Superheroes Assemble!

M: M (Monet) - Magma - Mantis - Marrina - Moonstar - The Morlocks - Mystique -

M (Monet)
Real Name: (as one being) Monet St. Croix, (as two) Claudette St. Croix and Nicole St. Croix
Other aliases: None known
Identity: The general populace is unaware that Monet St. Croix is a mutant or that she is really two separate beings
100%;" >Occupation: Student
Legal status: Citizen of Monaco with no criminal record, still a minor
Place of birth: Monaco
Marital status: Single
Known relatives: Cartier St. Croix (father), Marius St. Croix (Emplate, brother)
Base of operations: (current) Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Massachusetts Academy, Snow Valley, Massachusetts, (former) Monaco, Algeria
Group affiliation: Generation X
First appearance: UNCANNY X-MEN #316

History: Of all of the students who have attended Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, the mutant girl called M is the most mysterious.

M, also known as Monet St. Croix, is a teenage Algerian who lived in Monaco and is the daughter of Cartier St. Croix, the wealthy former president of several corporations.

Monet first came in contact with many of her future classmates at Xavier's School when she and they were captured by the alien techno-organic race known as the Phalanx. Following the defeat of the Phalanx, Professor Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men, decided to see to it that M and her fellow teenage mutant captives were instructed in the uses of their powers. Therefore, he established a new version of his School for Gifted Youngsters at the Massachusetts Academy in Snow Valley, Massachusetts. M and her fellow students thus became the team known as Generation X.

As time passed there was a series of surprising revelations about the usually aloof M. It turned out that the silent aborigine mutant Gateway had been her mentor. It was revealed that Generation X's most implacable enemy, Emplate, was actually her brother Mariu. Oddly, she would at times go into an autistic state when she engaged in intense thought, and at other times she would shift from her usual mature, sophisticated personality into a childlike one.

Recently Monet abruptly divided into two separate little girls, the twin sisters Claudette and Nicole St. Croix. It appears that these are her true, original forms, and at some point in her past the two sisters merged into Monet, whose physical age is the same as that of the combination of the twins' ages. It also appears that the merger gives Monet superhuman abilities that neither of the twins can utilize on her own. Even more astonishing, after the twins merged again into Monet, she somehow fused with Emplate to become a dangerous being called M-Plate. As of now, the full story behind M and her different forms is as yet to be revealed.

Height: (as M): 5 ft. 7 in.
Weight: (as M): 125 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black

Stength Level (as M): Superhuman Class 10 (at least)

Known Superhuman Powers: The twins Claudette and Nicole St. Croix are mutants with the superhuman ability to fuse into a single being, known as Monet St. Croix, or M, whose physical age equals the combination of their chronological ages. (In turn Monet can fuse with her brother Emplate to become the superhuman being known as M-Plate.)

As Monet or M, she possesses various superhuman powers including superhuman strength, the ability to fly, telepathic powers (whose range is limited, though those limits have not been specifically defined), and superhumanly acute night vision. She also possesses extraordinary intelligence, although it is unclear whether it reaches superhuman levels.

Other abilities: Due to her extraordinarily high intelligence, M is an excellent scholar.

Magma
Real Name: Allison Crestmere
Other aliases: None
Identity: Secret
Occupation: (current) None, (former) Student, adventurer
Legal status: Subject of the United Kingdom, still a minor, no criminal record
Place of birth: England
Marital status: Single, engaged
Known relatives: Lucius Antonius Aquilla (adopted father in Nova Roma)
Base of operations (former) Nova Roma, Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Salem
Group affiliation: (current) None, (former) New Mutants, Hellions
First appearance: (as Amara Aquilla) NEW MUTANTS #8, (as Magma) NEW MUTANTS #10

History: Magma believed that she was the daughter of Lucius Antonius Aquilla, First Senator of Nova Roma, a hidden city in the Amazon jungles of Brazil. She also believed that as a child she had studied that in the First Century, BC a large number of the citizens of ancient Rome foresaw that its republican government would be supplanted by an imperial one. Therefore, they fled Rome and sailed to the New World, eventually founding Nova Roma in the Amazon Jungles. The people of Nova Roma intermarried with the Incas, many of whom fled there after the Spanish conquered their land. The Incan civilization had been an absolute monarchy and in recent years a faction arose in Nova Roma that wanted to transform it into a monarchy in the style of Incan government.

Senator Lucius Aquilla was the leader of the opposition to this faction that wished to turn Nova Roma into an imperial state. Senator Aquilla sent his daughter Amara to live in the jungles outside Nova Roma, disguised as an Indian, to save her from the Black Priestess and her Fire Cult, who dealt in human sacrifice. Later, the senator discovered that the Black Priestess was actually the immortal mutant Selene, wife of Senator Marcus Domitius Gallio, the leader of the Imperial faction.

Amara remained in hiding for years until she was captured by the New Mutants, who were on an expedition in the Amazon jungle. They learned of her disguise, but then both Amara and the New Mutants were captured by soldiers of Nova Roma and imprisoned. Now held prisoner by Selene, Amara was to be sacrificed. Selene used her mutant powers to drain Amara's life energy into her own body. The New Mutant named Mirage attacked Selene. This distraction caused Selene to release Amara from her control, but Selene knocked Amara into the pit of lava.

Somehow, rather than harming Amara, her immersion in the lava awakened her latent mutant powers. Together, Amara, with her newfound powers, and the New Mutants defeated Selene and helped thwart Senator Gallio's attempt to kill Senator Aquilla and seize power. Amara was instructed to go to the United States with the New Mutants and there learn about modern civilization. Amara did so and became a member of the New Mutants under the code-name Magma. Amara later left the New Mutants and joined the Hellions, and then returned to South America with the Hellion member called Empath. Amara sensed something was different about her homeland and its people but could not discern what was worrying her.

Later, the New Mutants gained a new mentor, the X-men's enemy Magneto, who agreed to Magma's request to to be transferred to Emma Frost's Massachusetts Academy. Her request was based on her crush on the mutant known as Empath, a member of the Hellions which operated out of the Massachusetts Academy. A few months later, Amara received a letter from her father. He ordered her home to meet with a Prince that he had arranged for her to marry. Hellion member Empath accompanied her on the flight to Nova Roma. During the flight there was a bad storm and the plane crashed in a swamp.

