Real Name: Raven DarkholmeYears ago, Mystique was a spy in Berlin when she met Sabretooth and began a short relationship with him. She became preganat and gave birth to a son, whom she abandoned shortly after puberty when she realized he was human. She was aslo married to a Baron Wagner at some point, but was seduced by the demonic Azazel, leading to a son, whom she threw off a cliff into a river when he was born with pointed ears, blue skin and a tail, revealing that she was not normal, either. She traveled to America, and worked in a carnival with Destiny for a while. Later, she came across a young Rogue, who was on the run after her powers sent her friend Cody into a coma. Raven adopted Rogue, and they lived together with Destiny as a family for years.
The exact nature of Mystique and Destiny's relationship is still uncertain. They knew each other since at least World War II, and they were definitely more than just friends. Mystique raised Rogue to be a member of the Brotherhood, and for all her coldness, always thinks of Rogue as her daughter and tries to protect her. Raven was livid when Rogue sought out Professor X's help after she absorbed Ms. Marvel's mind and powers and was being driven crazy, but Raven realized that no one else could possibly help, so she relented.
For years Raven was a trusted member of the staff at the Pentagon, and a friend of Val Cooper's, while the whole time she was ferreting out government secrets and running terrorist programs. She was also influenced by Destiny's journals, which foretold apocalyptic events that would doom mutantkind. Her first major move after re-creating the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants was to attempt to assassinate Senator Robert Kelly, whom Destiny foretold would start the anti-mutant programs of the "Days of Future Past." Fortunately, the X-Men foiled her plans, though the Brotherhood escaped to bother them again later.
Eventually, she and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants were caught by the police, but they were offered the chance to redeem themselves by becoming Freedom Force, a government-sponsored super-team. This brought them into conflict with the X-Men a great deal, as the X-Men had become outlaws themselves. Mystique was with Freedom Force when the X-Men (Rogue among them) sacrificed themselves to stop the Adversary using Forge's Spirit Spell. Raven swore vengeance on Forge for taking her daughter's life. Little did she know that the X-Men were resurrected by Roma. Soon afterwards, however, she was forced to work with Forge again when Muir Island was attacked by the Reavers. Raven left Forge to protect Destiny, but Destiny sent Forge to help the others, whereupon she was killed by Legion, who even then was under the control of the Shadow King. Mystique again blamed Forge, but ironically, months later she came to him at the X-Mansion to help her regain her tenuous sanity. Mystique soon went with Forge to his penthouse in Dallas, where they may have become involved and were certainly working on therapy for Raven, when they were attacked by Fitzroy. Mystique fought bravely, and was wounded severely. Then she disappeared for a while, but was found by Forge again, who sent Rogue and Nightcrawler to apprehend her.
On that mission, Mystique revealed that she was Nightcrawler's birth mother "married" to a German count, and when he was born she had to flee, and taking the form of a farmer, she had thrown him into a river. Mystique was then brought to Forge to join X-Factor. Raven had a chip implanted in her head that prevented her from taking the form of any of the X-Men, X-Factor and other key people for more that thirty seconds. It also served as a homing beacon. She reluctantly joined X-Factor, but it was soon clear that she had learned a lot about Forge's inventions during her time with him, and that she could find ways around the implant. Mystique eventually left X-Factor, around the time that Sabretooth broke his restraining collar, and disappeared.
Recently, she led the Brotherhood on a hunt for Machine Man, and later tried to infiltrate the FBI to erase her records. At that moment, the High Evolutionary's satellite network came online and stripped her (and all mutants) of their powers. Raven was caught and imprisoned, and began to freak. When Rogue was unwilling and unable to help her escape, Mystique was enraged, and when her powers returned and she broke out on her own, she vowed vengeance. Rumors abound that she may even now be hiding out in the X-Mansion, and that she may not really be Nightcrawler's mother after all. Mystique is crafty, intelligent, and an expert at using many types of weapons. She is also very good at beating her foes psychologically, especially using her shape-shifting abilities.
A short time ago, Mystique was one of 5 superhumans recruited by the sentient ship Prosh to go on missions of discovery throughout time, as a means of teaching them things they would need in order to defeat a powerful menace, who turned out to be the Stranger. On thiese missions, it was revealed that Raven was the assassin who had killed Graydon Creed, and that Destiny was party to experiments being done on mutants by Kurt Marko and Carter Ryking at Black Womb. During the final battle with the Stranger, Toad was injured and the cables to Prosh's healing chamber were severed. Only Mystique was available, so she physically put the cables back together to save Toad. However, the cell-manipulation energies of the cable flowed onto her as well, and her body was forced to adapt. Her base form became one of scaly blue armor-like skin, with shorter red hair. Recently, Mystique placed all of the volumes of Destiny's prophecies that she had in the library on Muir Island. Then she re-organized the Brotherhood with some old and new members, and modified the Legacy Virus to infect humans. The Brotherhood attacked and blew up most of Muir Island, but not before Moira MacTaggert was able to divine the cure to the virus based on Mystique's modifications, though she was critically injured and later died from those injuries. Mystique then shot Wolfsbane with Forge's Neutralizer, robbing her of her powers, and stabbed her foster-daughter Rogue in the back when she confronted her. However, Rogue survived (due to her modified powers) and stabbed Mystique when she wasn't looking. Mystique was taken back to the U.S. by the X-Men in the Blackbird. While on board, Wolverine came into Mystique's compartment to kill her, but was distracted by Wolfsbane, who sent Logan out to the cockpit, and then vowed to kill Mystique herself. Mystique was put into a hospital in intensive care. While there, Gambit snuck in to kill her, but Storm stopped him. Mystique then revealed to the two X-Men the existence of Destiny's journals, saying that she had tried to avert the coming apocalypse but she failed, and now it's their turn to try.
