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Mystique #3-4
Mystique by Sean McKeever Ultimate Collection
When everyone's favorite shape-shifting secret agent is sent to Europe to investigate a biotech company rumored to be using mutants as guinea pigs, she discovers a mystery far greater than anything she'd imagined! As Mystique and Shortpack get closer to their objective, they must confront a new revelation: that someone is selling transient mutants as guinea pigs, slaves and worse!
Collecting: Mystique 14-24
Collecting: Mystique 14-24
264 pages, Paperback
First published July 6, 2011
3 people are currently reading
91 people want to read
About the author
Sean McKeever
537 books36 followersAfter writing indie comics (such as the ensemble teen-drama The Waiting Place) for six years, Sean got his big break writing an issue of The Incredible Hulk for Marvel Comics in 2001. Since then, Sean has written hundreds of comics for Marvel, DC Comics and other publishers, including notable runs on Sentinel, Inhumans, Mystique, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, Gravity, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Birds of Prey and Teen Titans.
Best known for delivering introspective, character-driven work, Sean also wrote several weeks of the Funky Winkerbean syndicated comic strip, much of which has been reprinted in the celebrated collection, Lisa's story: the other shoe.
In 2005, Sean won the Eisner Award for Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition.
Sean continues to write comic books; he also writes for the videogame and animation industries.
Best known for delivering introspective, character-driven work, Sean also wrote several weeks of the Funky Winkerbean syndicated comic strip, much of which has been reprinted in the celebrated collection, Lisa's story: the other shoe.
In 2005, Sean won the Eisner Award for Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition.
Sean continues to write comic books; he also writes for the videogame and animation industries.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
November 19, 2025
"I swear . . . after this mission, I'm never climbing another flight of stairs again." -- our title character
After this hefty volume - nearly 300 pages - I'm probably never going to feel the need to read any further solo adventures of the shapeshifting mutant Mystique. Structured much like the initial volume - although there is a change in writers, from Brian Vaughn to Sean McKeever - it is again a fairly brisk and often action-oriented narrative featuring three espionage-laced storylines. However, Mystique's often anti-heroic vibe and her near-constant brusque manner and/or speech were not particularly endearing for a plot-carrying protagonist. (Truly a case of 'mood indigo,' anyone?) There were welcome cameo appearances from X-Men mainstays Wolverine and Rogue, but that was an anomaly. This was otherwise a competent but yet also sometimes unremarkable graphic novel.
After this hefty volume - nearly 300 pages - I'm probably never going to feel the need to read any further solo adventures of the shapeshifting mutant Mystique. Structured much like the initial volume - although there is a change in writers, from Brian Vaughn to Sean McKeever - it is again a fairly brisk and often action-oriented narrative featuring three espionage-laced storylines. However, Mystique's often anti-heroic vibe and her near-constant brusque manner and/or speech were not particularly endearing for a plot-carrying protagonist. (Truly a case of 'mood indigo,' anyone?) There were welcome cameo appearances from X-Men mainstays Wolverine and Rogue, but that was an anomaly. This was otherwise a competent but yet also sometimes unremarkable graphic novel.
January 27, 2015
After a surprisingly good first volume, this was a letdown. I don't think that McKeever is quite the writer that Vaughan is, a faint criticism that accurately describes well over half of all professional comics writers. This volume ended up being just barely better than ok. I'm assuming that this is the way that Vaughan wanted the storyline to shake out, but it feels rushed in places (was the book canceled?) and the execution is lacking. I wish Vaughan had finishes the series instead.
January 1, 2018
This was a good ending, but I wish there wasn't so much unnecessary cleavage.
June 13, 2019
On it’s own? Good. Compared to book one? Not as good.
Seam McKeever simply doesn’t write as engaging a story as Brian K Vaughan. He tries to hard to shoehorn a bunch of twisty turny elements into the end, and the result feels rushed and impersonal. I also didn’t find his characterization of Mystique to be as likeable. By the conclusion, I very much felt a sense of “huh?”
It’s good. The art is fantastic. The colors are gorgeous. The cool parts are still cool. Definitely read it! Just don’t expect it to be 5 star greatness like the first volume. This is just 4 star very goodness.
Seam McKeever simply doesn’t write as engaging a story as Brian K Vaughan. He tries to hard to shoehorn a bunch of twisty turny elements into the end, and the result feels rushed and impersonal. I also didn’t find his characterization of Mystique to be as likeable. By the conclusion, I very much felt a sense of “huh?”
It’s good. The art is fantastic. The colors are gorgeous. The cool parts are still cool. Definitely read it! Just don’t expect it to be 5 star greatness like the first volume. This is just 4 star very goodness.
October 3, 2022
Disappointing compared to the first one.
December 27, 2024
A really engaging read filled with twists and turns that kept me guessing along the way. The previous volume is a must-read for this to make sense.
July 1, 2019
I liked the storyline and how it ended. Since I haven't read many types of comics (yet) this author's style was a little hard to follow at times.