Amara and Empath found themselves being drawn closer together during their trek through the wilderness, without Empath even having to use his powers. Amara was wounded while saving Empath from a jaguar. He soon realized that Amara hoped that they would not be found by her father, because of the marriage plans her father had in store for her. Empath, knowing her wound was getting infected, used his powers to upset her so that she caused an earth tremor and raised a small volcano. A few days later, they were found by her father, who had located them due to her earth tremors.

Soon after, while Amara and Empath were still in Nova Roma, Amara was captured by agents of the criminal geneticist High Evolutionary. The agents teleported her to a secret base, planning to remove her powers permanently. Emma Frost called Magneto and told him about the kidnapping. The New Mutants overheard Magneto talking about Amara's kidnapping and that they had located the base where Amara was being kept. The New Mutants teleported to the base before Magneto and the others, hoping to rescue Amara themselves. They arrived in time to rescue Amara before her powers were taken from her, and they then defeated the High Evolutionary's agents.

When Magneto and the Hellfire Club arrived, the New Mutants and Amara teleported back to their school in New York, fearful of being discovered. Before escaping, they overheard Magneto mention some special plans he and the Hellfire Club had for Amara. The New Mutants begged Amara to stay with them, but she gently refused. She knew that she had to face her father and deal with the plans he had made for her. She also felt that she would be safer in Nova Roma, away from Magneto and the other Hellfire Club members and their plans for her

Later, all of the remaining members of the Hellions were killed by Trevor Fitzroy. Warpath, joined by Firestar and Cannonball, who were all once members of the Hellions, went to South America to tell Amara and Empath of the death of their former teammates. While there, they discovered that Amara and all the people of this city had been living a lie. The city had not been founded by ancient Roman settlers. Instead, it was populated by the kidnapped and mind-wiped victims of the mutant sorceress Selene. She had created the city as a testament to the times she loved most and desperately wanted to relive. The people of Nova Roma started to regain their memories and Amara was told that her name was Allison Crestmere and that she was a mutant of British descent.

Later still, both Magma and Empath were kindapped by the mutant twins Fenris, a plot that was part of an elborate and deadly game organized by the villainous Gamesmaster. They were rescued by the team X-Force (formerly, the New Mutants). Afterwards, Magma decided to leave Empath and her friends, to search for her family in England.

More recently, Magma was mentally dominated to join the New Hellions by the villain King Bedlam. King Bedlam unleashed the Armageddon Man, and Magma teamed up with X-Force to defeat him, after which she departed from her friends again

Height: 5 ft. 6 in.
Weight: 124 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Blonde

Strength Level: Magma possesses the normal human strength of a woman of her age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise.

Known Superhuman Powers: Magma is a mutant with several superhuman powers. She can psionically control the movement of the tectonic plates within the Earth's crust within limited areas, probably no more than a radius of a few city blocks. Within this area she can create small but powerful earthquakes by psionically affecting the Earth's crust. She can also psionically cause magma, or molten rock, from far beneath Earth's surface to rise to and break through the surface, forming miniature volcanoes. Magma's power to create small earthquakes and volcanic eruptions is linked to her emotions. She could unintentionally create minor earthquakes and small-scale volcanic activity by losing control of her temper and becoming unusually angry.

Magma can also telekinetically project fiery blasts of magma at targets. Apparently she does so by turning nearby rock molten and then telekinetically hurling it at her target.

When using her powers Magma's body shines with intense light and gives off tremendous heat. Her hair seems ablaze with fiery light. Neither her own heat nor heat from any other known source can burn or otherwise harm Magma. Although Magma has triggered small earth tremors without taking on her glowing form, she has never been seen to use her power to fire lava blasts while in her ordinary human appearance. Magma is not blinded by the light she gives off in her shining form.

Magma can create flames and project blasts of heat that do not contain any molten rock. However, she apparently prefers to fire magma blasts rather than simple heat blasts, perhaps because the magma blasts have a solid impact that can knock down a target.

The highest level of heat that Magma can generate is not yet known, but it is believed that she can reach at least 850° Fahrenheit.

Magma's powers are dependent upon her contact with the Earth (or at least with a floor that is part of a structure in contact with the ground). Her powers will begin to weaken if she is removed from physical contact with the Earth. However, as soon as she renews this contact, her powers will return to their usual level of strength.

Abilities: Magma is a skilled swordswoman due to her training in Nova Roma. Paraphernalia: Magma's costume and clothing are made from unstable molecules so that they will not be harmed by the tremendous heat she generates.

Mantis
Real Name: Unknown
Occupation: Barmaid, later adventuress, later Celestial Madonna
Identity: Secret
Legal Status: Expatriate Vietnamese citizen, granted special visa to the United States on the request of the Avengers
Other Aliases: The Celestial Madonna
Place of Birth: Unknown village in Vietnam
Marital Status: Married
Known Relatives: Gustav Brandt (alias Lloyd Willoughby, father), Lua Brandt (mother, deceased), Khrull (uncle)
Group Affiliation: Avengers
Base of Operations: Temple of the Priests of Pama, Vietnam; later, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), Vietnam; later, Avengers Mansion, New York City; currently unknown
First Appearance: AVENGERS #112

History: Mantis was the daughter of Gustav Brandt, a German who fought in Indochina as a mercenary soldier, and his wife Lua, the sister of Monsieur Khrull, the leader of a local underworld organization. Khrull despised Europeans and was therefore infuriated by his sister's marriage. He was determined to kill both her and her husband. As a result the Brandts fled from one Indochinese village to another for nearly ten months. Towards the end, Mantis was born, and the Brandts decided to stop fleeing, but to remain in hiding. Nevertheless, Khrull and his men found them and used flamethrowers to set their home ablaze. Lua was killed. Badly burned and blinded, Gustav Brandt escaped with his infant daughter, who was unharmed. They both fled for days until they reached the temple of the Priests of Pama, a pacifistic sect of the humanoid alien Kree who established temples on various worlds to escape Kree persecution. Because he was a soldier, the pacifistic Priests separated Brandt from his daughter so that they could raise her in their more peaceful ways. They tried to teach Brandt their philosophy as well, but succeeded only in teaching him how to "see" despite his blindness, presumably by psychic means. After a number of years Brandt left the temple and made his way to Honolulu, where he became a criminal under the alias of Lloyd Willoughby. Later, he joined the criminal cartel known as Zodiac under the name Libra.

