Mystique (character)

Mystique
File:Mystique11.png Cover to Mystique #11 Mike Mayhew, artist
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	(cameo) Ms. Marvel #16 (May 1978); (first full appearance) Ms. Marvel #17 (June 1978)
Created by	Chris Claremont Jim Mooney
In-story information
Alter ego	Raven Darkholme
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	X-Men Brotherhood of Evil Mutants III Freedom Force X-Factor X-Corps (as Surge) X-Corporation Xavier Institute student body (as Foxx) Brotherhood of Mutants Mossad DARPA Daily Bugle
Notable aliases	Raven Wagner, Leni Zauber, Valerie Cooper, Mallory Brickman, Holt Adler, Surge (of X-Corps), Foxx
Abilities	Ability to change her shape (only other humanoid forms), heal surface tissue damage, immunity to diseases, ageless, skilled hand-to-hand combatant and master strategist.

Mystique (Raven Darkholme) is a Marvel Comics character associated with the X-Men franchise. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Jim Mooney, she first appeared in Ms. Marvel #17 (May 1978).

Mystique is a mutant shapeshifter whose natural appearance includes blue skin and yellow eyes. She is over 100 years old, having claimed during her solo series, issue #17, "I wasn't born last night, or even last century, for that matter..." That puts her birthdate sometime in the 19th century. She was the biological mother and foster mother of the future X-Men Nightcrawler and Rogue, respectively. She was forced to abandon Nightcrawler, but raised Rogue for a number of years and the two now have mixed feelings towards one another.

Throughout most of her history, Mystique has been a villain, leading the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and assassinating several important non-mutant persons involved in mutant affairs. However, she recently worked on behalf of the X-Men's Professor X in a short-lived eponymous series and was provisionally voted into the X-Men.

This added exposure may partially be the result of the X-Men film series. Played by Rebecca Romijn, this unclothed version of Mystique has become one of the most popular characters in the films. Mystique has also appeared in several X-Men animated series and video games.

Mystique is also known as one of the few bisexual characters in mainstream American comic books. She had an extended relationship with her Brotherhood teammate Destiny, although Marvel editors did not allow this fact to be confirmed for several years.

Character history

Destiny

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Mystique with Destiny in older times. Art by Salvador Larocca.

Mystique's exact age remains unknown. However, her earliest meeting with her friend Destiny (Irene Adler) is stated to have occurred at "the dawn of the 20th century." The exact circumstances of their first meeting are unknown. However, we do know of Destiny's past.

Irene was an Austrian mutant with precognitive powers. She was more accurate in predicting near-future events concerning her present environment. But in a period of 12 months during her adolescence, Irene had produced 13 volumes of prophecies concerning the late 20th and early 21st centuries. When that period ended, Irene was left physically blind and haunted by disturbing images of uncertain meaning. She enlisted Raven's services in pursuit of two goals: the deciphering of her recorded prophecies and a mission to prevent the most terrifying of them from ever being fulfilled.

The two women would soon become life-long friends and lovers. But they both discovered that their set goals were difficult to achieve. Their abilities would easily allow them to achieve personal success but to shape the future was stated to be "next to impossible" as it would require "social engineering."

Veteran X-Men writer Chris Claremont has stated in interviews that he originally intended for Mystique and Destiny to be Nightcrawler's biological parents (Mystique having morphed into a man for the conception), but Marvel nixed the idea for being too controversial, due to it being a point in time where writers were prevented from having a character be gay or bisexual.

Early espionage activities and contacts

Their decades-long quest apparently required them to constantly travel. They encountered Shadowcat and Rachel Summers, who had time traveled from the future and sought to prevent a plot by Nazi agents Baron Wolfgang von Strucker and Geist, "Ghost", a member of Nazi intelligence and their ally Amahl Farouk, Shadow King. The three had conspired to question the rights of the British Monarch to the throne and then to replace him with Oswald Mosely of the British Fascist Party, a likely ally for Nazi Germany. Irene and Raven contacted an acquaintance of theirs, called Logan, Wolverine, to help the time travelers. Irene and Raven advised Shadowcat and Logan against proceeding in their contemplated assassination of Adolf Hitler and other prominent leaders and officials of the Nazi party. Raven was laconic in only stating: "All of us have learned to kill, Logan. But more importantly, we have learned not to kill. And to know the difference."

