History Characters / MarvelComicsMystique

** Still as badly as she treats Rogue and Nightcrawler, most comic fans will agree by far her worst treatment was to her human son Graydon, whom she assassinated without hesitation. In comparison, ''ComicBook/{{Sabertooth}}'' genuinely loved Graydon in his own twisted way, and even tried to rescue Graydon's soul from hell -- with Mystique refusing to help him when he asked.

* ChildOfForbiddenLove:[[spoiler:How Mystique and Destiny see Nightcrawler. While both Mystique and Destiny had many lovers and Mystique had other children, she only sees Nightcrawler as a product of love.]]

* HomosexualReproduction: Claremont's original concept for the characters of Mystique, Destiny and Nightcrawler had it that Mystique impregnated Destiny by turning into a man, though the censors shot this down. [[spoiler:In 2023, the comic ''X-Men Blue: Origins'' reveals that she really did impregnate Mystique with Nightcrawler, raising the implication that some of the other children she hints at may have been sired by Mystique on other women.]]

* BitchInSheepsClothing: She loves to act loving and caring just so she can twist the knife in and betray every single person who was foolish enough to trust her. Worse still, Mystique has no qualms about using her own children ([[Characters/MarvelComicsRogue Rogue]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsNightcrawler Nightcrawler]])’s love to her own advantage, she’s even betrayed [[Characters/MarvelComicsSabretooth Sabretooth]] after sleeping with him. Characters/{{Cable|NathanSummers}} (a time-traveler from the future) even mentioned that in his time, "Mystique" was used in much the same way that "Judas" is used now.

** In ''ComicBook/{{Dazzler}}'', [[Characters/MarvelComicsAngel Angel]] got a [[KissOfDistraction kiss]] from a {{Stripperiffic}} girl [[https://berkeleyplaceblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_0241.jpg before said girl landed her knee on his crotch]] (*WHUMP!* [[BondOneLiner "You fool!"]] *EvilLaugh*). It's hard enough not only to make him groan ("Owwwww!") but also make his eyes became [[ImpairmentShot bleary]] as he watched the girl reveal herself to be none other than [[VoluntaryShapeshifting the shapeshifter]] [[Characters/MarvelComicsMystique Mystique]] who's already an established fan of this.

* TransgenderFetishization: One of the most prominent fanservice characters in comics, her gender-bending powers are often fetishized and sexualized.

* AbusiveParents: She has very little memory of her actual past, possibly as a result of assuming so many identities over the years, but one thing she ''does'' recall is that her father was... not very nice to her. "Don't let Papa get you" is her SurvivalMantra at one point. She is also an abusive parent to her own children, Nightcrawler, Rogue, and Graydon Creed, considering she's either abandoned, manipulated, attacked, or killed ''all of them'' at some point with little to no remorse.

** Still as badly as she treats Rogue and Nightcrawler, most comic fans will agree by far her worst treatment was to her human son Graydon whom she assassinated without hesitation.

* HotInHumanForm: Mystique often takes the form of a human to allure men as her true blue-skinned form is often met with fear or disgust by them.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: She is rarely ever called by her name Raven in the comics, except by Destiny (her wife), Wolverine, Sabertooth, and Nightcrawler (when he isn’t able to bring himself to call her mother as Rogue does). It’s more than likely “Raven Darkhölme” isn’t Mystique’s actual name either, especially since her past is shrouded in mystery. Mystique, in turn, is one of the few people who call Destiny by her real name Irene.

%%* TokenEvilTeammate: In her X-Factor days in the late 90s and in X-Men in mid-2000s.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Originally Creator/ChrisClaremont intended Nightcrawler's parents to be Mystique and Destiny, meaning that the former would technically be Nightcrawler's ''father''. As this plot was conceived in the 80's it was aborted before it could even be fully introduced.

* LikeParentUnlikeChild: While Raven is duplicitous, petty, and cruel, her children Kurt and Rogue are two of the kindest, cheeriest, and most outgoing members of the X-men.

Mystique is a LongLived shapeshifting mutant. Originally, she could take on the appearance of any humanoid being by having complete control over the cells of her body, in addition to being able to morph the material in her clothes to suit any situation. She later got a superpower upgrade allowing her to produce [[ShapeshifterWeapon weapons by morphing her organs and such into wings and talons]]. For years she was involved in espionage, with her long-time romantic partner Destiny - a blind mutant precognitive. For a time, Destiny and Mystique separated for [[SecondActBreakup personal reasons]], and Mystique became romantically involved with ComicBook/{{Sabretooth}} and a German Baron, resulting in the birth of her two sons - Graydon Creed and [[ComicBook/{{Nightcrawler}} Kurt Wagner]]. Destiny and Mystique reunited, and depending on the writer - either adopted Rogue or conceived her via Mystique's shapeshifting powers. After this, Destiny and Mystique revived the [[Characters/XMenBrotherhoodOfMutants Brotherhood of Mutants]] to assassinate anti-mutant politicians and began their conflict with the X-Men. Mystique usually has her own personal goals she's fighting for and is usually constantly involved in multiple webs of deception.

* MasterOfMyDomain: [[spoiler:X-Men Blue Origins reveal that this is her real power. She's not a shapeshifter, but rather a gene-shaper. She can change herself to the genetic level.]]

