Mystique

Biography

Mystique is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist David Cockrum, the character first appeared in Ms. Marvel #16 (April 1978). A mutant born with superhuman abilities, Mystique is a shapeshifter who can mimic the appearance and voice of any person. Her natural appearance includes blue skin, red hair, and yellow eyes. Typically portrayed as a foe of the X-Men, Mystique has been both a supervillain and an antiheroine who is often depicted as a high ranking member of the Brotherhood of Mutants, having both served and led the organization in its fight against humanity by assassinating several important people involved in mutant affairs. Stated to be over 100 years old, she commonly lives under the assumed name Raven Darkhölme. Mystique is the wife of Destiny, the biological mother of the villain Graydon Creed, the adoptive mother of the X-Men heroine Rogue, and the biological father of the X-Men hero Nightcrawler; conceived with her wife Destiny while in one of her male forms. In live-action, Mystique has been portrayed by Rebecca Romijn and Jennifer Lawrence in 20th Century Fox's X-Men film series (2000–2019). Romijn will reprise the role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Avengers: Doomsday (2026).

== Publication history ==

=== 1970s and 1980s === Mystique was created by David Cockrum. Chris Claremont saw Cockrum's design, dubbed the character "Mystique", and, with Cockrum's permission, set her in Ms. Marvel #16 (May 1978). The character's true appearance was revealed in Ms. Marvel #18 (June 1978). Claremont named the character in reference to Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique (1963). Mystique became the villain who appears in the Uncanny X-Men title most frequently during the period of Claremont's authorship. She first becomes an antagonist of the X-Men in the "Days of Future Past" storyline in Uncanny X-Men #141-142 (January-February 1981). In the story, she forms a new Brotherhood of Mutants and tries to assassinate Senator Robert Kelly. The character made her first cover appearance in The Avengers Annual #10 (October 1981), which established that she is the adoptive mother of Rogue, who she also recruited to the Brotherhood of Mutants. In the story, Mystique instigates Rogue to steal the powers of Carol Danvers. Mystique reappears in The Uncanny X-Men #177–178 (Jan.–Feb. 1984), in which she eventually comes to accept Rogue's defection from the Brotherhood to the X-Men. In Uncanny X-Men #199 (November 1985), Mystique revamps the Brotherhood into Freedom Force, a now-government affiliated group that attempts to counteract mutant terrorism.

=== 1990s and after === Wolverine #51 (February 1992) establishes that Mystique has an intimate relationship with Wolverine. Sabretooth #1 (August 1993) demonstrates that Mystique also has a long-standing relationship with Wolverine's archenemy, Sabretooth. X-Men Unlimited #4 (1994) reveals that Mystique is a parent of Nightcrawler (initially presumed to be his mother). In X-Factor #112-114 (1995), Mystique joins the group X-Factor. In X-Treme X-Men #1 (July 2001), written by Claremont, it is suggested that Mystique was the historical model for Sherlock Holmes. Mystique appeared in her own miniseries from 2003 to 2005. Mystique appeared as the antagonist of Wolverine, her former lover, throughout the "Get Mystique" storyline written by Jason Aaron in Wolverine vol. 3, issues #62-65 (February-May 2008). At the conclusion of the story, Wolverine kills her and she is resurrected by the Hand.

=== Parentage of Nightcrawler and queer identity === In an interview conducted in July 2006, Claremont said that he intended Mystique and Destiny to be Nightcrawler's biological parents, with Mystique having morphed into a male body for the act of conception. However, Marvel did not agree, because at that time the Comics Code Authority prohibited the explicit portrayal of gay or bisexual characters. This storyline would then be made canon in November 2023.

== Fictional character biography == Mystique's origins remain unknown: her shapeshifting powers mean that her true age remains enigmatic. Her earliest attested appearance dates back to the years around 1900, when she lived in a male guise as a "consulting detective" who established a romantic relationship with her reality's version of Irene Adler, biographical details which imply she is in fact Sherlock Holmes, an implication confirmed by 2022.

