X-MEN UNLIMITED #4 pg 48 (Mystique professes love for Rogue and Destiny) Bennett art, Moncuse inks, and Lobdell story

Mother MYSTIQUE

This page from the X-MEN UNLIMITED series, issue #4 pg 48, called THEORIES OF RELATIVITY features Mystique professing her motherly love to Rogue with an additional profession of love to Irene (Destiny). This particular issue dives into the familial relationships between Mystique, Rogue, Graydon and Nightcrawler. It’s one of my all-time favorite issues from this really great series that got to spend more time dealing with personal matters in the world of X-Men with these oversized issues.

This page is in honor of the shared love between Raven Darkholme (Mystique) and Irene Adler (Destiny) which we got to see a lot more of their beautiful relationship in the recent X-MEN INFERNO. In this page it’s an early nod to their former relationship without being able to go into the details (since at this time it was only speculative that they were lovers while both raising Rogue as their daughter).

Bennett and Moncuse capture Mystique in her true beautiful form on this page. This is how I generally always envision her, in this outfit and hairstyle. The dialogue from Lobdell is top notch, discussing how closed off and untouchable both Rogue and Mystique are. Both showing real vulnerability in expression and rich content of their familial love for each other (questioning what was real, since they both are shut off from the world; one clothed that can never be touched and one always hiding behind someone else’s skin). We get to dive a little more into their power-sets with these discussion pieces; Rogue generally untouchable but when touched absorbs the memories and mind/abilities of that other individual (her head filling up with more and more personalities, confusing for who she may really be) and Mystique generally invisible, can be anyone never truly revealing her real self (lost in a bunch of false identities that she has created).

And the most beautiful question from Rogue: “Ah don’t care what the rest of the world thinks, just so ah can believe the you that ah knew was the real one. Tell me the truth . . . did I ‘know’ you?” And the response filled with pain from Mystique: “How can you dare even ask such a question? How could you not know that my feelings for you . . . were the only genuine feelings I’d had in my life except for Irene?!”

I love getting this heartfelt soap-opera storytelling in the X-Men books, and this page creates this sad beautiful complex characters that Rogue and Mystique are.