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Nova: Richard Rider Omnibus
Richard Rider is Nova, the original 1970s Human Rocket! Struck by energy sent by a dying alien, Rich has inherited the mantle of an intergalactic Nova Centurion! The newly minted hero must somehow balance schoolwork, a social life and a constant string of villains - including Condor, Powerhouse, Diamondhead, Blackout and the dreaded Sphinx, who seeks a secret that Nova doesn't even know he's carrying! Nova and Spider-Man unravel a murder mystery, Rich's father is ensnared in an underworld scheme and Nova joins…the dynamic Defenders? And when the Nova Corps' homeworld, Xandar, comes under attack, Rich and his new allies leave Earth behind to join the cosmic fray - while the Fantastic Four tackle the Sphinx! Collecting NOVA (1976) #1-25; AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1963) #171; DEFENDERS (1972) #62-64; FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #204-206, #208-214 and ANNUAL #12; MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE (1974) #91 and ANNUAL #3; THING (1983) #34 and material from WHAT IF? (1977) #36.
880 pages, Hardcover
Published March 28, 2023
9 people are currently reading
25 people want to read
About the author
Marv Wolfman
2,304 books304 followersMarvin A. "Marv" Wolfman is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 25, 2024
(Zero spoiler review) 3.25/5
Slow to get going, which may have been ultimately what did for this series. The first half of the original run was very much a writer trying to find his feet with a new character, falling back on some pretty well worn old tropes. The second half of the run saw a marked improvement, with Wolfman allowing Rider to find his own voice, rather than seeming like yet another Peter Parker clone. It's a shame though that the greatest issues of this book are actually Fantastic Four issues. Fantastic Four issues that Nova was somewhat awkwardly inserted into, then seemingly abandoned within. With Rider disappearing for the final 100 or so pages of his own title. Previous readers would have been aware of this, although picture my surprise when I come to the end of the book and... bupkis. Really was a bit of a downer, and for a book that was building towards four stars to boot.
The two art teams that featured throughout the 25 issues of Nova were excellent, with only a couple of single issue inkers letting Carmine Infantino down. Other than that, it was a good looking book that really could have been a solid title for Marvel if given half the chance. But the sluggish start and the unceremonious ending mean this is far from essential reading. 3.25/5
OmniBen.
Slow to get going, which may have been ultimately what did for this series. The first half of the original run was very much a writer trying to find his feet with a new character, falling back on some pretty well worn old tropes. The second half of the run saw a marked improvement, with Wolfman allowing Rider to find his own voice, rather than seeming like yet another Peter Parker clone. It's a shame though that the greatest issues of this book are actually Fantastic Four issues. Fantastic Four issues that Nova was somewhat awkwardly inserted into, then seemingly abandoned within. With Rider disappearing for the final 100 or so pages of his own title. Previous readers would have been aware of this, although picture my surprise when I come to the end of the book and... bupkis. Really was a bit of a downer, and for a book that was building towards four stars to boot.
The two art teams that featured throughout the 25 issues of Nova were excellent, with only a couple of single issue inkers letting Carmine Infantino down. Other than that, it was a good looking book that really could have been a solid title for Marvel if given half the chance. But the sluggish start and the unceremonious ending mean this is far from essential reading. 3.25/5
OmniBen.
August 5, 2025
Atrocious writing, an incomplete collection and missing letter pages. I was considering going lower than 2 stars.
I picked this up, because I'm intrigued by the cosmic side of the marvel universe and I've immensely enjoyed the Nova series in the wake of the Annihilation. Like so many comics from the 70s, this is best left forgotten. As usual within this period, women only exist to be damsels in distress or to be discarded. Nothing meaningful happens in these stories and the cosmic side of things is mostly left unexplored up until the final issues of this initial run.
The series starts of with Nova (undeservedly) receiving these powers. He immediately hides this from his social life, alienating all of his peers in the process and starts brawling 'bad guys'. As such, Richard Rider is a very unlikable protagonist and doesn't qualify as a hero in my opinion.
The bad guys he is fighting are less than one dimensional; their motivations and actions make no sense to me, for the most part. Especially the Spinx, who's the main antagonist here, is switching between world domination and wanting to die.
The series goes nowhere, until the few final issues, when the bad guys and Nova travel together in a spaceship into space. No clue, why any of them think it's a good idea.
Then the series is cancelled and the writer continues the story in the Fantastic Four comic. Those issues were the best part of the collection, because they are simply better characters that play of each others strengths, weaknesses and quirks. Nova is sidelined quickly and his final story is not in this collection (Rom #24), because Marvel did not have the license, when this book was printed. The brief summary, which describes what happens in that story is also very lackluster.
I want to emphasise that the writing is horrible in this book. Dialogue like: 'And now the ever-lovin' Thing is ready to clobber you' or 'Bah! You fool, I will slay you where you stand' is frequently repeated. It's tedious, boring and the pages are cluttered with meaningless text. Most of this is attributed to the time this was originally published, but not all, in my opinion.
The letter pages are missing as well, which is something I often appreciate in these collections of older material.
In total, I can only recommend to avoid this, even if you do enjoy these old comics (do you really, or do you just like the art style?).
I picked this up, because I'm intrigued by the cosmic side of the marvel universe and I've immensely enjoyed the Nova series in the wake of the Annihilation. Like so many comics from the 70s, this is best left forgotten. As usual within this period, women only exist to be damsels in distress or to be discarded. Nothing meaningful happens in these stories and the cosmic side of things is mostly left unexplored up until the final issues of this initial run.
The series starts of with Nova (undeservedly) receiving these powers. He immediately hides this from his social life, alienating all of his peers in the process and starts brawling 'bad guys'. As such, Richard Rider is a very unlikable protagonist and doesn't qualify as a hero in my opinion.
The bad guys he is fighting are less than one dimensional; their motivations and actions make no sense to me, for the most part. Especially the Spinx, who's the main antagonist here, is switching between world domination and wanting to die.
The series goes nowhere, until the few final issues, when the bad guys and Nova travel together in a spaceship into space. No clue, why any of them think it's a good idea.
Then the series is cancelled and the writer continues the story in the Fantastic Four comic. Those issues were the best part of the collection, because they are simply better characters that play of each others strengths, weaknesses and quirks. Nova is sidelined quickly and his final story is not in this collection (Rom #24), because Marvel did not have the license, when this book was printed. The brief summary, which describes what happens in that story is also very lackluster.
I want to emphasise that the writing is horrible in this book. Dialogue like: 'And now the ever-lovin' Thing is ready to clobber you' or 'Bah! You fool, I will slay you where you stand' is frequently repeated. It's tedious, boring and the pages are cluttered with meaningless text. Most of this is attributed to the time this was originally published, but not all, in my opinion.
The letter pages are missing as well, which is something I often appreciate in these collections of older material.
In total, I can only recommend to avoid this, even if you do enjoy these old comics (do you really, or do you just like the art style?).
July 24, 2023
I was excited to finally see a compilation of the original Nova comic series. This omnibus is careful to include and resolve the rest of the Sphinx storyline (in the Fantastic Four) that so unhelpfully was not brought to a conclusion within the short two-year run of the original Nova series. Reading the whole thing again decades later, I felt that the main character and his cohorts were never allowed to develop as fully as Wolfman accomplished so much better in Tomb of Dracula and New Teen Titans.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews