A biweekly column by Talisha Harrison aka Tali Adina
Welcome to Talking Comics’ Character Spotlight! Every other week, I’ll be spotlighting a character from comics, cartoons, etc. However this week is special as it’s Women in Comics Week! So I’ll be spotlighting five of my favorite female characters each day this week. So today, the spotlight falls on:
Spy. Lover. Fighter. Mother. A true master of disguise. All these and more describe the mutant known as Mystique.
She is one of my favorite villains and I affectionately call her the ‘nosey troublemaking old lady’. I love her for a number of reasons mostly because she’s a strong and amazing character, and she happens to be the mother of my favorite character Nightcrawler. So here’s a little of interesting facts that put the mystique in Mystique:
- Her real name is Raven Darkhölme.
- She was originally created by artist Dave Cockrum. Writer Chris Claremont saw Cockrum’s design, dubbed the character “Mystique”, and with Cockrum’s permission, she first appeared in Ms. Marvel No.16 in May 1978.
- Mystique is a mutant, a shapeshifter and who in her natural appearance has blue skin, yellow eyes, and red hair.
- She is the mother of Graydon Creed, and the X-men Nightcrawler as well as the adoptive mother of the X-men Rogue.
- Because she’s a shape-shifter, Mystique has the ability to constantly alter and rejuvenate her body’s cells and thereby retain her youthful appearance though she’s at least 100 years old.
- She can also alter her voice to duplicate exactly that of another person. She just needs to hear a person speak for at least ten seconds.
- Mystique is one of Marvel’s LGBT characters as she is bisexual.
- Her powers grant her a healing factor, immunity to diseases, enhanced agility, and agelessness.
- Mystique is a cunning strategist in terrorist and commando operations, and is proficient in martial arts and information technology. She also is extremely talented in finding, stealing, and understanding cutting edge weaponry.
- 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.
- She is a talented actress and has an astonishing skill of being able to identify people posing as others based on body language and changes in behavioral cues due to her historic experience imitating other people.
There you have it another awesome lady in comics. Stayed tuned, there’s one more of my women characters to go. Who will it be? Well you’ll just have to come back tomorrow and find out!