At some point, Raven reportedly lost contact with Irene. She managed to locate her working as an archivist in the Alamogordo nuclear research facilities in New Mexico. Raven was uncertain of Irene's motivation, but apparently trusted her enough not to press for answers.

Sabretooth

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Cover to Sabretooth #2. Art by Mark Texeira.

Raven would meet Victor Creed, the man known as Sabretooth. At the time she used the identity of deceased German secret agent Leni Zauber. Both Leni and Victor had been assigned with the assassination of a scientist in East Berlin. Raven completed the mission in place of Leni. Then she and Victor had to hide in a safe location for a while. They became lovers, but she soon faked her death in order to leave him.

The result of this short-lived affair was reportedly the birth of Graydon Creed, her earliest known child. A number of stories have reported that soon after his birth, Raven gave him up for adoption. Others depict Mystique making arrangements for him from a distance. Graydon reportedly spent most of his childhood in a boarding school. Raven kept track of his activities until he reached adolescence. Graydon was the son of two mutants and as a result likely to be a mutant himself. However, he eventually proved to be a Homo sapiens instead of a Homo Superior or mutant. Raven was disappointed and soon abandoned him. Graydon would grow to hate his parents and eventually extend his hatred towards all mutants. He later became leader to the mutant-hating organization Friends of Humanity and then a politician. Graydon, at the height of his political ascension was assassinated by an unknown shooter (X-Factor #130). The shooter was later revealed to be a time traveling version of Mystique, as part of a convoluted time paradox involving Jean Grey, Iceman, Toad, and Juggernaut.

Nightcrawler

For several years Mystique was also reported being the mother of Nightcrawler but the exact events were uncertain. Much later another writer, Chuck Austen, eventually ‘revealed’ that the father was Azazel, a demonic-looking mutant from biblical times claiming to be the inspiration for Satan.

At the time, Raven was married to Baron Christian Wagner; older sources give his name as Count Eric Wagner, an affluent member of German nobility. He would prove to be a loving husband, but rather disappointing as a lover. His infertility added to their marital problems. Raven started using her shape-shifting powers in order to secretly have sexual encounters with others. She particularly seemed to seek men who somewhat resembled Victor Creed. She was apparently both seeking sexual satisfaction and attempting to conceive another child. She was eventually seduced by another fellow mutant.

He called himself Azazel and stated he was ruler of "an island nation off the coast of Bermuda: La Isla des Demonas," The Island of Demons. He was apparently a fellow shape-shifter and also had the powers of teleportation. He was later revealed to also have the power of Immortality and to be the father of an ancient race of mutants known as the Nephilim, active since at least 9000 BC. His natural form was that of a young man with black hair, yellow eyes, red skin and a pointed tail. He later claimed to have been posing as a demon and to have used many aliases: "Because I am Azazel, Semihazah, Duma, Keriel, Mastema, Beliar, Gadreel and Beelzebub. And most commonly called Satan." Many of these aliases have also been claimed by several notable demons of the Marvel Universe.

Raven soon became pregnant. Her husband became suspicious and his own father suggested a blood test to verify if the child was his. Mystique used a dagger to slay him and then buried him. She eventually gave birth to a young boy with black hair, yellow eyes, blue skin and a pointed tail. The locals considered both the mother and the child to be demons and attempted to slay them. Mystique managed to escape but abandoned her second known son. He was found and raised by Gypsy sorceress Margali Szardos and named Kurt Wagner.

Rogue and the Brotherhood

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Mystique with Rogue and Destiny.

Mystique would later become adoptive mother to the girl Rogue, who had run away from her home in rural Caldecott County, Mississippi. The girl was living alone in a wooded area, brandishing a shotgun and trusting no one when Mystique found her. Destiny foresaw that Rogue would be important to them and Mystique sought her out, gained her trust and took her in. She and Destiny would raise the girl over approximately a decade and Mystique would grow to be very protective of her.

