Issue #19 is a stand-alone issue romp against Hydra. But it also sets the stage for the final arc, titled, “Quiet,” because on the last page of issue #19 the mysterious “Quiet Man” reveals his face to Mystique (but not to us, the readers). Her response is…
“Oh. Didn’t see that coming.”
We learn a few issues later that he is Steinbeck. Don’t know who that is? Don’t worry. It’s still a good spy story. And it’s assumed that he’s dead by the end of this series.
Quiet Man then hires Mystique to kill Professor Xavier. In return, she is promised technology that will enable her to evade government “mutant detector” devices—the same tech that Forge has been using to protect Mystique across all of the issues of this series so far.
Shortpack finds out about Mystique’s plan and alerts the Professor who, in turn, has Forge shut off Mystique’s shielding. That leads to her being chased by Homeland Security for most of this story.
Despite needing to evade the Government, Mystique ends up getting close enough to Professor X to stab him.
She’s able to injure him, but Forge saves his life—and now we have Wolverine and Rogue hunting her as well. At that point, Quiet Man also betrays her (for very cool, very complicated reasons I’m not going to get into here)—but she is able to escape everyone in the end, with the cloaking device.
And that is the final panel.
There’s also a fun Fantomex subplot along the way!
These issues close out the Mystique series, which has defied expectations by being very good and even, at times, great.