The Priests educated Brandt's daughter, who they knew might someday become the Celestial Madonna, the woman who would mother the Celestial Messiah, a genetically perfect being of great power who would bring peace to the universe. She proved to be especially talented in her studies of the Kree pacifists' martial arts. It was because of her skill in defeating male opponents in combat that she took the name "Mantis" after the insect whose females kill the males. Mantis was also taught to communicate telepathically with the Cotati, an alien race of telepathic plant-beings, one of whom would father the Celestial Messiah. The priests had brought some of the Cotati to Earth. The growth of Mantis's telepathic rapport with the Cotati was the basis for her overall empathic nature.

When Mantis had completed her training, the Priests decided that she should be sent to live among humans so as to learn what it was to be a human. Therefore, on the night of Mantis's eighteenth birthday, two of the Priests took her, dressed in ordinary Vietnamese clothing, to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) and left her there. The Priests of Pama had removed Mantis's memories of her life at their temple, and instead gave her false memories of growing up in Ho Chi Minh City as an orphan, struggling to survive.

Within hours, Mantis was taken to Monsieur Khrull; neither knew of his or her familial relationship to the other. Khrull forced her to work in a bar he owned as a barmaid. It was there that she eventually met the Swordsman, a costumed criminal who had come to Indochina because he was wanted by legal authorities through much of the rest of the world, and was now no more than an employee of Khrull's. Disgusted with his life, the Swordsman had become an alcoholic, but Mantis saw a buried nobility in him which made her recognize a similar spirit in herself, and made her dissatisfied with the way she was leading her own life. Mantis continually pleaded with the Swordsman to rehabilitate himself, and encouraged him to lead a life of which he could be proud. Finally, the Swordsman was wounded in an unsuccessful raid on a warehouse belonging to a mob that was a rival of Khrull's. Mantis found him and took him to her flat where she nursed him back to health. Now the Swordsman was ready to take her advice. He decided to reform, to return to America, and to offer his services to the Avengers. Mantis accompanied him, and when the Swordsman was readmitted to the Avengers, she was allowed to stay at Avengers Mansion as a courtesy to him. Mantis accompanied the Avengers on their missions and proved herself to be a valuable ally. However, while the Swordsman was deeply in love with Mantis, she believed she was not in love with him, and her disdain for his insecurities grew.

After the Avengers defeated Zodiac with her help, Libra revealed to Mantis that he was her father and told her how she had been raised in a temple, although he did not explain to her who the Priests of Pama really were. One day afterwards, the Avengers were attacked by their archenemy from the future, Kang the Conqueror, who had determined that one of the women then associated with the Avengers was the Celestial Madonna. Kang knew of the prophecy that the Celestial Madonna's husband would be the "most powerful" being on Earth. It was for this reason that Kang had always attacked the 20th Century. Once he discovered who the Madonna was, Kang planned to father her child, thereby diverging an alternate reality in which he could rule the universe through the powers of his son, who would be the Celestial Messiah. Although Kang was thwarted in his plan, he discovered and revealed to Mantis and the Avengers that Mantis was the Celestial Madonna. In the course of these events, the Swordsman was killed by a stray blast from one of Kang's weapons. As the Swordsman died, Mantis realized that she did indeed love him. He was buried in the garden of the temple of the Priests of Pama, which Mantis and the Avengers had visited after their battle with Zodiac. The Priests were now all dead, having been killed by Khrull and his men.

Later, in the Priests' temple garden in Vietnam, Mantis and her Avenger comrades encountered Libra and the glowing, reanimated body of the Swordsman. It was the eldest Cotati on Earth, which now resembled a large tree in the garden, which animated and spoke through the Swordsman's body. The eldest Cotati told Mantis that she was the Celestial Madonna and that he was to be her husband. He had reanimated the Swordsman's body with part of his life force since he could not mate with her in his tree-like form. Their child would be "a new life form" and would be the Celestial Messiah.

In honor of Mantis, the Avengers unanimously made her an Avenger. Immortus, master of time, officiated at the wedding of Mantis and the eldest Cotati. Once the ceremony was finished, the eldest Cotati (within the Swordsman's body) and Mantis both transformed themselves into pure energy and departed Earth.

Years later, Mantis began a tour the galaxy after raising her child to self-sufficiency. She encountered the alien Silver Surfer and nursed his injuries. Adventuring with the Surfer, the two fell in love. Together, they stopped a plot by the Elders of the Universe to destroy and recreate the universe. In retaliation, the Elders presumably killed Mantis, but in actuality, she projected her consciousness to Earth and found herself slightly amnesiac. She returned to the Avengers to recover from her amnesia, and in the process revived her true body.

She left to return to her child, and soon found Kang pursuing her anew. At the same time, the Coati took custody of the child, to Mantis' chagrin. No longer trusting the Coati, Mantis willed her spirit to leave her body again in order to pursue them and retrieve the child.

The ultimate fate of Mantis' child remains unknown. Mantis reappeared to join the Silver Surfer and others in stopping the mad rampage of the planet-eater Galactus, which ultimately led to Galactus' death. Mantis left to resume her travels through the universe for her own mysterious purposes.

Height: 5 ft. 6 in.
Weight: 115 lbs.
Eyes: Green
Hair: Black

Strength Level: Mantis possessed the normal human strength of a woman of her age, height, and build who engages in intensive regular exercise.

Known Superhuman Powers: Thanks to her training by the Priests of Paine, Mantis had "complete control" over her body. Her agility was as great as any woman without superhuman powers could achieve. She was also capable of willing herself to recuperate quickly after being injured.

Mantis had extraordinary ability in the martial arts that have been developed and perfected over thousands of years by the Priests of Pama. These fighting methods place particular emphasis on the manipulation of pressure points and nerve endings on the bodies of one's opponents. Thus, by knowing the right areas of the body to strike, Mantis could stun even a being as powerful as Thor even though she herself had no superhuman strength.

Mantis had an empathic ability which enabled her to sense the emotions of others, which she felt as psychic "vibrations."

To travel in space, Mantis projected her consciousness from her body, allowing her to travel interplanetary distances. She would recreate a body for herself out of the destination planet’s local vegetation. Her fighting skills remained intact, and her empathic abilities were heightened to a superhuman degree and extended to the planet’s flora and biosphere. She could control the vegetation within her vicinity.

