Originally Posted by
Sutekh
I don't agree with everything you're saying, but this here is spot on.
Telepathy, at it's core, is meant to be communication without speaking. Being able to send and receive thoughts mind to mind. Nothing inherent to it requires a great range (Spock could only do it by touch!), and it would not be out of line *at all* for most 'telepaths' to have a range not much greater than the human voice (a dozen yards, further if 'shouting' which could put strain on the 'shouter' and even make them 'lose their voice' telepathically speaking, for a time!).
But instead, Marvel based all telepaths on Xavier with his global range (who was supposed to be the best!) and had even nobodies like Mentat / Robert Zephaniah idly boast about reading the minds of people in Hollywood when he was in New York. That was a big mistake, IMO. Xavier was always meant to be the master. Not the template for what every single new telepath could do out of the box!
And then more and more powers got slapped on. Congratulations, you just hit puberty and your X-gene activated and you're a telepath! Tell him what he won, Vanna!
Send and Receive Thoughts.
Astral Projection.
Mind Control.
Language Translation.
Absorbing Skills / Languages from Others.
Instantly teaching Skills/Languages to Others.
Emotion Control.
Affecting the Body of another (stopping someone's heart, for instance).
Projecting Telepathic Shields to protect others from other Telepaths.
Psychic Illusions (messing with sensory impressions).
Psychic Invisibility.
Memory Tampering.
Mental Blasts.
Psychic Knives/Swords/Guns.
Many of these entirely useful sub-powers are capable of sustaining an entire character on their own! Translation - Cypher, Skill Absorption - Prodigy, Illusion - Masterminds, Mirage, Invisibility - Cipher, Astral Projection - Scanner, Trance, Mind Control - Karma, Emotion Control - Empath, Memory Tampering - Beautiful Dreamer, Forget Me Not, etc.
And instead of saying that any of them might be one of the unique expressions of power that some master telepath like Xavier had developed over the decades, every one of them sort of randomly becomes available to Shadow King, Psylocke, Jean, Emma, Quentin, etc. as if they all have some sort of hive mind.
Then we've got Psylocke teaching languages and Quentin making psychic weapons and no telepath has anything distinctive anymore, other than cosmetic stuff like these two (Betsy, Kwannon) make purple butterflies and these other two (Jean, Rachel) do a fiery bird power signature.
(And for that matter, I want more power signatures. Someone needs to make a green snake slithering out to taste the thoughts of their prey! Someone else needs to have a black cat shadow outline rear up and pounce at the target of their mental blasts!)