scans_daily | X-Men Unlimited #42: Cypher in the Cryptolect, Part 1

From:

dan_ingram

When did they replace Banshee with Miles O'Brien?

From:

giraffesforever

Why always Sean?

From:

blues32

Oh dear god, they're going to burn Banshee to death now?! What is HAPPENING? Who decided to dump all this on him?

From:

alliterator

Don't worry, he lives.

From:

blues32

Of course he does. Mutants don't die.

(no subject)

From:

alliterator - Date: 2022-07-17 06:12 pm (UTC) - Expand

From:

mastermahan

SEAN: I haven't had anything to do since Generation X ended. Twenty years, and what did I accomplish? I died, came back as a Horseman, then immediately stopped mattering. My daughter's more important than me. Even my evil archenemy cousin is more important than me.

*sigh*

I just wish to start appearing in stories again.

[Finger of the monkey's paw curls inwards]

From:

deh_tommy

Wow. That has got to be the most stupid, pseudo philosophical nonsense I’ve seen in a good while. And here I was convinced they created the Krakoan language to tear down the communication barrier between mutants from different countries and lands, but no, it really is because Krakoa’s “culture” defines itself solely by being superior to all human cultures. Never did I expect to see the argument “You know who also liked ___? HITLER” presented earnestly with utmost sincerity and without even a hint of irony by a grown adult.

From:

shakalooloo

Yeah, I don't see how one can make a 'tongue without sin'. Will there just not be a lexicon for 'politically incorrect' terms? That's where the loan words come in, and no matter their origin, all language evolves.

From:

alliterator

...okay, you have to be deliberating misunderstanding things now. Cypher says nothing about why Krakoan was created, only that he's trying to use it to write something that has no ambiguity and cannot be used in twisted ways, the way language was twisted in order to justify atrocities and so forth.

And I think we're *meant* to see this as, well, futile. Language without ambiguity, without metaphor, is language that has function, but no beauty. Even the poem he writes -- which you can translate -- is full of metaphorical imagery, so he obviously failed.

All the talk of language is just a setup to meet a mutant who IS a language. Which is a conceptual mutant the likes of which we've never seen before, something incredibly interesting.

From:

deh_tommy

“Cypher says nothing about why Krakoan was created, only that he's trying to use it to write something that has no ambiguity and cannot be used in twisted ways”

So Cypher doesn’t say anything about why Krakoan was created, he’s only saying why Krakoan was created. I’m afraid I don’t understand, the reason is right there, no?

Besides, I don’t think anyone but him as ever pondered this dilemma because no one in their right mind would ever take seriously. It’s a “lesson” he should already have learned given his superpower is language to begin with. If he wanted to make a language that couldn’t be twisted to evil means, he failed the minute Apocalypse legally changed his name. Heck, Krakoan as a language was invented by him, a native English speaker, and specifically based on the English language, so there goes his whole morally superior language.

(no subject)

From:

alliterator - Date: 2022-07-23 12:58 pm (UTC) - Expand

From:

jgraygaming

First, I assume this is a mutant who, like Malice, is incorporeal in some way and is somehow language based (transmitted via language) because ALL languages are mutant languages. Languages constantly mutate and evolve. Branch off. Become new languages.

Also, if the gates are aware enough to let in a conceptual mutant idea in without some sort of DNA scan, then the whole "wearing someone's skin" thing should never have worked. It also means anything from blue lobsters (hello, Don!) to alien mutants (hello, Ariel!) to the one in five humans carrying disease-related genetic mutations would be able to walk through.

Now, that being said? I can see why this mutant language would want Banshee. Most human languages work via verbal transmission. In other words, they're spoken aloud. If I were a sentient language capable of possessing people, I'd want to be in the body of someone with vocal-based powers to maximize the chances of me being communicated. And on Krakoa that means Banshee, Siren, or a few minor mutants. And given the brevity of the format and the need to be able to spot ID the victim without saying their name, Banshee's the only logical choice. Theresa from the head up could be confused with half a dozen long-haired redheaded women on the island but no one has Sean's whiskers but him.

