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THE CREATORS: Brian
Vaughan writes up to issue #13, after which Sean McKeever
takes over. Michael Ryan and Manual Garcia provide art,
with a fuzzy kind of handover period in the middle.
THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT:
Nil.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2004: The
end of "Tinker Tailor Mutant Spy"; the two-part "Maker's Mark"
story; "Unnatural", the one with the beauty corporation; and
"Quiet", where Mystique finally turns on Professor X.
Mystique is getting axed
with issue #24 - better than average, these days - so that
answers the main question for me. Ah well. Once
again, cancellation has homed in on one of the decent X-books.
The book is not essential reading
by any stretch of the imagination. But it's good fun,
tapping into an effective formula where Mystique achieves her
missions with appropriate levels of fighting and cynicism, and
keeps the level just intelligent enough to raise it above the
herd, without sacrificing the fact that it's meant to be an
action book. Precisely because she has no desire to be
there, Mystique makes an interesting lead, and her rapport
with Shortpack has always played well.
Of course, the formula was
devised by original writer Brian K Vaughan, who moved on
during Reload. Sean McKeever stuck with the formula for
his first arc, but he's now embarked on "Quiet", a storyline
seemingly intended to self-destruct the book. Originally
this would have been a transition into a new set-up, one where
Mystique wasn't simply an errand girl for Professor X.
 As it turns
out, it's just going to be the end of the book. But at
least it means the book is set to end with a strong finish,
properly resolving all of the outstanding plots and presumably
putting Mystique back into circulation as a villain.
I'd be pushed to say that
Mystique is some sort of lost classic which went sadly
unnoticed in a hostile market. But it's been
consistently good reading, and a much more reliable book than
most of the other titles in the line. It's an
unpretentious action series that knows how to make that sort
of story work.
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