Mystique had concealed her superhuman powers and criminal intentions so well over the years that, as Raven Darkholme, she was able to rise rapidly through the United States Civil Service to the trusted position of Deputy Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the United States Department of Defense. This position gave her access to military secrets and to advanced weaponry, both of which she used for her own criminal and subversive purposes.

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Mystique and her Brotherhood. Featured left to right are; Destiny, Avalanche, Mystique, Pyro and the Blob. Art by John Byrne and Terry Austin.

To help her in her criminal activities, Mystique organized her own incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, which originally consisted of herself, Avalanche, the Blob, Destiny and Pyro. This incarnation of the Brotherhood first became notorious when it attempted to intimidate the public by assassinating Senator Robert Kelly, a notoriously anti-mutant politician. The X-Men thwarted the assassination attempt, thereby averting a series of events which would resulted in the death of most superpowered humans, and the subjugation of North America by the mutant-hunting robots, the Sentinels (as chronicled in the "Days of Future Past" storyline). The Brotherhood later clashed with the X-Men on other occasions.

Rogue was trained by Mystique and eventually joined her Brotherhood team. Her mutant power was the ability to absorb the psyche, memories, personality, strengths and any skills or powers of whomever she touched. Rogue proved to be a powerful member of the team. She went on many missions with the Brotherhood and with her help, the team was almost able to defeat the Avengers.

On a mission with the Avengers, Rogue fought Carol Danvers, better known as the superheroine named Ms. Marvel at that time. Rogue tried stealing Carol's powers, but Carol fought too hard and Rogue ended up absorbing Carol's memories and powers, while Carol was left an empty shell. Professor Xavier later restored Carol's memories, but not the emotions that went with them. Rogue, meanwhile, felt like she was losing her mind, grappling with Danvers' psyche and at times not knowing which memories were really hers. Feeling like she was in danger of losing control of herself, Rogue ran away from home and sought help from the X-Men, hoping that Professor X would be able to treat her. While the other X-Men were very hesitant of accepting their former enemy at first, Xavier welcomed her and gave her a spot on the team.

Worried that Rogue had left because Xavier had brainwashed her, Mystique went to rescue her leading an attack on the X-Men. Rogue stopped her, saying how she had left on her own free will. Mystique was doubtful and hurt, but Rogue ultimately convinced her by saying that Xavier was probably the only person who could help with her powers and give her a chance at a normal life, as she feared the absorbed personality of Carol Danvers would otherwise drive her insane.

Mystique grudgingly agreed and let Rogue stay with the X-Men. Though she would remain close to Rogue, coming to help her at times, Mystique came to resent Xavier.

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Destiny is killed. Cover to Uncanny X-Men #255. Art by Marc Silvestri.

Freedom Force

Later, anti-mutant sentiment among normal human beings greatly increased and the federal government launched its own covert anti-mutant program, Project Wideawake. Believing that the times had thus become too dangerous for the Brotherhood to continue its criminal activities, Mystique went to Doctor Valerie Cooper, special assistant to the head of the National Security Council and offered the Brotherhood's services to the government. Cooper agreed to convey the offer to the President, on the condition that the Brotherhood pass a test she imposed: the capture of Magneto. The Brotherhood, now renamed Freedom Force, succeeded in bringing Magneto to the authorities though only because he voluntarily surrendered to them so he could go on trial for his crimes and soon afterwards officially entered the government's employ.

In return for entering government service as Freedom Force's leader, Mystique and her team received a presidential pardon for all criminal charges against them, but the pardon would be revoked if any member of Freedom Force were found committing a crime.

On one particular disastrous mission, Freedom Force lost two of its members, Stonewall and Mystique's lover Destiny. The death of her lover left Mystique psychologically scarred and she never truly recovered.

