When it comes to Raven Darkholme, better known as Mystique, the words enigmatic and scary fall short. Needless to say, she appears to be faithful to her name, with little information about her terrorist background or early life.
Her shape-shifting powers stood out and became her identity, and she had excellent detective skills. She met Irene Adler, a mutant like her who had the capacity to glimpse the future, on her voyage. When they worked together, they were a formidable force.
Mystique initially appeared in Issue 16 of the Ms. Marvel series, with a convoluted past spanning decades. She was eventually discovered to have been born in Austria and to be Nightcrawler’s biological mother. She produced a second child with another mutant, Sabretooth, who became known as Graydon Creed. Rogue, another well-known X-Men member, was also adopted by her.
Today, we’ll go to Mystique’s mysterious past and try to shed some light on her incredible contribution to the Marvel villain universe.
MYSTIQUE: Origin Story and First Comic Appearances Explored
In Issue 16 of Ms. Marvel, Mystique made her first appearance with her powers on full display. She had shape-shifted, and it was only two Issues later in Issue 18 that we first saw her full appearance. Jim Mooney was credited alongside Dave Cockrum for the artwork and beautiful representation of the character on page.
Mystique’s shape-shifting abilities gave her the advantage of barely ever looking her age, which in turn contributed to less knowledge about her past and origin. What is known of Raven Darkholme is that her power manifested during childhood and she could use it quite deftly.
Her parents were terrified of her and at school too, she was subjected to a lot of traumatic experiences. ‘Looking normal’ was never a thing for her, not that we know of. What we also haven’t ever received affirmation of is whether or not she was born a woman. Mystique was quite the pro at infiltrating and deceiving, fuelled by her aforementioned ability to shape-shift. She paved her own way into a number of mutant-related organizations, including but not limited to the Marauders, the X-Factor, and even the X-Men at one point. With the Freedom Force, she got as far as even becoming their leader!
The most significant part of Raven’s life was meeting Irene Adler. Irene was also Austrian, and a mutant with the powers of precognition when it came to her immediate environment. Irene had befriended Raven after becoming aware of Raven’s skills as an investigator. For about a year when she was an adolescent, Irene had made thirteen volumes of a prophecy that were to come true at or around the late 20th and early 21st centuries, right when she meets Raven.
The issue was that Irene had become blind and was terrorized by the pictures reeling in her head, of these uncertain prophecies with all of their hidden meanings. Raven’s task was twofold – one, to help decipher the prophecies, and two, if they were anywhere as terrifying as what Irene’s brain was projecting, Raven would have to stop the worst of them from happening in reality. Through this journey, Irene Adler became the ‘Destiny’ we know today, while Raven Darkholme was forever cemented in our heads and hearts as ‘Mystique’.
The duo worked together for the longest time – close to several decades – as their friendship blossomed into love. However, it also came with the realization that what they sought to achieve had massive hurdles on the way. Personal success in that light might have been easier to achieve because of their extraordinary abilities.
But to mold the future or save it in any way or form through what could only be called “social engineering”, was near impossible. More half-successful attempts at those targets made Mystique into the extremist she was. Extremist solutions to problems seemed to be the only key to the persistent lock that was guarding her door to achievements.
While traveling for their mission, Mystique and Destiny met Rachel Summers, a time-traveler from the future aiming to prevent a Nazi collusion from being put into action. Rachel was out to take “good care” of Nazi agents Geist a.k.a. Ghost and Baron Wolfgang von Strucker who had an ally by the name of Amahl Farouk a.k.a. Shadow King. This evil trio had conspired to question the British monarchy and their claims of heirship, wanting to replace them with another representative of the British Fascist Party, Oswald Mosely.
Mosely would, of course, be an ally to Nazi Germany. Sensing the urgency, Mystique and Destiny contacted Logan – yep, our good old Wolverine – to ask him to help in any way he could. When Wolverine hesitated, Raven threw one of her best dialogues from her reign on the print media – “All of us have learned to kill, Logan. But more importantly, we have learned not to kill. And to know the difference.”
With Destiny by her side, Mystique also managed to hatch an almost successful plot to end anti-mutant politician Robert Kelly, who held a Senator’s post. Mystique was then reforming the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and the attempt at Kelly’s assassination was foiled by X-Men. Mystique’s biggest loss perhaps was Destiny’s death. It affected her and impacted her whole being.
On the Krakoa island, when Professor Xavier made another mutant realm, the government known as Quiet Council had a seat for Mystique. Her presence was evidence of representation, but when Destiny’s predictions came into the picture, Mystique deviated from Professor Xavier’s plans, seeing some evident flaws in the same. Her actions were more incited thus, by Destiny’s prophecies regarding the rise of Krakoa.
