In the first issue of Nova we have Sam Alexander going through the beginning of his origin story. His father is an alcoholic janitor who screws up all of the time and constantly tells his children of tales of being a super hero when he was younger. For years Sam believed his father but finally came to his senses that there was no way it could be real.

Until his father disappeared.

As the story starts now, he wakes up in a hospital and 2 aliens were standing over him telling him they came a long way to talk to him about his father with the old battered helmet he always carried with him in their hands.

It looks like in Sam’s world things weren’t what they seemed as Rocket Raccoon tries to tell him about his father. Between the green skinned Gamora (who doesn’t say much this issue) and the talking raccoon, Sam freaks out and runs from the room.

After he returns, his visitors are gone though he soon finds that they left the helmet. He puts it on and the Nova armor covers him while a pre-recorded message plays from his father trying to apologize for being such a horrible Dad. He realizes that during the message he started falling and falls to the ground.

We pan to it being the next day and the Nova armor has completely healed him so the hospital tells his mother to take him home. He spends the rest of the issue learning how to float and finally fly. He takes off trying to see what exactly he can do with the suit and his mother sees him flying off with an annoyed look to her face. I don’t know if she’s angry with his father or him but I suspect she knows that one way or another she’s about to lose her son.

He flies off at top speed and quite unsurprisingly has no idea how to stop. He takes to the heights of the sky until he hits space and finally crash lands into the moon. The issue closes with him at the feet of The Watcher who can always be an interesting character to have pop up.

I’m not really sure what to say about this issue. We’re two in and I’m having problems holding a spark of interest in Sam learning the ropes of being Nova. Combined with an art style that I feel is too childish for the series and it’s really disappointing with how much I’ve loved the character in the past.

With them playing an angle with The Watcher I’m curious as to picking up the next issue though I’m not sure how many I’ll continue to pickup after that if we don’t get a real feel for Sam soon after.

I think the main problem I have with this series so far is that it’s an origin story being told before the events of AVX that we’re reading months after. It’s going to be hard to fit him into the current time slot until he’s caught up to that and even after it’s hard to see how they can develop him enough in that time to make him interesting. They are going to have to rush to the events in AVX if they want him to have any real active role in the current Marvel timeline.

Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Ed McGuinness