When many people think of Raven Darkholme, they think of a blue shapeshifter.
If you are more familiar with the film version of her, you may even think of her scaly appearance,
a purely cinematic adaptation to her appearance.
Mystique has been a longstanding villain of the X-Men since the 1970s.
Though really she is more independent when it comes to her philosophy on good and bad.
Mystique focuses more on what she wants and simply goes about the best way to get it,
making her sometimes good and sometimes bad but ultimately neither.
She’s simply out for her own interests more than anything.
She has used her mutant abilities to take the form of many different characters over
the years, but just as she has frequently undergone outward changes, she has also gone
character and power changes as well from a writing standpoint.
Today we’ll take a look at some of those changes made and additions given to her power
set as we count down the top 10 super powers you didn’t know Mystique had.
Be sure to stick around to the end of this list where I will have some bonus content
coming your way.
Alright, let’s get counting.
10 Immortality
While this super power hasn’t been confirmed confirmed, I think after all this time we
can assume it’s highly possible without it having to be stated in the comics.
If you’re haven’t read everything X-Men or Mystique, you may not know that she has
been alive for likely 200 plus years.
She met her greatest love, the mutant Destiny around the turn of the century when she already
appeared to be a grown adult.
The hard thing about Mystique though is because she can change her appearance, it’s hard
for us to determine just how old she is and some have theorized that she could even be
ancient in age.
As her codename implies, she is a mysterious character.
We don’t even know if her assumed natural state and look are actually even natural.
We may have never even yet seen Mystique’s true face, unchanged.
She may not have one.
She may have not even been born a woman!
9 Deception and Distraction
While it may not seem like a superpower, Mystique definitely makes it feel like one at the level
she works at.
She has deceived even those that most would deem undeceivable.
At one point she was able to create a situation wherein a whole town was deceived into attacking
Wolverine after she deceived him by making him kill an innocent woman who he thought
was Mystique in disguise.
She also is able to use her level of deception and distraction to delay fights and get the
upper hand on her assailants by often transforming into a little girl.
While you would think many would know that Mystique was messing with them, she is so
convincing as a helpless little girl that she often is able to use this to gain the
upper hand in a battle, seeming innocent until proving just why she is so deadly.
8 Grows Clothing
I feel like this is one we should all know about but it’s an easy one to forget as
well.
I constantly forget about it until I am grossly reminded that oh yeah, all those clothes Mystique
appears to be wearing are actually a part of her.
This was a huge thing in the X-Men films.
Although in the Ultimate universe this is very much not a thing.
Mystique actually has to make sure she has clothes as she can not transform some magically
onto her body.
What I’ve always wondered is when she takes off an article of clothing, like her jacket,
does that mean she is, like, shedding skin…?
7 Size Altering
While Mystique may able to change shape and size, this was originally limited to those
who were around a similar build to her.
Her powers in terms of changing shape were relatively limited when she was first introduced.
Overtime however Mystique has honed her shape-shifting power and had more of her true potential unlocked.
This happened during her time in the X-Men Forever comics when she saw her power-level
dramatically increased in the capacity of changing size.
She was then able to make herself gigantic in proportion.
Based on what we’ve seen here and there over the years since this development, she
should be able to adjust her size on an Ant-Man level but unfortunately this seems to be a
power that many writers leave un-utilized.
Probably because it would make her too similar to Ant-Man himself.
And we’d all rather see Mystique shape-shift into everyday looking people or mutants most
days rather than giant versions of them.
6 Improvisation and Acting
Many may think it would be easy to be villain Raven Darkholme.
All you have to do to beat the good guys or when you’re being good, the bad guys, is
shapeshift into someone else and everything is almost done for you.
But what people often forget is Mystique does not gain the memories of those she changes
into so her trickery is and shape-shifting is more of an art than you’d think.
Beyond looking like someone, she often has to play the role of the person she is imitating
well enough to convince those around her, sometimes people who know her target intimately.
And she’s managed to successfully pull this off on multiple occasions, even convincing
the romantic partner’s of those she imitates in the bedroom as well.
Fantomex seemed pretty convinced when she slept with him while under the guise of Psylocke.
5 Shapeshift into Animals
Not only can Mystique shapeshift into other beings but once her power level was increased
in the comics, she also found it possible to shapeshift beyond humanoids.
She could give herself tentacles, turn into animals, give herself wings and even once
turned into a sheet of paper to survive in order to survive an explosion.
Making oneself almost two dimensional and as flat as a sheet of paper is pretty impressive.
Though thankfully that sheet of paper didn’t catch fire.
I feel like there would be a risk of that, you know, in an explosion.
While in the comics she did not possess this level of shapeshifting abilities immediately,
in the X-Men Evolution animated series, she started off being at this level with her powers.
