On July 26th, the long awaited dynamic duo of Deadpool & Wolverine finally hit the big screen together and make their own mark in the ever expanding MCU. But they won’t be the only ones making their debut in the MCU as many other characters are slated to appear with one of them confirmed to be Cassandra Nova as the film’s potential main villain. Who is Cassandra Nova? What makes her a threat to the duo in a multiverse full of infinite threats to their existence? Find out more below!

Origin

As with most comic book characters there are multiple origins, identities, incarnations and adaptations of certain characters across comics and various media. For this overview we will be looking at the primary origin of the character who made her debut in New X-Men #114. Cassandra is the twin sister of X-Men founder, 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 she had fully formed hands and eyes, when she decided to try to kill Charles by attempting to strangle him with his own umbilical cord. Charles recognized her evil presence while in the womb and defended himself by hitting her with a psychic which caused his mother to have a miscarriage, resulting in her physical body being stillborn.  Despite this, she survived as chaotic cellular matter that 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 she and Charles were real, and that her purpose was to destroy every illusion Charles held dear: his dream, his X-Men, and even his beloved Lilandra. She essentially became Xavier's ideological dark shadow, bent on destruction and genocide. Jean Grey later discovered that Cassandra Nova is a mummudrai, from a Shi'ar legend, meaning 'opposite', of Charles Xavier. Legends say everyone faces their own personal mummudrai in the womb, shortly before birth. 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. Cassandra Nova would dedicate her life to fighting Xavier and the X-Men on multiple occasions across different comic arcs but her first act against them was always the most infamous of all, which was when she commanded an army of Sentinels to massacre 16 million mutants within the mutant homeland of Genosha. This event would be known as the Genosha Genocide, which was recently adapted in the animated series X-Men '97 but in that adaptation Cassandra Nova was not the mastermind of it. This act and her immense power makes her one of the most dangerous threats in Marvel comics to not only the X-Men but to other heroes as well that would end up fighting her over time.

Powers & Weaknesses

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 coupled with the DNA manipulating aspects of a Mummudrai/ Revenant, Cassandra Nova was able to build her own body from scratch, mimicking human traits as best she can. Cassandra Nova is able to access the full spectrum of latent mutant functions in Xavier's genome (she seemingly has the powers of Charles Xavier, the ones he could have and the ones he might receive as a result of latent mutation), granting herself vast psionic powers. These powers include telepathy, telekinesis, and a bio-phasing ability. She was able to block the considerable telepathic abilities of Charles Xavier, create psionic armor, disintegrate the complete tissue of Wolverine’s arm, and make her body completely intangible to an extent that even allowed her to withstand a direct blast from Cyclops. She has all the powers of the "average" mummudrai as well, which are astral manipulation, mental possession and genetic alteration. Her telepathic capabilities are so advanced that she was able to hide her possession of Charles Xavier's body over quite some time despite directly interacting with considerable telepaths like Jean Grey, Emma Frost, and the Stepford Cuckoos at the same time. Cassandra can also manipulate the DNA she has copied to act as a rapid healing factor or to mimic the voice and DNA of others. Despite her immense psychic power, Cassandra Nova is just as vulnerable to telepathic manipulation as anyone else. This was proven during one battle with Jean Grey and her X-Men: Red team during the battle with the Sentinites where Jean used her own abilities to combat with Nova and won through tactical manipulation. Beyond that, Cassandra Nova is also extremely arrogant and prone to underestimating her enemies, which has been her greatest downfall. She is so arrogant to the point that she often fails to plan for resistance to her plans, failing to see how anyone could possibly stand against her.

What to expect?

Cassandra’s exact role and motives in the upcoming film has yet to be revealed but given her comics history she is set to likely be the main villain of the film that is responsible for being the threat to the multiverse that the TVA is looking to eliminate with the help of Deadpool & Wolverine. With the brief glimpses we get of her in the film she appears to have the same  ability and personality as her comic book counterpart but instead of having sentinels do her bidding she appears to be leading an army of variants of multiple villains from the multiverse including several former X-Men villains like Pyro and Sabertooth. Now given that she is responsible in comics for committing mass genocide against mutants there is the possible chance that she could be the villain that caused the fall of Wolverine’s world given the mass amount of graves featured in one shot of the second trailer resulting in Wolverine being left as the only survivor who failed to save his world. We shall soon find out the whole story of this adaptation of Cassandra Nova once the film releases on July 26th.