Nova Weekend at CBR may be over, but like a virtual relay race, Nerdage picks up the baton. Nova Week begins today at the NewsOK.com blog with a quick interview with Nova Prime Page webmaster and Rocket Boosters fanzine publisher Doug Smith.
CBR’s Nova Weekend wrapped up this past Sunday with an interview with Nova Annual #1 artist Mahmud Asrar. Four preview pages are included.
Some excerpts:
Naturally, I knew about him but I hadn’t read any of the Nova series before. It’s funny because despite not having read his books I’ve always had this positive opinion about Nova since, to me; he represents everything that a superhero comic should be about. As soon as I was assigned to this job a friend gave me his copy of The Essential Nova as a gift which was very cool since it helped as reference, but most importantly I’ve had the opportunity to finally read Nova comics. I really feel Marv Wolfman’s concept of Nova is a great example of a true Marvel character.
Working on the Nova Annual was heaps of fun.
What I wanted to achieve was to do justice to the script while staying true to the character and his world as best as I could.
What makes him special is actually that he’s not a special person at all. He’s very much like you or somebody you know very closely. In essence that’s something I tried to capture with my work. A normal college kid who’s experiencing something out of this world in his life, when he’s also forced to face the goodness and hero within him. So when trying to convey these attributes I really didn’t have too much trouble since I could consider my youth similar in some senses. I was never the popular kid nor was I the discarded outcast.
I’ve also had the chance to humbly pay homage to John Buscema, one of my oldest and greatest influences, which was without doubt the most rewarding aspect.
Catching up from the weekend, CBR’s Nova Weekend series of columns continued on Saturday with an interview with Nova artist Paul Pelletier, who begins his run with issue #11. Seven preview pages are included.
Some excerpts:
I wasn’t too familiar with Nova, but I like the sci-fi adventure feel that this newest version of Nova has. I had tons of fun penciling Negation for CrossGen, so I figured this book could have some of that same flavor. I had heard great things about [writers] Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s writing on this book, which was a nice incentive for me to work on this title.
Besides the tight deadlines, everything about Nova [has] been great so far! I really enjoy working with Dan and Andy’s plots, and reuniting with [editor] Bill Rosemann has been a blast. I also get to work with my friend (and excellent inker!) Rick Magyar once again. All is good!
Former New Warriors writer Evan Skolnick reminisces a bit in an interview with horror writer/game designer Richard Dansky. He also talks about his time as a Marvel editor.
Some excerpts:
When I look back on my run as writer of New Warriors - having taken over the reins four-and-a-half years into the series - I’d say nearly all of my issues were heavily tied into continuity I inherited, created, or purposely dug up from the rich history of the characters. I felt like it made for good monthly reading. But it would be next to impossible to extract any of my Warriors storylines from continuity and blow them up to the big screen without jettisoning and/or altering a lot of the material.
But when it comes to superheroes, there are so many untapped comic book characters out there that the leading publishers could feed off their massive I.P. collections for decades to come and not run out of good material. A few characters I’d love to see make it to the big screen from Marvel are Turbo, Helix, Khaos, Timeslip, Tracer, and Hybrid. But I may be a bit biased on those…
The full interview can be found in the News section of RichardDansky.com (no direct link, unfortunately).
Previously unmentioned elsewhere, the 1997 mini-series Code of Honor has brief appearances by Cloak & Dagger.
Thematically a bit of a sequel to the highly-acclaimed Marvels by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross, Code of Honor was a fully-painted 4-issue prestige format mini-series written by Chuck Dixon that traveled through the 1970s and 1980s of the Marvel Comics universe through the eyes of a New York City police officer. Namorita had a very tiny cameo in issue #1.
It has been discovered that Code of Honor #2 has a nearly full page silent sequence with Cloak & Dagger that takes place soon after they moved in with Father Delgado in Cloak & Dagger volume 1 #1. Additionally, Cloak & Dagger make a single-panel silent cameo in Code of Honor #3 that takes place during the very beginning of the 1984 Secret Wars mini-series. I have placed this appearance after the first Cloak & Dagger mini-series and just before their next appearances as guest-stars in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #94-96. Father Delgado makes a slightly more significant appearance in both issues as well.
Check out the History page and the individual pages and checklists for Cloak & Dagger to see how these two new discoveries fit in.
Comic Book Resources is having a Nova Weekend theme of articles. First up is an interview with the Nova writing team of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, collectively nicknamed “DnA”. An uncolored preview of Nova #11 by new art team Paul Pelletier and Scott Hana is included.