Mystique has even used her shapeshift abilities to make internal changes to her body, shifting
vital organs around to protect them from getting damaged from injuries.
4 Super Strength
What some people might not think about is the fact that Mystique has been shown to shape-shift
on a molecular level.
What does this mean for her abilities?
It means that she can adjust her strength levels pretty much as she sees fit.
And that when she appears to have more muscle, it’s not just for show.
She can actually use that muscle.
Because of this we have seen Mystique, both while disguised and while not disguised do
all sorts of crazy things.
She once caught a kick from Sabretooth and tossed him through a window like a ragdoll.
She has killed people with one punch.
And she even one time broke Forge’s cybernetic leg with a single kick.
Ouch.
3 Healing Factor
While her healing factor isn’t super powerful, it still exists.
Let’s not forget that Mystique’s mutant powers allow her to change her appearance,
changing her body.
By extension she can also use the same power to heal non-lethal wounds, closing them up.
This ability does require a good amount of focus and energy on Mystique’s part however,
which is why the idea of healing something more serious is so difficult.
The injury itself would take energy and focus away from her.
It has been stated before in the comics but very rarely, leaving many to ponder on if
her healing factor is really a thing as it’s not super consistent.
But for those who doubt, I’ll remind you that Mystique is pretty old and she isn’t
one to shy away from a fight.
Leaving us to believe that she must have a healing factor if she has been in physical
fights more often than not during her lifespan and I think we can all agree that she likely
has.
2 Telepathic Immunity
During Mystique’s series of the same name, Mystique: Ultimate, we get a more indepth
look at Raven’s mind and abilities as she works alongside Charles Xavier.
One thing we learn from her close interaction with Charles is that her mind is basically
unreadable when it comes to telepathy, adding to her ability to become just about anyone.
Charles himself attests that her mind is too chaotic to read, too erratic.
It’s like it is constantly being reshaped and re-formed.
So apparently her shape-shifting abilities also grant her this secondary telepathic resistance
as well, guarding her against being easily found out while under disguise.
If you want more insight into just how much work goes into wielding this power and honing
it, you should check out X-Men Black: Mystique which delves into Mystique’s perspective
when it comes to all that is involved behind the scenes.
1 Scent Altering
For all of her time in the comics, Mystique definitely is the type to hold grudges and
definitely sees them carried forward throughout the comics.
One such person she has had a big issue with throughout her history is Wolverine.
These two have been on and off again lovers, enemies and occasionally partners for at least
ninety plus years.
We seem them meet in the 2003 Wolverine series in 1921 Mexico, bonding over the fact that
they are both prisoners sentenced to death.
Their long standing relationship would at one point end in Raven’s death at Wolverine’s
hands as revenge for her sending him to hell.
Her death of course was short-lived, cause comics.
Her body was recovered and auctioned off to the Hand who resurrected her.
When she returned from the dead she was even more powerful than ever.
And while her scent could normally be used to give her away even while disguised to Wolverine,
who had even tracked her before, she now possessed the ability to adapt her scent to those whose
form she took.
Making her an even more powerful shapeshifter, nigh undetectable.
Thank you so much for watching, nerd squad.
If you enjoyed this list as much as I enjoyed writing it and you love the complex mutant
character that is Mystique, be sure to give this video a thumbs up.
What is your favourite flaw or asset of Mystiques?
Who do you ship her with?
Which power addition or change do you love the most for her?
Let us know in the comments below.
And speaking of comments, it’s time to turn to some comments from one of our latest videos,
Top 10 Superheroes Who Won By Accident.
Great and Powerful Oz comments, “Red Sonja is one on the cosplay list I’d like for
Amanda.
Also Skarlet from Mortal Kombat 11 as her voice is very Gothic and Vampiric.”
You think my voice is very gothic and vampiric?
Love!
Also you are in luck.
I’m literally putting together a Red Sonja cosplay as I speak.
It should be ready in March and there will be photosets!
If you ever want to support my cosplay journey you should be sure to check out my socials
for all those updates.
I love Red Sonja too!
Cyrusstalkers 2099 says, “I hope we see Miguel, Spider-Man 2099, without his suit
on at least once in Spider-Verse 2, cause that dude does not have a “friendly neighbourhood”
appearance like Peter has.”
I hope we get to see Miguel unmasked as well.
Also I’m super excited that he is likely going to be prominently featured in the sequel.
Do you think he’ll be the new main character or will the story still center around Miles?
I’m kind of hoping each film features its own spider-verse group and then we get one
where they all meet up and take on an even bigger multi-universal threat together.
And that’s all the time we have for comment today.
For a chance to have your thoughts and feels shouted out in a future video, be sure to
comment below.
This has been top 10 nerd and I’m your host, Amanda McKnight, reminding you as always to
stay nerdy, YouTube.