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Cassandra Nova Xavier is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, most commonly in association with the X-Men. Created by writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely , the character first appeared in New X-Men #114 (July 2001).
- Overview
- History Origin
- Personality
- Attributes
- Notes
- See Also
- Links and References
Mandela said, 'People must learn to hate.' And, yes, I admit I'm paraphrasing here--leaving out a lot of lovey-dovey inclusion stuff--but he was right. People must learn to hate. I'm going to be their teacher.
—Cassandra Nova
Cassandra Nova is a formidable enemy of the X-Men, specifically her "brother" Professor Charles Xavier. Originating as a "Mummudrai," a Shi'ar term for "anti-self" who exist within the Astral Plane, Cassandra embodied the dark counterpart to her twin brother, Charles. Her brother while in the womb recognised her evil presence and was forced to kill her, causing a miscarriage. Surviving undetected for years as a growing mass of cells in a sewer wall, Cassandra meticulously crafted a new body for herself, fueled by a burning desire for revenge against her brother. Upon emerging, she swiftly seized control of a secret "wild" Master Mold in the South American jungles, leveraging its capabilities to unleash a genocidal massacre on Genosha using deadly Sentinels.
Despite initial confrontations with the X-Men and nearly being killed, Cassandra demonstrated remarkable resilience, infiltrating and manipulating her way through various hosts and situations. Utilizing Charles' form, she orchestrated a series of devastating events, including causing chaos within the Shi'ar Empire and inciting mutant hate crimes worldwide. Cassandra's schemes escalated with the creation of Sentinites, microscopic machines capable of inducing murderous rage in their hosts towards mutants. These machinations culminated in a climactic showdown, where she sought to force Jean Grey into conflict. However, the X-Men, aided by the Avengers, thwarted her plans and ultimately subdued her.
Origin
Cassandra Nova Xavier is what the Shi'ar call "Mummudrai", the spirit that is the equal and opposite of a person. However, due to the amazing genetic potential of Professor Charles Xavier, his Mummudrai was able to create a physical form, effectively a twin. While gestating in her mother Sharon Xavier's, womb, Cassandra was recognized by Charles as an evil presence, and he preemptively tried to kill her with his nascent psychic abilities. Cassandra was barely able to defend herself and the shock of the roiling battle caused Sharon to have a miscarriage. Though the doctors pronounced her stillborn, Cassandra in fact survived and spent the next decades as a growing mass of cells in a sewer wall, building a new body for herself and planning her revenge on her brother.
Revenge
When she emerged, Cassandra located a secret "wild" Master Mold in the South American jungles that was able to adapt existing technology into a wide variety of lethal Sentinel forms. She convinced Bolivar Trask's cousin Donald Trask III to accompany her to the Master Mold, where his voice activated the control protocols. After killing Trask by merging herself into his body, she dispatched giant Sentinels to Genosha, resulting in the genocidal massacre of over sixteen million mutants (seemingly including Magneto). Her Wild Sentinels also attacked the X-Wing, downing it with Cyclops, Wolverine, and their passenger Ugly John aboard. The two X-Men subdued Nova, but Ugly John suffered mortal wounds and was mercy killed by Cyclops. Wolverine severed Cassandra's vocal cords and she was brought to the Institute, where she began to exert telekinetic and telepathic control over the X-Men, making her way to Cerebra by phasing in an effort to destroy all mutants. Then Emma Frost snapped her neck, stunning Cassandra, who was finally put down by six gunshots from Charles. What no one realised at the time was that just before the shots, Cassandra switched her mind into Charles's body and vice versa. Using Charles's form, Cassandra "outed" him and the X-Men to the world, then left Earth with Lilandra for a "vacation." While in the Shi'ar Empire, Cassandra used her powers to take control of the Imperial Fleet and began to destroy the Empire from within. Lilandra made for Earth, but Cassandra destroyed the ship, and upon arrival back at the Institute took down the Superguardians as well. By this point, Cassandra (in Charles's body) had constructed a psychic monster around herself, seemingly made up of the flailing body parts of all the people she had absorbed or controlled. After beating off all crossed her path, Cassandra again visited Cerebra. She tried to use Cerebra to access the minds of all Earth's mutants, but Charles's mind was waiting for her (put there by Jean Grey) and he forced her out of his body. Formless and with no life support, Cassandra flailed about until Emma came in with Cassandra's body. The entity entered, only to be trapped inside, as her real body was dead and this body was in fact the Imperial Superguardian shapeshifter Stuff. Her mind was blanked, and she began a mental process of re-education by psychic simulations of Professor X and Jean Grey while her body was put into a virtually impenetrable metal box.
