The Artist & Her Work: X-Men Black: Mystique #1 Review

Writer: Seanan McGuire // Artist: Marco Failla// Publisher: Marvel **Featuring Backup Story “X-Men Black: Apocalypse Part 3” by Lonnie Nadler, Zac Thompson, and Geraldo Borges** “Chaos is an art like everything else. It is best left to the hands of a professional.” – Mystique Raven Darkholme aka Mystique aka Whoever the F*%$ She Wants She To Be At Any Given Moment is undoubtedly one of mutantdom’s most beloved villainesses and sometime opportunistic anti-hero.  Ignore the fact that the Powers That Be at Fox have chosen to portray Mystique as merely a lost and angry “do-gooder at heart”  because of her portrayal by Jennifer Lawrence in the “X-Men: First Class” continuity.  The real X-fans know that Mystique is a slick assassin who gives zeros F$%@s about you, your couch, or your flatscan genes. In the one-shot  “X-Men Black: Mystique #1,” Ms. Darkholme stays true to her roots. A few days in the life of Mystique involves traversing places, spaces, and identities with a single thought – subvert the homo sapien threat to homo superior liberty by any means necessary.   In the course of the issue, Mystique uses her shapeshifting abilities to traverse the human world without a care in the world – taking what she wants from whomever she sees fit.  She frames a U.S. government official with assault by pretending to be his battered and abused date, followed by hitching free rides in taxis and airplanes.  When she discovers that a teenage girl has gone missing, and probably apprehended …