Nova Week Wrap-Up at Nerdage

Time once again to play catch-up from the last week of New Warriors news.

The Nerdage blog concluded its Nova Week theme with more interviews and articles:

• Nova Prime Page webmaster Doug Smith Interview Part 3 and Part 4
• Heroes for the 90s, an article about Nova in the New Warriors
• Reviews on What If? Annihilation and Nova Annual #1
• Nova editor Bill Rosemann Interview with a sneak peak at a page from Nova #11 by Paul Pelletier. Rosemann confirms that Pelletier’s run will be 2 issues (#11 & 12) and that Wellington Alves will return for a 3-issue run. No news yet on whether Alves will be the new regular artist or if someone will take over with issue #16.
  • Excerpt:
    • Rosemann: “Currently, a vicious virus is racing through Nova’s system. What’s fun about that (for readers, at least) is exploring the question: What good is the ability to soar through space and hurl massive force beams if your own body is betraying you? You can see how that fight is taken to it’s ultimate level in Nova Annual #1, on sale next week. Then he’ll confront the afore-mentioned Warlock in March and April. Will he help Nova in his current quest to take down the techno villains known as the Phalanx? After that…yeah, it’s time for Galactus and the Silver Surfer! What can our Human Rocket do against a giant who eats planets? You’ll have to come along for the ride in May to find out!”
• Nova Gets First Annual article from local newspaper The Oklahoman, which hosts the blog Nerdage
• New Warriors volume 2 writer Jay Faerber interview where he talks about his time writing Nova and the New Warriors
• Podcast reviewing Nova Annual #1

Nova Week continues at Nerdage

Nerdage, comic book blog of The Oklahoman newspaper, continues it’s Human Rocket celebration with the second part of their interview with Nova Prime Page webmaster Doug Smith, as well as a feature on how the Nerdage blogger came around to being a fan of Nova.

Read part 2 of the Doug Smith interview.

Read the Learning to Love Richard Rider article.

Nova Week begins at Nerdage

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.

Read the full interview.

Nova Weekend Part 3: Mahmud Asrar

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.

Read the full interview and see the preview pages.

Nova Weekend Part 2: Paul Pelletier

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!

Read the full interview and see the preview pages.

Skolnick remembers the Warriors

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).

Code of Honor #2 & 3 added

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.

Nova Weekend Part 1: DnA

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!”

Read the full interview.

The Future is New Warriors

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.

Read the full article.

Roundtable Review: New Warriors v4 #7

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…

Morse hearts Nova

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.

Read the full article.

Rosemann talks Nova plans

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!

Read the full interview.

New Warriors-related comics for April

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.

Pelletier now temporary Nova artist

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.

Read the full Guardians of the Galaxy article.

Darkhawk redesign

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?

Take a look here.