Some excerpts:
“We wanted to send Nova on an adventure that was closely related to [Annihilation: Conquest] without actually binding him into the main event for its entire length — otherwise Nova’s book would have been engaged with Conquest for the best part of a year. But readers will learn that [Nova] issues #8-12 do in fact connect to the Phalanx invasion, and the final issue of Conquest will show how the two parallel stories dovetail.”
On Nova Annual #1:
“The Annual will see Nova fighting the ultimate struggle to retain control of his own mind and body. This will include not only explorations of where he’s come from but also shocking revelations of what his future might be.
“This is a big story, with lots of huge action, but also one with moments of quieter reflection. Without giving too much away, we’re going to revisit Nova’s origin (as a nostalgia fix for long term readers and for the benefit of newcomers), and we’re also going to glimpse his future. We think it’s a very special story, one that will delight and intrigue all of Nova’s fans, with some playful homages to the past and some genuine twists and surprises.”
“The annual is embedded in both Nova’s ongoing quest and the consequences of Conquest. And it pays off heavily into both, whilst allowing us a moment to re-define who Richard Rider is, what he stands for, where he’s come from and where he’s going. It’s pretty much essential!”
On Nova #11:
“Paul [Pelletier] is a fabulous artist and we’ve been fans of his for some time. His work on Negation at CrossGen proved he has the artistic chops to handle large scale science fiction stories and his excellent run on The Fantastic Four confirmed his abilities as an outstanding superhero artist. Working with Paul has made us up our game as we want to challenge him with more and more outrageous and extreme ideas and visuals. So far, he’s more than risen to the challenge and is knocking it out the park with every page!”
On Nova’s future:
“If you think that Conquest was a big challenge for Nova, wait till you see what’s on the horizon in the issues following. It’s big, it’s purple and it devours worlds!”
Marvel.com has posted their third installment of a weekly series of articles called The Future Is Now, this time focusing on the New Warriors. A preview of New Warriors #9 is included, along with a rundown and analysis of the team. Assistant editor Daniel Ketchum also provides some input.
The NWCC Roundtable is back to review the 2-part “Reunion” story. First up is part one, New Warriors #7 by Kevin Grevioux and fill-in artist Jon Malin.
Our regular crew is back to give their thoughts, although the holidays ate up James Hunter for this pair of reviews. He’ll be back. In the meantime, Corey, Flank and Jeremy are here and their review thumbs are itching. Read on…
Read the rest of this entry »
Marvel.com writer Ben Morse writes a love letter to Nova in today’s installment of his bi-monthly column Make Mine Marvel. The article also includes a look at original sketches by such artists as Jim Lee, Ethan Van Sciver, Darick Robertson, Chris Marrinan, Erik Larsen, Jamal Igle, Steve Lieber and others.
Marvel.com spoke with Nova editor Bill Rosemann about Annihilation: Conquest. They also briefly dropped some hints about what’s in store for Nova during and following the event, as well as who might take over as regular artist following Paul Pelletier’s run.
Some excerpts:
Bill Rosemann: Look for an intriguing look at Nova’s future, an eventual end to the journey to Kvetch, the return of a certain cult-fave Selfriend, more Drax, more Gamora—and just wait until you see [artist] Mahmud S. Arar’s Marvel debut in NOVA ANNUAL #1—not to mention the grand arrival of [artist] Paul Pelletier to the Conquest Party!
Regarding Nova’s impact on Annihilation: Conquest:
Rosemann: …[L]et’s just say that Nova’s infection may turn out to be the cure for what ails the Kree. Yes, folks, just because we didn’t slap that Annihilation: Conquest banner on NOVA #8-#12 doesn’t mean they weren’t connected to the main event.
On life for Nova after Conquest:
Rosemann: Cay you say Galactus and the Silver Surfer? And what about that Skrully Invasion?
On whether Nova will return to Earth any time soon:
Rosemann: With so many ties to our world, can Nova ever stay away forever? Back to that “balancing act” that DnA are so skilled at, look for a mix of deep space and Earth-centered action…but probably leaning heavy on the “out of this world” flavor.
On a new regular artist:
Rosemann: Hey, all you True Believers that like Wellinton Alves’s awesome art—you’re going to love what’s on the horizon!
Marvel Comics today released their solicitations for comic books shipping in April. Of interest is New Warriors #11, where the team’s distrust of Night Thrasher grows, Nova #12 pulls Nova back into Annihilation: Conquest for the final issue of that mini-series, and the new Power Pack origin continues in Power Pack: Day One #2. Plus, Penance: Relentless is collected, updated Handbook entries in a new premiere hardcover, a What If? collection, and an old Cloak & Dagger guest appearance is reprinted in New Mutants Classics Vol. 3.