Shortly afterwards, Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. offered Mystique a way out of prison: she was to impersonate and discredit a Middle Eastern dictator. To ensure her cooperation, Fury had Mystique swallow a pill that could be remotely dissolved, releasing deadly chemicals into her body. Mystique agreed and entered the dictator's palace in the guise of a harem girl, then took his place after their "session." Posing as the dictator, she admitted his involvement in human rights abuses and in developing weapons of mass destruction on live TV, causing a near-riot and getting the guards to shoot each other up. Mystique then disappeared, and operated on herself to remove the capsule before it was triggered.
Weeks later, while breaking Mastermind II out of a prison for superhumans, the Multiple Men attempted to recruit Mystique as well, but she had already escaped. She took the form of one of Multiple Man's duplicates and infiltrated Banshee's X-Corps as the mutant "Surge." Unseen by anyone, she freed Mastermind II from Banshee's control, which allowed the "subdued" villains to run free and wreak havoc. She then faked Surge's death and assumed the identity of Jacob Eisen, precipitating a full-scale conflict over Paris. Back at the X-Corps HQ, she again became a Madrox, and caught Banshee unawares, slitting his throat and leaving him for dead. Banshee managed to crawl to Mystique's location, and she was on the verge of delivering his death blow when new recruit Abyss confronted her and opened his "black hole"-style body to envelop her.
What exactly became of Mystique is unknown, but she apparently survived. Of course, the government was back on her trail after a short time, and when they caught up to her and imprisoned her, she claimed that other shapeshifters had been impersonating her for years. Right. Then Charles Xavier, disguised as Magneto, broke Mystique out of prison and offered her a new job: become his secret agent, taking care of mutant-related problems that he couldn't officially be involved with. The first of these was to find a mutant arms dealer named Steinbeck who had killed Xavier's previous agent. In return, Xavier and Forge, who signed on to control Mystique and outfit her with cutting-edge technology, promised NOT to reveal her location to the authorities. Mystique had no choice but to accept, but all three parties knew it would be only a matter of time before she tries to escape control once again. Mystique was soon approached by Shepard, an agent of the Quiet Man who wanted her to become a double agent. Mystique toyed with the idea for a while, as she completed Xavier's missions, trying to find ways around the no-killing rule Xavier had imposed on her. After discovering a batch of clones of herself being used by a pharmaceutical company and being unable to stop them, Mystique agreed to Shepard's terms and set off to kill Xavier. However, she was faking, and managed to get to see the Quiet Man, who turned out to be Prudence, possessing Steinbeck's body and completely insane. Mystique killed Steinbeck, but upon returning to Xavier's safehouse, was expelled by Forge, as Xavier had terminated her employment. However, Mystique managed to steal the cloaking technology that had kept her hidden from government sensors.
Recently, Mystique disgused herself as sexy new student Foxx, with feral claws, white skin and a great body, and was placed in Gambit's squad. With a precautionary implant scrambling her thoughts to block incoming telepaths, she was able to roam the Mansion as she tried to seduce Gambit, in order to free Rogue from their ineffectual relationship. When Gambit proved loyal to Rogue, Mystique revealed herself to him, and tried one final seduction: appearing as Rogue herself. What happened next is unknown, though Gambit maintains it was nothing and Mystique has declined to comment. When the X-Men finally realized Mystique was in their midst, they cornered her, only to have her make the strangest request: to join the X-Men. The teams heard her case, but while she was waiting to hear their decision, Onyxx, a student from Gambit's squad, accosted Raven and demanded that she be Foxx, with whom he was smitten. Onyxx grew angry and attacked her, but Mystique managed to put him down, cracking his helmet and breaking some of his bones, as he broke some of hers. Nightcrawler came in to see the aftermath, and asked his mother to leave the mansion, at least temporarily, even if her request was accepted, to let him come to terms with her presence. Mystique agreed, and met up with "Augustus," a new mystery acquaintance of hers who apparently was the one who provided her with the telepathic blockers. Ironically, Raven thought that there was no way the X-Men would ever have accepted her, whereas in fact they had already agreed to give her probationary member status...
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| Mystique was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and served in the Red Guard under the leadership of Wolverine, who was also her lover. After years of mutant rule, Logan became unnerved by the lack of challenge, so Mystique impersonated his old nemesis Nick Fury and "stole" a Sentinel from the Government of Mexico. She then planted clues leading Wolverine to a base where "Fury" appeared as a hologram. Mystique then forced Logan to save her as "Fury" blew up the base. Shortly afterwards, however, when Logan remembered the true reality, Mystique was called in by Director Shaw and charged with finding Logan, since Shaw thought her charade had caused Wolverine's defection. Mystique led the Red Guard to find Wolverine, but eventually she was "woken up" by Layla Miller, just before the reality warp was dispersed. |
After M-Day, Mystique continued with her plan to break Rogue and Gambit up, bringing her protegé Pulse to the X-Mansion and requesting asylum, which she was granted, recalling her probationary X-Men status. Later, Rogue tapped her to be part of her strike force team. Mystique was touched by the gesture, but Rogue rebuffed her by telling her she was recruited precisely because she couldn't be trusted at all.
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