‘Deadpool and Wolverine’: Mummudrai, explained

Besides all the usual jokes and asides, we also get introduced to the movie’s big bad, a bald woman who apparently lives in a huge replica of Ant-Man‘s helmet. Her name? Cassandra Nova. She has a deep backstory in the comics that connects her to some of the biggest names in the Marvel Universe, oh and she’s a Mummudrai. So, what’s that?

While people may be familiar with Cassandra Nova, they may not know why or how she exists. Even more esoteric is the fact that she’s one of the Mummudrai. Let’s explain: The Mummudrai are also known as Revenants, and they are a sort of “psychic energy, wraith-like” being that exists outside of our dimension.

They’re evil beings that come from the depths of the Astral Plane in what’s known as the “Underworld.” They create their bodies by transforming genetic matter and they can use this same power to wreck other people’s bodies. Mummudrai are also twins of people in the physical plane (Cassandra Nova is Charles Xavier’s twin), and they desperately want to eradicate their siblings and take their place.

Mummudrai first appeared in New X-Men #125. They are made of “energy lattices” and in Shi’ar legend their name literally means opposite, and they are destined to do battle with their twin. This is of course what happened to Cassandra, who in the comics was defeated by the fetal Charles Xavier.

Cassandra Nova, on the other hand, was actually killed by Charles Xavier in the womb, or so he thought. After her cells were ejected from their mother’s body she spent years clinging to a sewer wall as organic matter, slowly building a new body for herself.

Because she’s Xavier’s twin, she has all his powers plus everything that comes with being a Mummudrai, making her one of the most formidable villains around. In the comics, she masterminds the Genosha massacre and unleashes the Sentinels. She’s crafty and while everyone thought she was gone she actually took over Xavier’s body which led to the Shi’ar empire being destroyed. She was eventually defeated when Emma Frost fooled her into inhabiting the body of a metamorph.

Besides Cassandra Nova, the only other Mummudrai of note is the Mummudrai Ev Teel Urizen. Urizen is part of a pretty convoluted story involving Cable and Mystique. Urizen mind-merges with Cable and they defeat the Hetacomb, which was coming to eat the world.

We don’t know exactly what Cassandra’s motives are in the new film, but the character has a real chance to shake things up, especially since the whole Kang storyline has apparently been scrapped.