Cipher (Marvel)

Cipher is a female comic superhero who features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

Alisa Tager

After the destruction of the Xavier Institute, the X-Men and other students moved to Graymalkin Industries in San Francisco, the new home of the X-Men. The real Cyclops decided to keep the Young X-Men together and chose Danielle Moonstar and Sunspot to lead them. With a little help from Nightcrawler they located the Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill as the Young X-Men's base. (Young X-Men v1 #6)

She was covertly warning Ink that his teammates were in grave danger. She appeared suddenly in a deserted alley in New York’s Mutant Town, wearing a Young X-Men uniform but remaining invisible and silent at first. She led a doubtful Ink to safety aboard an X-Jet, refusing to explain herself beyond insisting that the team was dying. She delivered him to his tattoo artist before he could help them, claiming the delay would be necessary to power him up. Once Ink received his Phoenix‑Force style tattoos, he raced back guided by Cipher’s invisible presence to confront the Y-Men attacking in Hellfire Club headquarters. Ink then turned the tide with his newfound power, saving the Young X-Men and earning Cipher’s reluctant, silent nod of approval as she vanished from sight. (Young X-Men v1 #8) Cipher remained hidden during the aftermath of Donald Pierce’s defeat. While the team regrouped beneath Xavier’s underground base, she continued surveillance—phasing through walls to eavesdrop on conversations among Blindfold, Dust, and Graymalkin about her mysterious identity. Though absent from direct combat, she subtly cleaned up aftermath of the fight, reactivating disabled telemetry in the Danger Cave and clearing debris remotely. When Graymalkin confronted her intangible form above the corridor, she remained silent, merely allowing him to sense her presence before drifting through the ceiling. Her only other contribution that issue appeared later when she showed up invisibly to help Dust with final preparations for burial, arranging talismans around her to contain her crystallized body’s psychic echoes. (Young X-Men v1 #9)

The team grew suspicious of her secrecy, confronting Cyclops, who disclosed that Cipher had existed in the X‑Men’s orbit since the Mutant Town riots during New X‑Men, and had been kept secret at her request. Cipher met Ink in the hangar beneath San Francisco and explained—though still quietly that she had been watching over the mutants as a spy. She revealed that Greymalkin had been talking to her invisibly, not hallucinating. She then intervened during an ambush—phasing through incoming psychic blasts to silently disable an attacker from behind while the team battled on the Golden Gate Bridge. Later, she piloted the X-Jet again to ferry reinforcements to defend Utopia during a riot, all while remaining undetected except by Blindfold, who watched silently from above. (Young X-Men v1 #10) Cipher took part in a training session with the full force of the Young X-Men, fighting a towering robot, Cipher used her phasing powers to phase through the robot but did not do any harm prompting Rockslide to ask what good she was in a fight like that. But before she could react the team was surprised when Dust suddenly collapsed, the training session was halted to check in on their teammate. Dust hastily commented she just lost her focus and quickly left the training room, the team, however, was unaware Dust was dying at a cellular level since being turned to glass by Magma. In a desperate act Dust then freed Donald Pierce from his prison cell because he had promised he could cure her. Dust and Pierce rushed toward an escape ship, but were blocked by Beast, Cyclops, Moonstar, Sunspot and Wolverine. Faced with the decision of helping Pierce or attacking her friends, Dust turned on Pierce, ripping the flesh off his robotic form. Pierce held his own against the mutants until the Young X-Men attacked. The battle was halted when Dust collapsed again and seemingly died. (Young X-Men v1 #11)

Cipher could do nothing but watch as a furious Rockslide savagely launched himself at Pierce while Ink tried to use his healing powers on Dust. When he proved unable to do so, the team surrounded their fallen teammate. Cipher helped Moonstar cleanse and wrap Sooraya's body in preparation of her burial. She then approached Angel who told her there was a nice spot for her on the hillside, east, facing Mecca. Cipher then decided to inform her teammates. Meeting up with the rest of the team Cipher told them Sooraya's body had been prepared, revealing that because of her religion she needed to be buried within 24 hours. Fed up with the losing of friends Rockslide and Anole decided to disband the team, while the others reluctantly agreed. Ink then rushed off, still feeling guilty about his former alliance to Pierce he went to see Dust's corpse. Ink decided to give it one last go and use Phoenix-like powers to successfully resurrect and heal Dust, but in doing so rendering himself catatonic. Some time later the X-Men moved Ink and Dust to the medical bay for research, claiming Ink still had some brain activity but had been subdued as if he was overcharged. Cipher and the others heard about the news and came to see Dust who reminded the team that they were still X-Men. Just as the words had left her lips Moonstar came rushing in, the villainous Neo had returned and were advancing on San Francisco. The team looked at each other and decided to remain X-Men. (Young X-Men v1 #12)

Notes

• Cipher was created by Marc Guggenheim and Rafa Sandoval where she made her first appearance in Young X-Men v1 #8 (November, 2008).

Appearances

• Young X-Men v1: (2008)

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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