MARVEL SUPER VILLAINS: MYSTIQUE
Here is a series dedicated to the kid in me. All things super hero. To this day I still have my comic book collection, each placed in plastic bags and boxed in my closet. With this summer being the Summer of Super Heroes in the movies, I thought this might be a fun series to put together. PLEASE NOTE: This is an industrial park and can be muggle heavy at times. Weekends would be the easiest time to gather the caches, though anytime would be fine. Parking should not be an issue and the critter factor should be low. I hope you enjoy this series.
Mystique (Raven Darkhölme) is a fictional character associated with the Marvel Comics' franchise X-Men. Originally created by artist David Cockrum and writer Chris Claremont, she first appeared in Ms. Marvel #16.
Throughout most of her history, Mystique has been a supervillain, founding her own Brotherhood of Mutants and assassinating several important people involved in mutant affairs. Mystique herself is a mutant, a shapeshifter whose natural appearance includes blue skin and yellow eyes. At one point, she mentions that she is over 100 years old. Mystique is the mother of the villain Graydon Creed, the X-Men hero Nightcrawler, and adoptive mother of the hero Rogue. She is forced to abandon Nightcrawler, but raises Rogue for a number of years, and the two women have mixed feelings towards one another.
Despite Mystique's history of crime, she works with the X-Men's Professor X in a short-lived series. She is later voted straight into the X-Men.
Actress Rebecca Romijn portrayed Mystique in first three of the X-Men films. In the 2011 film, X-Men: First Class, Jennifer Lawrence plays the role of a young Mystique (with Romijn making a cameo appearance). In 2009, Mystique was ranked as IGN's 18th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.
Mystique is a mutant shapeshifter with the ability to psionically shift the formation of her biological cells at will to change her appearance and thereby assume the form of other humans. She can also alter her voice to duplicate exactly that of another person. Originally, it was clearly stated that Mystique's powers were limited to appearances only; she could not assume the powers of the people she morphed into or alter her body to adapt to different situations. Additionally she could not change her overall body mass when taking on the appearance of a person larger or smaller, but thanks to subsequent enhancements she has stated that her body mass is not fixed and can change when she does.
Her body is not limited to purely organic appearances: She has the ability to create the appearance of clothes and other materials out of her own body, including items such as glasses, zippers, identity cards, handbags and even test tubes. Mystique is shown in at least one instance transforming a metallic part of her costume into a functioning blaster pistol. Whether this is a function of her powers or of the costume piece itself is unclear.
As a shape-shifter, Mystique is able to constantly alter and rejuvenate her body's cells and thereby retain her youthful appearance despite being alive for over one hundred years.