Writer Chris Claremont’s tenure at Marvel is one of the most important in the history of the publisher. Claremont created boatloads of important characters for Marvel, all while the taking the X-Men and making them into the comic industry’s most popular team. Claremont’s best characters still play a massive role in the lives of the X-Men and one of those characters doesn’t actually get the respect she deserves — the shapeshifting assassin known as Mystique. Mystique has had a great couple of years. She played a key role in the X-Men’s Krakoa Era. Her longtime lesbian lover Destiny was resurrected, and the true parentage of her son Nightcrawler was revealed. Mystique and Destiny got officially married, and the character has since returned in a solo miniseries from Declan Shalvey. Mystique might seem like she’s getting her just desserts, but it’s honestly not enough.
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Mystique is not just one of the most important villains in the X-Men’s long and illustrious history, but she’s also one of the most important female villains in the entire Marvel Universe. Mystique managed to be a woman arch-enemy of Marvel’s most popular team during one of its more popular phases. Mystique deserves her flowers as a Marvel great, and looking at her history shows just how awesome Mystique truly is.
Mystique Has Worked In Every Type of Story
Mystique first appeared in Ms. Marvel #16 back in 1978, four years after Giant-Size X-Men #1 made mutants important again. Mystique wouldn’t appear in the X-Men books for a little bit after this, showing up as the leader of a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, one that counted her, Destiny, Blob, Toad, Avalanche, Pyro, and other lesser known members like Sabre. Mystique’s Brotherhood became one of the more iconic versions of the evil team, and immediately showed that Mystique was a villain to watch out for. She jumped into the lead of the foremost X-Men villains and she stayed there for years, eventually getting the Brotherhood deputized by the federal government of the US as the Freedom Force, and the group played a huge role in the X-Men’s stories.
As the years went on, more was revealed about Mystique’s past, for example her rather advanced age, and it all showed just how important she was to the history of mutants in general. Mystique and Destiny found each other at the end of the 19th century and made for a formidable force in events. Destiny’s precognitive abilities led them to where they needed to be and Mystique’s powers and fighting skills always allowed them to influence events. Mystique was a major player in the black ops and mutant worlds for decades. She’s been everything from a lackey — like the time she worked for Sinister to destroy the X-Men from within and take Rogue away from the team — or as the mastermind, like her long tenure at the head of the Brotherhood. She was a legitimate power player on Krakoa once Destiny was resurrected, and stands as one of the foremost bisexual characters in comics.
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There are villains with more stature in the Marvel Universe that haven’t been nearly as important as Mystique has. Claremont used Mystique as one of the main X-Men villains from the early ’80s until the Outback Era at least, with the character constantly striking at the team. She’s been established as a major player in the history of the mutant race. She’s one of the first women to lead a major Marvel villains team. She’s a perfect villain in a variety of roles — she’s a great master manipulator, a great black ops hero/villain, an awesome archenemy — her time as one of Wolverine’s main villain during the Jason Aaron years doesn’t get enough credit, great as a solo villain or part of a team, and she has several stints on X-teams that are a lot of fun, especially her time with X-Factor in the mid ’90s, a generally underrated time for the team. Mystique even fits outside of the mutant side of the Marvel Universe, her history with Carol Danvers giving her an in with Marvel’s most formidable team, the Avengers. There are villains who are much more popular than Mystique who don’t have a tenth of the utility.
Mystique is a character that doesn’t come along very often. It’s rare to find a character who is so useful in so many types of stories. Calling Mystique underappreciated may seem an exaggeration — she’s a beloved X-Men character — but it’s also a true statement. Mystique can be an A-list villain for basically any Marvel hero out there. That’s extremely rare, and that’s before Destiny is even entered into the equation. Mystique is a character who deserves the spotlight all the time.
Mystique Should Be Getting More Spotlight
Mystique is in a class all her own. She can stand tall in any kind of story she’s in, and it’s about time that Marvel actually realized that. Mystique gained a lot of popularity from her live-action renditions by Rebecca Romijn and Jennifer Lawrence, making her one of the more recognizable mutants out there. She’s a character that Marvel could build around, and should never be anything less than an A-list character. Here’s how great Mystique is — she was a major part of the Krakoa Era, but no one ever complained about how important she was, whereas people got sick of Mister Sinister, another villain that played a huge role in the Krakoa Era.
Mystique has decades of amazing stories under her belt and the kind of history that allows her an in with just about any character out there. Marvel got as popular as they have because they were able to identify the characters that had the most potential and put them forward. Mystique is a character on this level, and Marvel can easily make her into a superstar in the years to come if they play their cards right.
