into David’s psyche, but the instant they did that they came under attack from a psychic fire. When Gabrielle Haller & Cypher rushed to their aid, the fire surrounded them and they collapsed unconscious. Cypher had been dragged deep into David’s mind.
He found himself in a reproduction of Paris, but it was in the middle of a war-zone. Cypher was powerless, but managed to protect himself & Ms. Haller while under fire. They stumbled across a small punk girl called Cyndi who could create fire. Despite the extreme circumstances around them & her bratty attitude, Cypher was polite to Cyndi so she agreed to help them. Together they headed for the psychically-created Eiffel Tower were they were reunited with the Professor & others.
The Professor was accompanied by a man called Jack Wayne who was a telekinetic. It was revealed that David was in fact the Professor’s son. Both Jack & Cyndi were fractured parts of David’s mind, and that along with a telepathic third personality known as Jemail they made up the Legion. Jack & Cyndi didn’t like Jemail, and believed that they couldn’t infiltrate a giant black dome that he hid in. However, Cypher reasoned that they had been led to believe that despite never having tried it. The Professor understood what Cypher meant, and as they approached the black dome they were able to pass inside. In there, a fight ensued between Jack & Jemail. Cypher leapt over Cyndi to protect her from flying shards of mirror. With a little help from Mirage they managed to stop Jack Wayne from damaging David’s psyche any more. Jemail used his telepathy to learn English through Cypher’s mutant powers, and began to explain David’s tragic past & transformation into Legion. The New Mutants, Professor Xavier and all the others who had been absorbed by Legion were safely restored to their own bodies. Cypher remained on Muir Island with them, while the Professor spent time with his son.
Bad Karma
Upon their return to the United States, they found that the other New Mutants had been experiencing problems of their own. Magma & Sunspot had been kidnapped, and while Cannonball & Magik had tracked them down with Lila Cheney’s help, they were too young & inexperienced to do anything to help them. With help from Kitty Pryde & Rachel Summers, they had been able to finally free their friends, but discovered who was behind their kidnapping; the first New Mutant, Karma. Obese and sadistically evil, Karma fled the battle leaving her old teammates dumb-founded. The New Mutants tracked Karma down to the seedy crime-filled city of Madripoor. On the flight over Cypher used his laptop to provide more research and disseminate all information about Karma’s new criminal lifestyle. Unfortunately he accidentally caused an argument with Sunspot by suggesting that the Professor must have had a good reason for not revealing Karma’s fate to them. Realizing that it was a touchy subject, Cypher apologized repeatedly to calm Sunspot.
Upon arriving in Madripoor, both Warlock & Cypher were left on the beach while the other New Mutants stormed Karma’s heavily-guarded home. However, it didn’t protect Cypher from Karma’s powers. He & Warlock had been spotted when her limousine drove passed them. While Warlock’s alien mind was immune to any telepathic influence, Cypher was possessed and became one of her slaves. Soon afterwards, many of the other New Mutants joined him and they became Karma’s favorite toys.
It transpired that Karma was herself a pawn of the Shadow King, who had turned her power against herself & her friends. Magik, Mirage, Storm & Warlock all fought to save their friends. It was only thanks to Magik & Warlock’s immunity to Karma’s powers that they were able to trick the Shadow King into releasing Karma. However, it was clear that the Shadow King had hidden inside one of the New Mutants. Magik played detective, and threatened to kill the Shadow King’s new host with her Soulsword. When Cypher began to scream for mercy, they realized he had become the new host. Magik knew that Cypher had knowledge of her Soulsword, especially that it could not kill. Therefore the Shadow King had revealed himself. The others acknowledged how typical it was of the Shadow King to prey on the most vulnerable and weak of the team; meaning how defenseless Cypher was in a physical battle.
Asgard Adventure
After the Shadow King had been defeated, Storm invited the New Mutants to relax on the Greek island of Kirinos. While relaxing on the beach, Cypher & Magik tried to educate Warlock on human fashion. Cypher tried to explain that as a male, Warlock shouldn’t wear a bikini, which resulted in Warlock wearing humorous over-sized underwear instead. However, while they were relaxing they New Mutants and Storm were kidnapped by hordes of Loki’s men. Transported to Asgard, the New Mutants were held hostage by the Enchantress. Magik conjured up a stepping disc to teleport them all away, but it clashed against the Enchantress’ spells and scattered the team around the mythical realm.
On his own, Cypher magically appeared in a great banquet hall during a busy feast. There, the Asgardian residents mocked Cypher’s slight frame, compared to their own gigantic muscles. They pitted him in a sword fight against a parlor maid, but when Cypher couldn’t even lift a sword to defend himself they locked a collar around him and made him into a slave. He remained there, miserably carrying large dishes to & from the kitchen until Darkchild came to collect him. The master of the banquet hall refused to hand over his newest slave, but was soon killed in battle. Seeing the gigantic dead body fall, Cypher was scared for his life and slipped outside through a window. Outside he met Warlock, who encapsulated Cypher and flew them both away to safety. They landed on the edge of a desert where they were reunited with Karma. They were overjoyed to see her again, and Cypher commented on how she was ‘skinny again’ (since her encounter with the Shadow King had left her hideously obese). Unfortunately they were once again pursued by Darkchild & her Asgardian riders.
A fight broke out between teammates. Warlock wrapped himself around Cypher, taking the form of a mecha-styled suit to aid & protect him in battle. The rest of the New Mutants soon appeared and joined them in battle. With Karma’s ability to possess the Darkchild they infiltrated the Enchantress’ fortress, saved Magik and began preparations to save Storm from Loki.
Merging With Warlock
Magik had retained some of her Darkchild persona and demanded that Cypher remain by her side to translate the Enchantress’ ancient tomes. However, when they realized that the video feed from Warlock had disappeared, he & Mirage rode off on Brightwind. They found Sunspot enjoying himself in a local bar surrounded by beautiful Asgardian women. Outside they located Warlock.
After being weakened by Loki’s attack Warlock saw Mirage as a Valkyrie coming to take him to Hel. In a panicked state, Warlock grabbed Cypher and fled. Warlock was forced to stop fleeing when he ran out of energy. Lost and alone, Cypher offered some of his own life-glow to help Warlock. Although Warlock was hesitant in case he permanently infected Cypher with the transmode virus, he reluctantly agreed. Warlock merged with Cypher for the first time, and Cypher was amazed at how the world around them looked through Warlock’s eyes.
