Doug Ramsey (Cypher) and Warlock
While Archer's Pam Poovey called Cypher the "gayest X-Men", Doug Ramsey to me had the single greatest and most realistic power ever: Unlimited Pattern Recognition!
Given enough exposure to something, Doug could figure out all of the inherent nuance and pattern to something and grok it at a level other nobody else good. (And I mean the original Heinlein definition of "grok"!)
Languages? Piece of cake!
Computer Programming languages? No big deal!
Body Language? A cinch!
Doug's power was not something that could not be properly shown on an illustrated page, and it was like most writers, including his creator Chris Claremont didn't really know what to do with him.
And then Doug + the alien Warlock became one of the greatest things ever, especially in the hands of the right illustrator.
(Let's face it, few could do Warlock true justice other than his co-creator Bill Sienkiewicz or perhaps Art Adams.)
Warlock protecting Doug, wrapping around him like a suit of powered armor, was always fantastic!
And then... they killed Doug off. Then they killed Warlock off.
Then the did the whole fake out Douglocke thing.
Then apparently both came back and then were gone again.
Then apparently Doug was resurrected during a recent run and is now one of Apocalypse's minions or some such.
(I stopped buying comics 20 years or so due to the cost. I live vicariously through the internet and other people's postings.)
Anyway, Apparently Doug is back as a major player in X-Men, which I guess is kind of cool.
I liked Doug back in the day for his general quietness. His powers that had real ramifications if they existed in the real world.
There are a few second mutations they could have given him that would have made him truly the most realistically powerful character but it was like writers just didn't know what to do with him.
Anyway, where was I going with this?
I don't know. I just liked this drawing by Luciano Vecchio and it got me thinking about the old New Mutant issues of the early 80s.
Artist: Luciano Vecchio - https://x.com/lucianovecchio
#comics #dougramsey #warlock #cypher