Raven Darkholme

Raven Darkholme Details First appearance "Strategy X" Voice Colleen Wheeler General Information Full name Alias Species Mutant Sector Physical description Gender Hair color Brown Eye Color Relationships & Powers and Abilities Affiliations Allies Brotherhood of Mutants Enemies X-Men Powers and abilities Equipment

Raven Darkholme is a mutant with the ability to shape-shift. She used her power to stop Rogue from joining the X-Men by attacking her as members of the group. She served as principal of Bayville High School, where she used her influences to make room for her Brotherhood recruits.

History

Raven confronted Toad after Scott Summers saved him from being harmed by Duncan Matthews and some other jocks. She brought up Scott's powers and stated that they needed to know more. While Toad was reluctant to confront Scott, Raven transformed into a monster to scare him, screaming that he would do as he was told. Toad confronted Scott and later tried infiltrating the Xavier Mansion, where he was allowed to join the group but chose not to. When he left the mansion, Charles removed his memories of what he had seen. When Raven spoke with Toad following the Xavier Mansion infiltration, Raven expressed her frustration over Toad choosing to run away after being given the choice to join the group by Charles.

She also accurately predicted that he had his memories erased by Charles, which Toad confirmed before she kicked him out. Raven then morphed into Mystique and began to show her frustration. At that point, Magneto made his presence known and antagonized her with her office materials. After Lance Alvers destroyed his school's main office, he stayed to watch the Fire Department try and put out any potential flames caused by the collapsing of the building. Raven appeared behind him, stating that he seemed to have blown his chances at the school and that she had opened a spot for him at Bayville High School. Lance asked her who she was and she introduced herself, and codenamed him "Avalanche".

Rogue unwittingly discovered her powers after making physical contact with Cody, who had asked her to dance and was trying to help her up after being pushed into her by his friend Ty. Irene contacted Mystique over the incident and she met with her as Raven Darkholme, though morphed into her real form and expressed her frustration over having left Rouge in what she thought were Irene's capable hands. Though frustrated, she understood the X-Men would try to recruit her and sought to make sure the group did not. She did this by confronting Rogue at Cody's residence as Wolverine, in an attempt to give her the "right incentive" to come to her and Irene willingly.

She attacked her as Wolverine and made it a point to mention the X-Men's name. She then attacked her as Storm by placing fake lightning bolts in an attempt to further the realism of the group attacking her. When Rogue was confronted by Irene, the latter played along and referred to the X-Men as mutant hunters. She then saw Wolverine and ran off. Nightcrawler convinced Wolverine to leave her alone and allow him to go in. She absorbed his powers and teleported into a cemetery. While Jean Grey tried speaking to her, Mystique watched. She then attacked her as Jean and then as Cyclops. When Rogue encountered the real Cyclops, Jean and Storm for the second time, she was fearful of them all and touched Storm, gaining her powers and presenting a problem for the X-Men before teleporting away. She was later enrolled at Bayville High School, where Mystique as Principal Darkholme helped her with getting settled in.

Raven attended one of Fred Duke's monster truck shows. Also in attendance were Jean Grey and Wolverine. After completing the show to a positive reception, he slipped and fell, instantly becoming the subject of mockery by his audience. Offstage, Blob voiced his frustrations as he was confronted by Raven. She managed to speak with him and in doing so, got to him before Wolverine and Jean. She transferred him to Bayville High School and he was in her office on his first day. After an incident involving Fred erupted in the cafeteria, Scott and Rogue spoke. Principal Darkholme broke them up and told the pair to go to their classes instead of talking, as they were doing.

Principal Darkholme hosted a meeting with the Brotherhood, having the group wait outside of her office while she spoke with Magneto. The latter told her of Pietro Maximoff, who was of particular interest to him. He wished for her to set up a meeting between him and Evan Daniels, who Charles Xavier had recently enrolled at the high school. Principal Darkholme set up a last minute game between Pietro's school and Bayville High, which brought the pair together. Following their conflict, he joined the Brotherhood.

Rogue began having nightmares over Nightcrawler's past as a baby and Mystique trying to save him from Magneto though ultimately dropping him in a river. These were in actuality suppressed memories of Mystique, who Rogue had absorbed earlier. Charles realized this and aware of her connection to Kurt, tried to confront her over what Magneto did to him. Mystique, in her Principal Darkholme guise, mocked Charles before being brought to recall the incident fully when he made a remark. After this, she lashed out at him and yelled for him to leave.

She later overheard Kurt after he had an argument with Rogue and the subsequent conversation she had with Scott and Jean, learning of his agony over not knowing about his past. To alleviate this, she had Pietro to deliver a letter to the Xavier Mansion since she theorized his powers would allow him to slip past Charles and the mansion's automated defenses. She also told him not to open the letter, but he did and told Magneto about it.

Kurt arrived at the construction site she specified for him to arrive at and she confronted him, revealing her identity as both Mystique and as his mother. Nightcrawler was surprised by this and even more so when the Brotherhood arrived. The group attacked him despite Mystique trying to stop them and he was taken out. The X-Men then arrived and defeated the Brotherhood. Rogue confronted Mystique and specified that she had questions to answer, but the latter said it was too late and morphed into a bird to get away.

