The various fields of Telepathy

[MarquisAsh]

I just think it’s crazy that being a telepath is so common as being a mutant. Storm and Magento and Bobby are the only unique mutants around.

[Jackraow21]

Elemental powers aren't that unique either, as there are lots of them, albeit significant variations (though you could say the same about psychics). Cold is just the absence of heat, so in that sense Iceman's powers and those of Firestar or Sunfire or Thunderbird III are actually related... then you have Edie who can do both, fire and ice.

And let's not even get started on the healers and/or feral mutants... the so-called "lupines"...

[jwatson]

This is a hard one for me because i think first you have to define telepathy. Storm both physicially and psionically/telepathically controls the forces of nature and even results in a subsconscious reaction from her emotions so that is a form of telepathy.

Then you have people who can talk to plants, trees, the earth, moisture. I think when most say telepathy the implication is reading and controlling human minds but it has always seemed bigger than that to me so maybe telepaths need to be more categorized. like if somone used their mind to tell a soda machine to vend or control an ai consciousness isn't that telepathy too.

[Exodus]

I really like the idea above of "thinning the herd" so to speak with regards to all the psychics that are out there with some sort of event ("Psychic War" is a cool name for it) wherein the end result is that the Astral Plane becomes harder to tap into, and thus almost all mutants with psychic abilities are impacted. Only your super powerful omegas remain super powerful as a result, while others lose some abilities or see them weakened.

For example, Psylocke (the Kwannon version)... suddenly her telekinesis is inaccessible for her and her telepathy limited to focused "psy-blades" and near-field reading and mental manipulation. In other words, she has to be close to use her TP, but it allows her to be stealthy and sneaky like a ninja. Lean into that aspect of the character.

Another example would be Cable. I've actually always found him more interesting as a badass cyborg soldier, so he doesn't need his powers at all to be cool IMO. Having said that, let's give him a little something, since he is supposed to be an incredibly powerful alpha mutant (without his T-O virus nerfing his abilities). Establish that now all of his TK is focused on keeping his virus in check, so he can't really spare any to use offensively. But he's still got techno-organics running through his body, so he's plenty strong and durable. And he could embed a force field generator in his forearm on this left arm too, kind of like the one he had in Deadpool 2; thereby using technology to offset his loss of TK. As for his TP? Let's go back to the Spurrier run on X-Force, and weaken this ability to point where he's just able to sense things right before they happen... akin to Rachel's "chrono-skimming" but rather than being able to view what happened in reverse, he can see a few seconds ahead and know what's about to happen, thus giving him a huge edge in hand-to-hand combat.

A third example might be someone like Quentin Quire, who is suddenly completely cutoff from the Astral Plane and thus cannot access his powers at all... and is very despondent over that. So it impacts different characters in different ways, but basically other than the most powerful omega level psychics (Jean Grey, Xavier, maybe Exodus) everyone else is impacted somehow. And even those top-level psychics will remark on the interference and how much harder it is for them now to fully access their powers. Stuff like that.

I think it could be cool if done right honestly.

we had a similarr event in the 1990s? Psylocke fought the Shadow King on the astral plane and beat him. This fight effected many powerful psys like Jean who lost her powers for a while.

The event was called Psi War (X-Men (Vol. 2) #77-78)

[Gripstir]

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

[PyroFN]

Great read, PyroFN. I liked how you explained the differences and pointed out characters that have a specialty in each area.

Thanks.

I’ve worked on RT’s for psychics on comicvine. I am utterly fascinated with the mechanics and differences in psychics. Even ones who don’t specialize in certain telepathics have differences in the way they use their telepathy.

[PyroFN]

I just think it’s crazy that being a telepath is so common as being a mutant. Storm and Magento and Bobby are the only unique mutants around.

Ironically, the best telepaths in the Marvel Universe are from the mutants. So, I kind of like the idea of there being so many telepaths among the mutants. If the Eternals can make it work, so can the X-Men.

The key though is to not focus on so many telepaths. Or at the very let writers use their favorites or ones they have ideas for. Like, despite his lackluster characterization of Jean Grey, Hickman established a very interesting dichotomy between Emma’s telepathy vs Xavier’s telepathy.

Where Emma sees the flaws in things, Xavier sees the strengths. It doesn’t mean they aren’t good in each other’s areas or in other areas, but it gives an interesting look at what they’ve either trained their powers in or just how their powers work in general.

[Jackraow21]

we had a similarr event in the 1990s? Psylocke fought the Shadow King on the astral plane and beat him. This fight effected many powerful psys like Jean who lost her powers for a while.

The event was called Psi War (X-Men (Vol. 2) #77-78)

Well... we also got another Secret Wars in 2015 and another Inferno last year, so I say we do another Psi War and make it big, with lasting ramifications for all the psychics as laid out. It's a solid idea IMO.

[Alpha]

Yeah it sounds like a really cool event, but I wouldn't use it just to trash on the less popular telepaths. It's fine fir them to lose access to the Astral Plane but keep the idea that they now develop other special fields of Telepathy that make them stand out from each other

[Sutekh]

I wished authors would be so much more creative in how they are writing and describing telepaths and their uses of power. So many great possibilities!!! And what do we get? Mental telephone conversations lol

Yes. Jean's got the phoenix imagery, and Psylocke the butterfly imagery, but I'd love to see some other telepaths develop other iconic 'power signatures,' even if that power signature is invisible to some viewers on the page (like robots or whatever, being mostly a telepathic projection).

Example: Emma Frost - a grand faceted diamond over her head when she exerts her power. When she is mentally freezing or grappling with someone, a diamond prison appears around them, even if it's just an illusion in their mind.

It would be great to see some others. Exodus might see himself as a knight, and his telepathic manifestation might be of armor covering his body and a sword in his hand. Some Atlantean telepath might manifest green eels that lash out at those he's telepathically attacking (or communicating with), instead of the bird/butterfly motifs. A less pleasant telepath might have snakes, or a spider, as their manifestation, spinning some great web whose strands reach out to touch / connect / puppetmaster others minds (perhaps that would be the Shadow King's manifestation, now that he's purged from Amal Farouk?).

As for telepaths and the dozen or so telepathic sub-disciplines, there are already a ton of mutants who manifest a smidgen of what a full telepath like Jean can do.

Cypher - just the language translation
Mirage - just sensing and manifesting fears
Karma - just mind control
Prodigy - just absorbing skills
Beautiful Dreamer - just modifying memories
Empath - just emotion sensing and manipulating
Mastermind - just inducing hallucinations
Malice - just mental possession
Scanner or Trance - just astral projection

So there's already a ton of these sorts of characters, and I'd kinda hate for them all to turn into full-blown telepaths, since each of them manages to do quite well with just their particular niche. I'm a bit annoyed when a team telepath shows off a trick that some other telepath has done before, as if *all* telepaths just automatically know this stuff, that, generally, was introduce when one of the big guns like Jean or Xavier did it. IMO, it cheapens Jean and Xavier's pre-eminence in the field when some telepath who showed up five minutes ago can just do this stuff like teach the entire team to speak Shiar with a gesture or borrow someone's skills telepathically.

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!

[Jv565]

I really like Somnus’ use of telepathy. The dream thing is a cool twist

[davetvs]

This is a hard one for me because i think first you have to define telepathy. Storm both physicially and psionically/telepathically controls the forces of nature and even results in a subsconscious reaction from her emotions so that is a form of telepathy.

Then you have people who can talk to plants, trees, the earth, moisture. I think when most say telepathy the implication is reading and controlling human minds but it has always seemed bigger than that to me so maybe telepaths need to be more categorized. like if somone used their mind to tell a soda machine to vend or control an ai consciousness isn't that telepathy too.

To me you just define telepathy as the ability to hear the thoughts of others and project your own thoughts into the minds of others. From there, you build specializations and expansions that branch off from that basic power set. Any telepath can do those, but different characters would specialize in specific skills like:

Broadcasting (long-range telepathic communication)
Possession/Mind control
Psionic energy constructs
Astral projection
Illusioncasting
Psychic repair
Memory excavation
Offensive projection of psychic energy
Psychometry
Emotional manipulation
Communication with animal life

etc.

[Sutekh]

To me you just define telepathy as the ability to hear the thoughts of others and project your own thoughts into the minds of others. From there, you build specializations and expansions that branch off from that basic power set. Any telepath can do those, but different characters would specialize in specific skills like:

Broadcasting (long-range telepathic communication)
Possession/Mind control
Psionic energy constructs
Astral projection
Illusioncasting
Psychic repair
Memory excavation
Offensive projection of psychic energy
Psychometry
Emotional manipulation
Communication with animal life

etc.

I prefer to think of psychometry as more of a variation on precognition, and less as an adjunct of telepathy, although I could certainly see it working that way as well, reading some sort of mental or emotional impressions left behind on items or location emotionally significant to a person or tied to some significant event.

Psychometry, btw, could have some funky offensive and defensive applications.

Stares at someone before a fight - "Yeah, I'm reviewing your past fights. I know all your moves. I can't predict what you are going to do, but I feel like I've fought you before, many times..."

Shares a traumatic psychometric perception with someone - "I have something I don't want anymore. Forty hours of pain. All at once. All for you." (Could be sharing your trauma, could be forcing them to relive *their* worst trauma!)

Picks up a fencing foil used as a practice weapon by a half dozen members of the Olympic fencing team - "And now, I suddenly remember how to fence, really, really well! En garde!"

[yogaflame]

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!

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.

[Paleo_Rage]

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.

For example, while Prof X, Emma, Jean and Betsy have all been shown to fairly powerful and versatile with their telepathy and/or TK that is not the norm. When it comes to psionic power it really comes back to will power, creativity and imagination vs sheer power a lot of the time. However, I think initially it was shown that for example Karma while her power was psionic wit wasnt quite telepathy so it operated on a different wavelength and in its own way was as powerful as the typical telepath. I think mind control power for a hero would be super hard to do in a creative way with out them turning into a villain tbh. ALso Dani initially was shown to be pretty powerful and her illusions did stuff that the telepath's illusions ddint necessarily do and with out strain or stress.


I think if specific abilities were shown to be more powerful than a telepath replicating that power things would be more balanced but it seems that Jean and then Chuck/Emma have to trounce all others with telepathy.

I think they could fix psionic powers if they allowed the specialized people to either a development resonate abilities or B. show they were the most powerful in tha application over generalist.

I still think they could reset or fix abilities via resurrection if they wanted like with the data page on synch. I would like for Karma powers to be fixed and for Dani's once and for all to be consolidated in a way that makes sense.

As for as Monet, I would take away TK but leave telepathy and let it be a byproduct of her real mutation which I would classify as Balance or Homeostasis or something that show the perfect relationship between the mind and body which could account for her numerous abilities. Monet's telepathy only became an issue when Pads downplayed her and took away her intelligence.

Folks like David, Tag, RemRam powers should def stay specialized but could be fleshed out and made useful esp tag's and RemRams-his brief cameo in Marauders already shows how his power could be utilized in creative ways.

I would also like focus on anti Telepathy characters like Damask and King Bedlam. I think they should be in the conversation.