With Marvel bringing in the cosmic level of characters back into the forefront to promote Guardians of the Galaxy, it was only a matter of time before we once again saw Nova grace the page. The problem though is that the last Nova, Richard Rider, is dead. Who is taking up the cause? How can anyone fill his shoes with how amazing of a job they did writing him?
Right off the bat we are introduced to the new Nova as Sam Alexander. This isn’t the first time the new Nova has been introduced though as he’s been in two recent Marvel comics during the AvX story-line where we saw him basically get knocked out in both cases. The first of which is where we saw him returning to Earth to warn everyone that the Phoenix was coming right before lapsing into a coma. The second time was him being defeated by the Phoenix empowered Cyclops. Due to inexperience both times we saw him pretty much get completely knocked out.
We’re going to flashback a little before these events in the comic though. We’re going to see Sam as a teenager who isn’t happy with his life. It’s clearly a new theme with Marvel to have an angst driven teenager whose got it rough and finds a super power to make his life better. I kid of course it’s one of their most reoccurring origin themes and they use it because it works. It gives us a more believable character.
The art in the series is absolutely beautiful as we travel from memories of space through to modern day America. The alien ships look amazing and the scenes that take place in a regular looking town and school are perfectly done.
This new Nova apparently is going to be taking the place of his father who is an ex-Nova Corps member. We don’t know much about his father’s past all we know is that his son doesn’t believe the tales where his father wasn’t an alcoholic but actually flew through the stars as a doer of good. In fact he’s pretty disgusted with his father who he always has to clean up after and who is drunk instead of working a day job to help the family. The future Nova has a rough life being bullied at school and pretty much a loner.
That is until the last scene where he is trying to check in on his dad and gets knocked out. When he comes to in the hospital he sees a couple of interesting visitors who want to talk to him about his father. When you see 2 Guardians of the Galaxy sitting at the end of your bed, you know you’ve either lost your mind or probably have to listen to what they are saying.
The issue ends on a cliffhanger without having given us too much of where the story is going yet. We don’t know how he is going to become one of the Nova Corps as he hasn’t yet by the issue’s end. We don’t know if he is going to be an Earth or Galaxy based hero. Hell we don’t know if he’s going to be both! What I can tell yout hough is they’ve added just enough interest and intrigue in the first issue to make me want to pickup the second.
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Cover Artist: Joe Quesada
