X-Factor Annual #6 pg 60 (Yap pencils, Rubinstein inks, David story) - Destiny gives Mystique her ring

Irene Adler (Destiny) gives Raven Darkholme (Mystique) her family ring - from X-Factor Annual #6 (August 1991) - TRIBUTE THE THIRD.

It’s X-citing to see the love of these two characters finally officially blossom to X-MEN THE WEDDING SPECIAL that came out this week (5/29/24). It’s a story long overdue from the inception and connection between these characters. Mystique was first introduced in MS MARVEL #16 (cameo as Raven), #17 (as Nick Fury) and #18 (full appearance, June 1978); Destiny was introduced a few years later in Uncanny X-MEN #141 (January 1981). They had a complicated love story that wasn’t able to be fully fleshed out in comics of that era due to the fact that at the time both characters were recognized as female. But there are multiple incidences where their connection ran deeper than initially expressed as friends but as life partners. In X-MEN UNLIMITED #4 (March 1994), Mystique expresses her love for her (see my page 48) and when Destiny dies in UNCANNY X-MEN #255 (December 1989). We even get a partial return of Destiny in the NECROSHA (2010, see some of my pages from X-MEN LEGACY #231 and #233), where she connects with Blindfold and Rogue, but doesn’t want to see Raven as it would only break her heart again to loose her. Later in years during the Krakoa era we get to see their love flourish and in the new INFERNO (2021/2022) we saw them finally reunite as Mystique forces Destiny’s resurrection.

This page comes from a side story TRIBUTE THE THIRD by Peter David (writer), Guang Yap (penciler), Joe Rubinstein (inker) and Joe Rosen (letterer). It was another prime example of their hidden love as Raven recalls going on a cruise trip with Irene when Irene hands Raven her family heirloom ring and a letter to open later, only to return to this same cruise years later to open letter and spread Destiny’s ashes. It’s a beautifully sad tale that David does so well with a bit of humor mixed in. This page features Irene giving Raven her mom’s ring in a bit of a love contract between the two. Yap draws really great compositions in top and bottom right with these cinematic 3/4 profile med close 2 shots, of the two characters looking out into the sea. Rubinstein’s inking and finalizing the drawn artwork is top notch. He used all sorts of techniques in this page, as I see fantastic dark solid blacks that still stand out really deep and patterned inking. He also did some technique that I haven’t seen much of for some patterned shading on this unique paper. I initially thought they may have been stats to get that textured patterns, but it doesn’t have much of a raised relief when you run your fingers over it. Only real relief you get is from the various points and uses of whiteout. We then noticed that there are registration marks/cutouts on the sides to line this page up with a process like silkscreening or serigraphy or screen printing only a certain very precise sticker/ink layer that has this fine crosshatch texture only seen in the brown/shadow areas. It’s really precise in some of the areas used like under Raven’s nose for shadow and bigger areas like the window or railing. You can seen remnants of the following page of this material on the back of this art, where it bled from that page.

I love seeing all these techniques up close and this page for it’s history and art has found a great home in my collection. Cheers to Destiny (Irene) and Mystique (Raven) getting married and being able to see events like this in modern comics!