July 31, 2011
Unfortunately, Mckeever doesn't fare any better than Vaughn did in the first volume. You eventually get payoff to the plotlines Vaughn started, but it's pretty cliche-ridden. Not wanting to have any spoilers revealed, let's just say that the "big reveal" is only moderately satisfying and can be easily guessed by the self-contained nature of this series (the cast never expands, which makes it obvious which of the existing characters it is). There's an interesting twist in the reveal, but nothing mind-blowing. The rest of this volume focuses, again, around some pretty basic secret agent plots, but they're interesting enough to keep you turning the pages. For all of the potential there was for this series, it just never got any better than average.
October 15, 2021
McKeever delivers probably the best possible conclusion to Vaughan's Mystique series, which was full of loose ends and shadowy figures. Mystique herself has a personality now, her history comes back, and it's a great decision to play her off of Fantomex, the other super spy whose powers come and go with the plot. Even the whole "I'm hiring you as a double agent to assassinate Professor X" thing gets retroactively more interesting as we cross over with the ill-fated New Excalibur series. Unfortunately, the concepts and characters from the earlier half of the run remain kind of dumb, and the powers remain kind of arbitrary to the point where even in the story people are asking why Mystique didn't pull any of these crazy body modification stunts the other four times she tried to kill the X-Men.
February 12, 2025
I read these issues on the marvel unlimited app. Mystique Ultimate Collection Volume 1&2 are okay. I really don't want to go into it. I don't know how to put it but the ending to Volume 2 is like WTF. Mystique get a partner/sidekick and I'm going to look up if he's ever teamed up with Mystique after this.
January 8, 2020
It's rare to be able to say "he did it better than Brian K. Vaughan" when it comes to comics, but Sean McKeever's second half of the Mystique series is stronger than Vaughan's work on the previous volume by a strong degree.
December 30, 2018
It had its moments, and heaps of potential given her really interesting history, but ultimately this was just ok. Mystique deserves more ambitious story-writing
January 21, 2021
Basically, why any of it?
There are all these very light mystery and suspense elements but none of the payoffs seem very valuable and then everyone walks away like nothing ever happened.
There are all these very light mystery and suspense elements but none of the payoffs seem very valuable and then everyone walks away like nothing ever happened.
June 30, 2023
I wanted there to be a little more character resolution in this volume, but not as much as Marvel would like. I've noticed most of the Marvel stories leave their characters left out without personal resolution, probably so they can them for money. The company likes playing with them as action figures to be left out and played with later, instead of a doll you dust off and enjoy every detail and curve of its form before returning it to its box.
I found this with Mystique in this volume, which was good and bad in some ways. The mirror scene in the excellent, clever and thrilling first volume left me wanting both the Quiet Man plot and Mystique's personal acceptance as the focus of the arcs. The Quiet Man's arc left him defeated without many good reasons as to why, and Mystique's trickery helps her survive, even if its not very introspective.
There's plenty of thrilling violence and Mystique's personal stake in unwinding herself from dual employ. Throughout the volume she makes little decisions involving desired objects for Shepherd and Fantomex, and while I never found either of the characters horribly interesting, I enjoyed their quippy dialogue and Mystique's frequent disappointment when the secrets of said objectives were revealed to her. By the end of the volume she confronts Xavier to foil the Quiet Man and vice versa, but is confronted by Wolverine and her own daughter for her actions. I found this end to her assassination attempt to be sad, because it shed a little bit more light on why she can't look at herself and survives mission to mission instead of settling and focusing on herself. I enjoyed the end of the book where she remains in hiding in a Cowboy Bebop sort of way, because she has to carry the weight of her entire life with her at all times.
However the plot is absolutely bonkers and takes sharp, nonsensical turns every which way. First there's the Dermafree plot, which I found interesting mainly because of our leading lady's personal stake in the potential for clones of herself. If it would have continued more consistently with that story and the escalation of Mystique's relentless ways, I would have enjoyed the volume a lot more. Instead she runs silly errands for Spiderman costumes and pens throughout. Wilde's pen was interesting as a gift from Shepherd but seeing as how neither of them gained much from it other than sex, I found the mini-arc had a lot of wasted potential.
Prudence's motives I found to be the strangest of all, because I couldn't quite pin them down other than vengeance for being replaced by Xavier. I was happy she rescued Shortpack because their relationship was quippy and fun, albiet they have nothing in common so it wasn't much of a victory. Forge provides the most objective view of our protagonist at the end of this volume and the first, and provided some good clarity on the events of the story. I liked this volume more for Mystique's sass and sense of resilience in any situation, and given her past this continued to make her an interesting character. McKeever's story was fun even though the journey was a zigzagging line instead of a normal arc. I wished that Vaughan could have concluded this collection though.
I found this with Mystique in this volume, which was good and bad in some ways. The mirror scene in the excellent, clever and thrilling first volume left me wanting both the Quiet Man plot and Mystique's personal acceptance as the focus of the arcs. The Quiet Man's arc left him defeated without many good reasons as to why, and Mystique's trickery helps her survive, even if its not very introspective.