Re-energized, they joined the other New Mutants (and X-Men who had travelled to Asgard to save them). Cypher and Warlock stayed out of harms way while their teammates fought to save Storm. Once Loki was defeated, they were all transported safely back to Earth.
New Headmaster
However, back on Earth Professor Xavier had been attending the trial of Magneto in Paris. Although Magneto was acquitted, Xavier had suffered a mortal wound. Before he mysteriously disappeared (to join Lilandra & the Starjammers) he entrusted the care of his school to Magneto.
Magneto was a strict teacher with the New Mutants. Straight away Magneto upset Cypher by refusing to let him participate in a Danger Room session with the rest of the team. Since he saw Cypher’s powers as a weakness in battle, he forced him to watch from the control room. The other New Mutants were forced to battle Magneto, but their attacks were soon turned against themselves. From the control room, Sharon Friedlander couldn’t calm Cypher’s anger. Instead he used his impressive IT skills to program the Danger Room. Cypher recreated the land of Oz to disorientate Magneto. However, the field of poppies sent half the team to sleep which gave Magneto the upper hand. Later, when the team licked their wounds over milkshakes, Cypher was still bitter about being treated like a baby. However, they were all convinced about Mangeto’s commitment to them when they secretly spied on him as he threatened a bunch of local thugs who had previously attacked Mirage.
Death In The Secret Wars
On a quiet summer’s day Cypher was racing Mirage as they swap laps in the pool. However, the Beyonder had come to Earth and encountered Magik across town where he removed the demonic side from her soul. She was no longer Magik, and was full of praise for the Beyonder. When Illyana returned to the school and tried to convert the other New Mutants, she was forced to accept her dark side back in order to save Kitty Pryde from Limbo’s demons.
However, the Beyonder was angry that they had rejected his peaceful domination. Therefore, on a night when the X-Men were on the other side of the country, the Beyonder attacked the New Mutants. Magik stepped forward as a self-sacrifice. However, when they watched her body disintegrate into dust the others attacked. One by one they fell in battle to the Beyonder. When Warlock was severely injured, Cypher offered to share his own lifeglow. However, unlike in Asgard, they came under attack. Cypher’s body turned to dust. He died instantly. The New Mutants had been eradicated from time and living memory, as if they had never lived.
Resurrection & Return To The Massachusetts Academy
Before his final battle against the combined forces of Earth’s mightiest heroes, the Beyonder wanted to experience life as a mortal. He created a machine that would be able to remove his Beyonder powers and birth him as a baby. However, he wanted to be certain that the machine worked before he used it on himself. Therefore, he collected the remaining energies left over from the New Mutants. Although there were only a few remains, The beyonder used his machine to resurrect the New Mutants.
However, they were emotionless and obeyed the Beyonder’s commands like zombies. As such, they were sent to fight the Earth’s mightiest heroes including the X-Men who had forgotten that they’d even existed. The New Mutants were outnumbered, and soon Phoenix telepathically learned their true identities. After the Beyonder was defeated, the New Mutants returned to school. However they suffered from nightmares where they would climb into graves instead of their beds. Being a low-level telepath, Magneto shared in their mental suffering. After minor prompting from Empath, Magneto was finally convinced to relinquish the guardianship of his students over to the White Queen.
When they arrived at the Academy, the New Mutants were officially inducted into the Hellions. The pre-established Hellions tried to tease their new teammates, and Jetstream taunted Cypher over the passive nature of his powers. However, still haunted from his experience with the Beyonder, Cypher didn’t respond. He and the others remained apathetic for the first couple of weeks, but did begin to make progress after receiving telepathic counseling from the White Queen. Cypher & the others remained at the Academy until Magneto discovered that he had been manipulated into relinquishing the New Mutants over to their greatest rival. His journey to Massachusetts was hampered by the Avengers, but he was saved by Magik’s teleportation powers. Reunited with their old headteacher, both Cypher & Magik spent time musing over how their teacher had come through for them after all.
No Need For Powers?
Although the New Mutants were finally reunited, they were shocked & disgusted at how Empath had abused his powers on their teachers. They planned a night to torment him, each of them using their powers in turn to scare him. Although Cypher’s powers weren’t physically intimidating like the others’, he resorted to physical violence. Angry, he grabbed Empath by the collar of his pajamas and threatened to punch him. However, he couldn’t bring himself to do it and let Empath go, despite Sunspot calling him a coward.
Psylocke & Douglock
Although Cypher was willing to use his fists do the talking, he was still bothered by the passive nature of his powers. He had saved the world, but still couldn’t tell anyone about it including his parents. Cypher was frustrated, and Mirage explained that she felt something similar having multiple roles & identities since she had become a Valkyrie. They recognized that they were not regular teenagers, and felt ostracized from non-powered kids of their own age who would gossip over frivolous nonsense.
The next day, Warlock acted as Cypher’s super strong suit again, while Sunspot aided them to remove an old dead tree which had fallen on the school’s grounds. However, when Doug & Warlock began to lift the tree, Sunspot screamed in pain and was crushed by the tree. Despite their best efforts, it appeared that Sunspot had died. Cypher fled the room in tears blaming himself for Sunspot’s death. He ran down into the morgue where Warlock caught up with him. Warlock informed Cypher that the dead body he had been crying over wasn’t Sunspot. Cypher demanded to see what Warlock could see, so he forced Warlock into a gestalt merge with him just like they had done in Asgard. This allowed Cypher to inspect the dead body on a molecular level. They were so busy discussing the meaning of their discovery that they forgot to separate again. So by the time the other New Mutants found them, they grew angry & scolded Cypher for being so reckless. They were concerned for Cypher’s life, because of the possibility that Warlock’s transmode virus would infect him & convert his body into living circuitry.