Black Bug Room
When Professor X began his psychic journey to locate Magneto and Scarlet Witch. He travelled through his memories assisted by Doctor Strange. When in his own Black Bug Room he met various friends and enemies including Cassandra Nova who taunted her dear brother before entering the room where Magneto and Scarlet Witch where.
Being the literal anti-self of Charles Xavier, Cassandra Nova represented everything he stood against. She was sadistic, cruel, genocidal but also mainly vengeful, having destroyed Genosha, caused chaos within the Shi'ar Empire and creating the Sentinites in a twisted form of revenge against her brother, who attempted to kill her when they were still in the womb.
However, after being injected with a modified Sentinite by Jean Grey, which rewrote her brain, Cassandra began feeling empathy for the first time in her life, feeling regret over her previous actions like the Genoshan genocide. However, while she became empathetic, this didn't change her sadistic behavior, as she enjoyed torturing her opponents such as Pr!z the Red or lobotomizing Arkea and Sublime
Powers
Cassandra possesses telepathy comparable to Charles Xavier. After copying the DNA of Charles Xavier, the mummudrai Cassandra Nova accessed the full spectrum of latent mutant functions in his genome (this means she has the powers of Charles Xavier, the ones he could have had 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. DNA Duplication: She is able to copy the DNA of sentient beings and use it to construct physical bodies for themselves. Also capable of accessing the full spectrum of latent mutant functions in ones genome. •DNA Manipulation: She can manipulate the DNA of others, breaking it down at the molecular level. •Jumpstart: After analyzing the DNA of another superhuman mutant, Cassandra is able to selectively evolve their existing genetic traits as well as catalyze the untapped genetic potential of latent mutants.[citation needed] Once begun, the procedure is irreversible and can often result in unpredictable side effects.[citation needed] •Phasing: She has the ability to pass through solid matter by passing her atoms through the spaces between the atoms of the object through which she is moving. In this way she and the object through which she is passing can temporarily merge without interacting, and each is unharmed when Cassandra has finished passing through the object. This process is called "phasing". When Cassandra is phasing she is intangible. •Regeneration: She regenerates and heals hundreds of times faster than a normal human. Thanks to this superhumanly regenerative "healing factor," she has been able to completely recover from injuries which would prove fatal to most humans, even those with superhuman abilities. She can regenerate organs such as eyes or large portions of flesh, regenerate limbs, such as feet and arms, which have been completely severed. •Trask DNA: Using her powers, she was able to duplicate the Trask DNA, and therefore include herself in the Prime Command Protocols of the Sentinels, "Preserve Trask DNA". Telepathy: Cassandra Nova is a High-Level Telepath, and one of the most powerful telepaths and psychics on the planet, able to overpower the minds of other powerful telepaths with ease, such as Emma Frost, Rachel Summers, and Charles Xavier. She can read minds and project her thoughts into other minds within a vast, potentially limitless radius. •Telepathic Cloak: She can mask her presence from being detected by others. Her abilities can at times go undetected or be counteracted by other more powerful telepaths depending on their level of skill in using their own psi abilities. She can extend these defenses to others around her as well. •Mind Control: She has the ability to control the minds of others upon mere concentration. •Mind Possession: She has the ability to possess the mind of another, and use that beings body as her own. •Mind Alteration: She has the ability to alter the minds of others by force of will. •Psionic Shield: She has the ability to erect a psychic shield for protection of herself and of others minds. •Telepathic Illusions: She has the ability to create illusions to make herself seem to be invisible, look like someone else, or make others experience events that are not truly happening. •Mental Paralysis: She has the ability to induce temporary mental or physical paralysis •Mental Amnesia: She can erase any awareness of particular memories or cause total amnesia. •Psionic Blasts: She can project psionic force bolts which have no physical effects but which can affect a victim's mind so as to cause the victim pain or unconsciousness and turning someone brain-dead. •Astral Projection: She can project her astral form from her body onto astral planes or the physical planes. In the physical plane she can only travel in astral form over short distances. In the astral plane, she can mentally create psionic objects and manipulate the aspects of her environment. •Astral Form Projection: She has the ability to release her astral form, which she uses to focus her telepathy and telekinesis. •Mind Transferal: She is able to transfer both her mind and powers into other host bodies should her own physical body be somehow killed. •Mental Detection: She can sense the presence of another superhuman mutant within a small but as yet undefined radius of herself by perceiving the distinctive mental radiations emitted by such a being.