X-Factor

Mystique resurfaced several months later, in a failed attempt to kill Legion for his murdering of Destiny. Mystique had an implant put in her skull by Forge in order for the government to be able to keep track of her. She was then forced to become a member of the government-sponsored team X-Factor after being arrested for trying to blow up a dam. In truth, Mystique was trying to save the dam, which the U.S. Government was wanting to destroy so that they could blame it on mutants. She joined coincidentally to the departure of X-Factor member Wolfsbane. Her membership led to tension with her teammates when Sabretooth was added to the team months later as a sleeper agent, for the main purpose of killing Mystique before she could uncover the truth about the conspiracy she had discovered. She slowly developed a romantic relationship with team-leader Forge (though he later thought that she was just using him).

Part of the conspiracy involved Mystique's son Graydon Creed running for President, under an anti-mutant platform.

At the same time, both Graydon and Mystique learned that her lover Destiny had married and had children during one of the couple's separations. Irene's children were now adults with their own children, one of which was a mutant. Graydon had the mutant teen savagely beaten by members of the Friends of Humanity, as a warning towards his mother. Mystique was furious and wanted to kill her son, but stopped when she was given a message that Graydon's backers wanted her to kill him and turn her son into a martyr.

Mystique then sought to save her son from being betrayed by his backers, but failed miserably. Graydon died and his death ushered in a new wave of anti-mutant violence. Ultimately, Sabretooth acted on his orders to kill the members of X-Factor as "Operation Zero Tolerance" was activated. Even though she could have left her teammates to die, Mystique attacked Sabretooth, an act of intervention that distracted Sabretooth long enough to keep him from finishing off the already injured team. Mystique then fled the scene after arranging for the members of X-Factor to receive emergency medical treatment for the wounds Sabretooth inflicted onto them.

Mystique went into hiding, taking the identity of senator's wife Mallory Brickman, using her husband's influence to set the FBI on Sabretooth. She prevented Rogue from giving up her mutant powers and she continued her investigation of the U.S. Government over her son's death, leading to her aiding the Toad and his most recent incarnation of the "Brotherhood of Evil Mutants" on a mission to raid a government base. The mission failed thanks to Machine Man, who fought the Brotherhood and forced the team to flee. Mystique fled to Europe, at which point her life changed dramatically. While taking the form of a blonde haired woman during a trip to the beach, Mystique was confronted by a famous photographer who told the mutant that he wanted to make her the next big fashion model.

Amused, Mystique accepted and quickly became the fashion industry's newest top model. Using her money, Mystique moved back to New York and into an expensive penthouse apartment. At peace, Mystique bought a telescope and used it to take in her penthouse's view of New York. This proved to be a huge mistake, as a nearby building was being used by Skrulls loyal to Apocalypse to build the machinery needed for an upcoming scheme of the villains. When one of the Skrulls caught Mystique by her window with her telescope, they assumed the worst and framed Mystique for the murder of a Japanese diplomat. With help from Shadowcat and Rogue, Mystique was cleared and left town. However, before she left, Shadowcat found one of Destiny's diaries, left there by Destiny herself before she died.

Breakdown

Mystique then reached a breakthrough regarding her investigation of the U.S. conspiracy against mutantkind, but fate caused Mystique to suffer a massive blow. While gaining the critical intel on the identity of those who were involved in her son's death and the attempt to kill her via Sabretooth, Mystique suddenly lost her powers while pretending to be a man in a busy office workplace.

Arrested, Mystique's life was torn apart as the U.S. Government acted on their intel regarding Mystique and used it to destroy all of the alternate identities that Mystique had established over the years and arranging for Mystique to be unable to access any of the money she and Destiny had hidden away over the years. This caused Mystique to lose any self-control she might once have had, as the loss of her powers and the loss of her freedom caused her to lash out at everyone around her. Most notably, Rogue felt the brunt of her step-mother's wrath as Rogue had no sympathy for Mystique's plight. The relationship soured most notably when Rogue refused to tell Mystique that the X-Men were going to fight the High Evolutionary, who was responsible for depowering all of mutantkind, so as to restore everyone's powers. The X-Men defeated Evolutionary and restored everyone's powers, allowing Mystique to escape jail.