Marrina
Real Name: Marrina Smallwood
Occupation: Former adventurer, now queen of Deluvia
Identity: Although she has no dual identity, her existence is not known to the general public. She is publicly known in Deluvia.
Legal Status: Naturalized citizen of Canada, with no criminal record, citizen of Deluvia
Former Aliases: None
Place of Hatching: Newfoundland, Canada
Marital Status: Married
Known Relatives: Thomas (foster father), Gladys (foster mother), Daniel (foster parents' grandson), Namor (husband)
Group Affiliation: Former member of Gamma Flight and Beta Flight, current member of Alpha flight
Base of Operations: Deluvia, Atlantic Ocean
First Appearance: ALPHA FLIGHT #1

History: At least tens of thousands of years ago, an extraterrestrial race called the Plodex had, through overpopulation, exhausted the natural resources of their native planet. They had, moreover, completely colonized their moons and the neighboring planets. Dedicated to further expansion, the Plodex conquered thousands of worlds over the following centuries and stripped them of their resources. The Plodex devised a special method of conquest. Great numbers of colonization starships were sent to worlds whose dominant life forms were still in the early stages of their cultural development. Only one such starship would be sent to a planet. No adult Plodex traveled in these starships, which functioned entirely automatically, but each starship held millions of Plodex eggs.

The colonization starship would land in the region of the planet that it determined to be the most inhospitable to the native fauna. The starship would draw elements from the planet and, over the next hundred Earth years, rebuild itself into a vast colonization complex that was rooted into the planet. Once the rebuilding was complete, the complex would send out a hypnotic signal that would induce representatives of each mobile form of life on the planet to come to the complex. The most intelligent species that survived the journey to the complex would be judged to be the planet's dominant life form. The complex would then take the specimen of that species prisoner, and dissect and thoroughly analyze its physical and genetic structure. That genetic structure would then be imprinted upon the chromosomes of the cells of each of the Plodex eggs. The virtually indestructible eggs would then be fired on ballistic paths that would emerge from the eggs would have genetic structures that were partly that of the Plodex, and partly that of the planet's dominant life form. According to Plodex biology, each egg is part of a pair, and the creatures which hatch from the pair of eggs grow up to be each other's mates. Not all of the hatchlings will survive, much less find their mates, but many out of the millions of each world will do both. Furthermore, each hatchling has been genetically programmed to conquer. As a result, the hatchlings in many cases succeed in dominating the planet.

One of these colony ships was launched 50,000 years ago. After 10,000 years in space, one of its drive units exploded, and the ship crashed in northern Asia on Earth during the Ice Age. Damaged by the crash, the starship fired off its supply of eggs before they had received their genetic programming to enable them to survive on this planet. One of the eggs landed in the ocean and drifted across its floor for 40,000 years. In order to survive, the egg became water permeable, and the adaptable creature within the egg became amphibious. The egg was finally discovered twenty years ago by fisherman Thomas Smallwood. His wife Gladys forced the egg open. The creature within the egg, still primed for genetic conditioning, instantly took on humanoid form as soon as it made contact with the cells of Gladys Smallwood's body. Thus, Gladys Smallwood saw a humanoid infant hatch from the egg. Thomas and Gladys Smallwood adopted the infant, whom they named Marrina since Thomas found her egg at sea, and raised her as their daughter. Neither the Smallwoods nor anyone else in their community suspected Marrina's alien origin, and instead believed that genetic defects were responsible for her unusual appearance. Marrina had been "damaged" in her hatching, and therefore had no conscious drive to conquer, nor was she dominated by savage instincts. Instead, she had a normal Earth girl's personality.

When Marrina seemed to reach maturity, Thomas Smallwood's grandson Daniel told James McDonald Hudson of the Canadian government's Department H about her superhuman abilities. Marrina agreed to join Gamma Flight, the entry level training team for the government's recently organized super-agent program. She worked her way into Beta Flight, the transitional training team, and became eligible for Alpha Flight, the team of active agents, just as the program lost its federal funding. She joined Alpha Flight when it became an independently operated team of adventurers. It was not until after she joined Alpha Flight that she learned of her true origin through encounters with the Master.

The man who became the Master had been captured forty thousand years ago by the Plodex starship that had come to Earth. In studying the captive, the starship's mechanisms painfully destroyed most of his body, keeping only his brain alive. The brain eventually established control over the starship's computer system and commanded the ship to construct a new, perfect human body for himself. Finally, in recent times, the Master decided to embark on world conquest. But he had become so much a part of the starship that he was unable to free himself from it.

The Master learned that two of the Plodex who had been contained in the ship's eggs had hatched and existed at the present time: Marrina and another Plodex, who would presumably serve as her mate. The Master was determined to destroy both Marrina and the other surviving Plodex being, in order to revenge himself upon the Plodex race for the torture he had suffered, and also to thwart the Plodex plans for conquest of Earth by means of the Plodex who had survived there. The Master broadcast a hypnotic signal that unleashed Marrina's submerged savage instincts temporarily, and which forced her to come to the starship. The Master then directed the starship's mechanisms to take her prisoner and torture her. While she was his prisoner, the Master informed her of her true, alien origin. The other members of Alpha Flight came to her rescue and, as the Master had intended, destroyed so much of the starship's mechanisms that the Master was freed from the starship, and he escaped. The Master hoped that Marrina too would have been destroyed, but she survived along with the rest of Alpha Flight and their allies on the mission, the Invisible Woman and Prince Namor of Atlantis, the Sub-Mariner.

Namor invited Marrina to accompany him to Atlantis, and the two soon became lovers. In an encounter with the alien Collector, Marrina saw inhuman-looking, savage Plodex that he had collected on other planets and kept on his starship. Marrina was disturbed to see these other Plodex.

The Master found the other surviving member of the Plodex on Earth, which had a monstrous form and was fully given over to its instincts to kill and to dominate. The Master permitted the creature to commit a series of murders in Canada as it studied human beings, Earth's dominant life form, which it was genetically programmed to imitate in appearance. The Master knew that eventually Alpha Flight, especially Marrina, would investigate the killings. Indeed, the Alpha Flight member named Puck summoned Marrina to search for the creature. As she approached the creature, she was greatly affected by chemical stimuli it gave off, which finally triggered her savage instincts once more. She returned to attack Puck, and then battled the Sub-Mariner, who had followed her to Canada. The Master captured Marrina, Namor, and Puck and took them to his submarine. There the still savage Marrina confronted the other surviving Plodex and came to believe it was her intended mate. Marrina, Namor, and Puck escaped, and the Master's submarine exploded, but Marrina allowed Namor to think she had disappeared, and perhaps been killed in the blast. She had reverted to her normal self, and was overcome with shame over her savage instincts and the way she had wanted to give in to them. Believing herself to be a monster, Marrina departed from Puck to lead a solitary life at sea.

