Warning: Spoilers for X-Men #5!Cassandra Nova is back and ready to terrorize the X-Men As their next main antagonist. Magneto was the one X-Men The original antagonist of the franchise at its inception, but more recently, he has been reformed as “The Dragon,” with a new purpose to protect mutantkind. With Magneto committed to helping the world as a hero, that leaves room for a new villain to take his place.
X-Men #5 – Written by Jed MacKay, with art by Ryan Stegman – Features the big return of Charles Xavier’s evil twin, as she positions herself as the franchise’s new greatest evil. Nova has been out of the picture for a while now, but she’s coming back X-Cannon with a vengeance, and makes an immediate impact.
However, as fans of the franchise know, there is a potential future presented where Cassandra Nova is the leader of the X-Men, leading to speculation among the fandom about whether the future has been altered.
Cassandra Nova returns to fill the role of the predominant antagonist of the X-franchise
X-Men #5 – Written by Jed MacKay; Art by Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Livesay, Marte Gracia, & Clayton Cowles
The X-Men as a team and as a franchise are at the beginning of a relaunch right now as the mutant community attempts to rise “from the ashes” of Krakoa after the fall of the mutant paradise. With Cyclops at the helm, the team investigates strange worldwide occurrences of several full-grown adults with their X-genes activated almost simultaneously. One new mutant named Ben Liu, a reality warper, loses control of his powers and the X-Men help him fake his death in order to delve deeper into this most unusual phenomenon from the comfort of their Alaskan (formerly Orchis) headquarters.
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All-powerful psychics Psylocke and Kid Omega are tasked by Cyclops to go inside Ben’s mind to figure out what caused his X-gene to activate so late in life. They stumble upon a memory of Ben being experimented on by unknown assailants, but that’s not even the funny part – what’s funny is that The memory begins to speak back to them, as from the shadows emerges Charles Xavier’s evil twin sister, Cassandra Nova. To distract Kwannon and Quentin and force them out, Nova creates manifestations of Kwannon’s suicidal lover, John, and Quire’s previous killer, Sabretooth.
The return of Cassandra Nova is the last major mystery of the X-franchise
Last appearance: murderers #10 – Written by Steven Orlando; Art by Eleonora Carlini; Color by Matt Milla; Lettering by Travis Lanham
Readers last saw Cassandra Nova in 2023 murderers #10, where she and the team go billions of years back in time in hopes of saving an ancient mutant civilization. Nova murders Trillions after connecting to Sentient Bacteria, Archaea and Sublime, but finally gets the punishment she deserves when she is then inflicted by a psychic attack from Marauders member Somnus, immobilizing her. The leader of the Maurauders, Kitty Pryde, considered Nova too much of a liability to return either to the team or to those present with them, giving a whole new meaning to Nova’s haunting return words, “I left something behind.”
Cassandra Nova has always been a self-hating mutant who sought to eradicate her own kind, so why she is now trying to produce more mutants is a huge question to be answered by the current X-Men arc.
As a result, Cassandra Nova was abandoned in the past, stranded and alone in time on the cusp of an extinction-level event.. The readers assumed that Nova was facing certain death, and yet here she is back in the present. When Psylocke and Kid Omega survive Nova’s psychic attack, they report the news to Cyclops and Beast that Cassandra Nova is back as a member of a mysterious group called 3K, who create new mutants by abducting people and force activating their X-genes.
One thing that has yet to be explained is how she could have possibly returned to the present, or why she allied herself with 3K. After all, this is the same woman who committed genocide on millions on the island of Genosha. Cassandra Nova has always been a self-hating mutant who sought to eradicate her own kind, so why she is now trying to produce more mutants is a huge question to be answered by the current X-Men arc. The renewed mutual role for Nova also begs the question of how it impacts her long-established future redemption arc.
Cassandra Nova’s redemption is still possible – but she might be better suited as a villain
You last X-Men Arc will determine your future
Cassandra first debuted in Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run, but the run also introduces a little girl with an elderly appearance named Ernst. She was introduced to Xorn’s special class, but when Xorn was revealed to be Magneto in disguise, Ernst joined his reformed Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Morrison’s run ended with a story in the distant future where Nova was surprisingly the leader of the X-Men, and it was heavily hinted that she was always serious in disguise, even including a scene of her Tells one character they can still call you seriously.
Most x-Writers Writers after Morrison have shied away from the idea of ​​a reformed Nova, or at least giving her such diabolical things to do that it would be seemingly impossible to redeem her.
Thanks to what was essentially a psychic lobotomy after merging with stuff, a synthetic brain, and then taught by Professor X and Jean Gray to teach her evil about beginning in New X-Men #126, Ernst was intended to be a rehabilitated version of Cassandra NovaSomething Grant Morrison confirmed after their tenure on the series. Then, most x-Writers Writers after Morrison have shied away from the idea of ​​a reformed Nova, or at least giving her such diabolical things to do that it would be seemingly impossible to redeem her.
One has to wonder if a world with Nova leading the X-Men is impossible now for the same reason, especially now that she’s with the 3K. Again, this could also mean that Nova’s road to redemption is even more than imagined. X-Men’s main villain before her, Magneto, certainly took a long road to redemption and did things that would be considered irredeemable, but he was redeemed nonetheless. Magneto is now a full-blown hero, and depending on how Cassandra Nova comes out of this 3K stint, she may eventually redeem herself in the eyes of the X-Men too.