Mystique (comics)

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 may be nearly a century old and has an extended back story. She was the biological mother and foster mother of the future X-Men Nightcrawler and Rogue, respectively. She abandoned 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 sleek and sexy 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

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." Because a Sherlock Holmes character named Irene Adler from the same time period is romantically linked to Holmes, this can be interpreted to mean either that she was Holmes or that Holmes' apparent death in The Adventure of the Final Problem was real and that she replaced him afterwards; however, no comics story has yet confirmed this.

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."

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

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 sapien 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 Mystique using her shape-shifting powers to impersonate Gambit.

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 of 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

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.

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 and 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 X-Men. Though she would remain close to Rogue coming to help her at times, she came to resent Xavier.

Freedom Force

Later, anti-mutant sentiment among normal human beings greatly increased and the federal government launched its own covert anti-mutant program, Project Wide-awake. 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.

Fallout

With Destiny dead, a tired and depressed Mystique was marked for death by the villainous Shadow King. The Shadow King saw Mystique as a threat to his plans on using the FBI to track down the X-Man Storm and used his powers to enslave Raven's government handler Val Cooper and ordered her to kill Raven. Val broke free at the last minute and shot herself, allowing Raven to contact Nick Fury and arrange a desperate endgame to oust the Shadow King. Mystique allowed herself to be brainwashed into thinking she was Val, so that the Shadow King would not suspect that she was alive and rejoined the Shadow King's side. During the Shadow King's final gambit to destroy the X-Men and Professor Xavier, Mystique was given the trigger word "Rogue" that caused her to return to normal and help save Xavier from being murdered by the Shadow King.

During this time, Freedom Force's remaining members were sent to Kuwait during the Gulf War. This mission proved to be another disaster; members were either killed, wounded or captured and Freedom Force officially disbanded.

Mystique's mental condition worsened when she was marked for death by her former Freedom Force teammate, Spiral. Spiral stalked Raven across the globe, further adding to Raven's mental instability. She was saved by Wolverine, who took her to the X-Mansion in hope that Xavier could help the wayward mutant. In the end, Raven apparently had a complete breakdown (though later stories implied she was faking it) and was taken to Dallas by Forge. While with Forge, Mystique was horrified when she found out that her son Graydon Creed had formed a successful anti-mutant hate group. Shortly afterwards, Graydon hired Sabretooth to kill Mystique, but Mystique told Sabretooth about their son and he decided to go after Graydon instead.

When a top ranking U.S. General who had ties to Graydon turned up dead, Forge realized that Mystique was to blame as she made her move to kill her son. This led to Rogue and Nightcrawler trying to stop Raven and led to Nightcrawler learning that Mystique indeed was his mother. Raven failed to kill Creed and was presumed dead after saving Nightcrawler from Creed's attempt to murder his newly discovered brother.

X-Factor

Mystique resurfaced several months later, in a failed attempt to kill Legion for his murdering of Destiny. Mystiqe 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

Charles Xavier was later forced to make Mystique his double agent, as his previous one had died and Mystique was the only one suitable enough to complete the missions. 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 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.

Matchmaker

Mystique later inflitrated 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, and change into a person larger or smaller than she is. 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.

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 rolling pin to glide on air currents, similar to Mr. Fantastic, which she uses to survive an explosion. In addition, damage to her biological tissue are 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, the new look wore off quickly and she regained her normal appearance.

Her constantly rearranging the formation of her cellular structure that enhance her healing seems to have suppressed her natural aging process and she has retained her youthful figure despite being alive for over eighty years, a side-effect comparable to Wolverine. Her natural form is that of a young woman with red hair, yellow eyes and dark blue skin.

It should be noted that in the X-Men movie, Mystique was shown changing her shape into a statue and in the animated Evolution TV series, Mystique could change shape into animals (seemingly unrestricted by limitations in altering her size or mass), could exercise enough control over her cells to be untrackable, even by Wolverine's senses (following exposure to radiation, in similar circumstances as mentioned earlier in the article) and (while under the control of Apocalypse) could transform into a liquid form or spread her consciousness (and mass) into multiple bodies. In the game Rise of Apocalypse Mystique is able to sneak behind Garokk by changing her form into one of the three Ravager Cerci; presumably her transformations are undetectable, as mentioned above.

In the X-Men films, Mystique displays considerable martial arts prowess and near-superhuman agility. In a scene in the first X-Men film, Mystique escapes a melee with Wolverine by climbing a metal pipe in a vertical, inverted position using only her arms. This feat indicates tremendous physical conditioning.

Alternate Versions

Age of Apocalypse

In the Age of Apocalypse miniseries, 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 the Apocalypse's agents, the Pale Riders and the Shadow King.

Ultimate Mystique

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." Ironically though, Xavier has named his cat after Mystique (indeed, it may have originally been intended that the cat was Mystique, as the cat's name was revealed far before Mystique herself did).

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

In the movies X-Men, X2 and The Last Stand, Mystique is played by Rebecca Romijn. In the movies, Mystique is naked and covered in scales. She is a member of Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants. She also seems to have some sort of feelings toward Wolverine, who she remarks is the only man to have ever left her with a scar (which is literally true, as he left her with a scar when he stabbed her during a fight from the first movie).

In The Last Stand, Mystique steps in front of Magneto and is shot with a cure needle fired at him when they infiltrate the convoy of mutant prisoners. Magneto is shocked at the self-sacrifice, and stares at the human and naked Mystique laying on the ground. Instead of the normal blue skin and red hair, she has normal skin and short black hair. Magneto subsequently abandons her, stating that she is no longer one of them, which she retaliates by informing the government of his base of operations and plans (when they get there, they discover the camp is filled with decoy Multiple Mans, so it could be debated as to whether she was working with the decoy, Mutiple Man, and in fact still supporting Magneto). However, at the end of the movie, Magneto, who was also injected with the cure, displayed a small sign of his powers returning, which hints that the cure is not permanent at all.

The X-Men sidescrolling beat-em-up arcade game, 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 the original X-Men cartoon she 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 Evolution, Mystique 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.

The story of her sepparation 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's (and presumably Magneto's) were shown in a laboratory, and Mystique Screaming "what have you done to him!?"
Towards the end of Season 4, her powers are greatly enhanced by Apocalypse when she is forced to become one of his horsemen. She gained 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.

Trivia

Mystique has stated "I wasn't born in this century or even the last" and once she was described as being "over 80 years old," making her one of the oldest major mutants.
Contrary to what is shown in most other incarnations of her in film and television, the comics version of Mystique is not Magneto's second-in-command. In fact, the two have only had a handful of encounters together and barely even know each other.
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.
Mystique may be the most well-known bisexual character in the Marvel Universe. There has not been a great negative reaction to this, due to the lesser stigma being attached to bisexual (especially female) characters than the few of those who are male homosexual.
A short-range telepath, named Shortpack, was Mystique's field-handler during her last series.
A little known fact about Mystique is that she never wears clothing. Due to the nature of her powers she can simply create clothes from her skin, thus eliminating the need for regular clothing or those made from unstable molecules. Because of this she is always naked as she admited to Shortpack in her short-lived series.

External links

Mystique - Marvel Database Project
Mystique @ Review the World
Mystique at Brotherhood Central]
Spotlight On... Mystique at UncannyXmen.Net
A detailed chronology of her published appearances
Gay League Profile

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