=== Sabretooth === While in her Raven persona, Mystique adopts the identity of deceased German secret agent Leni Zauber. Both Leni and Victor Creed, A.K.A. Sabretooth, had been assigned with the assassination of a scientist in East Berlin. Mystique completes the mission in place of Leni, and then she and Victor have to hide in a safe location for a while. They become lovers, but she soon fakes her death to leave him. The result of this short-lived affair is reportedly the birth of Graydon Creed. A number of stories report that soon after his birth, Mystique gives him up for adoption. Others depict Mystique making arrangements for him from a distance. Raven keeps track of his activities until he reaches adolescence. Despite being the child of two mutants, Graydon is not a mutant himself. Mystique is disappointed and soon abandons him. Graydon grows to hate his parents, and eventually extends his hatred to all mutants. He becomes leader of the mutant-hating organization Friends of Humanity, and then a politician. At the height of his political ascension, Graydon is assassinated by an unknown shooter. The shooter is 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 === Still masquerading as Raven, Mystique is married to Baron Christian Wagner (older sources give his name as Count Eric Wagner), an affluent German noble. He proves to be a loving husband, but also infertile and thus a poor sexual partner. Mystique resorts to using her shapeshifting for numerous affairs and arranges for Irene Adler, her true lover, to be hired on as a maid. Mystique then sleeps with fellow mutant Azazel, pretending to be seduced. Azazel states that he is ruler of "an island nation off the coast of Bermuda: La Isla des Demonas", The Island of Demons. He is later revealed to be immortal and the father of an ancient race of mutants known as the Neyaphem, active since at least 2000 BC. Mystique appears to become pregnant, but her husband becomes suspicious and his own father suggests a blood test to verify whether the child is his. A terrified Mystique stabs him to death and hides the body. It is revealed that she was using her mutant abilities to simulate a pregnancy in sympathy with Destiny, who was actually the one pregnant. Mystique had in fact, as a deeper function of her powers, replicated the genetics of Azazel and Christian, among other men, to essentially create her own sperm. She then assumed a male form and impregnated Destiny, as they wanted to start their own family. Destiny gives birth to a baby boy with black hair, yellow eyes, blue skin, and a pointed tail. After showing her true form to him, the locals consider Mystique and the child to be demons and attempt to kill them. Mystique escapes but hides her son briefly, intending to help Destiny escape then return for him. Destiny had escaped on her own, however, and by the time Mystique returned for their son, he is missing. Unbeknownst to her, Azazel finds the boy and gives him to the Roma sorceress Margali Szardos, who names him "Kurt Wagner". Mystique learned that conceiving Kurt was in part a manipulation by Destiny to produce a child Azazel would assume was his own. Destiny foresaw that Kurt would sabotage Azazel's attempt for world domination, which involved gathering several of his children. This would have been successful and catastrophic otherwise. The pain of loss and the stress to their relationship prompted them to seek out Charles Xavier some time before his formation of the X-Men for help erasing their memories of Kurt. Mystique opted to maintain knowledge that she had a son somewhere out there, against Xavier's advice. He warned that unlike a fully removed memory, the mind would weave stories to fill the gaps of a perforated one, and the resulting false memories could be uglier than the truth. This turns out to be the reason Mystique herself believed a different sequence of events, believing Azazel to be the father, her to be the mother, and that she had either abandoned Kurt to save herself or dropped him off a cliff to spite Azazel who was just interested in her for childbearing. Those beliefs apparently also drove her continued coldness towards Kurt despite being reunited for a significant amount of time, fully aware he was her lost son. It may have also had other effects on her psyche. This is also why Destiny is unaware she gave birth to Kurt; and even Xavier is unaware of these events because he considered this a private matter and supposedly also deleted his memory of this encounter. Mystique revealed the true events to Nightcrawler after her true memories reasserted themselves some time after resisting a psychic push by Xavier and falling off a cliff at the third Hellfire Gala. The experience left her mentally unstable, until she was aided by Nightcrawler's 'Hopesword', which undid Xavier's modifications.