WARNING: Spoilers for the upcoming Marauders #1 & #2
The X-Men's most sadistic villain, Cassandra Nova, the "twin sister" of Charles Xavier, is set to return to Marvel Comics in the upcoming Marauders #1. She will join the mutant pirate team lead by Captain Kate Pryde on a space-faring journey, and she appears to be just as manipulative and conniving as ever. Cassandra Nova was last seen in 2018's X-Men Red where she was the main antagonist fighting against the resurrected Jean Grey and her new X-Men team, and it ended with Grey forcing Nova to experience empathy for the first time in her existence, promising that her return to comics will be complex and fascinating.
Cassandra is best known for the 2001 "E Is For Extinction" event, the first arc of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's New X-Men. There, Nova used an army of Sentinel robots to wipe out all the mutants on the island of Genosha, snuffing out 16 million lives in minutes. Nova is a mummandrai, a Shi'ar concept for the psychological "other" that all beings experience, but since she was Charles Xavier's mummandrai, she was able to gain physical form while in the womb thanks to Charles's telepathic powers. Nova's history after New X-Men is convoluted, but her appearance in X-Men Red reestablished her as a being of pure hatred and malice, set on destroying all mutants and "Xavier's Dream," before Jean uses a nanite Sentinel to to reprogram Nova's mind to experience compassion and empathy.
The island nation of Krakoa has accepted former villains into their ranks, but not only is Cassandra Nova seemingly not a mutant, she is responsible for the single greatest genocide in the history mutantdom. On top of that Kate Pryde's father, a human, was living on Genosha when Nova's Sentinels attacked, resulting in his death. So, for Pryde and the Marauders to be teaming up with Nova means they must desperately need her for something only she can do. In an exclusive interview with GamesRadar the writer of this new run of Marauders, Steve Orlando, spoke about Nova's inclusion in the new Marauders roster:
But as far as Cassandra herself goes, you'll see what she's been up to in our first issue. From a creative sense, Cassandra is someone who blows up every scene she's in. She calls bullshit where she sees it because her power level means she has no need to play by anyone's rules except hers...or so she thinks. In her last appearance, we left Cassandra in tears after an emergency injection of compassion by Jean Grey. She's come a long way since then, but the question remains: does even Cassandra know how deeply she was affected by one of Krakoa's most iconic telepaths?
Marauders - with art by Eleonora Carlini and Matt Milla - is going to cement the team as an "emergency rescue squad" and the solicits for issues #1 and #2 confirm that whatever or whoever the team is rescuing involves the Shi'ar Empire and Majestrix Xandra, Charles Xavier's daughter. The preview images Marvel Comics provided to GamesRadar shows gorgeous action panels, as well a tense exchange between Pryde and Nova, clearly establishing that Cassandra's placement on the team is not going to go over smoothly. Nova is intrinsically linked with the Shi'ar Empire as during New X-Men, so it can be assumed that the Shi'ar are not going to be happy when Nova shows up with the Marauders' crew.
The biggest question of all is, "How much has Cassandra Nova really changed since the end of X-Men Red?" Orlando's interview states that part of her time on the mutant rescue team will involve and exploration of how "she's come a long way" and her discovering the true impact of Jean Grey's "emergency injection of compassion," but it is truly hard to imagine Nova having any true meaningful redemption arc, since she caused the single greatest tragedy in mutant history. She has a lot to atone for, but maybe being forced to team up with a bunch of passionate, loving mutants like the Marauders will change her perspective on the world. Make sure to check out Marauders #1 when it debuts on March 30th 2022 to see how and why the despicable Cassandra Nova joins the X-Men rescue team.
Source: GamesRadar