Marvel needs to really get their telepath power down.

[marhawkman]

Marvel has done to telepaths what DC has done to speedsters.

Also, the writing around telepaths with their powers can become lazy as hell.

Character who went through immense trauma: You have no idea what I've been through.

Telepath does some mind shenenigans: Nope, I totally do. I feel very sad now.

This **** needs to stop.

you forgot option B: "What trauma? I don't detect any trauma in your memories...." *subject suddenly finds them self unable to remember what they were thinking about 5 minutes ago*

Yeah, Emma and Xavier have done partial mind-wipes on people like that.... enh... probably Sinister and Exodus too. Not sure about Jean, she seems to prefer the puppet mistress style. Now that I think about it they've hinted that Sinister uses mental manipulation on his "test subjects"... and lackeys.

[Mercury]

Yeah, Emma and Xavier have done partial mind-wipes on people like that.... enh... probably Sinister and Exodus too. Not sure about Jean, she seems to prefer the puppet mistress style. Now that I think about it they've hinted that Sinister uses mental manipulation on his "test subjects"... and lackeys.

This was one example I had the quickest access to, but she has done it before. I will try to post more examples, or, perhaps, PyroFN would be so kind.

[marhawkman]

This was one example I had the quickest access to, but she has done it before. I will try to post more examples, or, perhaps, PyroFN would be so kind.

Heh, she actually said that she's going to do what Xavier would do.

[Sutekh]

What’s even stranger is that when Tony went to the Hellfire Gala, he even stated to have psy-blockers on. Yet here, one day later, when going to Krakoa, he’s abandoned it for no apparent reason. It makes no sense.

I have so many thoughts about this sort of stuff. He's got psi-blockers *that can block an Omega like Quentin,* and yet they don't work on Emma?

First of all. BS. Nothing Tony Stark can build into a suit is gonna stop an Omega. He might be able to make a shielded *chamber* into which a powerful telepath can't peer, or in which their powers are futzed out by static jamming, but no. In fact, any 'psi-jammer' from anyone *less* than Stark or Richards should utterly fail before a big dog telepath like Emma, Jean or Xavier, and even those might not be able to withstand a concerted push by something like a Cerebro-backed Xavier, or Emma and the Cuckoos all in gestalt pooling their power.

Might as well wear rubber soled shoes and think that you're immune to Storm's lightning bolts.

But. No matter how amazing the telepath is, they shouldn't be fooling Vision. That's something they'd need Milan or Network or Trinary (or one of the half-dozen other cyberpaths/'machine telepaths' I'm forgetting) for.

And it's a ****ing tree. On an island filled with trees. Who gives a crap if Tony Stark sees it? It's not like it has a sign out front that says, 'We resurrect people in here!' The *place* does nothing. It's the *people* who do the resurrections, and those people have been around, and known to Stark, etc. for years. (Back during the Registration Act days, the government had files on everyone at the school, *including Elixir,* who, newsflash, can resurrect people without those other four.)

That was just a dumb scene.

But yeah, some sort of consistent approach to how telepathy works, and how easy it is to block or jam, is sorely needed. Recently, Emma was shown chatting to the Cuckoos telepathically *when they were on Mars* (and she was on Earth). That's just ridiculously out of any previous range she's displayed. It used to be a *big deal* that Xavier, and Xavier alone, could do telepathy across the continent, with 'lesser' telepaths being limited to stuff within a mile or so. It crept up and up over the years, until Morrison had student telepaths like Mentat (Robert Zepheniah) in Emma's psionics class in Genosha reading the minds of people in Hollywood to learn celeb gossip for extra credit, which seemed fairly ridiculous.

There's no reason why a non-Omega telepath *needs* to show up with every power and trick and feat that Xavier, Jean, Emma, etc. have ever done in their toolbox. Every single one doesn't have to be bigger and MOAR EXTREME! than the last one.

