>>96512494Empath and Karma werent meant to be telepaths originally. Just people whose powers were meant to be controlling emotions and possesing other peoples.
You can see that clearly in Claremonts run.
When Magik gets a demon body, she becomes immune to telepathy, neither Charles nor Emma could read her mind, and once when Magik didnt want to leave her room, Charles used Karma to possess Magik, because that was her power, not telepathy.
She puts you to sleep, and takes control of your body, when she stops controlling your body you dont remember what happened.
And Emma used Empath to affect Magneto, making him send the New Mutants to her school, because Magneto's helmet didnt protect him from Empath. In fact he did it from a distance, just looking at the mansion, and using his power to make Magneto feel anxious and insecure.
Neither Karma nor Empath were meant to be able to read minds or communicate telepathically. (Manuel has never done that so far)
When Karma had to communicate a message to Sam/Cannonball, she took control of his body, and made him write she message she wanted to communicate with shaving cream on the mirror of his bathroom.
And I think Manuel has great potential, as a kind of long distance psychiatrist with pill beams, if emotions are just chemistry, his power is then controlling body chemistry, and his emotion manipulation is comparable to prozac or valium and other drugs people take.
That should be how the character is used, and that is how he was using in X-Men: The 198
He could give people vertigo, he could give extremely painful and paralyzing menstrual cramps to women, he could put people to sleep like an anesthetist. I would use him that way.
