That’s right, readers, we’re bringing back the Xavier Files, and this time, you get to help choose who we add to our Mutant Master Rankings. Support ComicsXF on Patreon at the $10-a-month level or higher, and you can request either a new entry to the Files, or an update of an existing file (as most of these were written pre-Krakoa). We’re starting off the rebirth of this series with a Grant Morrison character soon to star in a major motion picture.
Name: Cassandra Nova
Codename/aliases: Mummudrai, Anti-Self
First appearance: New X-Men #114 (May 2001)
Created by: Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
Powers: Telepathy on par with Professor Xavier and all the bells and whistles that come with it, DNA duplication and manipulation, phasing, superhuman regeneration
Group affiliation: Marauders
About
Cassandra Nova is the mummudrai of Charles Xavier. “Mummudrai” is a Shi’ar word for the concept of a dark self that forms in opposition to a being’s light side. It is also one of those bonkers concepts that peppers Grant Morrison’s iconic New X-Men run. Nova is essentially the evil twin of Professor X. She possesses a similar level of power to Xavier but with a massive chip on her shoulder thanks to the fact that fetus-Xavier tried to kill her in the womb, leading to her being still-born and forced to survive for a time as a cluster of cells clinging to a wall (see above re: bonkers Morrisonian concepts).
After growing up, Nova decided to enact her revenge on Xavier by targeting his “children”: mutants. Coercing a hapless member of the Sentinel-originating Trask family into taking control of a “wild” Master Mold (the Sentinel that makes other Sentinels in his robotic tum-tum), she unleashed a Sentinel attack on the mutant nation of Genosha. Nova’s attack wiped out nearly every mutant there. After being taken into custody by the X-Men and brought to the X-Mansion, she attempted to use Cerebra (the latest version of Cerebro) to wipe out every other mutant left on Earth. Only a timely neck snap from Emma Frost and six bullets from Nova’s twin stopped her.
Except, it turns out, just before the bullets flew, Nova swapped minds with Professor X. Now in control of Xavier’s body while his mind languished in her broken body, Nova set about destroying Xavier’s life from within. She outed Xavier as a mutant and his school as the headquarters of the X-Men to the public. She then headed off to the Shi’ar Empire for a “vacation” at the side of Xavier’s lover Lilandra and set about destabilizing it before returning to Earth. Once again attempting to use Cerebra to wipe out all mutants, the X-Men, having grown wise to the switch, forced her back into her original body. Locking it away, Nova began a “psychic re-education” at the hands of Xavier and Jean Grey.
That’s where Grant Morrison’s work with the character ends. Sometime later, Joss Whedon comes along and reveals in Astonishing X-Men that shortly before her latest defeat, Nova planted a psychic suggestion deep in Emma Frost‘s mind. This led Emma to believe that Nova had recruited her into a new iteration of the Hellfire Club. Emma proceeded to torture her X-Men teammates and helped free Nova, but came to her senses before Nova could claim a new host body.
Nova’s story gets murky from there. In the midst of that conflict, the X-Men get pulled away to the alien Breakworld, and she is more or less forgotten. She resurfaces years later (publication time) to serve as the central antagonist of the first volume of X-Men Red. Using nano-Sentinels created by a psychically controlled Forge to stoke rage toward mutants, Nova is eventually defeated by a team of X-Men led by Jean Grey. Jean uses a reprogrammed nano-Sentinel to make Nova feel empathy for the first time in her life, and promises to help her atone.
This seemingly came to fruition when Nova joined the mutant island nation of Krakoa. There, she joined Kate Pryde‘s Marauders group on an adventure two thousand years in the past to free an ancient mutant civilization. However, both Emma Frost and Kate refused to forgive Nova for her attack on Genosha, and enacted a secret plan in which the other Marauders betrayed Nova and left her stranded in the past, where she remains.
But even exile in a doomed millennia-old past isn’t enough to keep an evil mutant down. Thanks to the third Deadpool movie, Deadpool & Wolverine, Nova is prepared to make a comeback of sorts as an antagonist in the film, played by Emma Corrin. A subsequent comic book return wouldn’t be surprising.
Fun Fact
Ernst, the young girl who looked prematurely aged and was friends with Martha Johansson, the floating brain in a jar, in Morrison’s New X-Men run was intended by Morrison to be Nova. The idea was that Ernst represented the rehabilitated form of Nova after undergoing her psychic re-education (which is why the character more or less disappears from Morrison’s run after that point). This is also why the grown Nova in the future-set “Here Comes Tomorrow,” Morrison’s final arc on the book, tells Martha she can call her Ernst. Ultimately, however, later writers established that Nova and Ernst are two different characters.
Must Read
It’s always tricky in situations like this to recommend a character’s first story. It implies there may be no subsequent stories of value past that first, no growth for the character beyond their initial introduction. But there’s no denying that “E is for Extinction” in New X-Men #114-116 is the signature, iconic Cassandra Nova story. It’s the one to read if you’re only going to read one. While it doesn’t lay out all the details of her origin, it establishes her as a cruel and cunning foe capable of going toe to toe with the best the X-Men have to offer. The complete and utter devastation of Genosha she sets in motion remains one of the defining plot points of the overall X-Men narrative, an event that looms large over all subsequent stories (to the point that it got adapted for X-Men ’97‘s standout episode, “Remember It“). Nova is a fun character in a mustache-twirling kind of way with plenty of potential and some boffo beats in her backstory, but her introductory story both tells you everything you need to know about her and upends the hierarchy of X-Men villains in one fell swoop.
Buy the New X-Men Omnibus here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him on Twitter @AustinGorton
