Q:

Can Mystique replicate a person by just looking at a photograph?

I have always wondered how Mystique's transformation works. 
If Mystique has never seen a person, but gets his/her photo with only face visible (passport sized). Can she still replicate him/her? If Yes, how does she recreate the body, by her own imagination and assumption?

A:

The answer would seem to be a qualified yes. 
In 'X-Men: First Class' Mystique impersonates Charles Xavier's mother, seemingly from the image she's seen in a photo. The fact that she's able to reference her accent, but sticks with the clothing (and jewellery) that she's wearing in the photo would imply that she's heard her, but not seen her in the flesh.

In 'X2: X-Men United' she perfectly impersonates a cleaner after having merely glanced at him from a distance of around 30 feet. This strongly suggests that her powers of observation and guesswork are extremely heightened, possibly superhuman.

A:

As I have mentioned in other materials here, Mystique's powers allow her to replicate anything she can see, hear and touch.

Her powers will allow her to work from photographs, but she won't necessarily know the voice of a person she has not heard. She is very alert to the tiniest of clues. If there is anything that can be gathered from a picture; including period, styles of clothing, location, she is perfectly capable of attempting to mimic regional dialects if she knows them.

She can imitate voices she has heard perfectly, including pitch and tone. If she can listen for a minute or more, she can even fool machines which use vocal biometrics.

If she can touch a person, she can even replicate their fingerprints and other biometric information such as retina patterns. Her body's mimicry powers sample their DNA and reproduce every aspect of them except their cultural and social programming. If she has seen them live and interacting with other people, she can create a near-perfect replica, lacking only their memories to draw from.

See Also: Can Mystique Make Objects
See Also: How does Mystique Change Height