From:

cainofdreaming

On the other hand it would really want to avoid Dazzler, if it requires voice to transmit itself. Unless that'd just convert it into a mutant light-form.

From:

alliterator

"Also, if the gates are aware enough to let in a conceptual mutant idea in without some sort of DNA scan, then the whole "wearing someone's skin" thing should never have worked."

I mean, I assume the opposite: if they let a human in who has a mutant language inside them, why wouldn't they let a human in who has mutant skin?

From:

jgraygaming

Mutant skin has, at least, the x-gene in the DNA. This indicates the gates aren't scanning for DNA. Or, at least, it also detects other, non-corporeal forms of mutation.

(no subject)

From:

alliterator - Date: 2022-07-17 05:42 pm (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From:

icon_uk - Date: 2022-07-17 10:35 pm (UTC) - Expand

From:

lordultimus

As glad as I am that SOMEONE is trying to explore the Krakoan language, I can't help but roll my eyes at this. By this logic, this has already failed, as Krakoan is the language of murder and war crimes by the former inhabitants of the Pit alone.

Edited Date: 2022-07-17 04:25 pm (UTC)

From:

melancholiahemlock

Everything with them seems to be about feeling superior to humans. "We don't need human laws, or human courts. We'll just have a creepy group at the top forcing their will on everyone else throwing people down a hole."

Now it's, "We don't need human language, it can be used for bad things." Really?

There's no such thing as a language that can't be used badly. Words are vocalisations of thought. The only way would be to brain damage everyone until they can't think.

No scope for misunderstanding? How? Are they planning to control how people are allowed to read something?

It's just.....Really fucking stupid, to be honest. And offputting. I don't understand why so many of the X-Men writers seem to be gladly leaning into the whole "they're better than those flawed, stupid, warmongering humans" thing.

Mutants are just humans with powers. They're not some pure master race. They're not genetically enlightened, or culturally superior. Really puts me off the X-Men. I really think this era will eventually be viewed as a big black mark on them.

From:

alliterator

"I really think this era will eventually be viewed as a big black mark on them."

I think this era, like the Australia era or the Morrison era, will be looked back fondly for how it tried to do something different. It's not trying to repeat what Claremont did. It's not trying to tell the story of a superhero team. It's trying to tell the story of an actual *society*, warts and all.

"We don't need human laws, or human courts. We'll just have a creepy group at the top forcing their will on everyone else throwing people down a hole."

You do know that that's the point, right? The point is that it's creepy, that it's wrong, and that they do it anyway. But also, human laws and human courts do that, too. The "creepy group" on top is just the human justice system and the "hole" is just the prison industrial complex. That's the entire point of it.

"Mutants are just humans with powers."

If that were true, then you would be throwing away the entire bigotry aspect, the entire minority metaphor, and you would just make them like Spider-Man or the FF. That would be doing them a disservice and would immediately eliminate a lot of great X-Men stories.

From:

melancholiahemlock

"You do know that that's the point, right? The point is that it's creepy, that it's wrong, and that they do it anyway. But also, human laws and human courts do that, too. The "creepy group" on top is just the human justice system and the "hole" is just the prison industrial complex. That's the entire point of it."

You say that, but I'm not sure all the writers agree. It feels like some of the books are like that.....And then other ones are completely on board with it without a trace of irony.

"If that were true, then you would be throwing away the entire bigotry aspect, the entire minority metaphor, and you would just make them like Spider-Man or the FF. That would be doing them a disservice and would immediately eliminate a lot of great X-Men stories."

Well, that's the problem, isn't it? There is no reason for it. They don't make any sense. Getting powers at puberty makes you scary, but you get blasted by comics rays or bitten by a radioactive spider and it's fine? They don't really make sense, in the larger Marvel universe, as a group people would hate. It's not like the average person on the street in the MU knows that Spider-Man got his powers that way; he could just as easily be a mutant. Or an Inhuman. Or mechanically enhanced, or genetically engineered....They seem to only work by ignoring this stuff.

Bringing the crack since December 2003

X-Men Unlimited #42: Cypher in the Cryptolect, Part 1

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