Jeph Loeb Rockets Into "Nova" LIVE!

[CBR News]

The origin of Sam Alexander will soon be revealed, and writer Jeph Loeb explains the long journey to he and Ed McGuinness' "Nova" as part of Marvel's latest conference call which CBR is reporting LIVE!


Full article here.

[PaxHouse]

Something tells me that this should be an interesting series to read....hopefully, there'll be some questions asked by the MU Heroes, especially some of the former New Warriors (who knew Rich Rider/Nova/Kid Nova).

[CyberHubbs]

I'm interested. Especially if we'll see a rebuilt Nova Corps.

[protege]

well, i like the fact that the character is from Carefree, Arizona,( since I'm not too far from there) and JL is right about space not being relateable for most people. I don't think I'll be givng this book a shot if it's set mostly in Space.

[santino27]

If this were anyone but Loeb, I'd check it out.

[JaggedFel]

Something tells me that this should be an interesting series to read....hopefully, there'll be some questions asked by the MU Heroes, especially some of the former New Warriors (who knew Rich Rider/Nova/Kid Nova).

I wonder if they will try another new warrior series.

[Reed Beebe]

Abnett and Lanning had a real good run,
I'm hoping this NOVA is just as fun.

[jyeager11]

For decades, people have been complaining that despite literally hundreds of new characters introduced to fans year after year, Marvel hasn't come up with one that people can latch onto since Wolverine and Deadpool. And yet, whenever Marvel finally gets it right with one of them, they always do something stupid with him that brings everything back to square one.

They did it with Winter Soldier ("Hey, we have our first breakthrough star since Wolverine, everyone's talking about him and he even made it into one of the Ultimate Alliance games -- should we give him his own book? His own animated series? No! Let's strip him of everything that makes him Winter Soldier, put him in the Captain America uniform, and have him take Cap's place on the Avengers for a couple of years. Heck, to add insult to injury, let's call him Bucky-Cap!") and now they're doing it with Richard Ryder, who was never as popular a character as he was during those cosmic events a few years ago.

I'm just amazed by how popular these two characters were at one point, and how Marvel responded to that popularity by putting them on the back burner.

They're trying to undo all the damage that was done to Winter Soldier right now, just like they'll try to bring back Richard Ryder some day when they realize the mistake they made... but in both cases, it'll be too little, too late.

When fans adopt a new character as the next big thing, it's a rare a special occasion to beat that iron while it's hot. Not to put the character aside and essentially tell all these fans who bought into the character "Sorry, we're gonna go a completely different direction with this than what you're all hoping for, invested in and supported".

No, I'm not getting on board for this one. Nor will I get back on board when they bring Ryder back. That ship has sailed for me, but I hope Marvel some day learns something from all these mistakes, if they're really serious about creating the next Wolverine or Deadpool.

[Nur]

It's amusing to see Loeb talk about cosmic and relatable.

I had never followed or read cosmic stories much beyond Galactus = Bad. Annihilation and the Abnett/Lanning era was my intro into cosmic marvel and I had no issues whatsoever relating to the characters or the world. I greatly enjoyed it and was sad to see so much of that end up where it is in Marvel Now.

I agree with the above poster who talks about how Marvel creates something good and gripping as a character only to completely reset and undo that progress they made.

Count me amongst the Try It If It Was Anyone But Loeb Crowd.

[stingerman]

He said part of what got the ball rolling on this book was that Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning decided to kill off the former Nova in their Cosmic run, necessitating a new young hero to pick up the helm.

Oh, really? So it had nothing to do with Loeb taking over Cosmic, which was leaked months prior to the cancellation of Nova and GoTG.

Complete BS.

[W0NK042]

If it's not Richard Rider: It's not Nova. To go from what was a great series (One of my favourite of recent times), in to what looks like a bad Saturday morning kids cartoon, is just wrong. RIP Nova.

[Nova3333]

The art is perhaps the only good thing about the new Nova series - I do like Ed's style and clean lines - but its just a waste of a good talent that he's again saddled himself with a writer who on the surface claims to have appreciation of Nova/ Rich Rider's legacy ....

....yet under the remit of the - powers that be - is doing his utmost to reverse engineer 35 plus years of past Nova continuity and do a complete re-jig, taking surgical snippets of what we would recognize as Nova's past and re-twisting it into the past history of a kid from Arizona who just happens to have a Helmet that can talk to him and give him fantastic powers - and yet has no desire to have the same ethos that Rich Rider lived up to.

I still haven't subscribed to Loeb's Nova and I still intend to keep to that. This will be a sad thing for me as I've followed the character for over 35 years and I never thought I'd end up boycotting a comic that features him. But here we have Nino - Nova in Name Only. And until Rider returns to re-take the helmet and legacy that is rightfully his - and his alone...that is how it will be for me and a lot of the die-hard Nova fan base.

To us - Dna, Giffen, Wolfman and the rest who gave us the stories of the human rocket will never be surpassed by the scribbles of Loeb - even if he has such a wonderful artist like Ed doing the art. If the newbies who follow Nino in the Ultimate Spiderman cartoon want Sam, they're more than welcome to have him. Epic fail for a lot of us!

[CMBMOOL]

The only thing I wish to know is whether or not the likes of Speedball, Firestar and Justice will be making an apperance or two in the comic, given their connection to the previous Nova?

[Will.S]

For decades, people have been complaining that despite literally hundreds of new characters introduced to fans year after year, Marvel hasn't come up with one that people can latch onto since Wolverine and Deadpool. And yet, whenever Marvel finally gets it right with one of them, they always do something stupid with him that brings everything back to square one.

