Mystique: featured in UNCANNY X-MEN and X-FACTOR
Real name: Raven Darkholme
First appearance: MS. MARVEL #16, April 1978
Mystique is a shape-shifting mutant who often takes the form of a blue-skinned woman with red hair. When not in that form, she has been known to take the identity of Raven Darkholme, a white-skinned woman with black hair. It is assumed that the form that she was born in was that of a female, though it is possible that she was born a man. Her lover, Irene Adler, also known as Destiny, may or may not be the mother of any of Mystique's known or unknown children, since it is assumed that while she is in the form of a man, she can father children like a mormal man can. Mystique was known to hate the woman named Carol Danvers for a long time, presumably because Carol Danvers played a role in the future torment of Mystique's foster daughter, Rogue. This led to Rogue accidentally absorbing Carol Danvers' powers and psyche -- permanently. In this state, Rogue would often go insane due the trauma suffered by the conflicting psyches in her head. Offering to help her with her problem, the extremely powerful telepathic mutant Professor Charles Xavier, Thus, Rogue left to join Xavier's team the X-Men. Soon afterwards, Mystique, as leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, confronted the X-Men to convince Rogue to return to the fold. Rogue refused, and stayed with her new "family". This is when Mystique's first loss became apparent.
This was by no means Mystique's final loss. As times became harder, Mystique realized that with the increasing anti-mutant and anti-gay sentiments building, she would need to secure a safe position for her blind lover Destiny, as well as the remaining members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Pyro, Blob, and Avalanche. For this purpose, she befriended a woman named Valerie Cooper, an up and coming woman who worked for the U.S. Government as one of the aides of the President of the United States and was on her way to advancement in that capacity. Her specialty was working to hunt down mutants for the government. Deciding this woman would become a valuable asset to her, Mystique approached her in her Raven Darkholme identity, using her own special government clearance she had worked to get working for the Defense Advance Research Planning Agency. Not long afterwards, she transformed into her Mystique identity, and accosted Valerie in her home. Rather than harming Val, she convinced her to let herself and her fellow members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants work for the government in the task of going after mutant fugitives, renamed Freedom Force. Val agreed, and Freedom Force's first mission was to capture the powerful mutant Magneto.
Soon after the initiation of Freedom Force as official operatives of the Federal Government, Irene, who foresaw that the other members of Freedom Force would launch an unprovoked attack on the X-Men, asked her Raven to come away with her to a cruise ship. Raven was still very bitter over having to offer to serve the government and Irene was not able to cheer her up. Raven was troubled at the hard times that mutants and gays and lesbians would face in the times ahead. Irene called Raven's attention to the fact that she was old and might not be around much longer. Raven did not see the warning signals Irene was giving her and did not realize that Irene had used her own power to predict the future, specifically the moment of her own death. Thus, Irene's efforts to convince Raven to enjoy the romantic cruise failed, but Irene vowed that she would make Raven laugh if it was the last thing she did.
Not much later, Destiny predicted that Rogue would perish in or around the city of Dallas, Texas. When Raven realized the implications, she tried to convince Rogue to come with her and leave the X-Men before this fate would come to pass. Rogue refused to come with Mystique, and as fate had it, the X-Men traveled to Dallas, ironically because Mystique had warned Rogue that that is precisely where the X-Men would die. Mystique again confronted Rogue, this time with both of their respective teams, Freedom Force and the X-Men, battling outside of the Dallas penthouse of the mutant known as Forge. Mystique's efforts to save Rogue failed, though, and as predicted, Rogue -- and the other X-Men died. Unknown to either Mystique or Destiny, however, the goddess Roma resurrected the X-Men immediately after, and the X-Men chose not to alert their friends, family, and loved ones of the fact that they were alive, for fear of their safety should they know.
Mystique was incredibly bitter at Forge for his role in the X-Men's apparent demise for months after they "died". She grew increasingly unhappy, and only Irene's continued presence consoled her. But fate took yet another tragic turn, as Forge asked Val Cooper's help in defending Muir Island from the cyborg killers known as the Reavers. Val Cooper ordered Freedom Force to assist the Muir Islanders. Forge and Mystique eventually drove back the Reavers, but not before one of the residents of Muir Isle, Legion killed Destiny, making it look like it was the Reavers not him, that killed her. Before Irene died, however, she used her powers of prediction to know that she was about to die and sent Forge away and told him to love Raven (Mystique) the way she had loved her. This seemed unlikely though, since Mystique not only blamed Forge for Rogue's "death", but she now also blamed him for Destiny's.
