I saw X-Men: Apocalypse over the weekend; and while I'm ready to throw in the towel on the whole alternate timeline dodge, I have to say this was the most satisfying X-Men movie I've seen since X2. It felt like all of the characters who needed to be in the movie were there. The near-absence of Wolverine strangely didn't stand out as a problem. And to my absolute delight, my favorite mutant ended on a happy note.
I'm not a big comic book reader. I respect the medium, but my brain doesn't seem to process where the hell I'm supposed to be looking next on the page to continue the action or two person conversation. So my access point to the world of mutants was through the nineties FOX Kids cartoon series. Right out of the gate I got attached to the character of Morph, because the ability to shape shift has always struck me as the coolest mutant power. And then in the second episode he was killed.
What a waste of a cool character with a bizarrely creepy laugh, and an even cooler superpower. I guess I like shape shifting because there's so many creative ways one can use it. Watching someone clawing their way through obstacles or blowing crap up just gets boring to me really fast. But with shape shifting, there's a real cerebral component when it's used correctly; anything from dramatic reveals to sight gags.
And then came Mystique. Not only was she a badass shape shifter. She was also blue. Now being a kid's cartoon, she was portrayed significantly softer than her comic book counterpart, and that may have affected why I honed in on her more human traits, compassion for other mutants as opposed to a murderous intent towards humans. In fact, the more I found out about her in the comics, the more...disappointed I became.
Now the problem with comic book franchise characters is they change hands so frequently. Magneto isn't always a villain and his viewpoint is much stronger when he's holding himself back. The same goes for Mystique, but depending on the writer she goes from being a freedom fighter to an actual serial killer. And when you accept all of this as canon, it makes her unlikable.
So I say screw continuity, and Marvel is in no position to get defensive. Let's look at five faces of Mystique and decide, definitively in this no-traffic blog somewhere on the internet, which face works the best.
1. The antagonistic plot device
This is obviously my least favorite. You see this Mystique pop up all over the comic books. I'm not convinced there is an actual character at play, so much as a challenge for the heroes to overcome. She has some goal (usually someone else's), and she doesn't succeed. And the heroes don't succeed in fully defeating her either. She may eliminate innocent (i.e. unimportant) people, but the target always survives, and she always loses, and Wolverine always wins, and whatever. This as the Mystique of the Sabretooth and Mystique series that may as well have just been Sabretooth, and the Get Mystique books which may as well have been Sure, This Matters. Hey Marvel, these stories don't make me want to read more of your stuff.
2. The sadistic lover
This is the Rebecca Romijn Mystique of the original X-Men trilogy. I loved Romijn's portrayal in the first 1 and 3/4 movies. Granted, she didn't have much to do. She had one measly line of dialogue in the first film. But so much of her character is left implied from her actions. Based on her expressions and the way she dotes on Magneto, she really seems to love him, not just agree with his methods. The problem is, in X2 the production team decided at the eleventh hour that Mags and Mysti are actually evil. Together they attempted genocide of the entire human race through Xavier. It's a moral line cross that simply cannot be overlooked. The Last Stand was irrelevant long before the studio decided it was.
3. The wounded slave
Now we're in the cartoon. Like in the comic books, Mystique really had almost no contact with Magneto. Her boss in the series was Apocalypse, and Mystique was more of a hired hand, with 'hired' probably meaning 'under the command of'. As I mentioned before, she was at her most vulnerable in this incarnation. Jennifer Dale, as Mystique's primary voice actress, brings a sense of teetering on the edge of defeat to many of her appearances. The mutant is pretty good at what she does, but victory always seems to slip away at the last second, and she may very well be heading to her own execution afterwards. A couple of highlights: the final episode of Beyond Good and Evil when she literally stabs Apocalypse in the back, and Bloodlines when Nightcrawler confronts her about abandoning him as a child.
4. The reluctant hero
This is the First Class Mystique portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence. Okay, I don't get the whole Jennifer Lawrence fever the world is on. I think she's fine as an actress, but I've never seen anything special about her. And by God, I could go the rest of my life never again hearing the phrase 'down to earth' used to describe her! So I never really warmed up to her performance as Mystique. Rebecca Romijn always went for it, while Lawrence just seems to make call. But her career took off after she was under a three picture contract, and I'm convinced this obligated the producers to Katniss up Mystique's role. And for that, I'm grateful. On the one hand, I'm really sick of the shit Magneto gets away with in this trilogy (have Xavier fry his brain, dammit!). But on the other hand I loved watching Mystique's journey veer toward Magneto's and then away. I like that she's thinking for herself, and she's choosing a side based on who is closest to what she believes, without ever adopting their viewpoint entirely as her own. Sure it's kind of hard to envision Mystique as a permanent X-Woman, but there's always hope. And that's a really nice feeling on which to end the trilogy.
5. The snarky anti-hero
The Brian K. Vaughan penned/Jorge Lucas illustrated graphic novel series is my absolute favorite portrayal of her royal Smurfetteness. She's not a hero and she's not meant to be one. But stick her in a world of espionage, quadruple-crossing, and head games, and you can really watch her dance. Blue is coerced into working for Xavier (with explicit instructions to not kill anyone) for a greater good. And as snide as she is about the situation, she really takes to it. A spy thriller is the genre Mystique was meant for. This short lived series gets her away from the brute hitters and let's her just explore who she is and what she values in a way previously not allowed. No, she's not a hero. She's a way, way cooler protagonist than that.
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