Using the information that Warlock & Cypher had discovered, the New Mutants teleported to an abandoned boarding school near Manhattan. While the others fought with their teammates & Bratpack who had been aged into their early-to-mid twenties, Cypher & Warlock remained on the roof. They found a lost blond boy who was naked & crying. The boy identified himself as Brian, who had lost his twin sister Betsy. Despite his young age he could fly & had super strength. Cypher took control of the situation; he gave Brian the tunic-half of his uniform, and formed a plan. They saved Magma (who had been de-aged to before her mutant powers had developed) from the other mind-controlled New Mutants, and used Brian & Magma as a diversion. While the Bratpack were hunting the de-aged heroes, Cypher & Warlock snuck inside the abandoned school. Inside they found a young woman who had been strapped into a mechanical moving chair with her eyes held open. Psylocke had been warped into a mirror image of Mojo. Warlock wrapped himself around Cypher like a layer of skin, so they were invisible to Psylocke when she looked at them with her mechanical eyes. Warlock reached into the implants in the back of Psylocke’s head, but t created a psychic feedback that implanted her memories of her former adventures in Britain into Cyphers mind. It ended with an explosion which separated Warlock from Cypher. As they saw Psylocke lying helpless on the floor they were determined to save her; Cypher demanded that Warlock perform another gestalt meld with him. However, just as Cypher was marveling at the beauty of Warlock’s vision, the robotic tail from Psylocke’s chair grabbed them and dragged them into her mind.
Inside Psylocke’s mind, the merged boys landed in the mud. Looking up they saw her dancing on top of a carousel, and the New Mutants & Bratpack members would appear as the ride’s animals whenever any of them were caught in the real world. The gestalt merge began to effect Cypher & Warlock; Cypher’s speech-patterns became more robotic & alien, while Warlock spoke like an American human boy. He had become a new entity referred to as Douglock. Psylocke offered Douglock a place on the carousel. Even though he rejected it, she forced him to become another one of the ride’s centaurs. However, Douglock ripped off the Mojo facade & used a long tendril to grab Psylocke by the wrist. However, she chopped the tendril off causing Douglock to scream in pain. Psylocke’s facade melted away to reveal Spiral. She caused the carousel to spin uncontrollably which began to destroy the ground around them. However, the ground represented Psylocke’s real mind. Therefore Douglock acted as two separate beings who were connected; Warlock spun a think web of circuitry to catch the crumbling ground & restore the giant jigsaw of Psylocke’s mind, while Cypher reached into the carousel and pulled the others free.
Once all the New Mutants, Bratpack members & Brian were free, Spiral ceased spinning the carousel. Before she could attack, Warlock finished restoring the pieces of Psylocke’s mind freeing her from Spiral’s control. Spiral made Psylocke an offer just as she was about to depose her; the chance to live in happiness, where she could see. However, Douglock cried out that Psylocke didn’t need to be enslaved by Mojo. Touched by his words, Psylocke’s towering astral form attacked Spiral with beams from her eyes. Just as they all began to return to their physical bodies, Psylocke apologized to them all for causing them so much trouble & pain.
Back in the physical world, Cypher woke in a dark attic alone with Psylocke. She cried that she didn’t have the strength to rip out the cybernetic eyes Spiral had implanted in her. Cypher cried for her, and held her by the shoulders when the light suddenly came on. Mirage entered the room and suddenly Psylocke realized that she was naked. Cypher blushed & turned away while Warlock covered Psylocke as a cybernetic cat-suit. When Captain Britain entered the room he picked Cypher off his feet to give him a powerful bear hug as thanks for saving him & his sister. The next day Mirage caught up with Cypher. He was feeling better than the last time they’d chatted. He watched Psylocke bid farewell to Captain Britain, and afterwards she turned around to blow him a kiss. As a telepath, she was aware of his physical attraction to her, and she admitted to herself that she was extremely fond of him too.
Warlock & Magus
Cypher’s friendship with Warlock was so tight that when the New Mutants were invited to a social dance at Salem Centre High School, Cypher spent his evening hanging around Warlock. He had fun with Warlock’s changing appearance, but spent most of his time trying to keep Warlock away from the young couples at the dance & accidentally revealing their secret identities.
Cypher knew something was wrong when Warlock started acting strange after the Morlocks & X-Men had been attacked in the Morlock Tunnels. While the mutants were rallying inside the mansion’s secret sub-basement levels to try and aid the survivors, Warlock was sat on the porch scanning for something. Cypher was suspicious, however he over-looked Warlock’s lies because of the extreme circumstances. Cypher’s strained friendship with Sunspot was worsened when Sunspot’s taunts angered him to the point that they began to fight. However, when Karma & Magik went missing soon after they went to check on Leong & Nga, the New Mutants traveled through the sewers to investigate. When they arrived in the city they soon found Karma & Magik, and the detonated remains of Karma’s apartment. They weren’t given a chance to consider what had happened, or who had caused it. Instead, Warlock’s father the Magus appeared & began to attack.
Into The Past & Alternate Futures
Magik teleported them into Limbo, to keep them safely away from Magus. Warlock begged them to leave him there to die, but somehow Magus followed them and attacked in Limbo. Panicked, Magik teleported them back to Earth. However, they arrived in Scotland, hundreds of years in the past. There they saved Robert the Bruce and spurred him on to keep fighting the English. Cypher was curious as to why the Scottish King wasn’t afraid of them like the English soldiers. He admitted that he didn’t know if they were children or demons, but considered himself blessed to have met the New Mutants.
When they bade farewell, Magik teleported them back into the future. However, she missed the present day and the team was divided into two alternate future timelines. In one future, Karma, Magma, Sunspot & Wolfsbane found themselves on the destroyed site of the Xavier school. There, Cannonball & Mirage were the only surviving New Mutants. In a society crushed & dominated by the Sentinels, Cypher had been killed many years previously.
In the other timeline, Cannonball, Cypher, Mirage & Warlock found themselves in a society were mutants had risen to supremacy and stole mutant children away from their human parents. Cypher used Warlock as a turbo-powered skateboard as they evaded the Arbitrators (police dressed in similar gold & black uniforms). As they escaped, Cypher graffittied a message that ‘Humans Are People Too’. The New Mutants joined forces with an extremely aged Katie Power. As they were providing stolen supplies to the humans, they were arrested and taken to the Chief Arbitrators; Sunspot & Magma. They were held in a power-field to await telepathic surgery which would force them to accept the inequality of the future society.
Douglock Vs Magus
Cypher & the others waited in their cell until they were rescued by Magik and Professor Xavier. While the others had been scattered in the future, Magik had stumbled through space and was found by the Professor. He then used his telepathy to boost her control over the Stepping Discs to save the rest of the team. Back in the present day, the New Mutants found themselves on board the Starjammer. They didn’t have a chance to distrust the other members of the team or consider what cold-hearted adults they had seen them grown into. Instead, the Starjammer had come under attack. Magus has left Limbo and tracked them into deep space. He was destroying a nearby planet, while Warlock cowered onboard the Starjammer. Cypher argued that Warlock shouldn’t just give up. However, by then Magus had grown tired of waiting, so had dragged the Starjammer underwater.
