Presencia la vuelta del mayor grupo de policías cósmicos jamás imaginado: ¡Es el retorno del Cuerpo Nova! ¿Qué será ahora de Richard Rider? ¿Cuál será el futuro del Cohete Humano y sus nuevos compañeros? Los fans de la Marvel más cósmica no querrán perderse el siguiente capítulo de la serie de la que todos están hablando. Además, descubre cómo empezó todo en la saga de Nova.
Contiene: Nova 19-22 y Nova: Origin of Richard Rider
This volume is a bridge between Secret Invasion and War of Kings and Rich gets a little downtime back home on Earth. It is just a little, though, as it soon becomes clear that Rich's suspicions about Worldmind's activities weren't entirely unfounded.
This is a fun little tale with a nice mix of action and intrigue. There's even a little trip down memory lane for New Warriors fans. My only grumble about this collection is that it wasn't long enough... but I guess barrelling from one crisis to the next is par for the course for the human rocket.
Things are always messier when there's more people. Gone are the good old days when Richard Rider as Nova Prime carried the dual burden of the Nova Force and the Worldmind all alone. Following on from the cliffhanger at the end of the last volume, the Worldmind has gone ahead and reconstituted the Nova Corps behind Rider's back, and while Rider questions his own sanity, there are much more serious problems afoot... oh and there's another cliffhanger/ dramatic reveal ending that I assume will lead into the "War of Kings" cross-over event.
Dan Abnett takes the series into a completely unexpected direction with this volume, and its not necessarily one I like. By this I don't mean the abrupt start which ignores the prior cliffhanger ending that (to my mind) left the aftermath of the Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S fist-fight unresolved. Or the fact that the author quite summarily declares the Skrull Secret Invasion as over and done with! Rather, this was the first volume of the series where I felt Nova started to suffer the same kinds of problems that have plagued his DC mirror image - Green Lantern (and the Lantern Corps). Right down to the ridiculous Sentient Planets!
Characters are introduced in droves; power is handed out like cheap candy on Halloween, and the situation hurtles towards (yet another) event that will put our hero through the wringer. This volume has me wondering if I will care enough about what happens next for much longer. The lack of depth or any personality in the way the new characters are written really switched me off.
Besides collecting #s 19 - 22 from the Nova run (titled Vol 4. Nova Corps) this book also gives us Nova: Origin of Richard Rider, a mammoth 50+ page one-off. This was a fun read that reveals how Rider first became Nova. Again, far too many similarities to Green Lantern for my liking! The story is told in a flashback sequence that uses a nice device - the flashback pages are all old-school art, while the framing story has contemporary art. This just reminded me how long a way comic book art has come. The origin story was a little tiresome and cliched however.
To sum up, I have a feeling Nova is running out of juice. It is still a decent read, but not quirky or spectacular like the Knowhere volume was. Here's hoping it gets better before it gets over!
Nova Corps (#19-22). A great shake-up of the status quo, as the last few years of stories pay out with the Nova Corps being (at last) reformed. This is fun world-building, and also offers a nice spotlight on Richard's character, separate from the world mind and the Corps. With all of that going on, it's fun that the best issue of this arc may actually be about Richard's past in the New Warriors, because it ties his whole story into a nice whole [7+/10].
Worldmind, now separated from Richard Rider, starts recruiting new Nova Corps, including his brother. They also set up a base on Ego the Living Planet. Richard is not happy about any of this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
God this book is frustrating. I feel exactly the same as Nova about the new Nova Corps. You know there must be something behind it all, that the worldmind must have some bigger plan with his mind controlled pet human rockets...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Reprints Nova (4) #19-22 and Nova: The Origin of Richard Rider (January 2009-April 2009). Worldmind has formed the new Nova Corps, and Richard Ryder isn’t necessarily happy about it. Now, Richard’s brother Robbie is a Nova Centurion along with hundreds of others and Nova learns he’s going to have to give up his power to restore the Nova Corps to full force. Plus Richard Rider’s origin is reviewed along with his encounter with the mighty Thor.
Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, Nova Volume 4: Nova Corps continues from Nova Volume 3: Secret Invasion. The collection contains the stand-alone issue Nova: The Origin of Richard Rider (March 2009), and the collection features art by Wellinton Alves. The issues were also featured in War of Kings Prelude: Road to War of Kings Omnibus.
I feel that despite the big events occurring in this collection, that this is where Nova began to lose some steam. The collection itself has nice art and a concise story, but it is also incredibly short with “re-imagined” versions of Nova (1) #1 and #4.
The best issue of this collection has to be Rich’s reunion with his New Warrior allies Vance (Justice or Marvel Boy) and Angelica (Firestar). It is simple and a long time coming after the destruction of the New Warriors franchise that kicked off the Civil War. I only wish it was longer (by maybe an issue). The bulk of what is left in this collection involves Rich dealing with the Nova Corps. This isn’t bad and the series has been building to it, but it could have had a few more issues.
The real waste of this issue is the Origin of Richard Rider one-shot. Nova fans probably have already read his original issues (they were collected in Essential Nova) and people that are jumping on the series probably should have had this one-shot long before 20 issues into the series. The first issue reprint makes sense but the Controller/Thor issue seems really random. The issue doesn’t help and doesn’t really add anything to the collection (other than round out a short story arc).
Nova 4: The Nova Corps is a bit of a disappointment in an otherwise very enjoyable series. The core story is strong and the New Warriors are good, but not up to par with the series. It isn’t awful, but when compared to other collections of this comics, it just isn’t on par. It does leave the readers with quite a cliffhanger which will bring them back for the next story arc but it felt like a bit of a mess getting there. Nova 4: Nova Corps is followed by Nova 5: War of Kings.
Well, the corp are back! The one man army is no more. In fact, throughout the graphic novel, our main man (who, if you've been reading these reviews, you might notice I can't remember his name) is becoming increasingly marginalized by the AI that has been his constant companion since the first Graphic Novel. It no longer resides in his head, but (I guess) in the servers of some govt think tank here in the good 'ol US of A.
Sorta.
It's been secretly recruiting new members of the corp, and has apparently been learning a lot about the human mind thanks to living inside the head of one for so long. Things are getting creepy.
This one was a big of a disappointment. Way too much spent recapping previous events and the history of mr Nova. In the end, the whole graphic novel seemed to be stalling just so it could set up the cliffhanger it ended on. Losers. I didn't have the next one to read, so I have no idea how this story wraps up. Dangit.
Good superhero comics. Nova clashes with the Worldmind as the latter maintains the last volume's emergency separation in a bid to resurrect the Nova Corps. It seems the latter's mind was damaged by the events following the Annihilation Wave, although there's also the suggestion that Nova has cracked under the strain of holding a whole civilization in his head.
The sibling rivalry is heavy handed, and the story maybe doesn't do enough to convince us Nova is right, beyond his insistence. But it's solid stuff, well paced, written and illustrated in exploring an intriguing new premise.
I always seem to forget that I enjoy Nova stories. This one went a different direction than I had expected. While I thought there was a bit too much giant monster fighting, that was mixed up with reminiscing, intrigue, and family squabbles, which made for an interesting mix. If you hadn't been following this all along, it wouldn't make any sense at all, but since I have, it did... except that they didn't mention the phalanx at all. Overall, though, this was interesting, and set up another story yet to come,
Whew, I had forgotten how dark things had gotten - but in a good way.
At first, I was annoyed that this felt too much like a rehash of the Green Lantern efforts to reignite the Corps. The same thing was happening with the Nova Corps, albeit without Richard's conscious direction or oversight. But man, when they reveal the full extent of what the Worldmind had been doing, then things got really interesting.
This was a pretty solid story despite it being in the gap before the next big event = War of Kings.
The Nova Corps reforming had to happen and here we see the results of that. Nova's reactions here are justified and Abnett and Lanning's overall grasp of the character and his family/friends is flawless. The sibling rivalry between the Rider brothers takes a new twist here and its intriguing. The art is very solid. Overall, a very good book that will make you want more.
This is mostly set-up for a future storyline, but I enjoy it. The growing sense of unease between Rich and Worldmind. The new members of the Nova Corps are promising.
TheOrigin of Richard Rider is a little cheating to fill this out. Reprints of early adventures to add pages.