MYSTIQUE: A Regular in the X-Men Animated Universe
When the X-Men Animated Series was released in the 1990s, Mystique was lent a voice by Jennifer Dale, preceded by Randall Carpenter. She came to be known as a character that found a regular presence therein, and for good reason too. In the series, Apocalypse held her as a close ally, giving her a lot of powers. She was also close to Magneto and Mister Sinister. Her children Nightcrawler and Graydon Creed Jr. too were a part of it, and she had fostered and adopted Rogue – trying to keep the legacy of villains alive within and through all of them.
Her noticeable presence in ‘X-Men: Evolution’ carried similar details. Colleen Wheeler voiced her here and it only incorporated slight changes to her known character arc from the comics. She was masquerading as Principal of Bayville and followed Magneto when Season 1 was playing out. In the following seasons, her presence was sparse, but impactful regardless, when she shape-shifted to Risty Wilde, Rogue’s friend. In the series finale, Mystique was one of the Horsemen of Apocalypse.
Finally, in the ‘Wolverine and X-Men’ animated series, Tamara Bernier voiced the character. Appearing as one of Magneto’s Acolytes, she was known to have been romantically involved with Wolverine. Fans can be on the lookout for her presence in the episodes “Greetings from Genosha”, “Battle Lines”, “Stolen Lives”, as well as both parts of “Foresight”.
MYSTIQUE: X-Men Movies Would be Incomplete Without Her Presence!
In the world of movies too, Raven’s past life is pretty clouded. Not much is said except the fact that it was “quite tragic” given that her parents tried to kill her because they were skeptical about her mutating abilities – her words from ‘X-Men’ and ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’. We have known of her only since her presence in the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, a private academy for young mutants. Raven had run away from her home.
In the 2000 film ‘X-Men’, Raven was a member of Magneto’s ‘Brotherhood of Mutants’ and became close to Toad and Sabretooth while there. Rebecca Romjin played the character, even reprising the role in ‘X2’ in 2003. The Robert Kelly plot arc was shown on the big screen here, and Mystique helped Magneto escape from his plastic cell. The duo helped X-Men invade the Alkali Lake base of supervillain William Stryker. Stryker had planned to take a duplicate Cerebro, manipulate Professor X; and use Cerebro to uproot the existence of mutants altogether.
Once again, in 2006, Rebecca came back to ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’. She was held captive in a moving prison van, from where Pyro and Magneto rescued her. In one instance, she dove in front of Magneto to quite literally, take bullets for him. The bullets carried a “mutant cure” that affected her and made her human again. When Magneto realized that, he outright betrayed her and moved on. She then headed to the FBI and informed them of where Magneto’s work-based was located and such other operational details about him, purely out of hurt and vengeance on being abandoned like that.
With the advent of a new decade, Jennifer Lawrence usurped the role, playing a young Raven in the 2011 movie, ‘X-Men: Pre-Class’. It was a prequel movie, also showing Raven as a child, essayed by Morgan Lily. Romjin too made a cameo therein. Raven was depicted to be Charles Xavier’s foster sister, raised alongside him and helping him lay the foundational stone for the formation of X-Men. She was put off by Xavier later though when he kept asking her to remain hidden because of her appearance. She found solace in Erik Lensherr’s encouragement to be herself and not fear her true being and sided with him when he transitioned into Magneto.
In 2014, the X-Men franchise came up with the movie ‘X-Men: Days of the Future Past’. Lawrence in her re-appearance as Mystique was seen assassinating the businessman and villainous character Bolivar Trask who was declared a martyr. That marked the beginning of the Sentinel Program, encompassing the development of mutant-hunting robots. The Sentinels captured and experimented upon Mystique, stealing her dystopian features and powers of shape-shifting. Superhero Kitty Pryde was the one who had foreseen the dark times after Trask’s assassination, and resultantly sent a younger version of Wolverine back in time by way of time travel. The movie is centered around Wolverine, of course, who tries to stop Mystique from killing Trask.
Managing to halt Trask’s murder, Wolverine had to let mutants be exposed to the world. Upon seeing that, then-President Richard Nixon approved the Sentinel Program. Trask Industries followed up with the Sentinel Program soon enough, sending a bunch to Washington, D.C. In what was supposed to be their national presentation, Magneto involved himself secretly. He surrounded the area with steel, with the idea of controlling the Sentinels and redirecting them toward the crowds instead of the mutants.
On the other hand, Mystique masquerading as Nixon stood at the center of all the chaos, not knowing of Magneto’s involvement. Mystique soon found an opportunity to fire at Magneto with a plastic gun, wounding him. That led to the Sentinels being released from control. Professor Xavier came to Mystique, urging her to let go of the idea of killing Trask – that is when people learned that the President’s life too was saved by a mutant, and the Sentinel Program was shut down.