After Asteroid M's destruction, Mystique effectively went into hiding and completely did away with her prior duty as principal of Wayville High, though returned to the school in the form of Risty Wilde. She met Rogue on their shared first day of the new school year and asked for assistance in finding her classes, the unsuspecting Rogue assisting her and making plans to help her further. As the Sadie Hawkins dance neared, Risty expressed a desire to attend while Rogue had distaste for the event, though Risty suggested the pair go together and stated she was not offended when Rogue said they would look like losers, continuing to hint at her wishes to attend. Rogue changed her mind and the pair went together, dancing until creatures from another dimension appeared, the one in which Nightcrawler used to teleport through that had slipped into his dimension as a result of his teleportation being slowed by Forge and the dimensional gate being left open. Risty pretended to be harmless and ran away from them with Rogue, even stopping Rogue from using her powers on one of the creatures by hitting it with both water from a hose and the hose itself and questioning if she was nuts for wanting it to come toward her. Risty also inquired about the identity of Forge.

Mystique, under the guise of a guard at Wanda Maximoff's mental facility, ended a meeting between her and Charles. She broke her out of the facility and abducted Charles, who was unable to read her mind due to her improved abilities. She approached the Brotherhood after this and expressed her dissatisfaction with the group's failure to defeat the X-Men and introduced them to Wanda, who after attacking them became their new teammate. She, posing as Charles, informed the X-Men of Wanda's past and the sighting of the Brotherhood at a mall. The X-Men went to confront the Brotherhood and were defeated. She posed as Charles while giving them words of wisdom as they came out of the mall in shame over their defeat.

Following the group's defeat, she began training the X-Men rigorously and had Jean to locate Wolverine after he was kidnapped, as well as Sabretooth. Jean began expressing doubt in herself and Mystique posing as Charles tried encouraging her. Despite having Beast and Storm to investigate his whereabouts, she spied on them and learned of their conclusion that Magneto was his captor. She relayed this to the Brotherhood and expressed her shock over his choice to kidnap one of the X-Men, and her belief that it was time she got involved. She continued her harsh training of the X-Men and found herself to be disappointed with Cyclops's decision to get Magneto by surprise. She met with the X-Men in the planning room after they were all shot with orange paint by drones and expressed her view that the group was not ready to fight Magneto, citing their defeat by the Brotherhood as an example of their inability.

She then introduced the Brotherhood as their new teammates and after Shadowcat tried expressing her distaste for the teams being pared together, Mystique claimed that she understood their concerns and that they would have to work together in order to stand a chance against Magneto. Cyclops left the group after this and Jean tried going after him, but Mystique stopped her and explained that they needed to return to their training and she to Cerebra. After Jean located Magneto, the two teams prepared embarking to confront him. Storm confronted Mystique on her choice to not wait for Cyclops and she defended her decision by claiming that Cyclops would be a liability with his confidence down. Storm again tried to stress Cyclops's importance, but Mystique refused to wait and the teams left the mansion, which Mystique had set to self-destruct when she activated DEFCON 4 and left the new recruits locked inside.

Posing as Xavier still, Mystique went to the site of Magneto's successful attempt at unveiling mutants to the public, where the Sentinel was released and combated the X-Men and Brotherhood. She tried to stop the Sentinel from attacking Magneto any further but was barred from interfering in the conflict by Wanda, redirecting her attention to rescuing the X-Men and Brotherhood members that had not been captured, stating that they would have to come back for the others and returning to the ruins of the Xavier Mansion which had exploded while she was gone. Mystique contently sat posed as Charles until Cyclops, now fully-aware of her identity, grabbed her with the correct accusation that she was the perpetrator of the mansion being destroyed, being thrown to the ground by the young X-Man. Mystique transformed as she confirmed her involvement and said that things were going to get much worse.

Personality

Mystique was cold and initially loyal to Magneto, though this may have been due to her apparent fear of him early on. She was not above using her powers to get what she wanted and when she wanted Rogue to not join the X-Men, she attacked them as members of the group knowing that the actual team would never harm her. Her concern for others varied. While it appeared that she cared about Rogue, even to the latter, she tried killing her and Cyclops the moment she learned the truth about him and the rest of the X-Men.

Powers and abilities

Mystique's ability to morph made her a suspicious and secretive foe to the X-Men. The only way to detect her initially was through Wolverine, who's own animal instincts allowed him to smell an individual no matter what appearance they had or Charles Xavier, who used his telepathy to read the minds of others and know what they were thinking and who they were with little to no difficulty. Operating as Bayville High School's principal allowed her to recruit new mutants and keep an eye on them daily, along with Charles's X-Men.

Trivia

• Mystique only transforms into members of the X-Men that joined the group prior to the beginning of the series.
• Mystique's design in the first season is heavily inspired by her appearance in the original X-Men comics.