The other New Mutants charged into battle with Professor Xavier’s telepathy guiding them and boosting their power-levels. Warlock finally plucked enough courage to face Magus, but was easily swatted away. Cypher begged the Professor to help his best friend. However, he was spurred by the Professor’s words and turned to help Warlock by himself. He was ready to offer his own life energy to restore Warlock, but was interrupted by Binary who used her starbolts to re-energise him instead.
Cypher’s plan was then put into action. Magus was distracted by one of Mirage’s illusions; an image of Warlock fully grown and ready to defeat him. Warlock & Cypher landed on Magus’ shoulder and began to hack into his programming. Combining Warlock’s physiology with Cypher’s ability to translate languages, and they re-wrote Magus’ programming. They reduced him to an infantile Technarch who hadn’t been born and abandoned him on the dying planet he had been pulling apart.
Return to Earth
The New Mutants enjoyed a little rest & relaxation in space. Warlock acted as a personal space-pod for Cypher as they aided Cannonball & Binary with external repairs to the Starjammer. However, their time with the professor was cut short as he forced Karma to control Magik and teleport them all back to Earth. However, Magneto grew increasingly strict with them upon their miraculous return. He had not given up hoping that they were still alive & would return. However, he drummed the severity of their actions into them with Draconian methods. They were forced to undergo a Danger Room sequence where they were chased through New York by the Marauders. One by one the New Mutants all died. Magneto was furious with them for running away on the day that the Marauders had attacked the Morlocks, but his methods only caused more anger & a greater rift between headmaster & students.
Separated
One warm day the New Mutants were playing soccer on the grass. An accident caused Sunspot to grow angry and lashed out against Cannonball. The other New Mutants were angry at Sunspot. They all took Cannonball to hospital, but left Sunspot at school where he found Professor Xavier’s report on him; Xavier was afraid that Sunspot would become a villain like his father. Regretful and frightened, Sunspot ran away. Upon their return the New Mutants discovered that Sunspot had run away. Although Magneto asked them to stay at the school and enlisted the help of Siryn & the Multiple Man, Warlock was too concerned for the safety of his friend. Warlock followed Sunspot’s trail into the city. However, he left his best friend Cypher physically weakened if the remaining New Mutants should come under attack.
Party At The Hellfire Club
In their absence, Magneto had become the new White King of the Hellfire Club. As such, they were all invited to a social function hosted at the Hellfire Club’s headquarters. When they arrived in the city Magik fell back away from the others to talk to Cypher. He had been acting skittish without Warlock around to protect him, but he lashed out angrily at Magik. In his anger he slipped backwards into the path of an oncoming taxi, but was teleported back to safety. Although saved by Magik, Cypher remained bitter that they treated him like a defenseless baby. Inside the club Selene caused a scene where she destroyed a figurine that was supposed to be her, claiming it was a fake. Unfortunately Magma claimed that that figuring had been on her ancestor, and trouble brewed when Selene claimed that she was related to Magma. The other New Mutants averted another scene, but when they met the Hellions they all went their separate ways.
Tarot asked Cypher if he wanted to dance, but he was still in a bad mood from earlier. So he snapped at her and accused her of scheming something malicious, which caused her to run off crying. Empath was delighted to see someone else causing emotional chaos for a change. Upstairs Cypher’s mood began to change. He stumbled upon a poker game where Roulette draped over him and called him ‘lover’. He continued to win high-staked bets until all the other players were defeated. Roulette kissed him, and he grabbed a nearby bottle of Champagne to celebrate. Alone, they continued to drink until Cypher was intoxicated. They were later discovered by other New Mutants & Hellions. Wolfsbane was shocked by Cypher’s hedonistic behavior, while Mirage grabbed him by the collar and reprimanded him for acting like a Hellion. Her comments caused more aggravation between the two teams until Cypher suddenly remembered Roulette’s own powers of luck. He instantly grew angry & slapped her. Thunderbird intervened, which caused more anxiety between teams.
Hang-Over & Hellions
Tensions ran high between the two young mutant teams. The Hellions & New Mutants agreed to a competition, to track down who had created the forged figurine that was presented to Selene. While Magma struggled with her own feelings of hatred towards Selene, Cypher was sobering up. Magik offered to teleport him to Limbo where she could conjure up a hang-over spell, he dashed into the en-suite; vomiting at the prospect of going to Limbo. Mirage & Cannonball followed him. While Mirage verbally berated him for his shameless behavior, Cannonball held him upright in the shower. Still fully dressed in his suit & black-tie, the hot water appeared to help sober him up.
They took their time to get ready, and changed into their graduation uniforms. Magik used her spells to spy on the Hellions and discovered that the villains responsible were the Viper & Silver Samurai. They teleported ahead of the the Hellions to the Viper’s base, but Cypher held back. He admitted that without Warlock there to help protect him, that he was scared he might get hurt in action. However, his fears were short-lived when he saw a sniper take aim at Mirage. Cypher leapt to push her out of the way, and was shot squarely in the chest.
Cypher fell to the ground & didn’t move. Angered, Magma unleashed a large fiery ring to hold Viper’s guards prisoner while Magik was about to unleashed her darker persona on the sniper. However, Wolfsbane ran over to Cypher and cried out in relief. She rolled him over to reveal a large burn mark across his chest. Cypher’s uniform had protected him from the bullet, and he’d saved his friend in battle. Wolfsbane clung on to Cypher, hugging him with great relief. However, the New Mutants lost the contest. The Hellions had waited for the New Mutants to round up the Viper’s henchmen while they went after the Viper herself. To make things worse, by the time the New Mutants returned to the Hellfire Club Karma had runaway. She left them a note to explain how she had gone in search of her missing brother & sister. Cypher implored Mirage & Cannonball to go after her. However they were intent on respecting her wishes to go alone. Cypher disagreed, believing that they should all stick together, like how Warlock had run after Sunspot.
Young Romance
The New Mutants attended a fancy launch party for Lila Cheney’s new album. Cannonball had spent just as much time getting ready as the girls had. Wolfsbane refused to wear anything nice in case she had to change into a wolf, which would ruin her clothes. However, Mirage conjured up an image of Wolfsbane’s dream outfit, and Magik used her powers in Limbo to create it. When they were assembled outside the school, Cypher was impressed with how beautiful Wolfsbane looked in her fairytale princess’ ballgown.
