Posted in: Comics, NYCC | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, Jeff Loveness, marvel, nova, ramon perez, Richard Rider, Sam Alexander

A Tale Of Two Novas – Catching Up With The Nova Corps

Marvel has announced a new Nova series featuring both incarnations of the character. Here is a quick primer for anyone not familiar with the characters.

I was six years old when the first issue of Nova came out. It was written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by John Buscema and was the first new character I remembered being able to read when he was created. I got the comic from a spinner rack at a drug store. At the time, I didn't see the parallels between it and Green Lantern. And I'm fairly sure I wouldn't care if I had. He was more like Spider-Man in my mind. A teenager who was suddenly given powers that made him special. This was the type of character that resonated with readers at that time.

The origin was simple – last member of Xander's Nova Corps, Rhomann Dey, is dying and choose Richard Rider as his replacement. Of course Rider has no idea he's part of an intergalactic police force… He eventually found Dey's ship and made the journey to Xander. He even joined the supergroup The New Warriors with Speedball, Rage, Night Thrasher and more. He had a romantic relationship with his teammate Namorita.

Rider appeared on and off over the years, eventually confronting Thanos along with Star Lord in a storyline called The Thanos Imperative. He uses the Nova Corps power to charge a Cosmic Cube they are fighting over and opens a portal for Star Lord to escape. Thanos escaped as well, but Nova was presumed trapped or dead.

But the name Nova didn't sit around for too long. We got a new Nova in Marvel Point One by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness. 15-year old Sam Alexander finds out that his drunk dad was actually a member of the Nova Corps and Sam is brought in and given a helmet by Uatu the Watcher. Sam eventually joins the Avengers and most recently the Champions.

Now we learned in the last issue of the most recent Nova series that Richard Rider was still alive. The new series will be co-written by Jeff Loveness and Ramon Perez and drawn by Perez… it will focus on both Nova's. Rider will be training Sam in the art of being a hero while Sam will be helping Richard readjust to being human after being away for so long.

The new series will kick off in December 2016.

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