Mystique however, would soon face her biggest fears realized in the worst way possible. Raven was sent back in time by the original X-Factor's sentient ship. Raven found that she was destined to be part of a great time paradox, where she found herself with a time delay weapon, which she was about to program to kill Graydon. Mystique was confused, because she remembered that she set up the weapon, but never got around to program it. After some deliberation, she decides to activate the weapon to kill Graydon. Mystique's sanity was further damaged by the revelation that her lover and soulmate Destiny was one of the founding members of the anti-mutant conspiracy Mystique had dedicated countless years fighting and had willfully withheld medical treatment to mutant children that would have resulted in them not growing up deformed due to their mutations.

This led to Raven once again going mad, at the futility of her mission to change the world for the better. Raven became nihilistically obsessed with death and genocide, as she reformed the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants for another assassination attempt on Senator Kelly as well as Mystique kidnapping Moira McTaggart and impersonating her in order to access her research on the Legacy Virus. While not the gifted scientist that Moira was, Mystique's insanity and experience with bio-terrorism allowed her not only to use samples of Moira's Legacy Virus infected blood to create a biological weapon that would infect humans as opposed to mutants, but most importantly, allowed her to come up with a cure for the Legacy Virus after repeated readings of all of the doctor's research which, when filtered through Mystique's insane mind, resulted in her being able to pick up on insights that Moira had missed when researching.

The assassination attempt on Kelly ended in failure, when the mutant villain Pyro betrayed his teammates to save Kelly's life. Mystique blew up Moira McTaggart’s research facility, fatally injuring the doctor. Mystique then shot Moira's foster daughter Wolfsbane with a prototype of Forge's neutralizer gun, depowering her.

Rogue arrived and confronted her mother. When Mystique revealed her plan to Rogue on using a modified form of the Legacy Virus on the humans, Rogue realized that she was ill and tried to help her. Mystique pretended to accept Rogue's help before stabbing her in the gut. If it weren’t for Rogue having absorbed Wolverine’s healing factor, she would have most likely died.

As Mystique confronted the other X-Men, Rogue's healing factor revived her. Sneaking behind Mystique, Rogue used the bone claws she had absorbed from Wolverine and stabbed her in the back.

Mystique was hospitalized, where she told the X-Men that Destiny had predicted a dark future for mutantkind and that the future Destiny foretold kept on unfolding despite all that Mystique had done to prevent it. She believed that the only way to save them was to get rid of the humans, for a planet of mutants might survive, while mutants divided against each other and with humanity shunning them as outcasts would be doomed.

Mystique was sent to prison, but quickly escaped. She then allied herself with the daughter of the original Mastermind in an attempt to wrest control of the military organization known as the X-Corps from its founder, Banshee. Outfitted with a device that gave her the ability to generate an electrical charge, Mystique created the identity of a super-villain and joined the X-Corps. While Mastermind's daughter mind-controlled the other members of the organization, Mystique brought Banshee’s organization down and slit his throat, leaving him in critical condition.

Double agent

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Cover to Mystique #15. Art by Mike Mayhew.

Charles Xavier was later forced to make Mystique his secret agent, as his previous one, Prudence Leighton, had died and Mystique was the only one suitable enough to complete the missions. Xavier posed as Magneto to rescue Mystique from the Department of Homeland Security and from execution at the hands of Johny Kitano, Special Magistrate for Homo Superior crimes against humanity, and a mutant himself.

At this time, Mystique claimed that there was an imposter out to frame her, taking control over the Brotherhood and sending them on their recent missions (the assassination of Moira and the infiltration of X-Corps). Whether she was speaking the truth remains to be seen. The two never truly trusted each other, but as long as Mystique completed the missions without killing anybody, Xavier would keep her safe from the authorities, who were out to execute her. Working with Xavier was Forge, whom Mystique had had a brief romance with while she was in X-Factor.

