Second in the new wave of X-books is Brian Vaughan and Jorge Lucas' Mystique series.

Mystique has been around since the mid-1970s, and has usually been used as a villain.  Her history as a protagonist is chequered.  No, actually, that's not right.  Her history as a protagonist is unrelentingly horrible.  It consists of a run in X-Factor during the Howard Mackie era, and the unimpressive Mystique & Sabretooth miniseries.

But the character is strong.  Moreover, writer Brian Vaughan has produced a string of good books over the last year or so, including Vertigo's Y: The Last Man and the recent Chamber miniseries.  That gives reason for optimism about the series, and while the first issue isn't blowaway stuff, it's still promising.

The set-up is that because the X-Men are now public figures, Professor X can no longer use them for missions where deniability is essential.  So he's taken to using other agents, and he wants to recruit Mystique for that purpose.  Not that she can be trusted in the slightest, of course, but her moral flexibility is perhaps an advantage for this sort of work.

With a few mutant power sequences thrown in for good measure, Vaughan is essentially writing a spy thriller here.  Mystique's shapechanging power allows him to play tricks with the audience; since we know Mystique's going to be turning up at some point, the reader ends up wondering whether every new character might be a disguised Mystique.  Vaughan plays this trick twice, subtly, by introducing female characters and writing the scene from their perspective, only to wrongfoot the reader by revealing that in fact they really are the people they appear to be.  Mystique is somebody else altogether, and despite being the nominal lead character, nothing is played from her perspective until she reveals herself.  It's a clever use of narrative tricks which keeps the reader off guard without drawing attention to itself.

I'm less sure about the art.  The T&A elements are presumably a conscious decision.  Jorge Lucas is a solid artist who doesn't normally draw in that style.  I suppose I can see some mileage in playing with body image ideas given the lead character's powers, but frankly, I just get the impression that somebody is still assuming that all characters with female leads have to be sold on a rather spurious concept of sex appeal.  Quite what's meant to be attractive about bulimic Barbie dolls, I've never really understood.  I just find it rather irritating.

Still, there's promise in here, and the writing is perfectly good.  The art is a problem, though.

Rating: B+

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