X-Men Debuts Histoic New Villain, The Child Of Mystique

Marvel introduces a brand-new X-Men villain, a descendant of Mystique's, bearing their Brotherhood ancestor's powers. Although there are countless more directly powerful mutations than shapeshifting, Mystique's main superpower is incredibly versatile. Raven Darkhölme is able to impersonate almost every individual she desires, down to their fingerprints, irises, and voice. This allows her to infiltrate any team, but also replicate a wide variety of traits, like Nightcrawler's tail, Angel's wings, and Beast's feral anatomy.

Mystique's shapeshifting mutation is also one of the most scientifically unrealistic, despite not being as powerful as Magneto's control over magnetism or Jean Grey's telekinesis. Since she copies and replicates all organic matter, Mystique effectively summons all kinds of materials out of thin air, and she can seemingly create matter from nothing in order to boost her mass when she impersonates characters like the Blob. Besides, her body can transform her organic matter into perfectly realistic artificial materials, from regular clothes to weapons like Wolverine's claws, albeit not made of real adamantium.

And yet, even though Mystique's powers already push the boundaries of realism, they can still be enhanced by the X-Gene itself, as evidenced by a possible future where one of her children inherits an improved version of her shapeshifting abilities.

Mirrormind Is Mystique's Son With Mastermind

Bishop #3; Written By Saladin Ahmed; Art By Mario Santoro, Reese Hannigan, And Federico Blee

Protecting his long-lost sister Shard, Bishop has already defeated two members of the Final Brotherhood: Pyro and Avalanche's descendant Flamequake and Toad and Blob and Toad's descendant Skippinstone, both of whom possess the combined powers of their original Brotherhood ancestors. Now, despite ensuring Shard is safe in the present day, Lucas Bishop comes face to face with Mirrormind, descendant of Mystique and Mastermind, who impersonates Shard and lures Bishop into a illusion-cloaked ship where reality may not be what it seems.

As Mystique and Mastermind's descendant, Mirrormind can change their appearance while simultaneously controlling how other people perceive those changes. Besides disguising themselves as another person, they can create multiple apparent versions of themselves while physically shifting between forms, or make their opponent perceive them as having completely different powers. More disturbingly, Mirrormind could combine physical shapeshifting with sensory manipulation to make an illusion effectively impossible to distinguish from reality. A target could see three copies of Mirrormind, hear contradictory voices, feel an attack that never happened, and then discover that the real Mirrormind was standing somewhere else entirely.

The X-Men Should Be Grateful They Haven't Had To Fight The Final Brotherhood

Bishop Is Lucky He's Fighting The Final Brotherhood One By One

Normally, the descendants of powerful mutants gain their powers from a genetic lottery. After all, Mystique and Destiny's son himself, Nightcrawler, ended up inheriting Azazel's powers from Mystique's temporary form instead of her regular shapeshifting abilities or Destiny's precognition. Yet, all three members of the Final Brotherhood introduced in Bishop so far have possessed the two main powers of their Brotherhood of Mutants ancestors, which makes them a two-in-one combo of incredibly dangerous supervillains.

The Brotherhood's history offers plenty of other combinations that could produce similarly dangerous descendants. Members whose descendants have yet to appear in Bishop include none other than Magneto and Sabretooth, plus other notable members like Black Tom Cassidy, Slither, Destiny, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Exodus, and Marrow. The mere idea of a mutation combination pool consisting of magnetism, super-healing, psionics, super-speed, precognition, and energy manipulation makes other potential Final Brotherhood members a genuine threat to all mutantkind.

Which new Final Brotherhood member would you like to see?

Bishop #3 is now available from Marvel Comics