Having overcome her savage tendencies, Marrina has married Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner and has become Queen of his new undersea kingdom Deluvia. When Deluvia failed and the Sub-Mariner returned to the surface world as an outcast, Marrina left with him. The Sub-Mariner then accepted membership with the hero team Avengers, and Marrina became an associate of the team.

Unaware of that she was pregnant, Marrina's condition triggered a transformation into a huge savage sea creature resembling the mythical Leviathan. After sinking several fleets of ships and ravaging Atlantis, the Avengers hunted her down. Ultimately, it was the Sub-Mariner who mortally wounded her with the Black Knight's Ebony Blade. Marrina, whose body had changed back into its normal form, was then buried by the Sub-Mariner with the honor fitting one who had been his mate and an associate of the Avengers.

Later, the Avengers uncovered a nest made of the remnants of the Leviathan's destruction and eggs, which had already hatched. Presumably an unknown number of offspring had fled into the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean.

Height: 6 ft.
Weight: 200 lbs.
Eyes: Black
Hair: Green
Skin: Pale yellow
Unusual Features: Marrina has gills, large fish-like eyes, and webbed hands and feet.

Strength Level: Marrina has superhumanly strong physiology enabling her to withstand the pressure changes beneath the sea as well as granting her superhuman strength on land. The exact limit of her strength is unknown.

Known Superhuman Powers: Marrina possesses numerous superhuman traits making her totally amphibious: she can exist indefinitely on land or under the sea. She has highly efficient gills that enable her to extract oxygen from water as well as lungs which enable her to breathe in the air. Marrina's superhuman physiology enables her to withstand the freezing temperatures of the Arctic Ocean without injury or impairment.

Marrina's hydrodynamic proportions, sleek skin, webbed extremities, and superhuman strength aid her in swimming. She can travel underwater faster than one of the fastest known sea creatures, the bottle-nosed dolphin. Marrina has been timed at speeds approaching 48 miles per hour (51 knots), averaged over a period of several hours, when swimming in a conventional manner. Mardna is also capable of massive acceleration through the water for short periods of time by shedding the outer layer of her skin, revealing a strange, nearly frictionless inner layer of skin that permits her to travel through water faster than any known human-sized organism or object. The exact speed at which she can travel in this manner is not yet known. Her outer layer of skin spontaneously regenerates as soon as she slows down.

Marrina's body can change shape to some unknown degree, and it grows more inhuman-looking the longer Mardna remains dominated by her savage instincts. Whether or not Marrina can learn to alter her appearance by a conscious act of will is unknown.

Marrina's skin secretes an oil which can cause extreme constriction of the pupils of a member of another species who is exposed to it, blinding him or her temporarily.

Limitations: Although Mardna normally had a friendly human personality, thanks to her upbringing by her foster parents, her mental programming by the Plodex with a savage lust for conquest lies submerged in her consciousness.

Moonstar
Real Name: Danielle "Dani" Moonstar
Occupation: Adventurer, espionage agent, former valkyrie
Identity: Secret
Legal status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record
Former aliases: Psyche, Mirage
Place of birth: Boulder, Colorado
Marital status: Single
Known relatives: Black Eagle (grandfather, deceased), William Lonestar (father), Peg Lonestar (mother)
Group affiliation: X-Men; formerly X-Force, S.H.I.E.L.D., Mutant Liberation Front, Valkyries, and New Mutants
Base of operations: Professor Charles Xavier's School for Higher Learning, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York; also her parents' ranch in Colorado
First Appearance: MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL #4

History: Danielle Moonstar is an American Indian of the Cheyenne Nation. Moonstar's mutant powers emerged at puberty but she could not control her ability to create visible images of people's greatest fears. She could not stop herself from creating such images at unexpected moments, and she thereby alienated everyone in her community except for her parents William and Peg Lonestar, and her grandfather, the chief and shaman Black Eagle.

One night she created a symbolic vision of her parents' deaths. Shortly thereafter her parents disappeared during a trip to the mountains. Moonstar believed them to have been killed, and her dreams were haunted thereafter by a vision of a demonic bear, whom she believed to be responsible for their deaths. In fact, Moonstar's parents had been transformed into the demonic bear by an as yet unrevealed cause. This bear was intended to work the same transformation upon Moonstar, but the spells of Black Eagle kept the demonic bear away from her.

After her parents' disappearance, Moonstar was taken in by their friends, the Roberts. Pat Roberts, their son, and Danielle were very close friends. After she had been at the Roberts's home a week, Moonstar was at Sunday dinner with them when Pat said something to her that provoked her. Moonstar lashed out at him with her psychic power, unaware she had it. The images of the objects of Pat's greatest fear and desire appeared before Pat and his family as a result. Moonstar fled to the mountains, where Black Eagle raised her over the following years, Finally, Black Eagle sent a letter to Professor Charles Xavier, who had become a friend of his son, William, Danielle's father, when both Xavier and William were in the army. Xavier and William had become blood brothers, and Xavier had become acquainted with Black Eagle. Black Eagle believed that Xavier could provide Moonstar with the training she needed to utilize her powers best, and asked him in the letter to do so. When Black Eagle asked Moonstar to go with Xavier when he came, she angrily refused, believing all Caucasians to be her enemies. In her anger she unintentionally created an image of Black Eagle's death, as he had foreseen it in a prophetic dream. Black Eagle ordered her to go with Xavier, and she agreed.

But before Xavier arrived, Black Eagle was murdered by agents of Donald Pierce, a member of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club who intended to overthrow its leader, Sebatian Shaw. Pierce was determined to kill Xavier as well as other superhuman mutants. Moonstar, unaware of Pierce's involvement, vowed to take vengeance for her grandfather's death. She soon found herself hunted by Pierce's agents, but she was saved by the mutant Karma, who arrived along with Xavier. Xavier told Moonstar about Pierce, and she said she would work with Xavier to get her revenge on Pierce.

