Essential Nova: Vol. 1
Who’s this Nova fella? According to Marvel Comics – always one with a tendency toward hyperbole – the rocket man/champion of justice featured in ESSENTIAL NOVA: VOL. 1 is “the ultimate super-hero!” in “the most sought-after comic mag of the decade!”
Not by a long shot, Stan. Nova is just Spider-Man with blonde hair and a metal helmet, minus the tragedy. He’s an all-American high school student struggling with math and being a nerd. His name is Rich Rider, and he gains his powers when hit by a lightning bolt from an outer-space alien who needs a replacement for his Nova ways. Confusing? Yeah, a little bit. But with that out of the way, the new Nova can fly around, make bad puns, fail quizzes, exclaim “Blue blazes!” and piss off his friends (one of whom creepily calls him “Boychik”) by ducking out to save the world every issue. Sound familiar? Yeah, a little bit.
For a book they had high hopes for, writer Marv Wolfman sure didn’t know what to do with Nova for a while. The first several issues simply have him fight a generic villain – Diamondhead, the Condor, Powerhouse – before moving on to the requisite Marvel trick of having him fight other Marvel heroes – first Thor, then Spider-Man, and then (all simultaneously) Spidey, Hulk, Iron Man and Captain America.
Later, though, better bad guys enter the fray, including Yellow Claw, Sandman and one surprise holdover from THE TOMB OF DRACULA. Things also brighten up when Richard’s family goes to pot, Nova has to stop a tidal wave from decimating New York, his little brother builds a Sherlock Holmes robot (no, I’m not joking) and a war is fought in space. And then, of course, Nova’s run ends. But all 25 of his issues are here, along with two from THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and one giant-sized MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE with The Thing.
There’s a reason NOVA isn’t that well-known of a title: It just wasn’t very good. But it definitely was a product of its times – dig those ’70s references to Mike Douglas and Donny Osmond! To MARY HARTMAN and THE GONG SHOW! It wasn’t given time to develop into something special or distinctive, and thus, ESSENTIAL NOVA merits only a minor recommendation, especially when there are much better recent ESSENTIAL volumes out there. –Rod Lott
BONUS (ALBEIT COMPLETELY OUT-OF-CONTEXT) XXX-CERPT: Nova: “I can go as fast as you care, or take it slow. How d’ya want it?”
Nova’s mom: “Slow and easy, dear … very slow and easy.”
Boychik is a yiddish term for young man. I know many other Yiddish terms none of them I can put here though.
Good to know. He still creeps me out, though.
And with all the random editorial footnotes Marvel used to make in that era, you figured they would’ve had one that read, “Attention, goyems! ‘Boychik’ is Yiddish for young man! See DREIDEL COMICS #5. Shalom! –Marv”
[...] Not all comic writers make good novelists and not all novelists make comic writers, but Wolfman – creator of BLADE, BULLSEYE and, um, NOVA – is part of the rare breed comfortable and skilled in both media. He also has the luxury to round out his story by spending about 20 pages retelling the story of Superman’s arrival to Earth as a toddler – something the sequel couldn’t do, lest bloat the running time. I also like that Wolfman makes several references to scenes from the original SUPERMAN film, like the famous “You’ve got me? Who’s got you?” helicopter rescue of Lois. And the ending, I’d argue, is even more lyrical and moving than what you see onscreen. –Rod Lott [...]
[...] OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS SERIES: • ESSENTIAL DEFENDERS: VOL. 1 • ESSENTIAL GODZILLA: VOL. 1 • ESSENTIAL IRON FIST: VOL. 1 • ESSENTIAL KILLRAVEN: VOL. 1 • ESSENTIAL MAN-THING: VOL. 1 • ESSENTIAL MARVEL HORROR: VOL. 1 • ESSENTIAL MOON KNIGHT: VOL. 1 • ESSENTIAL NOVA: VOL. 1 • ESSENTIAL SAVAGE SHE-HULK: VOL. 1 • ESSENTIAL SUPER VILLAIN TEAM-UP: VOL. 1 • ESSENTIAL TALES OF THE ZOMBIE: VOL. 1 [...]
[...] Oh, you’ll get your fair share of big names: Spider-Man, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, a hodgepodge of Avengers. But you’ll also get your fill of supernatural horror and fantasy with Man-Thing, Moon Knight and Hercules, as well as lesser ’70s heroes like Captain Marvel and Nova. [...]