It's actually kind of refreshing to see characters who have a tiny subset of a 'standard telepaths' many, many powers, and somehow, against all odds, are *still* fun characters, like Prodigy (skill absorption), Cypher (translation), Scanner and Trance (astral projection), Karma (mind control), Lady Mastermind or Mirage (psychic illusions), Cipher (psychic invisibility), Forget-Me-Not (memory wipe-age), etc.

[Malachi]

Telepathy is one of those powers that you need to build the story around. With these jumps in power we have seen that becomes even more problematic.

How does it work? Are the person aware of the intrusion?

How does psychic defense and training work?

Personally I wouldn’t mind if any use hinged on a psi beam connecting with the head of the target. That way it can be avoided and isn’t just instant hit at ridiculous ranges. It’s an easy answer but it makes it more combat friendly when crafting these scenes.

Other then that dial it down and establish how it works and how people protect themselves.

[Leirus]

I was reading Trials of Magneto, and was flabbergasted that Emma can glamour Iron Man and Vision into her illusion. During AvX. It is always oh Iron man has strong anti psychic tech auto on, we cannot cream him, but now it is like whatever. Honestly, I am so sick of my faves getting jobbed during battles, like when Omega lvl Jean somehow get trapped in an illusion by third rate Typhoid Mary. I feel like Marvel needs clear boundary and power level, and stop finger waving whenever the plot need to be.

I see the confussion here. Emma glamoured Cap. For Iron man she just used her boobs.

[The tall man]

I see this as a problem with powers across the board, not just with telepathy. Telepathy is just the most glaring example but other power sets like telekinesis and reality warping just to name a few have been scaled up to ridiculous levels. It use to be that DC was where you would find the OP characters, like Superman blowing out a star with his breath or Wonder Woman moving a planet with her lasso. Now I would say Marvel has surpassed DC in the OP characters department, especially pertaining to mutants. Omega level mutants are the bane of the x-franchise. Almost everyone seems obsessed with who is and isn't one, who should be and not be one and ofcourse most want their personal fave to be an omega because I guess it gives them bragging rights and makes their fave special or something. It's gotten to the point where if an omega struggles in a fight or has to make an effort it's seen as jobbing. It's now expected that omegas should dominate without breaking a sweat, nevermind that omega was always suppose to be about potential not unlimited power. But now it's at a point where the power levels of many characters have reached face palming and cringe level. From Hulk to Iron Man building insane armors to Reed Richards to Venom and to various mutants omegas and alphas both. The inconsistency in which writers portray telepathy just serves to highlight the face palming, is power dampeners even a thing anymore? Marvel should try to scale back power levels to reasonable standards but I fear that horse has long left the barn.

[Sutekh]

I see this as a problem with powers across the board, not just with telepathy. Telepathy is just the most glaring example but other power sets like telekinesis and reality warping just to name a few have been scaled up to ridiculous levels.

Totally agree here. Proteus, for example, had a fairly close range, and his reality-warping effects only lasted as long as he concentrated on them, in his original appearance. When he did try big changes on an entire street, for instance, it burned out his current body in seconds (while he could do changes on stuff in thirty feet or so for minutes, or even hours, before needing a new body). Then a more recent appearance has him changing places all over the world and granting other people 'wishing' powers and all sorts of over-the-top stuff that is totally inconsistent with his original appearance. He went from uber-scary villain who could look at you and turn you inside out, to some ludicrous Mxyzptlk figure, and I prefer good writing and characterization to 'MOAR POWAH FEATZ!' so I just lost interest the more bloated he got.

(Iceman's another one who got handed an Omega tiara, and it did nothing for him, really. As much as I don't care for Bendis, his outing of Bobby did way more for the profile of the character, and the storylines and development he's had since, than his 'Omega' status.)

As if power somehow meant 'better character.' If that was the case, Gabriel Summers would be much more popular than Scott, and Mikhail Rasputin more popular than Ilyanna, both of which are objectively not true.