Mummudrai

The Mummudrai are fictional life forms appearing in Marvel Comics. They are noncorporeal parasites, composed solely of emotional energy born from the astral plane of existence. The first and most notable member of the mummudrai species to appear on panel is Cassandra Nova.

First appearance

The Mummudrai concept was first introduced in Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men ^[1]. According to Shi'ar myth, mummudrai, also known as the anti-self, are entities that each individual must fight before being born. Cassandra Nova was revealed to be Professor X's twin. Unlike most mummudrai, she was able to build a body for herself due to becoming entangled with Xavier's powerful psyche in the womb and utilizing the vast potential in his genome. Upon sensing the existence of an alien entity in his mother's womb and perhaps perceiving the damage it would cause, Xavier murdered his twin sister. It spent most of its life building itself a new body and then set a vengeance plan against its twin by killing over 16 million mutants on Genosha, destroying the Shi'ar Empire (who first discovered the mummudrai), outing him to the world as a mutant before being tricked by Emma Frost into entering the body of Stuff, an amoeba-like metamorph (and member of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard) with a biocomputer for a brain.

Second appearance

The second Mummudrai shown (named Ev Teel Urizen) seems to have taken possession of Lady Mastermind^[2]. Upon being discovered by its host, it attempted to escape by possessing Mystique before being subdued by Cable. Urizen then stated that it had come from "the edge of Shi'ar space" and was fleeing from an entity known as the Hecatomb, which was coming to "eat the world."

Abilities

The mummudrai are able to copy the DNA of other beings and construct physical bodies for themselves. The mummudrai can also manipulate the DNA it copies to act as a rapid healing factor or to phase through solid matter. Further, they can manipulate the DNA of others, breaking it down at the molecular level. After copying the DNA of Charles Xavier, the mummudrai Cassandra Nova accessed the full spectrum of latent mutant functions in his genome, granting itself vast psionic powers.

Descriptions of mummudrai encounters by the Imperial Guard note their ability to strip "a man of his hopes and dreams," in line with the nature of Cassandra Nova's psionic attacks.

References

1. ^ New X-Men #114
2. ^ X-Men (2nd Series) #195