One of Xavier's enemies, the Quiet Man, who was actually Prudence Leighton inhabiting the body of her assassin, contacted Mystique and offered to give her an interference transmitter which would keep her safe from the authorities, the same type of device Xavier was using, if she killed Xavier. Creating a plan that would free her from both men, Mystique pretended to try killing Xavier while secretly working with the mutant thief Fantomex, who she had alert Forge to stopping her at the last moment. Her plan was on having the Quiet Man see this and believe that she really had attempted to kill Xavier and was still working for him. However, the other X-Men also believed that Mystique had tried killing Xavier and sought her out.

Rogue managed to track her down. She disowned her adoptive mother, saying she had tried to forgive Mystique for stabbing her, but that this was too much. She went on to say that Mystique wasn’t her mother, that she was a monster. Mystique tried apologizing to Rogue for how she had hurt her, but Rogue was distraught with rage and attacked her foster mother. Mystique managed to escape by blowing up the house and going through the window, changing her form to shield her fall.

Mystique went to the Quiet Man, who was planning on having her killed due to outliving her usefulness. After a battle, Mystique killed the Quiet Man, saved her former field-handler Shortpack, and discovered the Quiet Man's interference transmitter had been a fake all along. Later, Forge caught Mystique trying to steal his interference transmitter. After some angry words, he smashed it and told her he never wanted to see her again. The two shared a sad good-bye kiss and Mystique left. After Mystique was gone, Forge realized that she had already switched his transmitter for the fake one.

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Cover to X-Men (vol. 2) #174. Art by Salvador Larroca.

Joining the X-Men

Mystique later infiltrated the X-Men, posing as a young girl named Foxx. She attempted to seduce Rogue's boyfriend Gambit to break them up so she could set her daughter up with a young mutant named Augustus, a man she believed Rogue could be the happiest with.

Though severely tempted by "Foxx's" advances, Gambit resisted. Mystique ultimately revealed herself to him, telling him that she was trying to relieve the tension between him and Rogue (because of the two being unable to have sex due to her ability to absorb someone's essence upon skin-to-skin contact). Mystique then morphed into Rogue and told Gambit that he wouldn't be cheating on Rogue if they had sex now.

When the telepath Emma Frost discovered who Foxx really was, the X-Men confronted Mystique. Mystique told them that she had been lonely and wanted to join the X-Men. Emma also discovered that Gambit had known who Foxx really was all along, and a furious Rogue believed the two had been having an affair. Mystique wouldn't reveal if she and Gambit did anything, but told Rogue that if he truly loved her he wouldn't have been tempted, and that she deserved better than him. Gambit denied anything had happened.

Later, the X-Men voted and decided to have Mystique join them on a probationary status (though Rogue was one of the ones who had voted against her joining). Meanwhile, Nightcrawler asked her to leave for a while regardless of the vote, saying that he needed more time adjusting to the idea of her being a member first. Mystique ultimately agreed and left. However, after Decimation, she has joined the X-Men and brought Augustus (Pulse) along with her. Both have been crucial in the latest downfall of Apocalypse. It remains to be seen if this change in Mystique is genuine or yet another act, as Rogue seems to believe it is. And as such, she has taken Mystique onto her current team of X-Men to keep a closer eye on her.

Powers and abilities

Mystique is a mutant, a shapeshifter able to alter the formation of her biological cells at will and thereby assume the form of other humans. Originally, it was clearly stated that Mystique's powers were limited to appearances only, as she could not assume the powers of the people she morphed into or alter her body to adapt to different situations. In addition, she could not change her overall body mass in order to change into a person larger or smaller than she is. She has the ability to create the appearance of clothes out of her own body. Mystique was shown in at least one instance transforming a metallic part of her costume into a functioning blaster pistol. Whether this was a function of her powers or of the costume piece itself is unclear. As a side effect this power, her natural aging process has been suppressed (if not completely halted), as she has retained her youthful figure despite being alive for over eighty years. (Some sources say she is over a century old.)