Mourning Irenie, Raven went back to the same cruise ship they both had been aboard when Irene had subtly warned her of her forthcoming death, completely forgetting that it was the same ship until she opened a package Destiny had left for her in preparation for her death. Inside it was a picture of the two of them together on that same ship, and Raven flashed back to that memory. Immensely sad, a man came up to her and asked her to dance. Raven, annoyed, answered no, telling the man that she was already with someone. When the man inquired where that person was, Raven answered "Inside this", showing him an urn in which Irene's ashes had been placed. The man walked away, totally weirded out. Then, following the instructions
Destiny had left her, Raven proceeded to spread Irene's ashes to sea precisely at the time Irene had told her to do it, only when she did, a strong gust of wind blew the ashes back into her direction, landing all over her face. This irony was finally enough to make Raven burst out laughing, and thus, Destiny's previously unfulfilled prophecy came to pass.
There was more inside the package Destiny left her, however, such as the revelation that Val Cooper would be possessed by the immensely powerful telepathic mutant known as the Shadow King, and would attempt to kill her. Mystique was thus ready when Val Cooper arrived with the gun in her hand, and realized that since Destiny did not do anything to protect herself, even though she could have used her powers of precognition to do so, Mystique could not do any differently. Val, however, even possessed by the Shadow King as she was, could not bring herself to fire the gun -- at least not at Mystique. Instead, she shot herself. Mystique immediately called secret emergency workers to save Val before she would die. Realizing that the Shadow King would not be fooled for long, Mystique and some others plotted to disguise herself as Val Cooper, and faking Mystique's death. The deception was so elaborate, that Mystique had been hypnotized into believing that she was indeed Val Cooper, and carried out Val's duties as though it was her.
Months later, the X-Men and the group of original X-Men known as X-Factor finally confronted the Shadow King. Unaware to all but Mystique, who thought herself to be Val, the Shadow King possessed a braindead FBI agent known as Jacob Reiss, and was planning to kill Professor X. His plan was foiled, however, because a secret operative who was in on the deception, Nick Fury, said the secret trigger word that resulted in Mystique reverting back to her own form and restoring her memory of the Shadow King's plot (the word being the name of her foster daughter "Rogue"). Once the word was said, Mystique was able to save Professor X's life, enabling him to defeat the Shadow King soon afterwards.
Mystique and Val Cooper then revealed their plan to Rogue who had believed all this time that Mystique was dead, while at the same time Mystique had also believed that Rogue was dead. Thus, foster mother and daughter were reunited.
However, this was not enough to keep Mystique happy. A few months later, the X-Man known as Wolverine invited her to stay at the X-Mansion. There, she feigned mental insanity, which caused the mutant known as Forge, who she had despised all along, to carry out Destiny's prediction and leave to take care of her.
The real reason Mystique made Forge believe she had gone nuts soon became clear. She wanted to look through his files to find out classified information that only a government operative with his amount of clearance would have, since the Raven Darkholme identity had now been compromised. Once she obtained the information, she left Forge.
She became involved with Wolverine once again, on a mission in which the two of them helped the evil mutant Sabretooth. More of her past was revealed, including the fact that she had given birth to Sabretooth's child, a very bitter and spiteful man named Graydon Creed, one who sought the death of both of his parents. Realizing her life was in danger because of this, she faked her death in front of all three of her "children", Graydon, Rogue, and Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler
is presumably the product of Mystique's having impregnated her friend Irene while she was in the form of a man, though this has not yet been confirmed.
Her attempt to keep herself "dead" was soon exposed. She showed up after she had found out that it was Legion who murdered Destiny. Thinking the son of Charles Xavier helpless and comatose, she infiltrated the hospital he was being kept at, only to have Legion awaken the moment she was about to do away with him. It was then that the new incarnation of X-Factor, operating as the successor to Freedom Force, arrived. Legion and X-Factor kept each other busy while Mystique was able to escape. X-Factor kept on Mystique's trail, however, and not too much later they were able to capture her. Valerie Cooper made a deal with Mystique. Either she decided to join X-Factor, or she would go to prison for her numerous crimes.
While a member of X-Factor, Mystique took the identity of Mallory Brickman. This identity was key in rescuing Destiny's grandson, Trevor Chase, when he was kidnapped, around the same time X-Factor went "underground".
Mystique left X-Factor to find the party responsible for her son Graydon's assassination She returned in time to stop Havok from freeing humans trapped as scientific experiments by the Dark Beast. Most recently, she stopped a man named Dr. Agee from stealing Rogue's powers.