Weaknesses
•Magneto's Helmet: Jean Grey had Tony Stark create a supply of countless replicas of Magneto's helmet which blocked Cassandra's psychic powers much like her brothers.
•It was suggested that Nova used her vast psionic powers to awaken or even create Emma Frost's Secondary Mutation which granted her the ability to turn herself into "living diamond".
•In order to disable Charles Xavier while being in his body, Cassandra Nova infected her own body (hosting Charles) by Motor Neuron disease, a rapid form of Alzheimer's disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
•Cassandra Nova was listed on the Avengers database as one of the most powerful mutant telepaths on Earth.
•Writer and Cassandra Nova's co-creator Grant Morrison originally intended for Nova to be rehabilitated, with the former villain assuming the alias of Ernst. The most blatant hint to this comes from New X-Men #153, set in the alternate future of Earth-15104, in which Cassandra Nova tells No-Girl that she "can still call [her] Ernst." This hint also establishes that as an alias, Ernst would've originated from the German artist Max Ernst.
•36 appearance(s) of Cassandra Nova Xavier (Earth-616)
•2 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Cassandra Nova Xavier (Earth-616)
•17 minor appearance(s) of Cassandra Nova Xavier (Earth-616)
•25 mention(s) of Cassandra Nova Xavier (Earth-616)
•6 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Cassandra Nova Xavier (Earth-616)
•59 image(s) of Cassandra Nova Xavier (Earth-616)
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 ...
Cassandra Nova. A member of a species of bodiless parasites composed of living emotional energy known as the Mummudrai, legendary for appearing to every being in-utero shortly before birth as their ultimate opposite, the creature that would become known as Cassandra Nova appeared to the unborn Charles Xavier, copying his DNA to create its own ...
Cassandra Nova Xavier was an Omega-level mutant and the twin sister of Charles Xavier. Being banished to the Void by the Time Variance Authority, Nova took a liking to it and gained permission to run her operations there as she pleased, building an armed community of survivors. Nova came into conflict with freshly pruned Deadpool and Wolverine who were trying to get home, while Nova had no ...
Jul 4, 2024 · After causing chaos on Earth, Cassandra Nova turned her attention to the cosmic Shi'ar Empire. Still posing as Professor X, Nova traveled into space to reconnect with Empress Lilandra Neramani, Xavier's old flame. Once Beast began recovering, he told the X-Men that Xavier was trapped in Nova's body. Emma Frost and Jean Grey went on a psychic ...
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Cassandra Nova Xavier is a major antagonist in the Marvel Universe, specifically the X-Men franchise. She is a nefarious warlady and the evil twin of Charles Xavier, as well as a recurring enemy of the X-Men themselves. Her origins go back as far as the birth of Professor Xavier himself; previously he was a member of a parasitic race of psychic beings Cassandra attached herself to the unborn ...
