Cypher (comics)
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Cypher (Douglas Ramsey) is a fictional mutant character, a superhero from Marvel Comics. He first appeared in New Mutants vol. 1 #13 (March 1984).
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[edit] Fictional character biography
Doug Ramsey was born to Philip and Sheila Ramsey. Doug was a teenage friend of Kitty Pryde who she met after she moved to Westchester County to join Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. They hit it off when they discovered a shared interest in video games, computers and computer technology. Kitty's talent for building hardware providing the perfect complement to his skill at writing the software to run the hardware.
Professor X had suspected Doug's mutant power of deciphering languages but had not approached him to join the school. Doug became a member of the New Mutants after the arrival of the techno-organic alien Warlock, literally pulled out of bed and informed of the true nature of Xavier's students when the New Mutants needed his power to establish communication with the confused alien. With Doug's pre-inclination for technology, and being more readily able to understand Warlock than most others, the two of them became fast friends.
Whereas Warlock referred to his teammates with the prefix "selffriend", eventually, after saving his life by offering to share some of his own life energy with Warlock, Warlock gave Doug the unique identifier of "Selfsoulfriend".
Doug's inborn mutant power was the ability to intuitively understand and translate any form of communication, be it written, spoken or non-verbal, and regardless of whether the origin of the language was human, computer or even completely alien. His power was not related to his intellect, but allowed him to make leaps of comprehension that he could probably not explain to anyone else, but which were invariably accurate. He was able to translate the language of a long dead species, without any common terms of reference, within a matter of hours.
Despite the fact his power was entirely harmless (Being both mental and passive), and his parents were shown as a happy loving couple, Doug was the only one of the original New Mutants who never did tell his parents he was a mutant. He was worried that they might reject him for being a mutant of any sort, and it was too great a risk to him.
It has been suggested that the character of "Philip Ramsey", a high-ranking member of the "Friends of Humanity" introduced in the God Loves, Man Kills X-Men Graphic novel was originally intended to be Doug's father (Whose name was eventually revealed to be Philip), but this was dropped, presumably in order to emphasise the fact that Doug was a normal kid from a normal background, who was simply scared of his normal parents rejection, without the need for the added pathos of "my father works for a group that wants to eradicate me".
His power made him a master of computer languages, since any software language was effectively instantly within his grasp. An established hacker before joining the team, he became the team's computer expert and "go to" guy for research and information, and wrote many programs for use in the X-Men's training area, the Danger Room.
He and Warlock found that they could merge their physicality to create a being which looked like Doug but was composed of Warlock's substance and their personae were merged. This allowed full access to both their powers, but meant Doug ran a severe risk of irreversible infection with the Transmode virus, which would have turned him into a being like Warlock.
Though he flirted with Kitty Pryde and may indeed have loved her, it was not reciprocated (Kitty had just broken up with Colossus and was sort of on the rebound) but they remained close friends. He was involved in the rescue of Betsy Braddock -- Psylocke of the X-Men, for whom he had deep feelings -- from the clutches of Mojo. Though she was several years his senior she may have had similar feelings, but never acted upon them, uncertain of how appropriate it might have been. After that, he started a relationship with teammate Rahne Sinclair, Wolfsbane, which lasted until his death.
Whilst assisting the New Mutants liberate the enslaved "animal people" of the genetically engineered being "Bird-Brain", Doug was shot and killed by the Ani-Mator, a minion of Cameron Hodge, whilst saving Rahne Sinclair's life[1].
Later, Warlock died, and his ashes were scattered upon Doug's grave. Eventually the alien Phalanx, a corrupt subset of the more powerful alien race known as the Technarchy (Warlock's native race), resurrected Warlock with Doug's memories and appearance, intending to use him as a "Trojan horse" to infiltrate the X-men. This gestalt entity, called Douglock, joined Excalibur for a time, soon breaking free of the Phalanx's programming. Unaware of his real identity as Warlock, "Douglock" believed himself to be a new entity based on the "genetic and mental engrams" of Cypher and Warlock.
After Excalibur disbanded, Warlock's personality resurfaced, but he found that he had changed. He speaks more normally than he originally did, and maintains a more traditionally humanoid form. Warlock maintains a copy of Doug's memory, but his personality is not active.
The true Doug Ramsey remains deceased.
