Lost/Dead Fics -- a Wish List

[Shepherd]

I've also always disliked how Cypher was killed and left dead afterward in the New Mutants.

He got better.

OTOH I totally understand why they killed him, even if I completely disagree with the decision, the abruptness of his death, and the near total lack of fallout after the fact.

Doug Ramsey was a boring looking character with boring powers, and the artists hated dealing with him. Sort of the same way many of them disliked Multiple Man.

But if you look at things from another perspective, he was actually the most potentially powerful and interesting member of the New Mutants, and that potential was wasted by bad writing.

First off, what was Doug's REAL power? It certainly wasn't learning languages really fast. That 'professional' diagnosis was made by a teenage Kitty Pride based on how fast he picked up computer programming languages when they were doing geek stuff together.

She then dragged him to the Danger Room so he could use his 'language' powers to communicate with the techno-organic alien Warlock. Not only did he almost instantly figure out how to understand Warlock, he also figured out how to operate the advanced alien controls of the Danger Room as well.

When Doug played poker during a non-hostile encounter with the Hellions, he won repeatedly based on perfectly reading the body language of his opponents, which is more than a linguistic ability.

He was around the genetically engineered Bird-Brain for several days without learning to understand him, but became fluent in Ani-mate language in seconds once Wolfsbane suggested the possibility, indicating his power only works when he turns it on, but then works even on remembered info he wasn't paying attention to at the time.

I believe Doug's 'real' power was superhuman pattern recognition rather than superhuman language acquisition. This is important since humans became the dominant species on Earth based entirely on our ability to recognize and apply patterns. Think about this:

Tony Stark is an amazing engineer and businessman. Engineering and finance are all about recognizing and applying patterns.

Reed Richards is an amazing multidisciplinary scientist. Science is all about recognizing and applying patterns.

Nick Fury is an amazing spy. Spying is all about recognizing and applying patterns.

Steve Rogers is an amazing strategist, tactician, and fighter. These all rely on understanding and applying patterns.

Based on all this, if Doug Ramsey had ever tried using his power for anything beyond learning languages (and he almost never did that, either), he'd have been freaking awesome. As it was, he spent all his time whining about how unfair it was that he couldn't shoot fire out of his ass, and instead only got the most amazing power on Earth.

Of course this wasn't entirely his fault. The New Mutants were being taught by Magneto at the time, and he was a power supremacist. Once Kitty Pride told him Doug had a 'translation' power, he probably lost interest and didn't double check her claim. You've also got to wonder how a mutant kid could live in the town right next to the X-Mansion and not get immediately recruited by Xavier. Did his power not manifest until Xavier was gone to space, or did he just not see Doug's power as useful to his cause?