After Moonstar helped Xavier and other young mutants he had enlisted in defeating Pierce, she and the other young mutants became members of his new team, the New Mutants. This was a group of young superhuman mutants whom Xavier trained in the control and use of their powers. Moonstar decided to remain with them to honor her grandfather's request. Despite her initial hatred of all Caucasians, she soon came to regard her fellow New Mutants as close friends of her regardless of their racial background. She became an especial friend of Rahne Sinclair, the mutant Wolfsbane, in part due to the psychic rapport they shared when Wolfsbane was in non-human form. Under Xavier's guidance Moonstar not only learned how to keep her powers under control, so that she only used them when she so desired, but also learned how to use her powers to create images other than those of the objects of people's fears. Eventually she and Cannonball became the team's leaders. Moonstar originally took the code name Psyche, but later changed it to Mirage, after the illusions she creates.

With Black Eagle dead, the demon bear was no longer prevented from seeking out Moonstar. She fought the bear outside Xavier's mansion and it nearly killed her, The New Mutants then battled the bear, and one of them, Magik, used her soulsword to release Moonstar's parents from the spell they were under, returning them to their human forms. Moonstar was reunited with her parents, and she eventually recovered completely from her injuries, thanks to the Morlock Healer.

Later, Amora the Enchantress kidnapped the New Mutants to Asgard. While she was there, Mirage rescued a winged horse named Brightwind from hunters. Mirage herself was rescued from the hunters by Mist, one of the Valkyries. ("Mist" is an English translation of her name.) The winged horse was one of a herd of such creatures belonging to Odin, ruler of Asgard. The Valkyries themselves ride such horses. Mirage had an immediate psychic rapport with the horse, whom she named Brightwind after her pony on Earth, and the horse selected her to be his rider. This "bonding" bestowed part of the Odin power upon Mirage, and thus while with the Valkyries, Mirage somehow became endowed with the Valkyries' power to perceive the coming of death. When the New Mutants returned to Earth, Brightwind came with Mirage.

Soon thereafter Professor Xavier left Earth for an indefinite period of time, leaving his school and the New Mutants in the charge of his former enemy Magneto. The New Mutants, including Mirage, were obliterated from existence by the virtually omnipotent Beyonder and then recreated by him. In being recreated, Mirage and the other New Mutants somehow lost much of the proficiency in using their superhuman powers that they had learned at Xavier's school. Under the psychic influence of the Hellion named Empath, Magneto closed the school and sent the New Mutants to study with the Hellions' teacher, the White Queen. Mirage instead went to her parents' ranch in Colorado.

While with her parents, Moonstar ran into an old friend, Pat Roberts, who she had betrayed when her powers were first emerging. When Pat was injured and stuck in a blizzard, Moonstar saw the death mark on him and fought Death in the form of an old gunfighter. Moonstar defeated Death, but the next day Death returned in the form of an old Indian woman who convinced her to let him go.

When Magneto realized he was tricked into transferring the New Mutants, he confronted Emma Frost and through mind probes it was determined that they wished to return with Magneto, though remaining rivals with the Hellions. Moonstar returned to assist in the rescue of the New Mutants from the White Queen and return them back to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. It was during this period that Moonstar's ability to make her spirit images real emerged after an encounter with the High Evolutionary during the Evolutionary War, when Dani was "evolved" by one of the Evolutionary's machines.

When Hela attempted to take over Asgard, Dani and the other Valkyrior were infected with a mystical fever. Hela planned to use Moonstar to gather humans to her forces to defeat Thor. Transported back to Asgard, Moonstar fell under the sway of Hela and nearly killed Odin. Hela was defeated by the combined forces of the New Mutants and the Asgardians, and the New Mutants were returned to Earth; all except Moonstar who chose to stay behind, hoping to repair the damage as a Valkyrie.

Moonstar was eventually exiled from Asgard, and her winged horse Brightwind was renamed Darkwind. Found on Earth by the mutant terrorist Reignfire, who had recently reorganized the terrorist group called the Mutant Liberation Front, Moonstar agreed to join the group. Prior to this Dani had secretly joined the international law enforcement agency S.H.I.E.L.D, intending to infiltrate the M.L.F. as a deep cover operative and betray the group from within. To maintain her cover, Moonstar was forced to battle X-Force alongside other members of the Front.

Dani also secretly became an informant for Cable, at one time assisting him when he was tracking down Feral.

She also helped the other mutants that were captured during the Younghunt when they were attempting escape from the Gamesmaster's prison. After the M.L.F. and X-Force battled Prime Sentinels during Operation Zero Tolerance, Moonstar left the M.L.F. and joined X-Force.

During their encounter with the Damocles Foundation, Dani was transmorphed for a short time by Arcadia, giving her the ability to channel quantum energies, which allowed her to affect matter at a subatomic level.

Dani could see these quantum energies as interconnected particles and waves, and she could affect those connections, changing the physical nature of all things, including an electromagnetic field such as the one generated by Magneto during X-Force's encounter with him in Genosha.

When Dani and Arcadia meet up again in San Francisco, Dani's powers were removed from her and a dimensional rift was formed, also causing four alternate Moonstar's to be created. Each of these Moonstar`s represented a different aspect of Dani - New Mutant, Valkyrie, M.L.F. member, and quantum-powered. With the help of the quantum-powered incarnation, Moonstar was able to stop Arcadia and after the rift was sealed, Dani was returned to normal.

After the six-month gap, Moonstar has joined the X-Men part-time while she attends college. Moonstar functions as a part of the X-Men's support team.

Height: 5 ft. 6 in.
Weight: 105 lbs.
Eyes: Dark brown/black
Heir: Black

Strength Level: Mirage possesses the normal human strength of a girl of her age, height, and build who engages in extensive regular exercise.

Known Superhuman Powers: Moonstar is a mutant with the superhuman psionic power to create three-dimensional images of certain visual concepts from within the minds of herself and others. Originally, Moonstar could only create images of the objects of other people's greatest fears. Later, she learned how to reach into another person's subconscious and project an image of the object of that person's "heart's desire." Still later, under Charles Xavier's further training, Moonstar learned to use her power to derive and project more specific images from another person's mind that were unrelated to such strong emotional states. Moreover, she learned how to project such images around herself and others in order to alter the appearance of herself and others. For example, once she and her teammate Cannonball, neither dressed impressively at the time, had to find Wolfsbane at a stylish hotel. In order that she and Cannonball would look as if they belonged in the hotel, Moonstar made herself and Cannonball look like the desk clerk's mental image of the ideal wealthy guests for the hotel. Most recently, Moonstar has learned to project three-dimensional versions of images from her own mind, such as life-size images of the New Mutants training in the use of their powers.