He then spent much of the evening with Wolfsbane. On the journey across town, she became obsessed with a dark tower where news reports had mentioned a Bird Boy being held by the local authorities. And later at the party Wolfsbane encouraged Cypher to eavesdrop on other party goers. It turned out that the other guests were aliens, and it took a few minutes for Cypher’s powers to translate what they were saying. They uncovered a plot against Cannonball, who the aliens didn’t like hanging so closely around Lila Cheney. They convinced him to take a drug which made him woozy. Cypher & Wolfsbane were unable to reach their friend before the aliens flew off with him.
The New Mutants hotly pursued their kidnapped friend, which resulted in a fight on a floating garbage barge. Wolfsbane protected Cannonball by transforming into a wolf, causing her beautiful dress to rip. When another alien went to take a shot at her, Cypher clobbered him with some old garbage. Just as he was celebrating what he had done, Cypher was grazed across the back by another alien’s laser beam. Seeing Cypher fall, Magik leapt up, grabbed an alien gun and shot Cypher’s attacker.
Cypher had survived the attack, and soon the New Mutants defeated the aliens in combat. However, Wolfsbane blamed herself for not stopping the aliens from kidnapping Cannonball and was still half naked. Mirage pulled her own sweater over Wolfsbane to cover her up. Although she no longer felt pretty, Cypher reassured Wolfsbane that she still looked like a princess to him. Embarrassed & enamored, they all teleported back to the school.
Bird-Brain
The next morning the local news coverage reported that Cannonball had accidentally destroyed the tower where the Bird Boy was being held. Wolfsabane became passionate about saving the Bird Boy in case he was a new mutant. Soon, the New Mutants were caught up in another contest with the Hellions to see which team could claim the Bird Boy first. Although the New Mutants were victorious, the victory cost them another member. Magma defected to the Hellions to be closer to her new love Empath. As headmaster, Magneto wasn’t sure what to make of the Bird Boy. The others seemed excited about him, and kept in the Danger Room with a tropical island scenario. Wolfsbane implored Cypher to talk to the Bird Boy, but he refused and renamed the creature Bird Brain.
Cypher remained distant and refused to have anything to do with Bird Brain. He grew angry when it tried to eat the characters on his computer screen. Cypher spitefully joked that they should take Bird Brain to a restaurant, but the other New Mutants ran with the idea. Clothed in one of Cannonball’s old uniforms with a trenchcoat, hat, dark sunglasses and ill-fitting shoes that used to belong to the Beast, Bird Brain went out in public. However, he stole everyone else’s food, which only incensed Cypher further. Bird Brain began squawking loudly & made a terrible mess. The New Mutants paid their waitress & left in a hurry.
Back at the school, Wolfsbane begged Cypher again to try to talk with Bird Brain. Reluctantly he tried to communicate with strange clicking noises. Almost immediately Cypher’s attitude towards Bird Brain changed as they began to communicate. Excited, Cypher hugged Bird Brain and explained to the others where he had come from & why he behaved the way he did; Bird Brain was the result of a scientist’s experiments on an island in the north, form here he had runaway. There, the other creatures were forced into tests of survival and fed when they were successful. Therefore, when Bird Brain saw food he believed he was being rewarded. After Bird Brain tried to steal food form a local fast food joint, the New Mutants decided to accompany him on his return journey to the scientist’s island. However, there they found other man-like animals living in fear. When they saw Wolfsbane transform into her semi-lupine transitional form & Cypher began to talk to them, the other ani-mates warmed to the New Mutants.
The Ani-Mator
However, the island of Paradise was run by the Ani-Mator. A mad scientist obsessed who was employed by the Right, but had gone astray from his original mission. Instead he created the ani-mates and pretended he was a God by breeding & killing them as he saw fit. He commanded his most fierce ani-mates to kill all those who had aided the New Mutants. when he met the New Mutants he performed a computer check to learn their identities. He then began to plan to use their powers to create super-powered ani-mates. The New Mutants were imprisoned inside giant test-tubes. The fierce ani-mates carried them from the ani-mator’s labratory. Cypher could understand them as they discussed what perverted things they wanted to do to Wolfsbane. Angry, but helpless, he banged against the glass and threatened them to leave her alone. He saw how Wolfsbane was hurt by their taunts, as she often worried about her own animalistic side. They tried to comfort each other through their glass prison walls.
The Right and Death of Cypher
Unbeknownst to everyone, the Ani-Mator’s computer search had triggered The Right’s alarms. Cameron Hodge descended upon Paradise island with a crew of smile-faced armed soldiers. When they arrived, chaos ensued. The Right’s soldiers attacked & killed many of the larger & aggresive ani-mates. Bird Brain escaped his tormentors, and fought to find the New Mutants & his ani-mate friends. Cypher convinced the ani-mates who were carrying the New Mutants that the Ani-Mator planned to kill them too. When they heard the Right’s gun-fire they believed him, dropping the New Mutants and shattering their glass containers.
The fight spilled outside into the open air. Wolfsbane pushed Cypher behind a rock and told him to hide there out of harm’s way. While hidden, Sunspot & Warlock arrived. They had found the maps that the others left lying around and discovered the location of Paradise. Overjoyed to see Cypher again, Warlock pushed him back behind the rock where he was hiding. Wolfsbane was fighting a Right soldier when the Ani-Mator aimed his pistol at her. Cypher cried to warn her of the gun, but she misunderstood him thinking he meant the Right soldier’s shoulder-mounted weapons. Just as he had during the fight with the Viper’s guards, Cypher leapt and pushed Wolfsbane out of the way. However, he wasn’t wearing his graduation uniform, and the bullet passed through his chest.
Wolfsbane continued to fight, warning Cypher not to be silly and hide again. Lying on the floor, with his last breath Cypher apologized & promised not to do it again. Cypher died in the middle of the fight, and no one noticed. It wasn’t until the Ani-mates teamed up with the New Mutants and fought off the Right that the tragedy was revealed. The Ani-Mator was boastful about what he had done, so Magik teleported him to Limbo. Wolfsbane was distraught and begged him to stop teasing her. Warlock poured over Doug’s lifeless body begging him to rejoice in their return. Cannonball realized that this was why Magneto had been so strict & continued to ground them, while the Ani-mates stood in quiet reverence. As the New Mutants left Paradise, Cannonball ordered the Ani-Mates not to eat their dead. Instead, they were to be buried with reverence, and that the survivors should give themselves names. He told them that it was what Doug would have wanted.
