Genocidal Villain Cassandra Nova Joins New Marauders Team

Marvel Comics dropped a Friday bombshell this morning, revealing that the final member of the roster for the upcoming Marauders relaunch will be Cassandra Nova, Charles Xavier’s slightly more evil sort-of-twin created by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely for E is for Extinction. Nova was responsible for unleashing sentinels on the mutant nation of Genosha and killing sixteen million mutants. She more recently tried to create a war between mutants and humans during the X-Men Red series. But the formation of Krakoa at the start of Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men relaunch meant amnesty for all mutants, even the X-Men’s worst villains… except, of course, for Sabretooth. When you’re such a dick even a genocidal maniac is more welcome at the mutant holiday party than you are, you know you’ve royally ****ed up.

From the press release:

The final Marauder revealed! Starting in March, set sail with writer Steve Orlando and artist Eleonora Carlini for a new era of MARAUDERS. A new creative team calls for a new crew and this one is packed with longtime favorites like Kate Pryde, bright newcomers like Somnus, and a shocking final member—CASSANDRA NOVA!

The twisted twin sister of Professor Xavier, Cassandra was introduced during Grant Morrison’s revolutionary early 2000s run on NEW X-MEN where she orchestrated the deadliest crime in mutantkind history and left the X-Men’s world in chaos. Now the Marauders need her help to untangle a mystery rooted in the earliest days of mutantkind. Do they dare trust her?

Uh… no? The answer is obviously no.

Writer Steve Orlando says:

Cassandra Nova Xavier is back, with the same malicious mind and murderous hands as ever! But how much has she changed since her last run in with the X-Men? Pryde and the Marauders have no choice but to find out, since Cassandra’s only one who can lead them to mutantkind’s earliest ancestors — a mystery two billion years old. She’s little bit Xavier, a little bit Catherine Trammel, and the Marauders’ only hope for success.

Shockingly revealing that the final member of your superhero team roster is a genocidal villain who murdered millions of people is, as we are all aware, one of Joe Quesada’s 22 Cheap Sales-Boosting Gimmicks That Always Work, a series of tried-and-true techniques for increasing comic book sales that publishers rely on to keep the industry endlessly churning, so in retrospect, we all should have probably seen this coming.

Marauders #1 is in stores on March 30th and Marauders Annual #1 is out on January 12th.

MARAUDERS #1
Written by STEVE ORLANDO
Art by ELEONORA CARLINI
Cover by KAEL NGU
Teaser Variant Cover by ELEONORA CARLINI
On Sale 3/30