Despite the fact that Moonstar must probe a person's subsconscious in order to discover the mental image she wishes to project, she is not a true telepath. Although she can consciously initiate the mental probing in order to find and project an image, the probing process itself is not governed by her conscious mind. Hence, Moonstar does not consciously know what the image she seeks in another person's mind is (in any more detail than that it is the image of the object of his or her greatest fear, or that it is the image of his or her ideal customer, or whatever) until its image actually appears in three-dimensional form before her.

The three-dimensional images that Moonstar causes to appear are similar to holograms, although they are created by psionic energy rather than by lasers, and can be seen by anyone in their vicinity. However, only the people from whom Moonstar derives the images will perceive them as "real," indistinguishable from the real persons or objects they portray. To other people, the images are recognizable as illusions. The illusions are immaterial, composed of psionic energy.

Moonstar can use her power to derive and project mental images on several people at once. Each "victim" will see a different image, corresponding to his or her own individual concept of the kind of image that Moonstar seeks. If, for example, she sought to make e group of people each see the object of his or her greatest fear, probably each person in the group will see an image of a different person or thing. Probably if she caused each member of the New Mutants to see an image of Professor Xavier, each member would see a subtly different image, according to his or her own perception of Xavier's personality, handsomeness, and so forth. However, even though each "victim" in such a group would see only one image, Moonstar herself and anyone else in the vicinity would see each of the images drawn from the minds of each of the "victims."

The seeming materialization of the object of his or her greatest fear of desire invariably has immediate emotional impact on the person from whom Moonstar has drawn the image she projects. Moonstar's images dissolve and cease to exist as soon as she ceases to maintain sufficient concentration to keep them visible.

Moonstar is limited in the use of her power by her need to see the person from whose consciousness she derives her images. She can use her power on a person even if he or she can only be seen by Moonstar through binoculars. However, she cannot draw images from a person who is standing only a few feet from her, but behind something she cannot see through. Nor can she derive images from a person whom she sees via live television but who is not actually within her vicinity.

At first Moonstar could not control her image projecting powers, and she would draw and project images without consciously willing to do so. However, she has learned to control her power due to Charles Xavier's guidance and her own growing maturity, so that now her power operates only when she wills it to do so. Moonstar, like the other New Mutants, was killed and then resurrected by the alien Beyonder. When the Beyonder recreated the New Mutants, somehow their proficiency in utilizing their powers was greatly reduced. Hence, although Moonstar can still perform all the feats listed above, it is now more difficult for her to do so. Also, her ability to keep her power under her conscious control has been lessened as a result.

Moonstar's ultimate potential is to be able to cause her three-dimensional images to become tangible entities of psionic force. She has so far only been able to make use of this full potential temporarily when her abilities were briefly augmented psionically by Charles Xavier when he was mentally possessed by a member of the alien Brood.

Moonstar can also use her power to derive and project images of the objects of fear or desire from the minds of animals. The only difference is that the animal from which she derives the image will be the only being to see it. She can even use this power on fish and certain insects, although not on animals with intelligence any lower than these creatures. Moonstar can derive mental images of her winged horse Brightwind's objects of fear and love even if Brightwind is beyond the range of her sight, and project such images to him over a great distance. The limits of her powers with regard to Brightwind are unknown. She has summoned him in the past by projecting an image of herself, whom he loves, to him, even though he is out of her range of sights.

Moonstar can achieve a quasi-telepathic rapport with higher animals including primates (but not including human beings), members of the dog and cat families (including wolves and mountain lions, for example), and birds. She can sense their feelings, consciously perceive images in their minds, and even see through their eyes. However, since an animal's ability to conceptualize is highly limited, she is limited as to what she telepathically can learn from an animal.

Moonstar's telepathic abilities with animals allow her to communicate telepathically with her fellow New Mutant Wolfsbane when the latter has transformed herself into a wolf, and when Wolfsbane is in her half-human, half lupine transitional form. It is not yet known how far apart Moonstar and Wolfsbane (in lupine or transitional form) can be and still maintain telepathic contact. However, since Wolfsbane retains her human mind as a wolf, it is more difficult for Moonstar to sort out the mental impressions she receives from her than it is for Moonstar to deal with those of a real wolf. Moonstar's telepathic rapport with Wolfsbane was originally sometimes painful to Moonstar because of this fact, but it is so no longer.

Moonstar also has a quasi-telepathic rapport with her winged horse Brightwind; possibly Brightwind has psychic abilities of his own that make the rapport easier. Though highly intelligent, Brightwind has an animal's mind, so Moonstar cannot communicate with him telepathically in quite the same way she can with Wolfsbane when she is in her lupine form.

While accompanying Valkyries in Asgard, Moonstar was endowed with the ability to perceive and sense the coming of Death. She could perceive a "deathglow" surrounding a person who is in serious danger of dying; although normal people cannot see the glow. Moreover, Moonstar could perceive Death incarnate, in whatever form it takes to claim the person with the deathglow. A person surrounded by the deathglow is in danger of death, but might still be saved from dying (until he or she meets his or her inevitable end at some later time under different circumstances). In fact, due to her new Valkyrie powers, Moonstar can do physical battle with Death itself and death gods. She has created an illusory "Cheyenne ghost-shaft" drawing upon an image in her own mind, and had successfully wielded it as a weapon against Death itself and the Asgardian death goddess Hela. She had succeeded in driving away Hela when she attempted to claim the soul of Wolverine, and in driving away Death itself when it came for Margaret Power, the mother of the four original members of Power Pack. Both Wolverine and Mrs. Power returned to full health.

She no longer retains her Valkyrie powers.

Abilities: Moonstar is a better than average athlete for her age, in large part because of all the times she has spent on her own in the wilderness. She has a fair knowledge of hand-to-hand combat, and is a particularly good horseback rider and swimmer.

Transportation: As Mirage, she had a winged, Asgardian horse, Brightwind (now known as Darkwind), who is capable of flight. His top speed is unknown.

The Morlocks
First appearance: Uncanny X-Men #169
Feared and hunted due to their mutant powers and inhuman appearances, many mutants sought refuge in the underground of New York City. Despising the humans for their beauty, the Morlocks preferred ugliness; they wore rags and were proud to have their faces changed into ugly ones by Masque in defiance of the human society that had rejected them. Mutants with tracking powers enabled them to invite more frightened mutants into their ranks.