Coping With His Death
When they returned home, the New Mutants had to wait for Magneto’s arrival. He had been in Manhattan fighting alongside the Hellfire Club to protect the city form Apocalypse’s Horseman. Exhausted upon his return, he flew into a furious rage when he saw Doug’s dead body. He imprisoned the New Mutants in metals bars until his rage subsided. When left alone with Doug’s body, Magneto was sorrowful & mourned the loss of his student. Doug’s death affected all of the New Mutants, especially Wolfsbane & Warlock.
Wolfsbane remained in the Danger Room reliving the moment when Doug was shot. Each time she managed to save him, and would hold the holographic Doug close to her until the program faded away around her. Sunspot confronted her, and she confessed that she had found 17 different ways to save Doug. However, Sunspot comforted her after he challenged her with the knowledge that nothing they could do would bring him back to life. Mirage had a difficult time explained the nature of human death to Warlock. He had been watching zombie movies and expected Doug to wake up. However, she made things worse by using her powers to conjure up illusions of zombie Doug. Yet Mirage had given Warlock an idea.
After The Funeral
Doug’s family were still unaware that their son was a mutant, and therefore had been informed that he’d been killed during a hunting accident. His mother burst into tears and Wolfsbane ran out of the funeral crying. On the front lawn Warlock struggled to understand why Doug would be buried, and shriveled up. The others panicked to contain the scene that Wolfsbane & Warlock were causing. That night, Warlock decided to make a move to bring Doug back to life. He flew to the funeral home and found Doug’s casket. He performed a small gestalt meld and offered Doug his own life energy. However, Doug didn’t respond. Therefore Warlock decided that Doug needed to see all the reasons why he should come back to life. He flew Doug to see his parents. His mother looked up at the window and screamed in terror when she saw her son’s ghoulish appearance & a devilish smile above him. By the time Doug’s father ran into the room, Warlock had flown away confused by her reaction.
Warlock then flew Doug to the mansion and appeared at Wolfsbane’s window. When she saw Doug she thought he had come back to life and flung her arms around him. However, after a moment she realised what was happened and screamed. Warlock tried to quieten her, but the other New Mutants rallied around her. They were sickened by what they saw, and struggled to cope with their own grief while explaining to Warlock why Doug wasn’t going to come back to life. Wolfsbane explained to Warlock that humans don’t come back to life, and he began to cradle her as they mourned for Doug together.
The New Mutants then struggled to return Doug’s body before it has been discovered he was missing. The security guards at the funeral home raised the alarm, but Mirage then cast an illusion of Doug’s body lying in the casket. This bought them enough time to replace his body.
Douglock & Kitty Pryde
Years later it was thought that Doug had returned from the dead. A cybernetic creature claimed to have broken away from the Phalanx, and called itself Douglock. He physically resembled Doug if he had been infected by Warlock’s transmode virus. Douglock became a member of Excalibur, and his physical appearance had convinced Wolfsbane that he was really Doug come back to life.
However, Douglock rejected the claim that he was really Doug. He didn’t share any of Doug’s fiery personality or care to interact with others. Kitty Pryde found it suspicious that this entity so closely resembled her old friend, and was determined to know once and for all if he really was Doug. Therefore she decided to use her own mutant power to phase down through the cemetery’s ground and into Doug’s coffin. Shocked, she discovered Doug’s dead corpse still lying in his grave.
Necrosia: A Resurrection
For many years Doug’s body lay in peace. His name served as a warning to other young students who wished to have adventures beyond their experience & training. However, as a close friend of the X-Men and a master at cracking codes, Doug’s body was not allowed to remain dead.
Through over a millennia of scheming, Eli Bard had come into contact with a docile sample of technarch which was retrieved from the dormant Magus. He became infected with the transmode virus and used it to resurrect Caliban as an offering to his former lover, Selene. Knowing that Caliban could locate other mutants, Eli Bard wanted to use Caliban to locate dead mutants for Selene to feed off of. However, Selene’s plans were much grander. She had Eli use the transmode virus to resurrect other mutants. It infected their corpses, repaired the rotted corpses and restored their souls to the bodies. However, at the same time, it enslaved them to obey Selene’s will.
Attack on Utopia
Among the first to be resurrected were Doug and Emma Frost’s original Hellions. Doug was shocked as he woke in his coffin, and slowly crawled his way back out of the Earth. There, Wither & Eli Bard clothed him & led him to Selene. When she was ready to put her plans in motion, Doug was used to read the architectural weaknesses of Utopia. He determined that the weakness point was under the water. He led the Hellions underwater, and when they arrived secretly on Utopia, he used his power to decode the security systems. However, his personality began to struggle with what was happening to him. At first he seemed almost catatonic. He didn’t communicate much with the Hellions. However, he quickly learnt how to use sarcasm, which nearly caused a fight when he teased Beef about his codename.
Once inside Utopia and passed the security system, Doug separated from the Hellions. He had a different mission to them; to kill Magma. He went up to the surface levels of Utopia, and observed his former teammates & mentor as they were reunited for the first time in many years. The transmode virus interacted with his own ability to read languages, and therefore he interpreted their body language. He could tell that Illyana was distant, Sunspot wanted to reassure Xavier that they were still the same people he’d taught many years ago, and that Dani Moonstar was struggling to be recognized as someone of importance within the team. Doug continued to watch them until he started to receive messages through the transmode virus. Warlock had discovered Doug’s empty grave, and attempted to make contact. It caused Doug to falter and crumple on the spot.
Later, as the old team of friends went into their separate quarters, Doug entered Magma’s room through the window. He acted as if he had only just been resurrected and asked for her help. However, the instant her back was turned he struck Magma from behind. Severely beating her unconscious, he dragged her lifeless body into the communal living area to confront his other friends. Their shock at seeing Doug alive was short-lived as they saw Magma’s body. They quickly attacked. Yet Doug’s ability to translate body language worked just as effectively in battle. He evaded powerful attacks, and was able to quickly defeat the others until Karma took control of their bodies. Her influence meant that he was no longer able to read their actions, and she quickly gained the upper hand. Doug was knocked out through the window. However, Warlock appeared at that moment caring for Doug’s body. He implored them to stop, because he could see what was causing Doug to act in such a foreign manner. Unfortunately, before Warlock could help his best friend, Doug reached into Warlock’s chest. His attack was swift & brutal, leaving Warlock’s decapitated grey head rolling on the floor.