This changed in 2001's X-Men Forever mini-series, in which Mystique was exposed to dangerous levels of radiation in order to save the life of Toad. The process morphed Mystique's appearance to match her more reptilian physique from the movies, and boosted her powers so that she could now morph her body into taking certain desired physical traits depending on her situation at the time. Examples of this new ability include: night vision, wings on her back, talons in her fingers, natural body armor, and can even compress nearly two-dimensional like a sheet of paper to glide on air currents, similar to Mister Fantastic, which she uses to survive an explosion. In addition, damage to her biological tissue is known to heal at a relatively fast rate and she can form a resistance to poisons upon contacting them. While she retained her advanced powers, she now appears in her natural form. It is uncertain whether she lost her other form, or she justs shapeshifts back into her original form.

Her natural form is that of a young woman with red hair, yellow eyes and dark blue skin.

Alternate Versions

Age of Apocalypse

In the Age of Apocalypse timeline, Mystique is the ferrywoman to Avalon. It is her task to meet the refugees and make sure they meet the guide to Avalon, Cain. Though she works against Apocalypse, she is not much of a hero. She charges a heavy tariff to ferry the refugees to Avalon, taking much of their valuables. This plagues her conscience and she is reluctant to go to Avalon, as she feels that she is not fit to enter. Ultimately, she gets past her guilt to guide her son, Nightcrawler to Avalon and find Destiny. She and her son form X-Calibre to defeat Apocalypse's agents, the Pale Riders and the Shadow King.

Ultimate Mystique

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Ultimate Mystique from Ultimate X-Men #65. Art by Stuart Immonen.

In the Ultimate Marvel Universe, Mystique was the former lover of Charles Xavier. However, during their stay in the Savage Land with Magneto, the young Emma Frost came under the tutelage of Xavier, and shortly after he dumped Mystique for "prissy schoolmarm" Frost. Ever since then, Mystique has held great resentment toward Xavier, which in turn makes her undyingly loyal to Magneto. She recently teamed up with Forge and helped Magneto escape the Triskelion by taking his place in the prison cell. She is hinted to be one of the few who actually knows how Xavier's darker side operates, stating "We all bought into Xavier's dream until we got a look at the sick brain behind it." It would later be revealed that Emma Frost named Xavier's cat after Mystique, after the feline partially destroyed the decor of his office. Indeed, it may have originally been intended that the cat was Mystique, as the cat's name was revealed far before Mystique herself was.

X-Men: Fairy Tales

Mystique appears briefly in X-Men: Fairy Tales limited series, first issue. She is leading a group of thieves who attack the old monk/Professor X. They are scared away by Hitome/Cyclops. The other thieves were Avalanche and Pyro.

Appearances in other media

The X-Men arcade game, X-Men: Evolution animated series and the movies X-Men and X2 depicted Mystique primarily as a close ally and sometime lieutenant of the powerful mutant Magneto and a key figure in the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. In X-Men: Evolution, she has the power to also morph into animals - even more when she is one of Apocalypse's Four Horsemen, when she can turn into many of the same species in separate.

Film

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Rebecca Romijn as Mystique

In the movies X-Men, X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand, Mystique is played by Rebecca Romijn and, unlike her comic book incarnation, is a member of Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants. When she appears in her blue form, she is naked and covered in scales (implying her shape-shifting abilities are akin to the camouflage abilities of a chameleon. Her incredible agility, dexterity, and seemingly lizard-like abilities are attributed to her also sharing the reptilian aspects of a chameleon).

Template:Spoilers In the first movie, Mystique impersonates Henry Gyrich, the aide to Senator Kelly, as part of a plan to kidnap Kelly and turn him into a mutant, thereby ending his support of the Mutant Registration Act. However, Magneto's mutation machine causes Senator Kelly to die, so she replaces Kelly instead and withdraws his support of the bill. At the beginning of X2, her ongoing impersonation of Kelly helps her learn where Magneto is being held, and she helps him escape.

In X-Men, Mystique has an extended fight with Wolverine. Although the man possesses great physical strength, Mystique ultimately outwits him in the battle, and slowly gets the better of him with superior speed and dexterity. She then leaves by climbing upside down up a pipe. She later reappears as Storm and approaches him, making a critical overestimation of her cunning. But his acute sense of smell tells him who she really is. He stabs her with his claws, putting her out of commission for the remainder of the movie (in the movie, this scene immediately followed Storm's battle with Toad so that the audiences will make the natural assumption that it is really Storm approaching Wolverine instead of Mystique, thus making the latter realization shocking). She only escapes because she morphs into a cop, allowing her to be rescued in time.

