Alisa Tager (Earth-616)

Origin[]

Alisa Tager was discovered by Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Xorn. Per Alisa's request, Cyclops and Jean agreed to keep her presence a secret, and gave her the code name Cipher.^[3][1] She was described by Cyclops as an X-Man-in-training and served as surveillance at Xavier Institute and briefly at Graymalkin Industries.^[1]

For unknown reasons, Alisa began to befriend the student Blindfold while acting as a spy in the Xavier Institute and helped protect her during Beast's rampage through the X-Mansion.^[4][1]

Final Genesis[]

When Jonas Graymalkin emerged from his would-be grave under the remains of the Xavier Institute following the last Sentinel attack that destroyed the school,^[5] he was greeted by Cipher.^[1] After their meeting, the two of them observed Donald Pierce impersonating Cyclops and training the Young X-Men in order to assassinate Sunspot, the Black King of the Hellfire Club.^[6][1]

Cipher aided Blindfold and Ink during their capture of Dani Moonstar.^[7][1]

Through the "cypher", Jonas was told to kill Pierce.^[8] Jonas and Cipher freed Magma and attacked Pierce. Pierce escaped. To stop him, Magma, Graymalkin, Cipher, and freshly recovered Dust took the remaining X-Jet to New York City to stop the other Young X-Men from battling Cannonball and Sunspot at the Hellfire Club.^[9]

Their X-Jet was destroyed by Cannonball, but after explaining Pierce's deception, the two teams together headed to Pierce's subterranean lair. Cipher rejoined Graymalkin there and explained she survived the crash by "phasing".^[10]

Book of Revelations[]

Cipher finally revealed herself to Ink^[2] to persuade him to help his teammates, the Young X-Men, defeat the Y-Men created by the mutant tattoo artist, Leon Nunez. She then accompanied Ink to Nunez's tattoo parlor and watched him get both his Caduceus symbol and Phoenix Force tattoos.^[11]

After the defeat of the Y-Men, Cipher was made a full member of the Young X-Men.^[11] She helped prepare Dust's body for burial.^[12] Later she assisted in battling the Neo on the Golden Gate Bridge.^[13]

Utopia[]

During the San Francisco riots over Proposition X, Cipher was teamed with Colossus and Surge in trying to keep the peace. While the trio scouted the perimeter, the Dark Avengers arrived on the scene. Spider-Man (Mac Gargan) attacked them, inciting a fight between Colossus and Rockslide, who participated in the riots. Colossus instructed the two girls to flee as he took on the dangerous villain.^[14][15]

Jean Grey School for Higher Learning[]

Cipher was among the younger X-Men to follow Wolverine when he moved back to Westchester and opened the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.^[16][17]

Krakoa[]

She later appeared on Krakoa reuniting with friends.^[18]

Cipher is a mutant and has displayed several stealth based powers, including:

• Intangibility: Cipher possesses the ability to pass through solid matter.^[1]
• Invisibility: Cipher can render herself completely invisible.^[1]
• Telepathic Undetectability: Cipher is also almost completely undetectable to telepaths. Jean Grey (whose powers at the time were enhanced by the Phoenix Force) was barely able to detect her, while Emma Frost was not able to.^[1]
• Inaudibility: Cipher can render herself completely silent or allow herself to only be heard by certain individuals.^[8][10][1]

Cipher appears to be trained in stealth and spying. This talent is greatly aided by her mutant powers.

X-Jet

• Alisa's existence was kept secret by Cyclops^[19] and other X-Men leaders,^[1] she was presumably not among the 198 mutants cataloged by the US government.
• Young X-Men #10 details both her retcon and actual history.
• Though she first appeared in Young X-Men #8, Cipher was retconned as having been present during events prior to her character's creation, including Grant Morrison's 2001 run on New X-Men and Joss Whedon's 2004 tenure on Astonishing X-Men.