Her first appearance was in Ms. Marvel #16 as Raven Darkhölme in 1978. That same year she appeared in Ms. Marvel #18 as Mystique. A beautiful creature, created by artist David Cockrum and writer Chris Claremont. Though she is no superhero, she is a super villain and, in my books, I see them as equally important. She is a mutant with the power to shape shift. One unique thing about her that intrigued me most was the fact that no one knows her exact age. She has mentioned being 100 years old but still, no one knows for sure her exact age.
With most of these characters that I come across, whether in a comic book or on TV, I have notice how when they first come out they seemed so innocent and only there to fight crime, whereas now a days, most are half naked and sporting sexy clothing with big guns or something added to there costume to attract the attention of the viewers in a different way than usual.
With mystique, on the other hand, she started out being almost half naked but in the movie X-Men that she played in, the woman who played her was completely naked throughout the whole movie. The only thing separating her skin from fresh air was blue paint. Which I found out had a serious effect on her. She would puke blue for a couple days after shooting a scene.
So costume wise, the way they used her natural body instead of a suit shows of the shape of her body more. Using a lean and fit woman gave them the means to attract more viewers. Due to the fact that she is naked, it gives more detail on certain body parts that would be covered with a suit. Her breast are naturally set on her chest instead of being pushed or changed in any way. You can see the muscle in her stomach. I like how they added the scales to cover her personal private parts. It makes her look more like a mutant that way, If they just painted her blue and started shooting a scene, all you would see is a naked blue woman. Though that may be appealing to some, in this case, it fits her character more with her having the scales.
They also gave her another unique feature, which I liked but wish they were a different color. Her eyes. Bright yellow with a cat like look to them. And her hair, bright red. usually kept down and pressed back like she had just gotten out of the shower.
Hi Maxx, you are so right about characters making their debut with the appearance of innocent, "one of the good guys", only to be deceived by our eyes when the good guy turn out to be bad and the one we believed to be bad turns out to be good.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that "Mystique" character in the movie X-Men was indeed superb. I was prepared to see a half-naked, blue painted model of an actress...I was blown away when Mystique was revealed... with nothing on but scales. Not only was Mystique character unique, the special effect crew did an amazing job with making her appear to morph into different forms.
I agree fully on this one. Mystique was one of the best villains in comic book history, and I agree that the movied objectified and thusly belittles how impressive a charachter she is/was. I think in the movies, they should have kept her long hair and that white outfit from the classic comics and tv shows.
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