NOVA #34 PREVIEW

NOVA #34

WRITERS: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning

ART: Mahmud Asrar

COLORIST: Bruno Hang

COVER BY: Brandon Peterson

Warning: Contains Spoilers

I’ll admit that when I saw the preview pages for #34 online, I was a tad bit concerned about the art. Having now had the chance to see the art in all its glory on the printed page; I must say that my fears were unfounded. Asrar delivered some solid work on this issue. I especially liked the rendition of Namorita wielding a longsword as she informs Man-Wolf that she is “Mistress of the Long Blade.” Asrar draws a lovely and powerful Namorita and a mean Man-Wolf. I also liked his rendition of Darkhawk and his renditions of Old Sphinx and Young Sphinx. Asrar’s style is similar to Divito’s style – so there will be none of the “artistic style shock” that fans find so jarring on books where the regular and fill-in artist have glaringly different styles. As usual, Hang does a magnificent job with coloring; perfectly complementing Asrar’s work. Peterson’s cover art is eye-catching in its depiction of an action sequence featuring Nova and The Sphinx. The cover art is technically well rendered and thematically reflective of the storyline; but I am really tiring of the “looking down upon as if standing above” point of view that Peterson used for this issue and #33’s cover art as well. To me, it’s not a very flattering point of view from which to depict a human face. As an aside while I’m on the subject of art – you know what I’d really love to see? An issue of Nova penciled by Sal Buscema. Wouldn’t that be a lovely gift to the fans to have an issue of Nova penciled by one of the artists that defined Nova’s look during the original 1970’s run?

Turning to writing, DnA kicked the action up a notch by pitting Nova’s team of five heroes against a team of five villains. On the down side, the titular hero, Nova, was given short shrift to make room for all the action with the other characters. On the up side, the fight between Nova and Moonstone was fun – with Rich ending the fight precisely as effortlessly as fans predicted he would and should. The other action sequences with the large cast of guest stars were fun; though I was disappointed with the ending of the sequence with Black Bolt. On the up side though, the sequence with Black Bolt did contain an intriguing Easter Egg – mentioning a “Shadow War” to occur in the future. Given the developments in the sequences featuring Darkhawk, I can’t help but wonder if the “Shadow War” is triggered by the activities of a resurgent Fraternity of Raptors.

Honestly, this Sphinx arc has been a little too slow in building for my tastes; and I’m a little frustrated that Rich seems to be getting sidelined in his own book. For critics who like to blame this sidelining on the re-constitution of the Nova Corps, I point out that the Corps has not appeared for three issues now and Rich is essentially “Lone-Rangering-it” again – albeit in the context of a large group of guest stars. I’m hoping that the development on the last page of this issue puts Rich back in the limelight as, after all, he’s the only one powerful enough to take on The Sphinx from among the group of heroes and villains left standing.

In the review of #33, I said that what I really expected from an arc featuring the Sphinx was a story that grabbed me by the lapels and shook me senseless. I’m still waiting on that; and I have high hopes that it will happen in issue #35. In fact, I’m pinning a lot of hope on #35 to lift Nova out of the slight slump in mind-bending cosmic awesomeness that has been noticeably missing beginning with issue #29. Some blame the Nova Corps reconstitution for the slump while others blame overshadowing by the WOK and ROK events. In my humble opinion, none of those things are to blame. Guardians of the Galaxy maintains the mind-bending cosmic awesomeness factor because it is truly a science-fiction/fantasy epic that avoids most of the conventions of traditional superhero comics. Nova loses a bit of awesomeness when it strays too far into traditional superhero territory as it has since #29. Like Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova works best as a sprawling Annihilation-esque para-military science-fiction/fantasy epic. I think #35 will begin to put Nova back on that track.

Written by: Bill Meneese

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