HOME | DD
Cesar-Hernandez — Not in the cards
#ange #blond #boy #club #colbert #comics #cute #cypher #doug #girl #hellfire #hellions #hot #marie #marvel #men #mutants #ramsey #redhead #sexy #slim #tarot #teen #teenage #teenager #twink #xmen #young #x #new
Published: 2017-05-27 10:41:35 +0000 UTC; Views: 1250; Favourites: 28; Downloads: 2
Redirect to original
Description
Illustration from the New Mutants.
Doug Ramsey (Cypher) and Marie-Ange Colbert (Tarot) are a perfect couple. That never was.
It took me so long to finish this! Well, not really. It just took me about the same time it takes to create any other picture. But this is supposed to be "simple". It should have been faster.
I love simple styles that manage to represent all that matters but that make it all look cute. I have never really managed to get it correctly, though. I tend to make things more complex in my mind, so I cannot create the styles I like.
I will never be able to design things for the Funko Pop! toyline...
In the end, this turned out more "cartoonish" than "cute", but I think it kind of works. It is still not what I want to create and it still took me a while to finish, but it may be a step in the right direction.
And it is only now, when I am writing the tags, that I realized I forgot her freckles... I wanted to add like exactly three in each side of her face.
The New Mutants, the Hellions, Tarot and Cypher are trademarked, copyrighted and/ or registered by Marvel Comics.
More Marvel/DC Comics fan art:
Please visit my blog!
Related content
Comments: 22
This is a great little piece because it makes you grin at something that is, from the perspective of the characters, quite sad. The interesting thing about the Cypher/Tarot romance was that though nothing ever happened between them, it wasn't a typical case of the writers (deliberately or otherwise) forgetting about the prospective couple (e.g. Sam's crush on Amara, or Professor X's attraction to Jean Grey from way back in the Stan Lee run on X-Men). Rather, circumstances kept on preventing them from meeting, and making things go wrong on the rare occasions they did meet. Yet you can care about the theoretical couple, if only because it likely would have been a much healthier relationship for Doug than his dalliances with Kitty, Betsy, and Rahne, and got Marie-Ange out from under Empath's control.
And no, I do think this is very cute. Especially Tarot's big sad eyes and bashful pose, so nicely contrasted with Cypher's cavalier attitude.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thanks. Yeah, writers must have loved to make those two suffer.
But that Doug had to be such a stupid jerk when he was afraid/insecure (without Warlock and without physical powers).
Hitting someone because of his own insecurities (even if that someone was somewhat evil, this time she was innocent of what Doug accused her, as I doubt she was hiding from him the fact she was using her powers) and then saying awful things to the one member of the "villain" team that is not guilty of said things. But I love him even more because of those things, awful as they were. And I am sure he was sorry afterwards, once his headache stopped and he got fully aware of what he had done.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yeah, Doug was a real jerk in that issue. Though I'm not totally convinced that Empath had nothing to do with his exchange with Tarot (in fact, when I first read it I assumed he was behind it, given how phrases like "They did it to themselves" have more than one meaning in Empath's mind). But it's hard to completely dislike a guy who knows he's a jerk and wishes he wasn't. I think that's what made Doug for me.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I think Empath did nothing.
I know he would surely be planning to do something, anything, to annoy the Mutants (and even the Hellions and Ms. Frost). He was no saint.
But the very deliberate way Mr. Claremont added that line, In Manuel's thoughts, where he did not have to lie to anyone else, well, he really sounds delighted AND surprised to me. Even before he lifted a finger (not that he has to lift a finger) two of his favorite targets were already a mess.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
No question that that line was added very deliberately, but I'm in doubt as to the specific reason for it. Manuel never seemed to stop being impressed with his own power, so he could as easily have been delighted and surprised out of smug self-satisfaction as by someone else's actions. He also was not above blaming other people for actions he deliberately prompted using his power, even when no one was around to punish him for it, like the time he made Tom and Sharon do the dirty in front of him, and he looks away and remarks "Animals."
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
It could be. But I still think it would be too convoluted. To write a line like that to show us he did it by saying he did not (and not showing any extra details to show he did it, like some eye glow). I still tend to go for the straightforward meaning, which I believe is also supported by the fact Doug was simply out for a bad time right from the start.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Well, I certainly agree with you that Doug was out for a bad time without Empath's help. But it's really not at all convoluted to suppose that Empath did help; it's just a matter of how Manuel tends to express self-satisfaction in a different way than most people do.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Personally, I don't see them ever being a couple in canon. Their only major interaction (that I remember) was at the Hellfire Club party, where he rejected her. Now, I know a lot of people ship them because of the lovers card popping up in New Mutants #17, but what they forget is that Doug wasn't a member of the NM at that point. He joined a few issues later. Just my two cents.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I think back then it was Sam.
