NOVA #1

Capsule Review

Father-and-son superheroes should be right in my wheelhouse, but this one didn’t grab me at all, possibly because it didn’t tell me anything about how this father and this son became superheroes in the first place. This Marvel reboot has for the most part failed to deliver good first issue jumping-on points, but this book was especially indifferent to the new reader experience … or even, in my case, the very old reader experience, as the story has two Novas, and neither one of them is Richard Rider, the Nova of my youth! Reviewing the book as what it is, rather than what I expected it to be, reveals a workmanlike bit of superhero storytelling. Writer Sean Ryan spends welcome time showing us the younger Nova juggling school life and superheroics, and Cory Smith’s art is stylish and vibrant throughout. But I found myself uninvolved with characters I didn’t really understand, to the point that I tripped over trivial details, like … if you and your kid could fly, and you wanted to keep your identities a secret, would you conclude a night of adventure by walking back in through the front door of your house, side-by-side, with your nifty Nova helmets under your arms, like you’d just finished playing cosmic catch in the front yard?

Approachability For New Readers

Maybe better for new readers, than for old readers … but it didn’t work for me!

Read #2?

Alas, no.

Sales Rank

(#47 November)

Read more about cosmic heroes at Longbox Graveyard

• Thanos: Love & Death
• Marvel Comics: A Space Odyssey
• Blown Away
• Out of the Holocaust — A Hero!
• Thanos & The Infinity Gauntlet
• Silver Age Gold
• Warlock
• Captain Not-So-Marvelous
• The Micronauts

Read more capsule reviews of Marvel’s All-New All-Different rolling reboot.