Strangely, Doug collapsed. Internally, he was caught in a conflict between Eli Bard controlling the transmode virus, and his own personality which continued to reboot. At the first sign of losing control over Doug, Bard sent the Hellions to collect him. Tarot used the Devil card to torment him, and keep the New Mutants confused long enough to snatch Doug away. Terrified & confused, Doug wanted to know what language he was & called out to Cannonball for help. The New Mutants teleported away, but Cannonball was moved by seeing his old friend in pain. So he split the New Mutants into two teams, and sent the others to the infirmary to help Magma. Cannonball, Illyana & Karma returned to help Doug.
The fight with the Hellions, was over when Warlock returned. Revived, he summoned two military missiles he had infected with his own transmode virus, and used them to attack the Hellions. Illyana passed the Soulsword to Warlock, who then plunged her Soulsword into Doug. The Soulsword’s ability to eradicate all spells & external forms of control disrupted Eli Bard’s control over Doug. For the first time since he had been brought back to life, Doug was free to act as he pleased. He finally understood what language he was; the New Mutants was his language.
Second Coming: Fighting The Right
After Hope Summers & Cable returned from the future, the X-Men rallied their forces across the country to counter Bastion’s machinations. The majority of the New Mutants were sent to tackle Cameron Hodge & his army of smile-faced Right soldiers. Cypher remained on the Blackbird for the majority of the operation. Karma & Moonstar led the attack, but Hodge soon revealed his true form. Hodge was the same hulking mechanical monstrosity who had previously killed Warlock on Genosha. Despite his large size, his attack was swift. Hodge could easily deflect the New Mutant’s attacks and was waving Karma’s mutilated unconscious body around.
Cypher read the situation and determined that only an alien form of attack could stop Hodge. He convinced Warlock to use his technarch transmode virus. By infecting Cameron Hodge and the Right soldiers, Warlock was able to absorb their life energy & thereby kill them. They had saved their friends, but Warlock remained distraught from breaking his promise not to harm any sentient life-form.
Second Coming: Strategic Pawn
However, Cypher didn’t have time to waste. He informed Cyclops that he had managed to read Hodge’s computer files. There, he discovered several references to pylons that Bastion had designed. They were being built not far from Utopia. Upon Cypher’s insistence that these towers must be of some importance to Bastion, Cyclops sent to X-Club to investigate. However, it transpired that it was a trap. Soon after the X-Club arrived, a bomb on the tower detonated. Moments afterwards, a large red sphere encompassed Utopia & large portions of San Francisco. Although they survived, the X-Club had been separated from the rest of the X-Men by a mysterious giant red sphere.
Inside the red sphere, the X-Men discovered a smaller silver sphere on the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a temporal gate through which waves of Nimrod sentinels were being sent from a future timeline to kill the trapped mutants. Assessing the situation, Cyclops commanded that Cypher was to be sent into that future timeline in order to hack into the Nimrod command control & shut them down. Cable had enough power stored for one lst time jump that could take them into the future. However, it wasn’t enough to return home again afterwards. Therefore, in order for Cable & Cypher to live long enough to hack into the Nimrod programme, X-Force accompanied them on their suicide mission into the future.
In the future, he quickly managed to take control of a computerised patrol unit, that ejected it’s human control in favour of Cypher. All he had to do was talk to it, and convince it that it wanted to help him. While X-Force struggled to infiltrate the Nimrod factory, Cypher used his new computerised vehicle to break an entry into the facility and hack into their files. Once inside the complex, Cypher saw through the Master Mold decoy & soon hacked into the actual Master Mold by allowing it to merge with his body. As Master Mold overwhelmed Cypher’s body, Cypher retaliated by using the computerised language against it. Eventually he was victorious, buying X-Force time to escape by de-activating Master Mold & the Nimrod army. Weakened from the experience, Cypher couldn’t walk. So Wolverine insisted on being the one who carried Cypher out of there. Thanks to Cable’s sacrifice, the others were able to return to the present day where Dani Moonstar rushed to Cypher’s unconscious body.
Rise and Fall of the New Mutants
The New Mutants are involved in a conflict that involves the military and oddly enough the mutant children that were used to open gates to Limbo during Inferno. Magik has been plotting since the beginning of the reunion of the New Mutants to save herself, her soul and limbo from the combined might of a rogue military faction, the aged mutant Inferno babies and the Elder Gods of Limbo that they release.
So we regress to a long ago plotline. A military faction was stationed in Limbo after Inferno to keep the inferno babies safe while experimenting on them. Unfortunately, shortly after being stationed in limbo they are overrun by the hordes of limbo. In order to survive they release the powers of the Inferno babies on the advancing demons. Because of the carnage that happens they blame the mistress of limbo, Magik. The military faction resolves to take revenge on Limbo and Magik.
So, shortly after Second Coming, Cyclops send the team on vacation. While the New Mutants and relaxing and getting drunk in a small cabin, the military faction attacks Pixie and steals her soul dagger. Magik senses this and takes the New Mutants to Limbo where they encounter the Inferno babies and are easily beaten. Cypher is taken by a member that has powers over language also. Hers can influence anyone she speaks to and make them do what she wants.
All the other New Mutants are beaten and eventually Magik escapes with Karma, whom she allowed to use the soulsword during their encounter with Legion. Because of this she is able to store the soulsword in Karma, which allows her to awaken Legion’s true persona. The Inferno babies manage to release to Elder Gods of Limbo, who rip through the fabric of reality into the earth of 616 marvel. Legion, with his reality warping powers is the only person who can stop them and he does. After it all the entire team realizes that Magik had been manipulating them from the beginning.
Powers
Cypher was a mutant with a superhuman facility for translating languages, spoken or written, human or alien in origin. His superhuman skill also extended to his great facility in deciphering codes and computer languages. Cypher’s skills were such that he was once able to make great headway in translating the written language of an extraterrestrial race in a matter of minutes.
Cypher’s mutant talent for translating differed from the translating ability that a human who is a genius in this field, yet not a mutant, possesses, even though both people might achieve the same results with any given translation problem. Cypher’s mutant talent was an intuitive one which worked on a subconscious level, and which may in part be related to telepathy. A non-mutant human, even a genius, would have to work out a translation consciously, step by step. Rather than working the problem out step by step, in his conscious mind, Cypher instead subconsciously solved the problem. Hence, Cypher could reach the correct solution by means that appeared to be leaps of logic, and he himself may not have been consciously aware of the entire process by which he reached the right answer.