In X2, She learns from William Stryker that Magneto is in their possession while she is disguised as Senator Kelley. Mystique then gains entry into Stryker's office thanks to her impersonating Stryker's aide, Lady Deathstrike, and thus gaining details about Magneto's plastic prison (including the name of the guards) and also to several more of Stryker's plans (most of important of which is the plans to "Dark Cerebro"). After helping Magneto escape from prison, she joins Magneto's brief alliance with the X-men. While camped in an unknown forest area, Mystique attempts to seduce Wolverine in the guise of Jean Grey. When he discovers the marks of his claws, she shifts back to her blue form, telling him "no one's left a scar quite like you." She later impersonates Wolverine in order to gain entry to the base Alkali Lake.

In X-Men: The Last Stand, Mystique was captured by the government. Magneto comes to save her, but a guard manages to fire a cure dart at Magneto. She steps in front to protect him. She is hit, and her mutation is cancelled by Leech's DNA embedded within the cure. She changes from her blue-skinned form to a naked human appearance, with Caucasian skin and short black hair. Magneto abandons her, stating "you're not one of us anymore." She retaliates for his actions by telling the government the location of his base of operations. However, when they raid the camp, they find it populated entirely with duplicates of Multiple Man. The movie does not make it clear whether she was aware that the information she gave would only lead the government to a decoy camp or if Magneto anticipated her betrayal and left the camp with Multiple Man's duplicates to spite her. It is also unknown whether or not the cure wore off and her mutant powers returned, as Magneto's did at the climax of the film.

Television

In the original X-Men cartoon, Mystique was shown as the leader of the Brotherhood, a close ally of Apocalypse, and Rogue's foster mother. She was voiced by Rachel Carpenter.

In X-Men: Evolution, she is portrayed as a ruthless and feared character, a master of hand-to-hand combat and an unscrupulous manipulator. During the first season she maintains a position of power as the principal of Bayville High, under the alias "Raven Darkholme". When she disappears at the end of the season, a replacement principal is brought in, requiring her to invent a new alias ("Risty Wilde") for season two. Under this identity she befriends Rogue and is able to spy on the X-Men. Later, she kidnaps and impersonates Professor X. However, as cold and ruthless she appears, she has one thing she holds dear: the well-being of her two children, Rogue and Nightcrawler. Whereas the latter seems to return the love, Rogue deeply despises her and even attempted to kill her at one point. In the end of the series, though, it is Nightcrawler who scolds Mystique when she tries to reapproach him and Rogue. The story of her separation from Nightcrawler was changed (she was attacked by wolves while on a bridge, causing her to drop him accidentally). It's also suggested that Nightcrawler was normal looking at first, as Mystique (and presumably Magneto) were shown in a laboratory with Mystique screaming, "What have you done to him!?"

Unlike her comics counterpart, she is able to change her mass as well as shape, and so is not limited to humanoid forms. Unsurprisingly, her most common animal morph is a raven.

Towards the end of Season 4, her powers are greatly enhanced by Apocalypse when she is forced to become one of his Horsemen. She gains the ability to transform into multiple beings at once (a swarm of scorpions), change into a liquid state, and regenerate limbs lost in combat (though this could simply be another application of her liquid state), but lost these powers when Apocalypse's plans were thwarted.

Video games

Mystique has appeared in several X-Men video games. Most recently she appeared in X-Men Legends and its sequel, X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, where she was voiced by Grey DeLisle. At that time she was married to Sabertooth (Victor Creed). She also appeared in one ending of Marvel Ultimate Alliance where she kills Charles Xavier out of revenge for Nightcrawler's death.

External links

• MDP: Mystique - Marvel Database Project
• Mystique @ Review the World
• Mystique at Brotherhood Central
• Mystique at UncannyXMen.net
• Mystique on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki