Cassandra Nova

Cassandra Nova
File:Nx121.jpg Cover to New X-Men #121 (February 2002). Art by Frank Quitely.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	New X-Men #114 (July 2001)
Created by	Grant Morrison Frank Quitely
In-story information
Alter ego	Cassandra Nova Xavier
Species	Homo Sapiens Superior / Mummudrai
Team affiliations	Hellfire Club The 198, X-Men students (both as Ernst) Brotherhood of Mutants (as Ernst) Shi'ar Imperium
Notable aliases	Ernst, the Immensity(by Shi'ar)
Abilities	Extraordinary telepathy, telekinesis, DNA duplication, healing factor, phasing, shapeshifting and possibly more

Cassandra Nova is a fictional enemy of the X-Men in the Marvel Comics universe. Created by writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely, Cassandra first appeared in New X-Men #114 (July 2001).

Cassandra is a "mummudrai," a parasitic life form born bodiless on the astral plane. The mummudrai that became Cassandra became telepathically entangled with the future Charles Xavier, who possesses vast mutant telepathic powers. This granted Cassandra some psionic powers herself, including the ability to exit the womb and create a body.

Cassandra is Xavier's ideological dark shadow, bent on destruction and genocide. She is most infamous for commanding an army of Sentinels to massacre 16 million mutants within the mutant "homeland" of Genosha.

Character biography

Origins

Cassandra Nova began life at the same time as Charles Xavier. Conceived without a body; Cassandra improvised one by copying Xavier's DNA to make her own body, effectively becoming his twin sister. She grew with her brother until the time when Charles sensed her monstrous thoughts. Charles attempted to kill the creature, resulting in its physical body being stillborn. Despite this, the creature survived as chaotic cellular matter and clung to a sewer wall for decades, rebuilding its physical form and perfecting its effort to mimic human traits. During this time, she grew convinced that the womb in which she had fought Charles and the universe she now inhabited were one and the same, a universe in which only Charles and she were real, and that her purpose was to destroy every illusion Charles held dear: his dream, his X-Men and his beloved Lilandra.

Jean Grey later discovered that Cassandra Nova is the mummudrai (from a Shi'ar legend, meaning opposite) of Charles Xavier. "Legend says each of us faces our own personal mummudrai in the womb, shortly before birth - it is our first experience of the alien, the other, the different". In reality, the mummudrai are a parasitic species born bodiless on the astral plane, and it was only through becoming entangled with Charles Xavier's developing telepathic mind that Cassandra Nova created a body for herself.

Genocide

After she was able to rebuild herself, Cassandra returned with a vengeance. She convinced the last living relative of Bolivar Trask, Donald Trask III, to activate a pair of enormous wild Sentinels and send them to destroy the mutant homeland of Genosha, killing 16 million mutants. Cassandra duplicated Trask's DNA so she could also issue orders to the Sentinels, programmed to obey only those with the DNA of a Trask. Cassandra infected her own body with millions of nanosentinels just as she was captured by Cyclops and Wolverine.

Cassandra was taken to the X-Mansion, where she broke free and defeated most of the X-Men easily. Cassandra then put herself into Xavier's machine Cerebra (an enhanced version of Cerebro) and switched minds with her brother before Emma Frost snapped Cassandra's neck (Emma had been in Genosha teaching during the attack and witnessed her students massacred). Trapped in Cassandra's broken body, Xavier was unable to warn the X-Men before Cassandra, now in Xavier's body, shot him.

Imperial

Now in Xavier's body, Cassandra mentally forced the Xavier Institute student Beak to beat Beast into a coma after he discovered that Xavier and Cassandra shared the same DNA. Cassandra Nova then contacted the Shi'ar, whose leader was Majestrix Lilandra, Xavier's lover. Cassandra manipulated the Shi'ar Imperium, driving Lilandra insane and using her to make the Shi'ar Imperial fleet destroy the empire. Cassandra also made Lilandra send the Shi'ar Imperial Guard to wipe out the mutant population of Earth, starting with the X-Men. The Guard fought the X-Men until they were able to show the truth to the Imperial Guard.

