Cypher Appreciation 2018

[Synthetic Innocence]

I love me some Dougfriend. <3

Thanks for joining us.

[Synthetic Innocence]

So he's basically gone from being useless in combat to, possibly, the best fighter in X-Factor? That's boss. What a turn-around. Is he skilled in actual combat, though, or is he just doing it subconsciously?

That hasn't been made explicitly clear though he DID live at the mansion and would have studied some combat there as well, defensive fighting at the very least.

[Bl00dwerK]

That hasn't been made explicitly clear though he DID live at the mansion and would have studied some combat there as well, defensive fighting at the very least.

Yeah, that's what I was wondering. Dude needs some top-tier training to take advantage of that awesome power of his. I'm talking some Red Room level stuff...

[Sea Hound]

I love doug's reaction to finding out he's a mutant. "Sheesh..."

[anthony_lynch15]

So he's basically gone from being useless in combat to, possibly, the best fighter in X-Factor? That's boss. What a turn-around. Is he skilled in actual combat, though, or is he just doing it subconsciously?

After he escaped Selene's control I got the impression that while he has the fighting skills and can definitely predict an opponents attacks, he lacks the killer instincts to get in to a brawl.
He'd still rather talk his way out and dodge a punch rather than throw one.

I think the whole thing is subconscious and he just knows as part of his power.
Although just because he understands fighting doesn't mean he can backflip through opponents and deliver practiced blows.
His teammates still step in between him and opponents most of the time.
But at least he is no longer defenseless.

That hasn't been made explicitly clear though he DID live at the mansion and would have studied some combat there as well, defensive fighting at the very least.

I'd imagine his training at Xavier's would be a great place to learn and understand fighting.

[Living Silver]

That sounds awesome, actually. Sounds alot like Cassandra Cain. A logical step for his power, too. I'm gonna go read up on him at Comic Vine...

What? .. No it's not! .. It's stupid!



Wells didn't just make Doug better at reading body language (which would be okay), he said that Doug literally understands fighting as a language. And since Doug has an instinctive mastery to learn any language, he therefore is a master of hand-to-hand combat now.

Two problems with this:

1. There is actually a language center in the brain that processes our ability to understand language. It's very different from our proprioceptive brain center and motor skill control centers, both of which are responsible for our fighting ability. No matter how good one gets at learning language, it will never improve their ability to fight.
2. Doug's power is not to instantly know every language- it's the ability to learn any language with incredible ease. He still needs a little time to learn new languages when he encounters them (some languages, like Bird Brain's, are so complicated that even Doug doesn't understand them well. Or didn't- I imagine he can now). When Doug came back to life, he instantly knew how to fight better. So, maybe his new power is to now instantly understand any language .

IMO, giving someone a power-upgrade doesn't necessarily make them a better character. In Doug's case, his character was defined by the struggle he had with being weak in combat: he was awesome despite being vulnerable in battle.

At least DnA addressed Doug's reaction to the power upgrade and did their best to keep the character consistent. And they played down his hyper fighting ability. I'm curious to see if PAD will follow this lead.

[Tomppa]

Now he has really cool powerset compared to his days as new mutant. He can understand any language, is good with computers, has incredible tactical abilities and fighting skills and he knows exactly what to say to get any chick he wants as he taught rich playboy Roberto on how to pick up chicks! So basically his language skills could work kind of like Longshot's attractiveness or Gambit's hypnotic charm, just not as mind control like, just good with words, being able to convince people of what he's saying or something like that. There's really a lot for PAD to explore with him.

[Tomppa]

What? .. No it's not! .. It's stupid!



Wells didn't just make Doug better at reading body language (which would be okay), he said that Doug literally understands fighting as a language. And since Doug has an instinctive mastery to learn any language, he therefore is a master of hand-to-hand combat now.

Two problems with this:

1. There is actually a language center in the brain that processes our ability to understand language. It's very different from our proprioceptive brain center and motor skill control centers, both of which are responsible for our fighting ability. No matter how good one gets at learning language, it will never improve their ability to fight.
2. Doug's power is not to instantly know every language- it's the ability to learn any language with incredible ease. He still needs a little time to learn new languages when he encounters them (some languages, like Bird Brain's, are so complicated that even Doug doesn't understand them well. Or didn't- I imagine he can now). When Doug came back to life, he instantly knew how to fight better. So, maybe his new power is to now instantly understand any language .

IMO, giving someone a power-upgrade doesn't necessarily make them a better character. In Doug's case, his character was defined by the struggle he had with being weak in combat: he was awesome despite being vulnerable in battle.

At least DnA addressed Doug's reaction to the power upgrade and did their best to keep the character consistent. And they played down his hyper fighting ability. I'm curious to see if PAD will follow this lead.

Well you could see it as his power expanding from learning only languages to learning other things as well, like maybe he could easily understand and learn languages, fighting styles and other different skills.

But you're right that giving character a power upgrade does not equal better character. However it's still cool to see characters learn new things about themselves and their powers, one thing that has also been a constant with X-Men is that over the course of their lives mutants' powers evolve and change as they use them more and come up with new ways of looking at them and I think it's a good way to go, kind of like growing up you learn new things about yourself and discover new stuff.

[Synthetic Innocence]

Now he has really cool powerset compared to his days as new mutant. He can understand any language, is good with computers, has incredible tactical abilities and fighting skills and he knows exactly what to say to get any chick he wants as he taught rich playboy Roberto on how to pick up chicks! So basically his language skills could work kind of like Longshot's attractiveness or Gambit's hypnotic charm, just not as mind control like, just good with words, being able to convince people of what he's saying or something like that. There's really a lot for PAD to explore with him.

Um Gambit's charm is a horse of a different color.

It has yet to truly be defined and his er... Luck with the ladies... Has more to do with his good looks and "natural" charm than any mutant power.

That being said I'm looking forward to seeing Doug evolve now that he's practically an adult and not a 13yr old boy.

[Tomppa]

Um Gambit's charm is a horse of a different color.

It has yet to truly be defined and his er... Luck with the ladies... Has more to do with his good looks and "natural" charm than any mutant power.

That being said I'm looking forward to seeing Doug evolve now that he's practically an adult and not a 13yr old boy.

I know, Gambit's charm is something different and women being interested in him isn't necessarily a result of that but because it's been so ill defined it's hard to tell when it is a factor and when it isn't. Only thing confirmed about it is that it doesn't work on anybody who is conscious about it. I was just saying that Cypher's powers of being a language expert give him the ability to know exactly what to say to women and didn't mean that they were the same, just that they could work similarly since Gambit's charm was said to give him ability to convince people through his words to do what he asks and Doug's language skills could also help him to manipulate people better than most normal people could. That's all.

But I explicitly remember reading that women being attracted to Longshot was confirmed as being part of his powerset

[FaerieGodfather]

Wow, Cypher's on the new X-Factor? I'm going to have to start reading it again.

[Synthetic Innocence]

Wow, Cypher's on the new X-Factor? I'm going to have to start reading it again.

Yeah, Cypher and Warlock are back and in All new X-Factor.

[Technarchy]

Yay, a thread just for Doug! So glad to see other fans!

BTW, he has reunited with Kitty already, in Savage Wolverine. He can also "talk to the animals" it seems. Since his resurrection, every "language" is fair game, including baking, LOL

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[Sea Hound]

@technarchy: thanks! Lovely to see them on the same page. I'm not reading Savage Wolverine, and would never have seen them.

[Captain Buttocks]

I'd like to see Rahne show in ANXF. I'd ask PAD in the ANXF thread, but am sure he has already been scared outta there.

Doug on the cover to the next issue, IIRC