Douglas Ramsey is code-named Cypher, after his ability to decipher languages, including animal languages.

He was a teenage friend of Kitty Pryde of the X-Men, sharing an interest in computers and video games. Although Ramsey became a friend of the New Mutants, he was unaware that he and they were mutants. However, when the techno-organic alien (Technarch) being Warlock arrived on Earth, confused and terrified, he found himself battling the New Mutants. Seeking to communicate with the alien, the New Mutants summoned Ramsey and revealed their costumed identities to him. Ramsey succeeded in initiating communications with Warlock, and both joined the New Mutants.

Cypher became close with Warlock, who aided Ramsey in battle situations by merging with him, creating a single being that operated as a gestalt. When they merged, they took the form of Ramsey’s human body covered with Warlock’s “living circuitry,” allowing Ramsey to perceive his environment in the same way Warlock did. At first, Ramsey’s and Warlock’s consciousnesses remained separate within the single body; the more the pair merged, their personalities rapidly began to resemble one another’s. Cypher also aided Warlock in his fight against his father, the Magus, by reprogramming the Magus to an infant state.

Following the capture of the New Mutants by the mad scientist the Ani-Mator, on the island known as “Paradise” in the Atlantic Ocean, Cypher was killed when he dove in front of a bullet fired by the Ani-Mator at Wolfsbane. One of the Phalanx, humans mutated by the Technarch, later took a form combining the minds and powers of Cypher and Warlock, as Douglock, and later Warlock.

Recently, Cypher was revived with an alien techno organic virus. Later he rejoined the New Mutants.

More on Marvel.com