Her earliest attested appearance dates back to the years around 1900, when she lived in a male guise as a "consulting detective" who established a romantic relationship with her reality's version of Irene Adler, biographical details which imply she is in fact Sherlock Holmes,[27] an implication confirmed by 2022.

The pain of loss and the stress to their relationship prompted them to seek Professor Charles Xavier some time before his formation of the X-Men for help erasing their memories of Kurt.

[40] To help her in her criminal activities, Mystique organizes her own incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, consisting of herself, Avalanche, the Blob, Destiny, and Pyro.

In return for entering government service, Mystique and her team receive a presidential pardon for all criminal charges, to be revoked if any member of Freedom Force is found committing a crime.

[56] Mystique is eventually discovered impersonating Dr. Cooper, and saves Xavier's life by killing the Shadow King's human host, Jacob Reisz.

Her membership leads to tension with her teammates when Sabretooth is added to the team months later as a sleeper agent,[64] for the main purpose of killing Mystique before she can uncover the truth about the conspiracy.

[72] While gaining critical intelligence on the identity of those who were involved in her son's death and the attempt to kill her using Sabretooth, Mystique suddenly loses her powers while pretending to be a man in a busy office workplace.

The relationship sours when Rogue refuses to tell Mystique that the X-Men are going to fight the High Evolutionary, who was responsible for depowering all mutants, to restore everyone's powers.

She reforms the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants for another assassination attempt on Senator Kelly, and kidnaps Moira MacTaggert and impersonates her to access her research on the Legacy Virus.

Outfitted with a device that gives her the ability to generate an electrical charge, Mystique creates the identity of a supervillain named Surge and joins the X-Corps.

Xavier poses as Magneto to rescue Mystique from the Department of Homeland Security and from execution at the hands of Johny Kitano, Special Magistrate for Homo Superior crimes against humanity, and a mutant himself.

[80] At this time, Mystique claims that there is an imposter out to frame her, taking control over the Brotherhood and sending them on their recent missions (the assassination of Moira and the infiltration of X-Corps).

Creating a plan that would free her from both men, Mystique pretends to try killing Xavier while secretly working with the mutant thief Fantomex, after alerting Forge to stop her at the last moment.

Mystique ultimately reveals herself to him, telling him that she is trying to relieve the tension between him and Rogue (because of the two being unable to touch due to her ability to absorb someone's essence upon skin-to-skin contact).

[95] Wolverine, having returned from hell and retrieved his possessed body from a demonic force, targets Mystique after finding out she was responsible for sending his soul there at the behest of The Red Right Hand.

[99] Receiving word that the original X-Men are in the present day, Mystique seeks out young Scott Summers to manipulate him into thinking she has his and mutantkind's best interests at heart.

[volume & issue needed] To help move her plans along, Mystique drugs and replaces Dazzler, who's now became SHIELD's mutant liaison, allowing her to set up her New Brotherhood under Maria Hill's nose.

[107] Mystique is a mutant shapeshifter with the ability to molecularly shift the formation of her biological cells at will to change her appearance and thereby assume the form of other humans and animals.

[volume & issue needed] Examples of these new abilities include night vision, wings on her back,[113] talons in her fingers or toes, and natural body armor.

Having lived for at least a century, Mystique has built up considerable resources, one of her aliases being the billionaire B Byron Biggs who owns a number of safehouses around the world which are often protected by sophisticated security systems.

Shoshana Kessock of Tor.com called Mystique "one of the most impactful mutant villains in the comics," writing, "With several independent movies suggested for the ongoing X-Men franchise, we'll just have to wait and see if our favorite blue shapeshifter appears beside Gambit and Magneto as a possibility.

"[126] Richard Chachiwski of Screen Rant wrote, "One of the most recognizable villains in all of X-Men comics, Mystique is a blue-skinned, red-haired mutant shapeshifter able to take any physical form she wishes.

[...] In essence, over the years X-fans have been treated to a kick ass femme fatale who has found herself at several key turning points in the history of the mutant race.

"[133] Sara Century of Syfy said, "Mystique has been a hypersexualized seducer of men in many of her comic book appearances since Destiny's death, and while that isn't inherently a bad thing, it has a tendency to distract writers and readers away from other interesting aspects of her character.

"[136] Jude Dry of IndieWire asserted, "While she's only been depicted in her many movie appearances as being interested in men such as Charles Xavier or Magneto, Mystique has been canonically bisexual since 1981.

[152][153] Mike Fugere of CBR.com described X-Men: Black - Mystique #1 as a "great villain spotlight", writing, "Other than that one quibble, from a narrative standpoint the issue is fun and gives a strong voice to Raven.

Later she raised her son Raze (conceived by Wolverine, with his mother's shape-shifting skills and his father's healing ability), who eventually killed her and took her appearance to rule Madripoor.

After being repelled where most of her teammates are either dead or defeated, Dark Phoenix returns to her Mystique form and goes to find Doom Supreme where she accuses him of abandoning them when they were getting their butts kicked.

[volume & issue needed] During the Infinity Wars storyline where the universe was folded in half, Mystique was fused with Lady Deathstrike creating Deathstrique.

[volume & issue needed] Two incarnations of Mystique appear in Twentieth Century Fox's X-Men film series, portrayed by Rebecca Romijn and Jennifer Lawrence as adults and Morgan Lily as a child.