Mystique
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Mystique (Raven Darkholme) is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe. She has run several incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and is a foe of the X-Men.
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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". At the time, Mystique posed as a man and worked as a consulting detective.
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 decipherment 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."
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 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 descendant. 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 (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.
Nightcrawler
For several years Mystique was also reported being the mother of Nightcrawler but the exact events were uncertain. Veteran X-Men writer Chris Claremont had 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. 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.
Azazel impregnated Mystique and left her. 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 was forced to abandon her son, who would grow up to become Kurt Wagner, the X-Man known as Nightcrawler.
Brotherhood of Evil Mutants
Mystique would later adopt the girl Rogue as her daughter, who had run away from home. She and Destiny would raise the girl over the years, and Mystique would grow to be very protective her.
Mystique had concealed her superhuman powers and criminal intentions so well over the years that, as 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 Planning 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, Avalance, 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.
When Rogue grew her older, her powers manifested and she joined Mystique’s Brotherhood team. However, her powers were unstable, and her skin could not make contact with any living being without the danger of absorbing their energy. Rogue ran off to the X-Men in hopes that they could learn to control her powers. Worried that Rogue had left because she was brainwashed, Mystique went to rescue her, leading an attack on the X-Men. Rogue explained her dilemma to Mystique and how she needed the X-Men's help. Begrudgingly, Mystique understood and let her go.
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.
After several disastrous missions, including the death of Destiny and several other members, Freedom Force disbanded. The death of her lover left Mystique psychologically scarred, and she never truly recovered.
Breakdown
Mentally unstable, Mystique led another assassination attempt on Senator Kelly and stabbed Rogue in an ensuing battle. If it weren’t for Rogue having absorbed Wolverine’s healing factor she would have most likely died. This caused a rift between the mother and daughter. During this time Mystique also blew up Moira McTaggart’s research facility, fatally injuring the doctor.
Mystique 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. Whilst 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 was 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. The two never truly trusted each other, but as long as Mystique completed the missions Xavier would keep her safe from the authorities, who were out to execute her.
Mystique chafed at the control and secretly plotted with one of Xavier’s enemies, the ‘Quiet Man’, to betray him. The Quiet Man promised Mystique to give her a device that would keep her safe from the authorities (the same type of device Xavier was using) if she killed Xavier. Mystique tried to kill Xavier, but was stopped by the X-Men and forced to flee.
Rogue managed to track her down. She disowned her foster 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, and that she was a monster. When Mystique tried apologizing to Rogue, Rogue went into a rage and tried killing her. Mystique managed to escape by blowing up the house and going through the window, changing her form to shield her fall.
Powers and abilities
Mystique is a mutant, a shape-shifter able to alter the formation of her biological cells at will, and thereby assume the form of other humanoids as well as adapting certain desired genetic traits. In the past, Mystique has also demonstrated night vision, wings on her back, talons in her fingers and natural body armour. However, she cannot adapt the superhuman powers of others. In addition, damages to her biological tissue are known to heal at a relatively fast rate and she can form a resistance to poisons upon contacting them. Mystique's aging process is very slow and seems to have ceased at some point of her early adulthood. 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 shape into a statue, and the animated X-Men: Evolution TV series Mystique could change shape into animals – particularly ravens – eventually turning into multiple animals when her powers were enhanced by Apocalypse.)
Appearances in other media
The televised X-Men and 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 the movies X-Men and X2, Mystique was played by Rebecca Romijn-Stamos.