Friday, September 30, 2016

Quarter Bin 96 "Nova #1"

Nova #1 (Marvel)
From January 2016

writer: Sean Ryan

artist: Cory Smith

A few years back Jeph Loeb introduced Sam Alexander, whose touching backstory included a dad who was a Nova, and no one believed him until he went missing, leaving his Nova helmet behind, at which Sam did believe him, and became the new Nova (who like Green Lantern over at DC is actually a whole space cop corps, as represented in Guardians of the Galaxy).  Then Marvel decided to ditch the poignant angle, and just keep Sam as a Nova, a new Nova, and basically leave it at that.

This relaunch teases a father/son reunion, but the end of the issue predictable disabuses us of such depth...Sorry, this is another one I just didn't get.  I get that comics are supposed to be fun, and that there ought to be plenty of stuff for readers who don't want to be bothered with too much backstory and such, which is to say young and/or immature readers, but when you have Jeph Loeb create something, you don't immediately ditch what he set up for the sake of convenience.  And maybe he himself was okay with what Marvel did with Sam, knew it right from the start, but as a reader, I just don't get it.

It's like everyone who's disappointed with DC movies trying to be too dark.  Well, my Marvel stereotype is that their stories are too dim.  And stuff like this doesn't help. 

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