Fumanchu:

I'm sorry to say that Mystique is cancelled as of #24. Due to this, I'm not really doing any press for the title as my energies are focused on some upcoming work. If you have any small things you'd like me to comment on, I can do that, but I don't have the space for a full interview. I look forward to your article!

Here is my original statement on the cancellation:

Yes, MYSTIQUE is ending.

For those keeping score, this is the third Marvel series I've had canceled--fourth if you want to count MARY JANE, which many folks do, even though it technically isn't--and, yeah, it sucks. You start to worry that maybe Marvel will decide that it's because of your writing talents that your books are projected to dip into the red-ink zone, you start to doubt your abilities a little, et cetera...

But, really, I'm not too worried. You'd make a steaming pile in your pants if you knew how many things I've got under consideration at 10 East 40th Street. It appears that Marvel's confidence is waxing, not waning.

I guess the thing that really blows about MYSTIQUE is that I had some great ideas on where to take it, but I was never going to be able to do some of it, even if the series continued.

As a character, Mystique is as multi-faceted and fascinating as they come. Just to name a couple elements of her character, she's a former terrorist and a bisexual. Unfortunately, when you're writing a book labeled for ages 12 and up, it's kinda tough to explore those avenues.

Really, MYSTIQUE needed to be a Marvel Knights series.

Understandably, that wasn't a change Marvel was willing to make on a title that had already been running as long as MYSTIQUE (though they did it with X-STATIX, but that was probably a very different situation). To the credit of editors Cory Sedlmeier and Mike Marts, I was given a good amount of leeway in depicting her as ruthless and homicidal, for which I'm grateful.

Marvel Knights or not, I had a radical shift planned for the title. It was going to become much more dark, personal and sexy in tone. Mystique would have had a first-person narrative. She would still be a super-spy, but the parameters would totally change.

Basically, it would have been Mystique Alone Against The World. After the events of QUIET (the story currently running through the series) she would have no one on her side, and no one willing to trust her. She'd wind up as a key player rather than a pawn, mucking with the X-Men, SHIELD, world governments and a clandestine anti-mutant organization hinted at in #18. (Oh, yeah--and she totally would've mixed it up with Carol Danvers.) And while doing so, she would recruit and manipulate younger mutants (some of which I introduced in my first story arc, UNNATURAL) into following her, creating a new Brotherhood of Mutants, not in name but in spirit. And I would have given her a new girlfriend.

It would have been a lot of fun to dive into this new era of Mystique's amazing life. Maybe someday I'll be able to pitch a new MYSTIQUE series, but I just don't sense any interest at Marvel, so I guess it's best for me to focus my energies on other projects.

My thanks go out to artist Manuel Garcia; editors Sedlmeier and Marts; and to my predecessor, Brian K. Vaughan, for getting the ball rolling. And thanks, of course, to the loyal readers who stuck with the book after Brian left. I've had a blast adding to Mystique's ongoing drama, and I look forward to one day being able to do so again.