Angered at Cassandra's treachery and realizing the danger she posed, the Imperial Guard fought Cassandra, who defeated them and headed into the mansion. She had planned on using Cerebra to eliminate all mutants. However, Jean Grey (who was becoming increasingly more powerful due to a manifestation of the Phoenix entity) was able to split Xavier's consciousness into pieces and store a little part of him in every single living mutant mind. When Cassandra used Cerebra and focused on all the mutants, the pieces of Xavier's mind were brought back together; at the same time, Jean Grey telephatically attacked the Immensity, and both of them were able to force Cassandra out of his body.

Without a body, Cassandra became pure psychic energy, bodiless and blind. Emma Frost tricked Cassandra into returning to what appeared to be her old body, which was in reality the alien polymorph "Stuff."

Cassandra's essence entered the body and was locked into a self-repeating program in the synthetic brain.

Ernst

"Planet X" hinted and "Here Comes Tomorrow" directly stated that Cassandra had taken the form of the young mutant Ernst, a diminutive, old-looking little girl with superhuman strength who was placed among Xorn's Special Class and later became a member of his Brotherhood of Mutants. Chuck Austen, who followed Morrison on New X-Men was criticized for, among other things, disregarding elements of Morrison's stories. In Austen's New X-Men #156, Cyclops and Beast investigate Cassandra's containment unit following the destruction of the mansion, only to find it empty.

Hellfire

File:Emmacassandra.PNG

Cassandra Nova with Emma Frost. Art by John Cassaday.

Cassandra, back in her original form, returned in the "Danger" story arc of Astonishing X-Men, alongside Sebastian Shaw of the Hellfire Club.

So far, it has been revealed that she used the nano-Sentinels in Ecuador to manufacture a "secondary mutation" for Emma Frost which granted her the ability to turn herself into "living diamond" in exchange for the favor of Emma infiltrating the X-Men. Hints are also given that Emma in return did something more for Cassandra than keep her alive.

When the new Inner Circle attacks the X-Men, Nova unleashes Beast's animalistic side, turning him into a feral animal. Then she reverts Logan's psyche back to his childhood, revealing a surprisingly humorous and timid boy who is no threat to her.

Alternate versions

Here Comes Tomorrow

In the Here Comes Tomorrow future timeline, Cassandra's reeducation under the form of Ernst was a complete success; she had embraced Xavier's dream and was now Headmistress of the Xavier Institute. Instead of simply going by the name of Cassandra Nova, she added the Xavier surname to her own, now calling herself Cassandra Nova Xavier. Alongside Wolverine, the Three-in-One, Beak, E.V.A. and No-Girl (Martha Johansson), Cassandra became one of the X-Men, fighting against Sublime and its armies of Crawlers, led by Apollyon. Cassandra was destroyed by Sublime after it unleashed Phoenix on the X-Men.

However, this timeline diverged from Earth-616 when Cyclops accepted Emma's offer to run the Xavier Institute together. In the current timeline, Cassandra remembered her original identity, though she seemingly kept the Ernst guise to remain at the Institute.

X-Men: The End

Cassandra factors prominently in the alternate future depicted in X-Men: The End storyline (Book 3). In this timeline she remains a villain.

Powers

The mummudrai are usually forced to fight with the mind of their host over a body. However, given the vast potential in Xavier's genome, Cassandra Nova is able to build her own body, mimicking human traits as best she can. Cassandra can also manipulate the DNA it has copied to act as a rapid healing factor or to phase through solid matter.

First using her DNA copying ability, she mimics Donald Trask III, a relative of Bolivar Trask, so that she can voice command the Sentinels, who obey the Trask family line, to attack Genosha.

After copying the DNA of Charles Xavier, the mummudrai Cassandra Nova accesses the full spectrum of latent mutant functions in his genome (she has the powers of Charles Xavier, the ones he could have and the ones he might receive as a result of latent mutation), granting itself vast psionic powers. These powers include: telepathy, telekinesis, and the ability to release an astral form, which she focuses both her telepathy and telekinesis. She has all the powers of the "average" mummudrai as well, which include the latter explanation.

As Ernst, Cassandra does not display any of the abilities she originally had, only superhuman strength. Because Cassandra inhabits the body of the Shi'ar Superguardian Stuff, which can mimic not only the form but the DNA of any being, Cassandra should be capable of regaining both her hard and soft psionic powers.

External links

• Cassandra Complexities at UncannyXmen.net
• Cassandra Nova on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki