We haven’t been stepping in to check on the new Nova recently. Mostly because not much has been happening. He’s continuing to learn to use his powers and recently threw around one of Thanos’ henchmen, but it’s really been anti-climactic for the most part.
Of course now that Thanos is at work. he’s got a bone to pick with a certain previous Nova after ‘The Thanos Imperative’ story line. So with this being an ‘Infinity’ crossover there is a chance we might get to learn a bit more of what happened there. That, and the series really needs a good kick in the butt to push it forward and stop it from making me want to take a nap.
Did this ‘Infinity’ tie in pull that off? Let’s dive in and find out shall we?
The introduction to this crossover happens two-fold. On the one hand we see Thanos find out that one of Richard Rider’s replacements is on the planet and working as a Nova. On the other we see Sam Alexander, the current Nova, fall from the sky and get knocked out from not behaving. When he comes to? There are a couple people standing over him (not in uniform) that long time readers may recognize but new readers might not – Justice and Speedball. Their goal is to recruit him to a new iteration of The New Warriors that they are starting.
What’s fun here is that Sam has no idea who the hell they are and tells them thanks but no thanks. He just passed on joining The Avengers.
Back to Thanos. He doesn’t want to be directly bothered by Nova himself as this isn’t the one who he had issues with. That’s not to say he doesn’t want the Novas wiped out and sends another newly introduced character, a killer named Kaldera, to take him out.
There isn’t a direct confrontation in the issue but we end it with Kaldera asking Nova’s younger sister if she knows where her brother is. As she was introduced to us so far just for this purpose I have a feeling Nova will end up taking her out somewhat quickly , the threat to family always helps speed that along.
I have a feeling Speedball and Justice are going to end up helping him out here.
So how did the tie-in issue do? Well we didn’t get a direct Nova and Thanos confrontation. There was no expansion on Richard Rider and Thanos past here. There was no epic fight scene (though clearly there was setup for one.)
Overall I’m still not feeling this comic. As a fan of Nova I want to like this title. It keeps having some up points to it but has failed to really drag me in quite yet. I’m not giving up on it yet for 2 reasons though. #9 is also an ‘Infinity’ tie-in and I stuck a peak at the cover of #10 which is going to involve Sam possibly finally learning more about the Nova Corps.
Here’s hoping that issue #10 will finally cause this series to truly start living up to it’s potential because I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep reading it much past that if my attention isn’t finally hooked.
NOVA #8
Writer: Zeb Wells
Artist: Paco Medina