There's plenty of thrilling violence and Mystique's personal stake in unwinding herself from dual employ. Throughout the volume she makes little decisions involving desired objects for Shepherd and Fantomex, and while I never found either of the characters horribly interesting, I enjoyed their quippy dialogue and Mystique's frequent disappointment when the secrets of said objectives were revealed to her. By the end of the volume she confronts Xavier to foil the Quiet Man and vice versa, but is confronted by Wolverine and her own daughter for her actions. I found this end to her assassination attempt to be sad, because it shed a little bit more light on why she can't look at herself and survives mission to mission instead of settling and focusing on herself. I enjoyed the end of the book where she remains in hiding in a Cowboy Bebop sort of way, because she has to carry the weight of her entire life with her at all times.
However the plot is absolutely bonkers and takes sharp, nonsensical turns every which way. First there's the Dermafree plot, which I found interesting mainly because of our leading lady's personal stake in the potential for clones of herself. If it would have continued more consistently with that story and the escalation of Mystique's relentless ways, I would have enjoyed the volume a lot more. Instead she runs silly errands for Spiderman costumes and pens throughout. Wilde's pen was interesting as a gift from Shepherd but seeing as how neither of them gained much from it other than sex, I found the mini-arc had a lot of wasted potential.
Prudence's motives I found to be the strangest of all, because I couldn't quite pin them down other than vengeance for being replaced by Xavier. I was happy she rescued Shortpack because their relationship was quippy and fun, albiet they have nothing in common so it wasn't much of a victory. Forge provides the most objective view of our protagonist at the end of this volume and the first, and provided some good clarity on the events of the story. I liked this volume more for Mystique's sass and sense of resilience in any situation, and given her past this continued to make her an interesting character. McKeever's story was fun even though the journey was a zigzagging line instead of a normal arc. I wished that Vaughan could have concluded this collection though.
August 17, 2016
It is very easy to differentiate the time periods of X-men books. Is it Post- Morrison's New X-men? Is it before Decimation? is it After Schism? Avengers Versus X-men. Usually Cyclop's costume is a good indicator of where you are.
Mystique, though featured heavily in certain, recent time periods- for example, the Messiah Complex Time period and All New X-men, is a character featured infrequently enough that her motivations are not necessarily written in stone. She goes back and forth, actively trying to be a hero, to enjoying being a villain.
This trade features that exact dilemma. Mystique does have a conscious of sorts, but she is pretty damn near heartless. I would have to see the Brian K Vaughn issues, prior to this, to see how he handled the character. I am guessing he was a bit more creative with her ability to shape shift, and probably delved deeply into the psychological effects of being a shapeshifter. McKeever does a really good job keeping Mystique on that fine line between good and evil.
Mystique, though featured heavily in certain, recent time periods- for example, the Messiah Complex Time period and All New X-men, is a character featured infrequently enough that her motivations are not necessarily written in stone. She goes back and forth, actively trying to be a hero, to enjoying being a villain.
This trade features that exact dilemma. Mystique does have a conscious of sorts, but she is pretty damn near heartless. I would have to see the Brian K Vaughn issues, prior to this, to see how he handled the character. I am guessing he was a bit more creative with her ability to shape shift, and probably delved deeply into the psychological effects of being a shapeshifter. McKeever does a really good job keeping Mystique on that fine line between good and evil.
June 16, 2012
I'm really tempted to go with a 4/5 for this book, but enjoying it is very based on your knowledge of the first volume, and the first volume is pretty uninspired. Anyway, McKeever brings Vaughan's lackluster setup to quiet a nice fruition--the big reveal, the plotting of the finale, and the resolution are all solid and well-handled (though nothing mind-blowing). Overall, McKeever really redeemed the series from being a total waste of time. If you've already read through the first volume, make sure you read through this one, too.
January 20, 2013
Although some story elements from the initial volume (by Brian K. Vaughan) get picked up and explained, it's not really that much satisfying.
Both art and plot get worse as the series comes to its conclusion. And again one may get the feeling this series could have been much better. (Wasted potential.)
The second part of the short lived Mystique comic series is not that bad, but not that special either.
Both art and plot get worse as the series comes to its conclusion. And again one may get the feeling this series could have been much better. (Wasted potential.)
The second part of the short lived Mystique comic series is not that bad, but not that special either.
September 7, 2012
A decent ending to a fun series. I enjoyed the first volume more, Brian K. Vaughan had a better grasp on making an entertaining spy story. Still, McKeever does a decent job sending Mystique off. The ending issues, especially with Wolverine and Rogue, are big and Mystique, for all the good she does, is still a villain. A better series than I expected.
August 23, 2016
I personally liked the 1st collection better, it kinda dragged around the middle issues, which is a shame since it seemed like this collection was supposed the one that tied up the series yknow what I mean
October 4, 2014
Not as strong as the beginning of the series, but he tied things up well enough.
April 14, 2017
Sean McKeever is no Brian Vaughn and Brian Vaughn mailed it in on volume 1 of this series. This could have been a fun spy story or so many other things but just falls flat.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews