The New Mutants has had some incredibly powerful and popular members, from the high-flying Cannonball to the fear-manifesting Mirage. One member, however, was ridiculed by both writers and fans as having a useless ability – until some creators saw fit to take a closer look at his mutant power and saw some frightening applications for his gift.
Unfortunately, with mutant warfare at a constant high in the X-Men universe, mutants tend to be rated based on how much damage they can do in battle. This makes mutants with more passive gifts appear to be less desirable – even useless. However, by looking at the story of Doug Ramsey (aka Cypher), we can see how sometimes the mutants with seemingly weak powers can learn how to use them in ways that make them insanely powerful.
With the New Mutants movie about to hit theatres and introduce a new generation to these lesser-known mutants, now’s a good time to take a look back at Doug Ramsey’s history and trace his journey from undervalued hero to MVP.
Who is Doug Ramsey?
Introduced in New Mutants #13 during the early 1980s, Doug Ramsey was a friend of the X-Men’s Kitty Pryde. Like Kitty, Doug had a gift for computers. In Doug’s case, however, this came partly from his mutant ability – he had the power to intuitively translate any language, no matter how alien. This gave him a huge edge in computer programming and learning foreign languages. In all other respects, however, Doug was an ordinary boy with nothing extraordinary to distinguish him mentally, physically, or emotionally. Many termed his power a “quiet” mutation since he could easily hide his gift under the appearance of skill.
Unfortunately, this made Doug unpopular with fans who preferred their mutants to be tortured, angsty teenagers who simultaneously hated and reveled in their powers. Doug, however, had a different problem. While his other mutant teammates regularly rushed into battle thanks to mutant abilities that all seemed designed for combat, Doug often felt inadequate since his gift didn’t offer any immediate offensive uses. In fact, the only reason Doug had been recruited into the New Mutants was to translate the alien language of the techno-organic mutant Warlock. Doug and Warlock became good friends and Warlock even transformed himself into a suit of techno-organic armor that could protect Doug in the battlefield.
However, Doug (who took on the codename “Cypher”) was never much of a fighter. Fans regularly ridiculed Cypher, with some arguing the New Mutants could just replace Doug with a dictionary (or later Google Translate). The negative reception ultimately led to Doug sacrificing himself in New Mutants #60 to save Rahne Sinclair (aka Wolfsbane) whom he had been having some feelings for.
Following Doug’s death, fans finally began to warm up to him. Several stories remember Doug as a hero, although no attempt was made to bring him back for many years.
The TRUE Power of Omnilingualism
As the Information Age moved on, however, some creators thought it might be time to take a second look at Doug Ramsey and reassess what his “omnilingual” power could really do. During the Necrosha storyline, Doug was resurrected thanks to a “Transmode Virus” along with many other deceased mutants. Once he was back, however, Doug showed he could do far more with his mutant power than just “translate stuff.”
By realizing his power enables him to understand language in “all” its forms, Doug found he could apply his power in frighteningly effective ways. He began looking at combat skills as a form of “body language” – and found he could not only quickly become a skilled fighter but “read” the movements of multiple opponents simultaneously and counter all their moves. This allowed him to fight the entire New Mutants team. His ability to “read weaknesses” also grew beyond humans when Doug began looking at building architecture as something to decipher – allowing him to find all the weak spots in a building’s structure.
Doug’s skill at handling computers has also only grown (and become more relevant considering how prevalent computers are in modern society). Considering that the Internet was only in its infancy when Doug was killed off, the new world the resurrected Doug came back to seems tailor-made for his gifts. Thanks to his power, Cypher can hack into any system, no matter how secure. His increased confidence and abilities have let him take on massively powerful enemies like the robotic Master Mold and win by simply reprogramming his opponents. Other Marvel characters are also finally recognizing Cypher’s power, as he was approached to help find the missing Wolverine during the Hunt for Wolverine storyline and aid Daredevil to bring down the Kingpin.
Perhaps most extraordinarily, Doug has recognized that magic spells are also a kind of language, enabling him to learn teleportation spells from the New Mutant Illyana Rasputin (aka Magik). Just how far he can go in this is unknown, but considering that his mutant gift could help him decipher both technology and magic at superhuman speed almost guarantees that Doug could potentially become as powerful (or possibly even more powerful) than Doctor Doom. Considering how even Reed Richards finds magic an almost impossible study to tackle, Doug Ramsey could quickly become one of the Marvel Universe’s most versatile minds (if he isn’t already). When it comes to the mutants on Krakoa, Doug is incredibly important in understanding the new mutant paradise.
For a mutant once considered to be only as powerful as a dictionary, Doug Ramsey has certainly come into his own. While the character is not slated to appear in The New Mutants movie, given his rich history with the team and his own growing importance in the Marvel Universe, it’s a sure bet this mutant will be getting a lot more respect from now on.