Read on for the full solicits and cover images. Read the rest of this entry »
Paul Pelletier was recently announced as the new regular artist for the current Nova ongoing series. It seems his status has changed to a shorter run, although the exact length is currently unknown. Marvel.com today announced plans for a Guardians of the Galaxy spin-off series following the conclusion of Annihilation: Conquest. The Nova writing team of Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning will also write the new series. The article confirms that Nova will remain a ‘lone ranger’ and not be joining the cosmic team. No news yet on the length of Pelletier’s Nova run and who will follow.
Project: Rooftop is a blog where artists post costume redesigns and are then judged by a panel of other artists. Joel Carroll submitted his redesign of Darkhawk. It mostly gets the thumbs up, but some thought the helmet was a bit too much. What do you think?
The estimates for November’s sales figures were released last week. While New Warriors itself took the month off, there were plenty of New Warriors-related comics that came out.
Avengers: The Initiative returned with issue #7, barely dipping below the Top 25 and still bringing in well over 65,000 readers. It lost over 7,500 readers, possibly due to the absence after a fill-in artist. This was marketed as an important pre-One More Day issue for Spider-Man, and also promised the reveal of who is behind at least one of the Scarlet Spider masks. Such intrigue didn’t seem to give the title any discernible sales boost, but the book remains a strong seller.
Nova #8 is the first issue to not boast a Marvel event across the cover like Annihilation, the Initiative or Annihilation: Conquest, although the latter is certainly referenced. The good news is that the over 2,500 lost readers from last issue really isn’t a significant increase in decline from previous issues. The issue sold over 32,000 copies, a very decent place to be at this point in the series especially considering Nova’s past sales history.
Thunderbolts took another month off, and released another one-shot to keep the masses happy. Breaking Point, like Desperate Measures before it, didn’t perform as well as the regular “monthly” series. Perhaps due to some dissatisfaction with Desperate Measures, Breaking Point sold close to 10,000 copies less. Still, it’s a respectable showing, nearly exactly the same sales as Nova #8, and certainly better for Marvel than making nothing from a skip month, so I’m sure we’ll see more of these whenever Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato fall behind. There’s already another one scheduled for February.
The one-shot What If: Annihilation featuring Nova didn’t do much worse. Nearly 30,000 copies were sent to comic shops, sending a signal to Marvel that either the rejuvenated What If? brand, the Annihilation brand, or both still have life in them.
Penance: Relentless #3 only mildly dropped from last month. This seems to have leveled off pretty quickly, with about 22,000 readers this month. It will probably be around 20,000 next month. Again, this isn’t all that great. I’m sure Marvel was hoping for this to do a bit better after all the work they put into the Speedball/Penance overhaul from Civil War.
Loners finally wraps up after being delayed last month. The mini-series ended with over 13,000 readers, not really the greatest despite spinning off from the well-received Runaways. After an epilogue in this month’s Marvel Holiday Special 2007, there seems to be plans for a sequel of some kind next year. Perhaps Marvel’s sales threshold has been lowering due to Marvel’s financial success over the last handful of years. It just doesn’t seem like this mini-series did well enough to merit a sequel. Perhaps they want to give the property another chance and time to find its audience and footing.
Iron Man & Power Pack #1 brings up the bottom, as usual. The new #1 gives the Power Pack series of mini-series another mild bump, although it will probably dip below 5,000 by the second or third issue, the first time for the rejuvenated property. However, as I say every month, the digest-sized collections are where Marvel really makes their money, so it’s not a tremendous concern.
November 2007
22 Avengers: The Initiative #7 - $2.99 - 66,431
69 Nova #8 - $2.99 - 32,099
70 Thunderbolts: Breaking Point #1 - $2.99 - 32,030
79 What If: Annihilation #1 - $2.99 - 29,705
107 Penance: Relentless #3 - $2.99 - 22,453
163 Loners #6 - $2.99 - 13,352
233 Iron Man & Power Pack #1 - $2.99 - 5,525
Click here for the updated listing of Sales Estimates figures dating back to 1996 and more information on what the numbers mean.
As a teaser image for next year’s Secret Invasion event, Marvel Comics today released an image by artist Ethan Van Sciver Leinil Francis Yu revealing a bunch of Marvel heroes as shape-shifting alien Skrulls in disguise. Among the line-up is Nova and Cloak.
As a teaser image, this should certainly be taken with a grain of salt, as it’s meant to stir conversation and not confirm or deny that a character is currently a Skrull. Such a reveal, and certainly this many high profile reveals, would be handled in an actual story and not a promotion piece.
Having said that, OH MY GOD! NOVA IS A SKRULL!
Click on the image to see a larger (although not quite large enough) version.
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