Little is known about the origins of the shapeshifting mutant terrorist known as Mystique, the mutant name adopted by Raven Darkhölme which itself is an assumed name. As a consulting detective, her services were enlisted by Irene Adler, a mutant clairvoyant who had written confusing passages concerning the future of mutantkind that needed to be deciphered. In their quest, Darkhölme became 'Mystique' while Adler became 'Destiny'. The more they attempted to control the future the more they failed, a struggle that has made an angry Mystique embrace extremist solutions to achieve her objectives. Alongside her wife Destiny, Mystique reformed the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to assassinate anti-mutant politician Senator Robert Kelly, an attack that was prevented by the X-Men.

As a master deceiver and infiltrator, Mystique made her way inside mutant-related organizations, such as becoming the leader of Freedom Force and joining X-Factor, the Marauders, and even the X-Men. During Mystique's trajectory, the death of Destiny had the most tragic impact in her life. Seen as a treacherous ally, Mystique has proven her relevance for the fate of mutantkind with her actions aimed at shaping its future by forging her foster daughter Rogue into a significant mutant super-heroine, eliminating Mister Sinister, and building a mutant-ruled criminal empire on the island of Madripoor.

As Professor Xavier established a mutant nation-state on the island of Krakoa, Mystique has been granted a seat on the Krakoan government, the Quiet Council, in an attempt to give all factions of mutantkind some level of representation. However, once again Destiny's predictions would influence Mystique's actions, as she had knowledge about the rise of Krakoa, something that incited Mystique to work against Xavier's flawed plans.

 Mystique can psionically alter the formation of her biological cells at will. As a result, she can cause herself to look and sound like an exact duplicate of any human, humanoid, or semi-humanoid being of any sex, wearing virtually any kind of clothing. 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, smell to overlap the original being, and vocal cords to match voices to the point of corresponding voice prints.