The Man Called Nova
My first encounter with Nova was in 1977 when I was 9 years old. My older sister (she would have been 12 at the time) and her friends were holding a small sale on the green outside our house in aid of Cancer Research, and one of the items that had been donated by friends and neighbours was Nova #5:
I had a few UK reprints of Marvel comics, but maybe only one or two other US comics, or maybe not - my memory of those days is unsurprisingly hazy - so it's entirely possible that this was the first time I'd seen a US Marvel comic. The UK reprints had only contained black and white art, but here was this weirdly small comic, but with full colour throughout! And how could I resist that striking Jack Kirby cover! Luckily, I saw it before it went on sale, and paid my sister the handsome sum of 5 pence for it.
I read it numerous times (to destruction, eventually), poring over its entertaining tale of Richard Rider - Nova - his battle against Tyrannus and the awesome Earth-Shaker in Central Park, and his visit to the Marvel Comics offices at 575 Madison Avenue in New York City. Writer, Marv Wolfman and artist, Sal Buscema, appeared in the book - the first time I'd seen such a conceit.
My knowledge of the Marvel Universe was limited in those days, but since Nova seemed to pop up regularly (I later acquired Daredevil #142, in which he cameoed - unsurprisingly, that issue was written by Nova's creator, Marv Wolfman) and he was even in How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way - the "Bible" itself! - so I naturally assumed that Nova must be a fairly major player.
Alas, Nova was only ever a B-list (or possibly even C-list) character, but nonetheless, he has endured to this day, and there's even (perpetually, it seems) talk of a TV show or movie in the works at Marvel Studios. So how did the character come about?
A STAR GOES NOVA
The genesis of Nova took place in 1966. Marv Wolfman published a fanzine called Super Adventures featuring his own character, The Star. In Super Adventures #6, the character took on a new identity, Black Nova.
His new costume was designed by Marv's friend, Len Wein (who would, of course, go on to co-create Wolverine for Marvel and Swamp Thing for DC), which was very much like that which Nova would wear in his Marvel incarnation. The main differences were the three antennae on his helmet, and the fact that his chest emblem had five stars on it rather than three. According to Wein, part of the inspiration for Nova's costume came from a Doctor Strange villain named Tiboro, who also wore a three-pronged helmet.
Both Wein and Wolfman would eventually find work at DC Comics as freelance writers, then at Marvel comics, where Marv Wolfman became editor of their black and white magazines whilst still continuing to write such books as Captain Marvel, Tomb of Dracula and Daredevil.
By the mid-1970's, though, Marvel was in turmoil. Roy Thomas had been Editor-in-Chief since 1972, but he quit the job in September 1974, replaced by Len Wein. Wein stayed in the job for about 8 months, and was then replaced by Marv Wolfman in April of 1975. Wolfman managed about 10 months before he, too, realised the job was almost impossible. Wolfman's successor, Gerry Conway, lasted only 6 weeks in the job. However, once each person had quit as Editor-in-Chief, they all walked away with a deal from Marvel where they were guaranteed a certain number of titles to write, often with editorial control over their work as well.
When Marv Wolfman stepped down from the role, rather than taking over books from other writers, he decided to create one of his own. During his time as Editor-in-Chief, Wolfman had come to the conclusion that, "As a company, I felt we were moving away from what was then the younger fan. There should be comics, in my view, that appealed to everyone, but we were in danger of abandoning the very people we needed to grow into long-term readers who would continue to follow the books into their twenties and beyond. So I believed Marvel needed an entry-level comic. The Man Called Nova was it."
Wolfman decided the character's costume needed updating: "The original costume was about 80% there, but I needed to make it sleeker. It was very striking, but fannish - antennae on the head, too many starbursts on the chest, overly cluttered etc." He enlisted the skills of John Romita, who was Marvel's Art Director, to redesign Nova's costume.
There was just one more thing - Wolfman thought the name Nova sounded too feminine, so he posed the problem to Stan Lee. "Stan suggested "The Man Called..." It was perfect, so I used it."
Nova #1 came out on June 15th 1976. Featuring art by the legendary John Buscema and Joe Sinnott, it's certainly a good-looking book, although it's maybe not Buscema's best work. He was notorious for his dislike of superhero books, preferring instead the more fantasy flavour of books like Conan or even Thor (as long as he was in Asgard, so John didn't have to draw cars and buildings.)
As for the story, it's clear that elements of Nova are inspired by Green Lantern; he receives his powers from a dying alien, the same as Hal Jordan did to become Green Lantern, and the alien is a member of an interplanetary peacekeeping organisation, the Nova Corps, similar to the Green Lantern Corps. Wolfman had always been a big Green Lantern fan:
"Julius Schwartz's sci-fi books were my favorites. I was a huge fan of both Strange Adventures and Mystery in Space. Julie really hooked me, though, when he re-introduced "The Flash" and especially "Green Lantern." Although I didn't know it at the time, because there were no real credits on the comics, I was becoming a huge fan of the writing of John Broome. He was the main Flash and Green Lantern writer. Green Lantern, which really connected with my science-fiction interests, became my second-favorite DC character, right after Superman."
The cover of that first issue claimed that Nova was, "In the marvelous tradition of Spider-Man", and there were definite similarities. Like Peter Parker, 17-year-old Richard Rider wasn't particularly popular at school, and was constantly bullied by his own Flash Thompson, Mike Burley. Unlike Peter, though, Richard wasn't a genius, but he did at least have some friends, and even a girlfriend, Ginger Jaye.