The Morlocks described here are not the only tunnel-dwelling mutants in the world today. A small group of mutants living in the subway tunnels of Chicago were dubbed "The Morlocks" by the local media who used the name after hearing about New York's Morlock community. London also had its own community of tunnel dwellers.

Recently, a new group who call themselves "Those Who Live in Darkness" have been inhabiting the sewer tunnels just below the surface of Mutant Town/District X in that particular burrough of New York. However, District X writer David Hine never intended for this group to have any ties to the original Morlocks.

Leader: Callisto > Storm > Masque > Mikhail Rasputin > Storm > D'Gard

Morlocks: Sunder, Masque, Plague, Callisto, Caliban, Jo, Leech, Healer, Erg, Ape, Piper II, Tarbaby, Annalee (and her four kids), Beautiful Dreamer, Skids, Tommy, Cybelle, Zeek, Scaleface, Berzerker, Blow-Hard, Lightning Bug, Chicken Wings, Mole, Bliss, Bouncer, Samson, Brute II, Hump, Pixie II, Bertram, Feral, Pester, Ent, Mother Inferior, Thornn, Mikhail Rasputin, Brain Cell, Meme, Marrow, Dark Beast, Marilou, Boost, Tether, D'Gard, Revelation, Soteira, Carver II, Fugue

Mikhail Rasputin and Dark Beast are not really Morlocks, but they are listed here too, as they are very important influences on the history of this underground society.

Mystique
Real Name: Raven Darkholme
Other aliases: Mallory Brickman
Identity: Secret
Occupation: (current) Special operative for Germany and the United States governments, (former) German Freedom Fighter, special operative in the Weapon X Project Team
Legal status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record
Place of birth: Unknown
Marital status: Married
Known relatives: Rogue (unofficial foster daughter), Ralph Brickman (husband), Gloria Brickman (daughter), Graydon Creed (son, deceased), Nightcrawler (son)
Base of operations: Arlington, Virginia
Group affiliation: (former) Founder and leader of the third Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, now known as Freedom Force; X-Factor
First appearance: (as Raven Darkholme) MS. MARVEL #16, (as Mystique) MS. MARVEL #18


History: Little has been revealed about Mystique's past. Indeed, since she can eliminate the outward signs of aging with her shape-changing power, it is not known exactly how old she is. She apparently learned to use her shape-changing power at a very early age, for there is no evidence known to the public or the United States government that Raven Darkholme ever looked like anything but a normal human being. Years ago Mystique had an affair with the mutant Sabretooth and they had a son, Graydon Creed, the recently assassinated presidential candidate. Mystique has also claimed to be the mother of Nightcrawler, a member of the X-Men, as the result of a liaison with another, unnamed man. Mystique is known to be a longtime friend of the mutant Destiny who is now deceased. At some point in recent years Mystique became the protectress of the young mutant named Rogue, and looked upon Rogue as a surrogate daughter.

At the same time she maintained another identity, that of Mallory Brickman, the wife of U.S. Senator Ralph Brickman. They even had a daughter, Gloria.

Mystique had concealed her superhuman powers and criminal intentions so well over the years that, as Darkholme, she was able to rise rapidly through the United States Civil Service to the trusted position of Deputy Director of the Defense Advanced Research Planning Agency (DARPA) in the United States Department of Defense. This position gave her access to military secrets and to advanced weaponry, both of which she used for her own criminal and subversive purposes.

To help her in her criminal activities, Mystique organized the third incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, which originally consisted of herself, Avalanche, the Blob, Destiny, and Pyro. Mystique named her group after the original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, a subversive organization founded by Magneto in his criminal days.

The third Brotherhood first became notorious when it attempted to intimidate the public by assassinating Senator Robert Kelly, who was investigating what he perceived as the possible menace posed by the existence of superhuman mutants and other superhuman beings. The X-Men thwarted the assassination attempt, and the Brotherhood later clashed with the X-Men on other occasions, as well as with the Avengers and Dazzler. Rogue was a member of the Brotherhood for a time, but finally left to join the X-Men, in order to find help in learning how to deal with her superhuman powers.

Recently, anti-mutant sentiment among normal human beings has greatly increased, and the federal government has launched its own covert anti-mutant program, Project Wideawake. Believing that the times had thus become too dangerous for the Brotherhood to continue its criminal activities, Mystique went to Dr. Valerie Cooper, special assistant to the head of the National Security Council, and offered the Brotherhood's services to the government. Cooper agreed to convey the offer to the President, on the condition that the Brotherhood pass a test she imposed: the capture of Magneto. The Brotherhood, now renamed Freedom Force, succeeded in bringing Magneto to the authorities (although, in fact, they did so only because he voluntarily surrendered to them), and soon afterwards officially entered the government's employ.

In return for entering the government's employ as Freedom Force's leader, Mystique received a presidential pardon for all criminal charges against her, but the pardon would be revoked if any member of Freedom Force was found committing a crime.

Recently, Mystique fled X-Factor and hid from them by returning to her secret identity as Mallory Brickman, the Senator's wife.

Height: 5 ft. 10 in.
Weight: 120 lbs.
Eyes: Yellow (no apparent pupils when she is in her true form)
Hair: Red-orange (black in her usual human form as Raven Darkholme
Other distinguishing features: Grey-black skin in her true form

Strength Level: Mystique possesses the normal human strength of a woman of her physical age, height, and build who engages in regular exercise

Known Superhuman Powers: 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. As a result she can cause herself to look and sound like an exact duplicate of any human, humanoid, or semi-humanoid being of either 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, and vocal cords to match voices to the point of corresponding voiceprints.

Mystique, however, 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 (as with her own appearance as Raven Darkholme), the longer that she maintains the form of a person physically bigger than herself, the greater the strain she feels. If she maintains that bigger form for too long a period, the length of which is directly proportional to the difference in size between that form and her normal one, she will collapse and automatically revert to her normal form.

Mystique cannot duplicate the powers of the person she imitates: for example, when she turned herself into a duplicate of Nightcrawler, she did not gain the ability to teleport.

As yet Mystique has not demonstrated any ability to adopt the form of non-humanoid beings, animals, plants, or non-living objects. It is conjectured that she could not imitate any of these without interfering with the proper functioning of her internal organs and possibly dying, but the truth, like much regarding Mystique, remains shrouded.