[edit] Alternate versions
[edit] "Scattershot"
During the Shattershot Annual crossover, an alternate future is shown, where Warlock renamed himself Cyberlock. He retained all his memories but had a very serious, emotionless personality. He was part of an X-force team that helped Shatterstar back to his home dimension and then helped him become a sort of benevolent dictator, replacing Mojo V as Cable wished. To this end, a new X force team, consisting of Cannonball, Siryn, Warlock, Darkchild (Illyana Rasputin), Sunspot, and Powerpax (Francine Power) returned to Shatterstar's dimension. Assisted by the spineless ones and the geneticist, Arize, they overthrow Shatterstar, who had begun doing what Mojo's I through V had done, creating a world based off the entertainment of killing the opposite race. Shatterstar, who'd been having doubts concerning his leadership joined in the overthrowing of his own dimension, and, apparently, joined the bipeds and spineless ones in peace. X-Force apparently returned to Earth.
[edit] "Days of Future Present"
In the Days of Future Present annual crosssver, which showed aspects of the alternate future known as Days of Future Past, an new incarnation of the New Mutants was seen, whose membership included Doug Ramsey. This revived version of Doug was human looking on his right side, but his left side was techno-organic and constantly shifted into battle configurations with weapons bristling all over. Aggressive and violent, he was described as being nigh insane when angered. He also only responded to the name "Magus", seemingly confirming Warlock's fears that if infected by the transmode virus after merging into Douglock one time too many, Doug might take on the warlike aspects of the Technarch species.
[edit] "Age of Apocalypse"
In the Age of Apocalypse crossover, Doug Ramsey is the adopted son of Destiny and lives in Avalon. His "translation field" allows everyone in Avalon to understand each other, no matter what language they speak. He is killed when he jumps in front of Destiny to protect her from the Shadow King's last desperate attack.
[edit] "Exiles"
The reality-hopping Exiles once visited a world where Doug Ramsey was infected by the Legacy Virus. Trying to save Ramseys' life, Warlock bonded with Ramsey, combining their life forces into one. Once the virus was introduced to Warlocks unique physiology, it mutated and became even more contagious. With over half the world infected by this new technological virus, Doug Ramsey was kept in stasis and finally killed by one of the infected, once it found out the Exiles were trying to create a cure based on Ramseys' original strain of the virus.
[edit] Ultimate X-Men
The Ultimate X-Men version of Doug Ramsey is explicitly based partially on famed Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings. When "Ultimate Cypher" was introduced, he was (like Jennings) a superintelligent, slightly geeky but amicable computer programmer who gained national prominence by winning over 100 consecutive games on the TV gameshow Jeopardy.
Ultimate Cypher is a student at Emma Frost's Academy of Tomorrow. In this version he is specifically mentioned as being a human, not a mutant, but Frosts' school does not distinguish between different varieties of "gifted".
[edit] Geshem
In Peter David's graphic Novel Rahne of Terra we meet a sword and sorcery version of the New Mutants and X-Men, with the likes of Sam "Cannonball" Guthrie being a knight who uses seven league boots to fly (and a rifle called Cannonball as a weapon). Here Rain (an alt-version of Rahne Wolfsbane Sinclair) is the Princess of the realm of Geshem, and Doug is a commoner, a nobody whose mother is a washerwoman. However, he loves Rain from afar, and it is partly through his unexpected courage that the mainstream Rahne Sinclair, who has replaced Rain thanks to a spell, survives. The thought of Doug being killed again is enough to trigger her use of the magic of Geshem and her mutant powers to protect him. The story ends with Rain now restored to her own world, and noticing Doug for the first time, clearly being attracted to him.
In the sequel "Knight of Terra" Rahne pays a return visit to Geshem, and discovers that in that world, Doug and Rain are now married (and expecting their first child). However, after an attack by a sorcerer who used animated suits of armour, Doug is injured. He is healed by replacing at least one of his arms with some of the magically animated armour, a reference to Douglock, the part Phalanx being who was a member of Excalibur.
[edit] "House of M"
Ramsey appears alive and well and older in the Scarlet Witch's reality warp known as the House of M. He was a staff member alongside Karma and Sean Garrison at the New Mutant Leadership Institute who were training young mutants[2].
[edit] Notes
- A second character known as Cypher appeared in Sabretooth and Mystique #1 and was a member of A.I.M.. She has cybernetics that augment her strength and intelligence and can unfold into lethal constricting tendrills. She can also link with computerized systems . She has no links to the original Cypher.
- It is worth noting that Cypher and Warlock the only New Mutants who were never seen as adults (either in any of the potential futures which the New Mutants visited via their time travelling team-mate Magik, or via any other means such as being aged to adulthood by the villain Template) whilst Doug was alive. Any appearance of Doug in the future or as an adult only took place after his death. This might indicate that he and Warlock were never intended to survive, even by their creator Chris Claremont, or that they were planned to leave Earth at some point so they were no longer part of the X-Men universe.