They did it with Winter Soldier ("Hey, we have our first breakthrough star since Wolverine, everyone's talking about him and he even made it into one of the Ultimate Alliance games -- should we give him his own book? His own animated series? No! Let's strip him of everything that makes him Winter Soldier, put him in the Captain America uniform, and have him take Cap's place on the Avengers for a couple of years. Heck, to add insult to injury, let's call him Bucky-Cap!") and now they're doing it with Richard Ryder, who was never as popular a character as he was during those cosmic events a few years ago.

I'm just amazed by how popular these two characters were at one point, and how Marvel responded to that popularity by putting them on the back burner.

They're trying to undo all the damage that was done to Winter Soldier right now, just like they'll try to bring back Richard Ryder some day when they realize the mistake they made... but in both cases, it'll be too little, too late.

When fans adopt a new character as the next big thing, it's a rare a special occasion to beat that iron while it's hot. Not to put the character aside and essentially tell all these fans who bought into the character "Sorry, we're gonna go a completely different direction with this than what you're all hoping for, invested in and supported".

I don't think Bucky Cap suffered at all, I thought it was a pretty great elevation of the character actually with his time as Cap but what goes up must go down when it comes to replacing characters like Captain America and Batman. It's hard not to look at Bucky and Dick's return to Winter Soldier and Nightwing as demotions because they are but at the same time those latter identities are all their own so they don't have to worry about someone usurping their mantles.

With regards to the whole Nova thing, it's a lot less similar to the Bucky/Cap situation because of the nature of the Nova Corps being bigger than just one identity so there's room for plenty of new blood. I understand Marvel's approach of starting a newer more earth bound Nova since the Annihilation/DnA era Nova has since been put away so they want to try something different and appeal to the crowd who find cosmic "unrelatable". However it's hard not to feel put off by Loeb's Sam Alexander given how annoying the character is in the cartoon on top of not having Richard back yet.

Plus Marvel's handling of their cosmic stuff so far seems so haphazard and far removed from previous cosmic continuity that it almost feels like a reboot rather than a relaunch.

[T.M. Anthony]

For decades, people have been complaining that despite literally hundreds of new characters introduced to fans year after year, Marvel hasn't come up with one that people can latch onto since Wolverine and Deadpool. And yet, whenever Marvel finally gets it right with one of them, they always do something stupid with him that brings everything back to square one.

They did it with Winter Soldier ("Hey, we have our first breakthrough star since Wolverine, everyone's talking about him and he even made it into one of the Ultimate Alliance games -- should we give him his own book? His own animated series? No! Let's strip him of everything that makes him Winter Soldier, put him in the Captain America uniform, and have him take Cap's place on the Avengers for a couple of years. Heck, to add insult to injury, let's call him Bucky-Cap!") and now they're doing it with Richard Ryder, who was never as popular a character as he was during those cosmic events a few years ago.

I'm just amazed by how popular these two characters were at one point, and how Marvel responded to that popularity by putting them on the back burner.

They're trying to undo all the damage that was done to Winter Soldier right now, just like they'll try to bring back Richard Ryder some day when they realize the mistake they made... but in both cases, it'll be too little, too late.

When fans adopt a new character as the next big thing, it's a rare a special occasion to beat that iron while it's hot. Not to put the character aside and essentially tell all these fans who bought into the character "Sorry, we're gonna go a completely different direction with this than what you're all hoping for, invested in and supported".

No, I'm not getting on board for this one. Nor will I get back on board when they bring Ryder back. That ship has sailed for me, but I hope Marvel some day learns something from all these mistakes, if they're really serious about creating the next Wolverine or Deadpool.

I think making him Cap was the second best decision ever made for Bucky next to bringing him back the way they did.

It really bolstered his place in the MU(as much as a temporary stay in a role could) and gave a lot of interesting storytelling opportunities for him. The idea of a Captain America thats gone through the same experiences as Steve, but with a back list of treacherous acts to the nation under his belt (mind control as they might have been) taking up the mantle to preserve his friends legacy in a time of great turmoil after Steve's death was freaking brilliant. Did you even read The Death of Captain America arc? Many will because of the way that the twist to the concept stands out and will appreciate Bucky's character more for it.

The Winter Soldier comic isn't fixing damaged goods but capitalizing off of what was told during his time as Cap. I really don't follow what your saying, like at all, and you'll be hard pressed to find a bigger Bucky fan than me.

As for Nova, I feel a bit sorry for people who have been fans of Rich over the years and aren't getting him anymore, but if the aforementioned death of cap arc is any indication appreciation for his actions will only be held in higher regard as time goes on. He had a great sacrifice to end his life no? I'm sure that will be brought up many a time in this and his legacy will grow.

Its not much, but its a consolation prize I guess. Who knows maybe that will culminate in some sort of resurrection, maybe you'll find you don't want that and the character is better of a martyr of sorts.

And as for the current Nova, the idea sounds simplistic (small town boy enters big ass adventure, a tale as old as the written word) but I think it can benefit from that. I'm definitely at least picking up the first few issues, if only for Ed's art alone. If Loeb lets the visuals tell the tale and gives some old fashioned super hero writing instead of trying to hard to prove a secret characters dominance (which killed hulk in addition to lack of narrative focus) than this can be a success.

Im a bit concerned about the whole cockiness thing though. I hope that gets kicked right in the ass as more comes his way because thats grating in the cartoon (not as much as Pete's is though)

Lets see where this goes, Im remaining confident.