Other abilities: Aided by his unusual facility with computer languages, Cypher became an expert at working with computer software. He was brilliant at working with computer programs. Cypher received a good deal of athletic training as a member of the New Mutants, and was a fair hand-to-hand combatant. But because his mutant ability did not lend itself to physical battle, he was not given as intensive a program of physical training as the rest of the New Mutants.
Cypher has the superhuman ability to translate any language in any form whether it is spoken or written regardless of its origin of being natural or extraterrestrial. Cypher performs this ability easily without having a hard time on picking the appropriate words to use. Furthermore, Cypher can also decode computer languages. This incredible translation allows him to easily get the thought of the message no matter what kind of language has been used. As of recently he is able to know when reality is warped due to the language of actuality, allowing him to know when someone has warped reality to hide themselves.
This power was originally not as useful in times of battle but Cypher was competent in using weapons for fighting and his best friend Warlock was always on his side for assistance. This changed when he came back from the dead.
After being resurrected Cypher’s abilities either expanded or were just finally fully realized. Cypher’s ability to understand all language has been incorporated into the ability to understand the meaning conveyed by all things. Cypher now sees everything as a language, allowing him to understand and manipulate pretty much any system. He has shown the ability to read body language; decode hidden messages in intonation and inflection of speech (revealing the inner monologues of individuals); decode combat viewing a fight as a language to be interpreted, allowing him to defeat all the New Mutants at once; decipher and manipulate data in a manner that rivals hypercomputers such as Master Mold. The true limits of how he can apply his new ability are unknown.
Alternate Realities
Earth-1610: Ultimate Universe
Unlike the Earth-616 version of his character, Doug in this reality was not a mutant. As a regular human Doug was a computer programmer who had been recognised because of his repeated success in 100 games of the television quiz show, Jeopardy. He was enrolled in Emma Frost’s Academy of Tomorrow because of his advanced computer skills, such as hacking. He later helped to free Polaris from prison and cleared her name by reviewing the CCTV footage of the alleged crime. He seemed to have died during events of Ultimatum.
Earth-58163: House of M
Cypher was a member of staff at the Mutant Leadership Institute alongside Sean Garrison and Karma. They would train young mutants to use their powers and become future leaders for the benefit of society. After Quentin Quire’s mysterious death, Cypher & Karma uncovered Sean Garrison’s secret; he was a member of SHIELD along with his daughter Wallflower. Just as they discovered the information of computer, Garrison appeared. He used his mutant power to instill fear & hate into Cypher & Karma. Just as they were starting to fall prey to his powers, Tag appeared. Tag’s own mutant power forced Karma & Cypher to stop before they killed themselves. A side effect of which caused Garrison to leap out of a window, committing suicide.
Earth-295: Age of Apocalypse
Douglas Ramsey was a mutant who lived in Avalon together with his adoptive mother Destiny. Together they helped to usher mutants and humans to the peaceful lands, safely away from Apocalypse’s influence. His powers created a telepathic field that allowed the inhabitants of Avalon to understand each other regardless of their primary languages. Cypher died while protecting Destiny from the Shadow King’s attack. His sacrifice convinced Destiny to work with X-Calibre’s Mystique & Nightcrawler to depose Apocalypse.
Earth-9620: Days of Future Present
Cypher was still a member of the New Mutants. This version of Cypher had a cyborg’s appearance, with the right-side of his face his original human, and technarch features on the left-side. Unlike his normal self, he was extremely violent and liable to go insane. It was believed that he would gain the knowledge of how the Technarch fight. Although he remained Warlock’s friend, he began to respond to the name Magus.
Earth-8545 What If Warlock Was Infected With The Legacy Virus
As with most other universes, Doug was bes tfriends with Warlock. However, after Warlock was infected with the Legacy Virus he accidentally infected Doug with the transmode virus. The combination of the transmored & legacy viruses created a new type of lifeform, the Vi-Locks. Cypher & Warlock infected their friends & colleagues. Those newly infected Vi-Locks then went and infected others until 75% of the population had been infected & converted. Doug was killed by one of the infected residents, and the information was used to create a cure for the Vi-Lock pandemic.
Earth-1991: Rahne of Terra
Wolfsbane’s mind had been substituted with the mind of Princess Rain, her alternate reality version. Back in Princess Rain’s world, Douglas Ramsey lived with his mother in the local village. They were peasants, and his mother worked hard as a washer woman. Doug had dreams of meeting royalty, and had developed a crush on the Princess. However, the Princess threatened by a strange beast who could not be stopped. The beast was Wolverine, who’s mind had been wiped to make him into the Beast.
At night, when Wolfsbane fled through the village, no-one was willing to help her except for Douglad. Although he did not have any magical weapons like the other members in the Royal Guard, his bravery helped to stall Wolverine long enough for the others to save Wolfsbane. After Wolfsbane was restored to her own mind, Douglas remained by the Princess’ side.
Years later, Wolfsbane discovered that back in this reality Douglas & Princess Rain were married, expecting their first child. A sorcerer attacked them with strange animated weapons which left Douglas injured. Although he survived the attack he lost one of his arms. His lost limb was replaced by another piece of mystical armour referred to as Douglock’s Phalanx.
Earth-904: What if the X-Men Stayed in Asgard?
When the X-Men returned to Asgard to save Storm & the New Mutants, many of them made the decision to not to return to Earth. The team was split up, some of them returned with the X-Men to Earth while others remained in Asgard. Cypher chose to stay in Asgard where he could study the Asgardian language and he became a scholar. He specialised in the almost forgotten Asgardian texts. Years later, Storm became the Queen of Asgard. One of her official acts was to name Cypher as her vizier & advisor.
New Mutants: Forever
In New Mutants: Forever, Cypher is captured by the Red Skull. Impressed by Doug’s skills, the Skull decides that he will grant him his Visage. Drugs are injected into Cypher’s system which transform him into the Red Skull’s newest protege. During a fight with the New Mutants, Doug, aided by the brainwashed Amara, apparently kills Warlock. After carrying out many malicious deed for the Red Skull, Doug is able to overcome the hold on his mind. He is once again Doug Ramsey, even though his appearance would indicate otherwise. Unfortunately, Cypher is given little time to process what has occurred, as an angry Warlock makes a brazen entrance. Warlock, still unaware that this monster is Doug, is looking for blood.
Other Media
X2: X-Men United
Cypher’s name is listed in William Stryker’s files on Lady Deathstrike’s computer.