Eventually, Trask was arrested for selling U.S. military secrets to other countries, which in turn made sure that the dystopian future seen earlier on in the movie was completely wiped out. In what can only be called an impromptu change of heart, Mystique disguised herself as William Stryker to save Wolverine from drowning, but her rogue characteristics were otherwise, far from gone.
With ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ in 2016 – set in the 1980s – Mystique had become quite the hero. She never wanted to be that public-favorite savior mutant, but her alliance with Magneto was perhaps not even remembered anymore. In the original timeline after the previous movie, however, she was still Magneto’s aide. Mystique was not fascinated – all she focused on was the safety of the oppressed and transporting them to wherever protection was available. Further along in the movie, Mystique came across a news report that mentioned Magneto’s family passing away. She was at that point, trying to help Nightcrawler who then helped her reach Xavier Mansion.
At Xavier Mansion, Mystique asked Xavier to help her find Magneto. What she did not see coming was the force called Apocalypse, the villain who had newly emerged, powerful, and ready to attack. Apocalypse managed to abduct Xavier. Raven was held hostage by William Stryker, before the young mutants Jean Grey, Scott Summers, and Nightcrawler rescued her and some other adults. Her own rescue pushed her to go along with the youngsters to Professor Xavier’s aid.
She met Magneto there, who had been convinced to turn against humanity altogether and take revenge for his wife and daughter’s deaths at the hands of cops. With Quicksilver – Magneto’s undisclosed son, till then – in tow, she managed to see Magneto’s change of heart as he realized that he had not lost all of his family.
As a way of repenting, Magneto helped them defeat Apocalypse, but following that, he expressed his desire to not assume a teacher’s post in the X-Mansion that was offered to him. Closing in, Mystique and Beast went back to the X-Men as lieutenants and field commanders of Xavier. Quicksilver and Magneto had a small moment there, where Quicksilver revealed to Erik that he was true, Erik’s son.
Dark Phoenix came out in 2019, and Jennifer Lawrence was out to awe us again. As Raven, she spoke to Xavier about her concerns regarding the X-Men being sent to missions that were frankly, very perilous. To add to that, she was tasked with saving them. Going ahead, she had an ugly clash with her friend, the Phoenix. While Mystique tried to calm things down, Phoenix did not realize and she lost control over herself.
That ended with Mystique’s accidental death in the hands of Phoenix, as she was stabbed by a piece of wood. Magneto and Beast were very affected by Mystique’s death, even trying to kill Phoenix for her actions in a retaliatory move. Beast became the new Headmaster of the school after Jean’s apparent death and would keep a portrait of Mystique on his desk.
MYSTIQUE: What Makes Mystique Such a Powerhouse?
Camouflage, that is, metamorphic adaptation was one of Mystique’s biggest strengths and stayed the focal point of her character. She could take the form of metals too, in addition to her capacity of becoming invisible. Not only her outward appearance, but her speed, reflexes, and physical strength could also be enhanced that way. Being able to recover from wounds and any injuries quicker than those around her gave Mystique an upper hand during confrontations.
All these abilities were only enhanced by her gear – she made use of devices such as power-drainers that once disabled Iron Man, nanotech that had Cerebro fighting for his coherent senses, and some conventional firearms. Mystique had a transportation device called ‘Changeling’, equipped with advanced tech to give it stealth and speed like no other vessel of its kind.
Mystique could fight aging with ease and resist toxins and diseases with her superior immunity. Also, her psychic defense abilities were beyond excellent. She was skilled at martial arts and was trained to be an expert marksman. A polyglot, her intelligence too, could not be doubted.
MYSTIQUE: Closing In
Mystique was the classic villain in comics – unperturbed by emotions, singularly focused on violence and devious methods of control. Even then, her soft spot for daughter Rogue did not cease to exist. It may be safely assumed that Mystique’s persona was somewhat affected by the betrayal she faced in the hands of her own blood – her children.
Graydon was born human and ended up becoming the leader of a racist group ‘Friends of Humanity. This group was vehemently against the existence of mutants altogether. Mystique herself ended up assassinating him, but her tale of treachery wasn’t over just yet. Rogue too, came together with X-Men after she turned on Mystique’s ‘Brotherhood of Mutants’.
To Mystique’s credit, she was an evil force to be reckoned with. Mutants’ fates were inevitably tied to her because all her actions were driven by the desire to mold their future, but only according to what she thought was right and relevant. She even fostered Rogue, forged her to appear as one of the mutant superheroes, made herself an empire led by mutants on the island of Madripoor, and even disposed of Mr. Sinister at one point.