While Marv Wolfman remained Nova's writer throughout the book's run, the art team changed frequently. John Buscema was replaced by his brother Sal as penciller as of #3, with a variety of different inkers. Personally, these are some of my favourite issues of the book, but Marv Wolfman wasn't happy with them: "Beginning with about issue four - and it lasted about a year and a half - I totally lost the character. The Marvel staff knew that because I'd constantly be picking brains to find out what I was doing wrong on the book. I knew what I intended on the first two issues; I totally lost it. The artists you work with have a lot to do with it. With Gene Colan, you can play on the facial expressions, so the Dracula book was very heavily an emotional book, because I finally was able to find an artist who was able to do that. It's the type of material I enjoy writing. I like writing character studies, character pieces. Now, Sal Buscema is an action artist; I could not get strong facial characterization that I felt worked. So the Nova book steered clear of that. That was a mistake, and I knew it was a mistake, but because I could not get what I wanted, I did a different type of storylines; consequently, the material was not as good as it should have been. It got better with Carmine's art, because Carmine does better facial expressions."
Sal Buscema knew he wasn't producing his best work, either: "I didn't like the character. I didn't care for the design. I didn't know what the character was all about."
The Carmine that Wolfman referred to was Carmine Infantino, who took over from Sal Buscema as of Nova #15. Infantino had been a legendary artist at DC Comics in the 1960's, producing wonderful art on Batman and The Flash, among others. He had eventually become DC's Editorial Director in 1968. In 1976, though, DC had fired him, and he had become a freelance artist again. It was clear that he was no longer the artist that he once was, and he probably had every reason to feel bitter towards the comic industry in general. He stayed on Nova for the remainder of its run, but his somewhat lacklustre work, combined with the ever-changing inkers, probably didn't help the fate of the book.
Reading the series nowadays, it doesn't hold up very well. The first few issues have a naive charm to them, and the Buscema brothers' art gives them a real energy. But they feel very out of step with the increasingly sophisticated work that was evident in other Marvel titles of that era. As Wolfman had said, though, this was a deliberate choice - he wrote in the first issue's editorial, "NOVA is a throwback to the days of SPIDER-MAN, of the early FANTASTIC FOUR, of IRON MAN and the others. The days when heroes fought the bad guys, and there weren't as many questions as to who the bad guys were. Sure, there would be TROUBLE in achieving any victories, and sometimes the hero would lose, but what the heck - win or lose, it was fun getting there."
But even Spider-man had evolved, grown up in the intervening years, and with hindsight, the tone of Nova just felt incongruous. Wolfman's idea that Nova should be a starter comic was a good one - it certainly connected with my 9-year-old self - but the majority of the Marvel comic audience was aging up, and there simply weren't enough young readers like me to make it a viable proposition in an increasingly tough marketplace.
Clearly, Wolfman could see the writing on the wall. In Nova #24, he wrote an editorial in the letters page announcing big changes:
"Beginning with this issue we introduce THE NEW CHAMPIONS! We've assembled several of our heroes, we've cast them into an epic the likes of which you just won't believe and that's no idle boast. It is so big, so overpowering, that it will take more than thirteen issues to tell the full story. But don't worry, you won't have to wait two years, for the bulk of the storyline will be told in the pages of another Marvel mag you just may have heard about, some thing called are you ready? - THE FANTASTIC FOUR!
The storyline will take us to the world of NOVA-PRIME, to the Skrull galaxy, and to a frightening conclusion you have to read to believe. The entire saga has already been plotted, and the office is buzzing with excitement. It all begins this issue with our prologue to WORLDS' WAR ONE. Next issue we'll be deep into our saga which begins in FANTASTIC FOUR #204, which is on sale now.
We want your comments. Positive and negative. We really like what we're doing, and personally speaking, I think this storyline will soon make Novaphiles out of the most stubborn of you Nova-dislikers. Anyway, I hope so."
Over the last few issues, Marv Wolfman and Carmine Infantino had introduced a couple of new characters - The Comet and Crimebuster - and made an old foe, Powerhouse, into a hero too. Wolfman hoped these New Champions would help carry the book to new heights.
Alas, it was not to be - the following issue was Nova's last:
Whether The New Champions was supposed to be a new title or not isn't clear, but the story continued, as promised, in Fantastic Four #204. The story ran through that book for the next 10 issues, but curiously, Nova was all but forgotten. Obviously, the focus was mainly on the Fantastic Four, as you'd expect, but Nova and the New Champions were sidelined in favour of the Sphinx's ongoing quest and the war between Xandar and the Skrulls. By the end of the story, we didn't really have any idea of Nova's fate. And not long after that, Marv Wolfman left Marvel for DC Comics, where he went on to co-create the New Teen Titans.
Finally, a couple of years later, in Rom #24, Bill Mantlo revealed the fate of Nova. Along with Sal Buscema once again, Mantlo had Rom go in search of his home planet, Galador. On the way, he got caught up in the war between Xandar and the Skrulls, which abruptly came to an end for no particular reason. Richard Rider was shown to be missing his family, who were light-years away on Earth, then he was told that he could return home but his Nova powers had to remain on Xandar. Before he could make a decision, he faded away as he was transported back to Earth. It's not the most satisfactory ending for the character, but it does at least give some kind of closure to the adventures of Richard Rider, the man called Nova.
LEGACY
Or at least it did for about 8 years. In 1989, he returned as one of the New Warriors, first in the pages of Thor, and then in their own book. Eventually, Nova even got his own title back - it's up to volume 7 at the time of writing. Nowadays, he's the veteran of several intergalactic wars, but for those that miss the innocence of his high-school days, there's also a new, younger Nova in the form of Sam Alexander.
I've read very few of those comics, so I can't really comment on whether they did the character proud. I did, however, Google one of Nova's supporting cast - his former high-school sweetheart, Ginger Jaye - and instantly regretted doing so...
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