It’s a hot Cassandra Nova summer

Emma Corrin as Cassandra Nova cuts a dashing figure in Deadpool & Wolverine, strutting around in an ankle-length trenchcoat and a strikingly bald head — a look ripped straight from the X-Men comics.

The X-Men villain is having a bit of a moment for her 23rd anniversary, with both her character and her biggest comic book crime taking center stage in Marvel Studios’ biggest summer hits of 2024. Through Aug. 6, her card is even a top reward for an event in Marvel Snap, the popular card battling game.

Image: Second Dinner/Marvel Entertainment

Curious about Cassandra Nova, Professor Xavier’s evil twin? There’s no time like the present to explore where she came from and why her powers are so… graphic.

[Ed. note: This piece contains very minor spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine.]

Who is Cassandra Nova?

Image: Tom Taylor, Mahmud Asrar/Marvel Comics

In Deadpool & Wolverine, Cassandra describes herself as Professor Xavier’s unborn twin, kicked out of her timeline by the Time Variance Authority and sent to their dimensional trash heap, the Void, because she tried to strangle Xavier in the womb. She grew up in the Void, building psychic power and seething with hatred for… everybody, basically. Other than the parts about the TVA and the Void, that’s pretty much her comics origin as well.

In the comics, Cassandra Nova is also Professor X’s evil twin. OK, that’s a simplification.

She’s Professor X’s stillborn twin. He sensed her opposing nature to his own, and strangled her in the womb. But given that she had the same psychic aptitude as her brother, her consciousness remained. After several decades of trying, she managed to create her own physical form — just as bald and old as Charles, but a lady — and menaced the X-Men as a powerful psychic who seeks to kill Professor X and undo all of his achievements.

That’s also a simplification, but it’s really all you need to know. Trust me.

Cassandra Nova debuted in 2001’s E is for Extinction parts 1 and 2, the first two issues of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s New X-Men. In those issues, she brought an army of “Wild Sentinels” to the mutant nation of Genosha, slaughtering 16 million mutants in a single day.

[Ed. note: Watch out! X-Men ‘97 spoilers ahead!]

Those two ideas — Nova as an evil Professor X and her Genoshan genocide — are what have everyone talking about her in 2024.

Over in the realm of animation, Disney Plus’ X-Men ’97 made a whole episode out of the fall of Genosha. The mastermind behind the attack was ultimately revealed as someone other than Nova, but that didn’t keep the internet from buzzing about the possibility that she was behind the scenes. Even though she didn’t even exist when the original X-Men animated series was produced, the episode unavoidably references Nova’s comics appearance.

So what’s up with Cassandra Nova’s creepy hand business?

Image: Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely/Marvel Comics

In the comics, Cassandra has all the powers of Professor X, plus some extra helpings from [seriously, don’t worry about it]. But in the movie, she admits she has one caveat that he lacks. In order to psychically read someone’s mind, she has to phase her hand into their head.

Cassandra’s handsy powers in Deadpool & Wolverine seem to have been inspired by a couple of panels from her first appearance, in which she kills a man by, apparently, running her hand through the solid matter of his body. (What power is she using to do this? How does it work? Don’t worry about it, it’s the rule of cool.) But the original Cassandra Nova doesn’t have to put her hand into someone to give them the psychic whammy. She just does it that one time for fun.

Deadpool & Wolverine, however, makes this the bread and butter of her villain style, and we get to watch multiple characters’ faces as she slides her hands through the backs of their heads and out their nostrils and foreheads, gripping and scrabbling around in there with her fingers pointing out of their bulging faces all willy-nilly. It’s one of the best design decisions and effects triumphs of the film, and a really fun addition to the character.