If you could change your shape, what would you turn into? Mystique has spent decades, possibly longer, finding she is a people person, literally. She takes on disguises the way you and I take on facial expressions. She can look like anyone at any time, she’s the ultimate infiltrator and con artist. How did she get to be the way she is? Let’s find out!
Raven Darkholme, if that’s her real name, has been around for a long, but undetermined, time, her mutant ability to shapeshift allows her to keep herself looking and feeling whatever age she wants. Her early life was mostly spent hiding among people until she felt comfortable enough to not disguise her blue skin and taking on her true form. She’d meet long-lived mutants such as Logan, Wolverine, and others in the early 20th century. One person who would effect her life greatly was her friend and lover, Destiny, a prophetic mutant whose powers of precognition would render her blind. They would work together to put forth in motion many events that would effect the late 20th and early 21st century thanks to Destiny’s foresight and Raven’s skills.
As time went on, Raven would find other lovers and even have children. Her first child was with fellow mutant, Sabertooth, and their child was Graydon Creed who would turn out to be human and lead an anti-mutant organization due to his abandonment by his biological parents and their villainous ways. Raven would go on to meet another mutant and give birth to the future X-Man, Nightcrawler, due to their blue skin, they were believed to be demons and Raven had to flee and find a safe place for him to be raised without fear of his demonic look scaring his parents, the circus proved perfect for him. She would play the role of mother in an informal adoption to Rogue, alongside Destiny as her other mother, who would be raised to help in their criminal pursuits, unaware of her mothers’ true allegiances.
Raven’s skills were so good at concealment, she had full identities, including Raven Darkholme for a time, that were not tied to the criminal known as Mystique. This allowed her to get away with many legal pursuits since these identities had no criminal records or known ties. Mystique’s abilities allow her to take on forms similar to her own size and mass with ease, it’s when she has to become larger or smaller to a drastic amount that she finds discomfort with her abilities that she would just rather avoid. Why become a mouse or elephant when turning into a powerful politician can do more for her?
The Brotherhood of Mutants was a frequent team up effort for Raven when it came to organizations, they believed in mutant superiority and sought out mutant safety by eliminating the human threat. Her role was often as lieutenant or leader and used her powers to infiltrate for information or to manipulate the situation. She frequently enters the political sphere to try and stop anti-mutant laws and bills being passed. She’s the ultimate double agent since no one can even know she’s not who she says she is, her skills at deception are on a super powered level all their own. While she often works with mutant superiority groups, she has been known to work with the X-Men, a mutant safe haven and defense team who try to bridge a connection with humanity. These team ups aren’t usually as fruitful for her as she finds the X-Men to be playing with kid gloves in a kill or be killed world.
Mystique knows all about death as someone who dishes it out and has even experienced it first hand. She was resurrected by the Hand, a ninja death cult of undead members. She was able to break free of their control and even found new control of her shapeshifting in the process allowing her to manipulate what she could make beyond the clothing of the person she mimicked. Taking this into consideration, she would join the Hellfire Club and work to train the next generation of villainous mutants.
There you have it! Mystique is a favorite X-Men villain and has appeared in many forms outside the comics. She’s been in the movies and in the cartoons, she’s too much fun for visual media. She has less spotlight time in video games since her powers are mostly surface level and not power mimicking as well so it’s not as easy to translate into a fun game mechanic for the games X-Men tend to be in. What will she be in next? Technically she could be in everything and we don’t even know it. See you next time!
Suggested Reading
Ms. Marvel #16
Mystique
Dark X-Men
Uncanny X-Men
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
