A thing about Mystique is she could disguise herself as anyone. You could be Mystique. I could be Mystique.
Sorry, excuse me, I don’t know what that was.
Anyway, despite the fact that Mystique could shapeshift into anyone, we often associate her with a few things: blue skin (or scales, if we’re talking about the Fox X-Men movies), red hair, a white dress and decorative skulls.
Taking that into account, our team of talented artists sought to remix those elements and offer some new looks to Raven Darkholme — master criminal; wife of Destiny; parent of Rogue, Nightcrawler and Graydon Creed; former leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and Freedom Force; former member of X-Factor, all-around badass.
Check out their designs, and make sure you’re following them on socials!
Haydn
@thatssohaydn on Instagram
For this design I took inspiration from the original concept art for the first X-Men movie where Mystique is drawn as far more serpentine in appearance than the final product. With a snakelike face and a full body of scales, I wanted to give her a more militant and protective costume instead of her usual white dress.
Hector Barros
@snibbits on Instagram
I wanted to give Raven a completely different look from what we are used to, a bit of body horror, and hints to her previous role as Charles Xavier’s spy. The aim was to make her look dangerous and maybe even a bit gross. The mark on her forehead is based on a raven skull, and her skin is literally her clothes; they part and tear to reveal the bright red flesh underneath.
Isaiah Cox
@isacoart on Instagram
My current redesign of Mystique is an updated, more defined version of a sketch I did in 2024. I wanted her to have a very sleek, sexy and espionage-heavy look, so she’s sporting a lot of wetlook fabric and shiny leathers. Having been inspired by artist daxramires drawing her clothing as these sort of shifting, colorful scales, I thought it would be fun to use that for her top. Naturally, she’s adorned with skulls galore on her belt, a “choker” pendant, as well as her *iconic* forehead piece. Finally, I capped off this design with some cherry red, bone straight, middle parted, 40-inch hair, because how could I not let her serve?
Rake
@pastelrake on Instagram
In contemporary comics, Mystique’s body forms the very clothing she wears, posing the unsettling question of where does texture end and flesh begin?
With this body horror in mind, I imagined Mystique’s base form as being a perpetually fluid, vague skin suit with inconsistent lines. Finally, as the historic femme fatale of the franchise, I felt a ’40s gumshoe silhouette suited her infamous mercuriality.
Shaun L. White
@rlwhitesillustrations on Instagram
In my reimagining of Mystique for my developed “The New Mutants” animated series, I aim to capture the essence of a thrilling spy aesthetic from the ’60s to fit her occupation, such as James Bond, plus taking inspiration from artist Isaiah Cox by design, while giving her the afro features and certain jewelry that pay tribute to Dave Cockrum’s original take. Also, golden guns!
The full detailed style does get the Spider-Verse treatment, and making it better is adding texture to her skin and shapeshifting effects, which is an homage to the Fox universe, which is the only good thing I can say about it.
Trae Middlebrooks
@trae.drew.that on Instagram
My Mystique redesign is based on the version of her featured briefly in Bishop: War College (Earth-63). That version had black stripes on her face, and I used that as the basis for a simple geometric costume. I wanted to blur the lines between what appears as part of her costume and what appears as her own body. I also wanted there to be a few similarities to my redesign of Nightcrawler as a nod to their connection.
Dan Grote is the editor and publisher of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Paul Winston Wisdom. Follow him @danielpgrote.bsky.social.
