The various fields of Telepathy

[danielsan52]

Changeling (poor Changeling) was a shapeshifter with both telepathic and telekinetic abilities.

If he comes back, and I think he might because of X-Men '97, I hope that those powers are still with him.

[Sutekh]

The way I theorize is that telepathy and telekinesis are the most frequent manifestations of psionic powers because they are the most broad but in many way most telepaths and telekinetic have lower tier and more moderate power levels when we encounter them in the marvel universe. So it would make sense that the most powerful would end up being x men or their antagonist as a weak telepath or very limited TK would be a liability in combat.. however, I think the more specialized psionic powers would come up less frequently but be more potent and powerful in their specialty.

Both telepathy and telekinesis are wonky in the Marvel universe, because a non-mutant human can *learn* them from aliens (as Moondragon and Mantis did) or as part of mystical training (as Dr. Strange, Dr. Druid, Mordo, etc. have). Or you can apparently be a (non-mutant?) 'sensitive' and work for SHIELD or whatever. Or, yes, you can be a mutant (and often be significantly more powerful than someone like Mantis or Dr. Druid, although Moondragon appears to have nigh-Omega levels of power, given that she has telekinetically blocked a blow from Thor's hammer, telepathically forced her way through the mental shields of Galactus and mind controlled *an entire planet* in the past. That said, Moondragon has a Phoenix-like entity, the Dragon of the Moon, backing up her power, so the cosmic critter might have it's thumb on the scale (*and* she has recently merged with another universes variant of herself, so she's kind of two people fused into one now), and she might natively have more Dr. Druid-like levels of both telepathy and telekinesis...).

[dragon1440]

Changeling (poor Changeling) was a shapeshifter with both telepathic and telekinetic abilities.

If he comes back, and I think he might because of X-Men '97, I hope that those powers are still with him.

I would rather have exiles morph back.

[Icefanatic]

Back in the day, not every telepath was created equal (and it was implied that the reason why some X-telepaths knew a lot of 'stunts' was that Xavier was a hell of a teacher who had developed many different 'stunts' over many decades!), and Emma Frost *had to create a machine* to switch minds with Ororo. Years later, she's just doing so sans machine with Bobby Drake, like it's just a free power that all telepaths get!

Emma didn't actually switch minds with Bobby, she transferred her mind into him in a desperate attempt to save her life, where it left her own consciousness buried under his until he himself nearly died. See more details below...

If I remember correctly, Emma was being held in some sort of Shi'Ar stasis bed, and Iceman just happened to be checking it for routine maintenance or whatever when a power surge made it do something unusual, causing the switch. At any rate it contributed, as she was completely unconscious before then.

You are close.

In a story from Uncanny X-Men #281-#284 Trevor Fitzroy, armed with Sentinels, attacked Emma and the Hellions. Fitzroy killed two Hellions, Jetstream and Beef, and attacked Emma leaving her seemingly dead. The Sentinels then killed the rest of the Hellions while also battling the X-Men, psychically wounding Jean Grey. The X-Men escaped with Jean’s body, while Fitzroy took Emma's.

It turned out that Jean had transferred her mind into Emma's body. Ultimately, The Professor transferred Jean's mind out of Emma's body, but Emma's body was still left in a coma-state because her mind was gone. The Professor speculated that perhaps Emma had managed to do as Jean had done and place her mind somewhere else, but it wasn't revealed where her mind was until Uncanny X-Men #314 when a power surge from the mansion's Shiar power core almost killed Iceman(Beast had to do CPR until his heartbeat and breathing resumed). That put Bobby in a coma, and when he came out of it Emma's mind that had been trapped inside him for 33 issues had managed to take over!





It was a bit of coincidental foreshadowing that Bobby was checking on Emma just prior to that, but it caused many fans to mistakenly think that's when the transfer of Emma's mind into Bobby took place.

[Subliminally]

I think it would be cool to have a sub-group of telepaths that can influence the physical world. Where's the telepaths that can summon psychic lightning that hurts the body rather than the mind? Or the classic Xavier type telepaths that can blow up a Sentinel through sheer willpower.






They'd have bare bones normal telepathy though. I'd put their rage for communication to be 1 mile with extreme effort and hardly any other telepathic skills. With some intense training they could substitute a main telepathic-link for team combat situations.

But yeah, I think it could fill a very niche spot among the near infinite amount of telepaths that have spawned over the decades.

[Sutekh]

They'd have bare bones normal telepathy though. I'd put their rage for communication to be 1 mile with extreme effort and hardly any other telepathic skills. With some intense training they could substitute a main telepathic-link for team combat situations.

But yeah, I think it could fill a very niche spot among the near infinite amount of telepaths that have spawned over the decades.

And that's another point. Intelligible speech can carry over maybe a hundred yards if we're shouting at the top of our lungs. Sure, *Xavier* can send his thoughts halfway around the planet, but not every single telepath on the planet needs to be equal to Xavier! I'd be completely fine with *most* telepaths having a range of a hundred yards or so, and not being able to make trans-Atlantic calls. Save that sort of thing for the 'alpha' telepaths like Xavier and Emma, or the Omegas like Jean. Make it clear that those telepathic 'big guns' are indeed *special* and that Bob Telepath we just invented can't just casually do anything Xavier can do.

(In Morrison's run, IIRC, a telepath we've barely ever seen, 'Mentat' (Robert Zepheniah) casually reads the minds of celebrities in Hollywood *from Genosha.* That's just ridiculous, IMO. More recently, we've seen Emma apparently telepathically talking to people *on Mars,* when she's on Earth. And she's not even one of the telepathic Omegas!)

But yeah, there's tons of areas left unexplored.

What about an alien telepath, who uses a completely different 'frequency' than human / mutant telepaths, such that 'we' can't even detect their telepathy, or shield against it, or they produce a kind of telepathic noise or signal that interferes with human / mutant telepathy, or even absorb telepathic energy so that the moment a telepath attempts to read or affect their mind, they start hoovering up that energy and draining the telepath's psychic energy! That would be an amusing power for an Arakki mutant. "Yes, I was considered weaponless, because none of our enemies on Amenth were telepaths, so my power was useless, but here, where you have many telepathic warriors among you, I am filled with great power after leaving them unconscious before me!"

[marhawkman]

It’s interesting I was just thinking about Gambit and his precog powers and was wondering does he really need this power? It’s a cool ability but I don’t think he needs it

I mean... given how limited in use it is... I like it.