* RequiredSecondaryPowers: She can copy the appearance of other people down to fingerprints, voice, and retina patterns closely enough to pass biometric scanners. In addition to the PhotographicMemory required to remember all this perfectly, she must have some kind of ESP to detect such things in the first place just from a brief encounter. She's certainly never shown scanning and studying the retinas of people she is going to copy. It was shown in her solo series that she requires a minimum of eight words to adequately mimic someone's voice. How this allows her to pick up speech idiosyncrasies is anyone's guess.

** X-men Blue Origins shows the other, which happened far before that. [[spoiler:Losing Kurt. She never abandoned him. Rather she him him under a tree and then went back to save Destiny (Kurt's mother) from an angry mob. Destiny was nowhere to be found and when she raced back to the tree, Kurt was gone. The loss was so devastating that not even finding joy in raising Rogue took the pain away. As a result she eventually went to Charles Xavier, with Destiny, so he could wipe both their memories.]]

* CynicismCatalyst: The death of Charles Xavier causes her to completely give up on helping mutants, whether they be good or bad. She decides to "screw them all" and steal enough to retire to an island somewhere.

* GenderBender: While she's normally a woman, she can shapeshift into a man at will. In fact, her creator almost made her Kurt's ''father'' with Destiny as the mother.

* MamaBear: She genuinely cares for her adoptive daughter [[Characters/MarvelComicsRogue Rogue]] and her biological son [[Characters/MarvelComicsNightcrawler Nightcrawler]]. Messing with them can, DependingOnTheWriter, elicit fierce protective wrath, as Sinister [[NeckSnap found out the hard way]] (he got better).
[[OffingTheOffspring Averted hard]] with her other son Graydon though.

** In ''ComicBook/{{Dazzler}}'', [[Characters/XMenTheOriginalTeam Angel]] got a [[KissOfDistraction kiss]] from a {{Stripperiffic}} girl [[https://berkeleyplaceblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_0241.jpg before said girl landed her knee on his crotch]] (*WHUMP!* [[BondOneLiner "You fool!"]] *EvilLaugh*). It's hard enough not only to make him groan ("Owwwww!") but also make his eyes became [[ImpairmentShot bleary]] as he watched the girl reveal herself to be none other than [[VoluntaryShapeshifting the shapeshifter]] [[Characters/MarvelComicsMystique Mystique]] who's already an established fan of this.

* TookALevelInJerkass: Believe it or not. While still a villain under her creator Chris Claremont’s pen Raven was consistently a NobleDemon who showed a fair number of standards (she didn’t kill Charles when he was at her mercy) and sympathetic qualities (she genuinely cherished Rogue and stayed her hand when about to stab Nightcrawler, her son). After Claremont left, it became de rigueur for writers to make Mystique as the biggest blue bitch on the planet with her disgustingly abusing and hurting Rogue on the regular and her cruelty went from moderate to KickTheDog obscene. For example, she killed her son Graydon whom she abandoned and spurned with zero hesitation or so much as a single twinge of regret. She doesn’t get any better in ''ComicBook/XMen2019'' with Raven eventually betraying everyone again to bring Destiny back [[spoiler: though granted Moira was keeping Destiny dead so she wouldn’t spill beans about ThePlan to end mutantkind, so Mystique was the LesserOfTwoEvils there.]]

* MamaBear: Messing with her favorite kids can, DependingOnTheWriter, elicit fierce protective wrath, as Sinister [[NeckSnap found out the hard way]] (he got better).

* MultiArmedAndDangerous: In one of the issues of her solo series, she uses her shapeshifting abilities to grow a pair of extra arms to use in combat. It's noted that she could not maintain this state for long, as the transformation apparently put her under heavy strain.

* OlderThanTheyLook: She reveals that she's over 80 years old, but thanks to her powers she doesn't look older than 30. It is later revealed that she is older than even that, having been alive since "the dawn of the 20th century", and with the reveal that her longtime lover Destiny was in fact the historical Irene Adler, it is possible she could be up to 150 years old.

* RoguesGalleryTransplant: She was originally a ComicBook/MsMarvel villain and one of her deadliest enemies before becoming more closely associated with the X-Men.

* VictoriasSecretCompartment: Mystique can actually hide weapons inside herself. In "Get Mystique" she pulls a 9mm Glock out of a pouch at the base of her spine and shoots Wolverine in the middle of the face; she is stark naked at the time.

%%* AdaptationalNiceGirl: Most adaptations haven’t fully embraced how utterly psychotic and cruel she is in the comics, softening her to simply ruthless a DarkActionGirl at worse. The only exception is ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' which highlighted her abandonment of Nightcrawler and Graydon like the comics, though even then she’s more regretful with the former act than she usually is in the comic.
%%* AdaptationalSexuality: All adaptations so far haven’t had her be bisexual like she is in the comics, being solely interested in men in the films, cartoons, and games.

* ParentalFavouritism: PlayedWith, she seems at the outset to prefer her adoptive daughter Rogue to her biological son Nightcrawler, going to great lengths to get Rogue back on her side while often neglecting Kurt having abandoned him to be raised by other people. Except she rarely hurts Kurt, especially in modern comics, and was happy to see him alive after his resurrection whilst her treatment of Rogue is more frequently abusive having made many attempts on her daughter’s life than she has with Kurt. Overall she tries harder to be affectionate to Rogue but appears to respect Kurt as an individual more while treating Rogue in comparison like personal property alongside her other mother Destiny. Still, it’s safe to say she prefers both her mutant children over her other human son Graydon, whom she ruthlessly killed.