Mystique is a mutant metamorph. She can psionically shift the atoms and molecules of her body and of whatever clothing she is wearing so as to change her and its appearance. Her control is so exact that she can precisely duplicate another person's retina pattern in her own eyes, finger, palm and skin-pore patterns on her own hands and skin, and vocal cords to match voices to the point of corresponding voiceprints. However, she is limited by her inability to diminish or increase her own mass at will. As a result, while she can make herself look exactly like a person who is physically bigger than herself, she will not weigh as much as the real person does. Although she can maintain the form of a person of her height, weight, and build indefinitely, the longer that she maintains the form of a person physically bigger than herself, the greater the strain she feels.

She was requested by Magneto to find the mutant Rogue and was responsible for convincing her to join the X-Men. Mystique promised Rogue that here she would learn to use her powers and be safe from the madman Apocalypse who had already tried to abduct her. Mystique would later become an entrepeneur in the profitable business of immgrant consignment. The price people pay Mystique for a ferry to Avalon is a hefty tariff. She fleeces the refugees and strips them of all they own. It is for this shameful reason that Mystique will not set foot on Avalon.

When her son Kurt Darkholme, the X-Man Nightcrawler, was sent by Magneto to find his mother to assist him in finding the foreseer called Destiny, Nightcrawler was able to talk Mytsique into traveling to Avalon usuing a guilt trip to sway his mother's disposition against the idea. Magneto required the use of Destiny's powers to confirm an alternate universe spoken of by the stranger Bishop and Mystique was needed to talk her into it. Unbeknownst to both mother and son, the Darkholmes were being followed by Apocalypse's Pale Riders. After the Pale Riders failed attack on Avalon, the Shadow King, Apocalypse's second wave, moved in and took possession of Mystique's body. She would eventually be saved by the combined efforts of her son Nightcrawler, the defected Pale Rider Damask, and Switchback.

During the X-Men's raid on Apocalypse's Citadel, Mystique used the confusion of the battle to disappear. Since then, Damask and Switchback have been helping him search the world for Mystique and recently reunited with Nightcrawler to report their findings before Kurt was called back the X-Men to help him repair the damage done to the world by Apocalypse.