You have to hand it to Marvel Comics, they never let an old idea lay dormant for long. When the introduction of Nova, a comic book character intended to recapture the innocence and energy of Lee and Ditko’s Spider-Man for a new generation fell flat, you’d figure that would be that. But the arrival of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s Annihilation cross-over event changed everything both for Nova and the cosmic comic characters of the Marvel Universe.
Richard Rider, Nova
Richard Rider is a simple suburban kid from Long Island. Chosen seemingly at random to join the Nova Corps, Rider finds himself a member of a galactic organization committed to upholding the peace on a large scale and assisting those in need (… kinda like Green Lantern Corps, which would be viewed as a rip-off if the GLC itself were not loosely based on the Lenseman series). Nova had his day in the sun and moved on to that shadowy venue of third-tier character, showing up in the pages of the Fantastic Four and later as a member of the New Warriors.
However it was not until the Annihilation series that the character found a new lease on life and his title became something of a cult hit amongst comic book readers. I myself picked up the first trade on word of mouth alone.
With the opening of the Annihilation series, the Nova Corps is destroyed, leaving Rider as the only survivor. This is odd given that he was never really regarded as the best of the corps by a long chalk. The power source of the corps, not having anywhere else to go, resides in him, giving him access to untold amounts of power and the combined knowledge of the Nova Corps referred to as World Mind. This allows for the standard ‘floating head’ scenario that proved so successful years ago in the pages of Firestorm the Nuclear Man. The series follows the adventures of Rider as he attempts to play the part of one man Nova Corps, traveling at light speed from one disaster to the next.
One of the interesting threads that begins to play out in the series is one of free will. Rider is constantly communicating with World Mind who feeds him advice and often argues with the strong-willed human as to what to do next. Rider commonly disobeys World Mind only to face the consequences of near destruction to later concede that the floating head was right all along. Later in the series, the sequel to Annihilation, Annihilation: Conquest, pits our hero against the Techno virus known as the Phalanx. Crippled near death, Nova eventually succumbs to the lure of the Phalanx only to find that being part of a hive mind isn’t that bad of a thing. Rider muses that it feels good to be part of something larger and that he has not so much been subsumed as he has been welcomed into something larger than himself. In time, he rejects the Phalanx, but the experience takes a heavy toll on him and he loses his connection with World Mind entirely. Eventually he realizes that he must return to Earth and seek the assistance of Project: Pegasus (kinda like STAR Labs for DC readers) in reviving his mentor.
World Mind returns but is no longer only in Richard Rider’s mind. Free of the human restriction, World Mind begins to rebuild the Nova Corps… without Richard’s knowing. This causing a schism between the two ‘characters’ and in the end Rider is kicked out of the organization he had so long defended. World Mind muses that Rider had taken on too much by embodying the entirety of the Nova Force and has lost part of his sanity. However, Rider has a feeling this is not the case at all. With the help of the Project: Pegasus team he establishes that World Mind is dousing the new corps members with endorphins, clouding their judgment (kinda like what happened with the Phalanx). To make matter worse, Rider discovers that holding the Nova Force in his body has greatly limited his remaining lifespan… giving him precious few days left to live.
This has got to be one of the hidden gems of the current comic book market. Full of intelligent plots, high drama and exciting suspense, Nova is a series that is well worth a try.
Recommended:
Annihilation, Book 1
Annihilation, Book 2
Annihilation, Book 3
Nova, Vol. 1: Annihilation – Conquest
Nova Vol. 2: Knowhere
