Nova #2:
Summary: Picking up from last issue, Sam freaks out, what with being confronted by a talking racoon and a green assassin and all, and makes the mistake of calling Rocket Raccoon a talking raccoon... But his name has raccoon in it! Anyway, Rocket takes great offence at that and blasts Sam's pillow to pieces, which leads to Sam running out of the hospital room in terror. Gamora chides Rocket for his behavior since Sam was their "last, best hope." Sam fetches a nurse, and when he returns to his room with the nurse, Rocket and Gamora are naturally gone. Sam falls asleep, but is awakened by his father's Nova helmet, which fell under his bed when Rocket started shooting up the place. Sam takes the helmet outside(what kind of hospital would let a kid in a gown wander outside in the middle of the night?!) and punts it away, but that leads to the helmet shooting energy up into the air. Sam decides to put the helmet on, and becomes Nova. It also activates a message from his father telling him the standard, "I'll miss you, should have spent more time with you, etc" stuff that holographic recordings tend to say. After hearing that(and crash landing in the parking lot), Sam heads back inside. The next morning, Sam's doctors tell his mother that he was 100% healed, so she takes him home. Sam decides to put the helmet back on later in the evening, and turns into Nova again. This time he flies around, but ends up going too fast and winds up on the moon. This issue ends with Sam looking up to see the Watcher staring down at him.
Thoughts: Good stuff here. Sam is still really likable, and I like the pace at which Loeb is telling this story. I like the focus being on Sam, and not on any villains. Build up the character first, and then bring on the bad guys! If I had a complaint, it would be Rocket going all rabid on Sam, but maybe he IS rabid... I mean he is a raccoon and all... But yeah, good strong work here leaves me with no complaints.
Score: 8 out of 10.
So wait, you can't call him a raccoon?
Maybe his name's just Rocket now? Yeah... I also found it weird that offended him, it's not like Sam called him a possum or a fox or something.
ReplyDeleteExactly!! He could have called him all sorts of animals, but he picked the right one! And Rocket was really pissed over that... Odd...
DeleteHaha felt the same way as you both. I am enjoying this series so far. I will always miss Richard rider, but i am good with this kid for now. Loeb is telling a solid origin story and it will eventnaully tie in to the GOTG and i am fine with that! Meeting Uatu at the end shows me that obviously something very significant is going to happen, and soon... Love the art. I just really hope that Marvel doesn't go the sam alexander route in the movie universe. Long live Rich Rider! Would love to see that guy on the big screen
ReplyDeleteI think that's the best thing Loeb has done here(and he actually did it with Ultimate X too, imo), he made Sam likable, but hasn't made me felt like I HAVE to like him. It's hard to explain. Anyway, it's a fine line and Loeb seems able to walk it.
DeleteAs for Rich, while I'd like to see him pop up(and would love to see him in the Guardians movie), I can't say I mind him being gone all that much. Don't get me wrong, I love Rich, and I have all of his various series, as well as the whole New Warriors run and stuff, but if Sam is the character to take Marvel's cosmic titles to that next level, so be it. I'd love for Rich to be a mentor-like character, but as of right now I'm willing to see how things play out with Sam as the (apparent) lone Nova.
Yeah, I'm actually OK with Sam...so long as I get an answer about Rich. I enjoyed this issues for all the reasons you laid out here, but I feel like I'm going to stay distracted until someone, at some point, tells us where Rich is.
DeleteThe oddest thing is the fact that we have Thanos, we have Star Lord, but there's no Richie... You'd think we'd get all three or none. That's the thing that's puzzling me.
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