A great story with well-written dialogue and a well-executed plot that's a joy to read. The only reason I didn't give it a full five stars is because I finished feeling vaguely unsatisfied; the adventure is resolved by the trade's end, but I didn't feel like the character moments had formed into anything whole or organic, that I understood Mystique any better. Partly I think this is because one can't understand her; that's part of who she is, set apart even from other mutants and even more so from us mere humans. But part is also, I hope, due to the fact that Vaughn is just setting the stage for going deeper in future volumes.

I did find the topical references, such as to Fidel Castro and the Bush administration, a little distracting, but also in their own way appropriate; Umberto Eco has written about the ahistoricality of comic book time, but as a result of Mystique's age and experience she is situated in history (I kept on looking for people who could have been Mystique in disguise in Whedon's Dead End Kids) in a way that, say, Kitty Pryde is not. ( )