Welcome, everybody, to 2017. I’m very excited about the line-up of comics that I’ll be discussing. The very first of the year is very near and dear to my heart. It involves a character that I have considered my favorite Marvel character since before I was a teenager. He was created the same year I was born (perhaps that partially has something to do with it) and up until about six years ago, he was a regular part of the Marvel Universe. What happened six years ago, you ask? He died, that’s what. The character I’m talking about is ‘Nova’, particularly the original man behind the mask: Richard Rider. Rider gained his super powers from a dying warrior so that he may stop a villain that threatened both their worlds. From there he became the protector of earth as part of the NovaCorp until one day he found himself the only member of the Corps left alive. If you’ve never heard of Nova, you’ve been missing out. I definitely suggest going back to the classic issues. That will take you to the events leading up to 2010’s ‘Thanos Imperative,’ which is where Richard Rider sacrificed himself (along with ‘Guardian’s of the Galaxy’s Starlord and Drax) to save the universe. A further story revealed that Nova died so that Star Lord and Drax could escape. That was one of the saddest moments in my comic reading life comparable only to the ‘Death of Superman.’
After that, a new and much younger Nova was introduced. His name was Sam Alexander. He received his powers from a different source than Richard Rider did, a ‘secret ops’ variation, but both sets of powers originated from the same alien world. He knew of Richard Riders existence but that was all. Sam became the final member of the Nova Corp. Then everything changed…
In issue number one of the newest volume of the Nova saga, Richard Rider is alive again, but he doesn’t know why. The world has moved on without him. There’s a new Nova that he has yet to meet, and Richard has brought something back with him from the ‘other side.’ This series is going to take the new Nova and bring him together with his classic counterpart.
I’m totally on board with this comic. In fact, it’s the only Marvel comic that I’m interested in reading at all at this point. I think that anyone interested can use this as a starting point, but that will only bring questions that can only be answered by looking backward at Richard Rider from the start and that isn’t a bad thing.
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