But remember the NM lived at the Academy after they died. There was some non-battle interaction during that time. Off panel, of course. Even so, those battles were enough for the kids of both sides to see the personality of their opponents. We could see T-Bird was honorable and that Empath was evil. Tarot, who felt alone, noticed that Doug was good (if somewhat stupid that day) and that he needed a friend. They could at least have been good friends, but, given time, something more could have flourished.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Since Tarot's cards are looking into the future anyway, couldn't they have been seeing as far ahead as when Doug was a member of the New Mutants?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
That's true.
Although I think Emma was right, the girl should stop letting those cards run her life (and she should make Doug realize they are great together).
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I love that line from Emma. It showed that she both knows her students and is wise enough to realize that just because a power works really well doesn't mean you should rely on it. Her being such a great mentor made her that much scarier as an adversary.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
She has her moments. Both ways. She was a real witch to Angel, the one she treated "better" than all the rest, and yet she was only preparing her as a disposable weapon against her opposite at the Club.
I love both sides of her, and I loved how the deaths of the Hellions affected her and she was more convinced to protect young mutants and teach them to protect themselves. Even if she said she was not "reformed" during Generation X, you knew that, ultimately, you could trust her, even when it seemed you couldn't.
That is why I do not especially like how New X-Men made her a bitch even worse than she ever was during her true villain years, although I tell myself that the deaths of all her students, plus all residents of a mutant country would affect her even more deeply than that of just the Hellions.
Something I loved about her was how she tried to teach Manuel, someone who might very well grow up to be her adversary (and she knew it). Yet she did try her best to teach him everything he needed, about his powers and about life.
Too bad her philosophy is that of only caring about oneself, and that is what she teaches her students. That is what made her the rival of Xavier's School, where kids are taught to sacrifice themselves for others (even up to the ultimate sacrifice).
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Poor Tarot, but its hard to compete with Kitty Pryce. Also Rhayne made for a safer choice, as you didn't want to cross the card wielding mutant!
A friend told me they made a half sister OC to Tarot. I can link you when she's done. Powers are similar.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yeah. Much as I like her, it is hard to fall for someone with so many insecurities and so little initiative, although I think that it was her decision, not the cards', to approach Doug at the Hellfire Club gala, so she was coming out of her shell for him. Too bad stupid Dougie was an a-hole to her and to Jenny, who may deserve many bad things, but did not deserve the slap Doug gave her since he fooled himself (if he thought he was having such a lucky streak because of his own skills, that was his fault; she never tried to deceive him).
And that's okay. I am not really into OCs.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
She was an insecure character, and going back over the old NM issues, they showed a bunch of possible things that were affecting the young Hellions and Emma Frost all to willing to manipulate them to try to make them useful minions in the future. Wonder if it was really Tarot's initiative to pursue Doug, or if some manipulated her mind. So much of what she did was tied to her cards.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
True. But that is why I think this might be the one time she was truly doing something because of her own decisions, and not the cards' or someone else's.
At other times, we usually see her reading her cards, or worrying about what they tell her. But this time we do not see anything like that. She even says (thinks) she feels out of place there. We even get confirmation that Manuel had nothing to do with the whole thing. All of this makes me think she really wanted to be with Doug at the gala, even if only as a friend.
It makes things sadder, if you think about it. Marie-Ange was a good girl. She could have been good for Doug. She was even willing to grow out of her dependance on her cards. On the other side, Doug needed someone to listen to his worries. Someone (other than his super-powered teammates) who could make him see his own value, even if he was not always the best for physical battles (although his human shield technique has saved more than one life through the years, even in the Age of Apocalypse). That someone at that moment was Tarot, but he ruined it because he had to act all "woe is me".
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
As I said, I think he was still hung on Kitty. Did a similar thing in real life where I ignored a pretty girl for the one I couldn't have. That's why I think this way.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I just hope you never took it out hitting girls like Doug did with Jenny.
For a smart guy, he sure was a dumb kid sometimes.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
He did die getting shot trying to stop a 45 cal. bullet with his body from striking Rahne. I guess he was ignorant of ballistic science.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Such a shame, a doomed, or at least problematic, romance between New Mutants and Hellions (Where we already had the fun one between Wolfsbane and Catseye, and the really bad one between Magma and Empath) would have been an interesting one to see pursued... Provided Warlock didn't mind sharing Doug of course)
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Together they might have been able to work out a few of their individual issues. They may not have been a perfect couple in the long run, but (as long as they did not fall into an unhealthy relationship) they could have grown up a little and helped each other.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0