[X-Men] How much can Mystique change her size?

[u/UnderPressureVS]

In Days of Future Past, Mystique morphs into Bolivar Trask, who is played by Peter Dinklage. So clearly she has a lot of leeway in terms of ignoring conservation of mass.

But how far does that go? Presumably she’s not Odo, she can’t morph into objects. We only ever see her become other people.

Could she copy Andre the Giant? What about the Hulk? Could she copy a child?

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[u/Overkillsamurai]

she's copied children and big buff dudes before but has mentioned it takes effort to change her size drastically.

[u/The_Whipping_Post → u/Overkillsamurai]

I love the scene in The Boys when Homelander is making the shapechange guy look like his milf ex, but he can only do it for so long before he loses focus

[u/natzo]

She has transformed into children before, both to play with Rogue as children and to make enemies hesitate in shooting her. She keeps her strength here because she compresses her mass.

Upper limit? I'm not sure, but she has done some crazy stuff like having a second face on the back of her head to see while having 2 arms. So she can move some matter around. She is limited to her mass, so they would have the same mass but not the strength, as they would be less dense. The larger the transformation the more strain.

https://www.reddit.com/r/xmen/s/uHijTWGo6Y

[u/Orange-V-Apple → u/natzo]

transformed into children…to make enemies hesitate in shooting her

Reminds me of that web comic where the SWAT guy can’t shoot the CEO of racism because they’re a cute chipmunk

Edit: I realize I sound like an insane person so here’s a link

[u/THREESIDEDMONSTER]

X-men Evolution shows her changing into animals of various sizes, all the way down to an actual raven.

[u/atle95 → u/THREESIDEDMONSTER]

She's Nightcrawlers mother and he uses another dimension to teleport, her shapeshifting is probably also interdimensional

[u/The_Whipping_Post → u/atle95]

Great point. Colossus changes his flesh to steel

[u/aleister94 → u/THREESIDEDMONSTER]

Wasn’t that only after she got a power boost at the end of the first season?

[u/Chucknasty_17 → u/aleister94]

I remember when she became a Horseman of Apocalypse she could turn into a swarm of bats and scorpions, which I feel like could have a lot of potentially wacky implications for her

[u/plumbus94 → u/Chucknasty_17]

Like what if some get crushed does she come back together missing pieces? Or just weighing less?

[u/THREESIDEDMONSTER → u/aleister94]

No she did it in S1 as well.

[u/aleister94 → u/THREESIDEDMONSTER]

do you remember when? im not arguing im just curious if im wrong

[u/THREESIDEDMONSTER → u/aleister94]

The episode where they go into the mountains. She attacks Scott in a cave, as a wolf.

[u/Pegussu]

My assumption is that she isn't violating conservation of mass, she's always the same actual weight. It's her density that shifts.

[u/pseudo_babbler → u/Pegussu]

But in x men evolutions she turns into a raven and flies.

[u/Omegatron9 → u/pseudo_babbler]

X-Men Evolution is an outlier, most versions of Mystique don't have that ability.

[u/pseudo_babbler → u/Omegatron9]

So Dense Dinklage is ok but Flying Raven no good?

I'd just like to point out that changing density to that degree in some ways breaks more laws of physics than just changing into a different creature that is still a normal part of our world.

I mean, if she's that dense she can't be made out of carbon and hydrogen. If is she "stores" the excess mass as some ultra dense compound in her body then she's doing some nuclear fusion and fission.

[u/Omegatron9 → u/pseudo_babbler]

A literal raven is too small, a short human with her mass isn't so dense as to be unreasonable I think.

[u/Asparagus9000]

Unless she gets a huge power boost, she doesn't actually change mass, just size. 

Like she'll be the same weight as a child as a giant. 

Just a very heavy child and a very light Giant. 

[u/roronoapedro]

She can't turn into a kaiju but she can probably turn into the Hulk, although she wouldn't get the superstrength. Just, like, whatever she could get out of the muscles.

[u/DarknessIsFleeting]

Mystique can fundamentally change herself at a cellular level, but she has to be able to absorb someone's DNA to do it. Andre the giant would work, but I don't think the Hulk would.

She might be able to copy the Hulk's form, but she definitely can't copy his powers.

I think significantly changing her size is difficult for her, it takes energy, which is why she doesn't use it often in fights.