Sam Alexander’s alcoholic father has told him tales of being a super hero in space his entire life. Clearly the man who couldn’t hold together a job or sobriety was a super hero. Right? Totally believable. The problem with Sam’s fathers tales though is they weren’t actually a lie. He actually was one of the Nova Corps and now he’s died and his son has been forced into the mantle of being one of the premiere ‘police’ in the galaxy.

This issue opens with Sam having flown into space and bumped into The Watcher. While Sam tries to communicate with him, all he does is point off and Sam finally sees a large fleet far out in space coming to attack Earth. He tells The Watcher he’s just a kid but he’ll find a way to warn people.

I think that’s kind of the fun thing about this title and ‘Alpha’ is that the two really are just kids still. Kids with great power but kids nonetheless. While Alpha was instantly adapt at using his powers for what he felt was right Nova has no idea what he’s doing. Some of the scenes where he is just speechless at the amazing things hes coming across are fantastic. What is even better is that Gamora and Rocket Raccoon show back up and start working on helping him train which he grudgingly agrees to do.

During the training he points out that he saw the fleet that was coming to Earth and they go on the offensive. While he’s in no way shape or form ready to take on that kind of a fight (his armor makes him powerful but nowhere near invincible), they agree to use him as a scout to find the fleet so they can destroy it.

Great plan until when flying he pops in front of them and is instantly shot.

A nice little problem though is when Richard Rider died (so we believe at least) so did the Worldmind (The guiding force behind the Nova Corps.) Sam has no one to train him aside from these two ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ who don’t really know how his suit works just that it does.

While I keep finding things to like about this series I’m wondering where they are going to go with it. I feel that to make him an active part in the modern Marvel Universe they are going to need to force Sam to grow up fast. Nova Corps have to play on a cosmic level due to their powers (and with great power…) and Sam is nowhere near ready.

I know on the horizon we have an upcoming conflict with ‘Thanos’ in the works (who is going to be angry at anyone wearing a Nova uniform I’m sure) and there are clearly some of the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ being used here but I’m not seeing how they can have him fit in the greater Marvel Universe quite yet.

Don’t get me wrong you really need a good origin story for how they are going to use him but long term it’s hard to see where his place is going to be at this time. Annoying nagging thoughts aside the fun writing and solid pace of the book will have me happily snagging at least a few more issues.

Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Ed McGuinness