Nova #19 Review

NOVA #19
Written by Dan Abnett
Art by Wellinton Alves

The big revelation about new Nova centurions from last issue is mostly glossed over in favour of spotlighting these new characters, their personalities and showing them off in action.

In fact, the entire explanation amounts to Worldmind telling Nova he activated these other members while Nova was sleeping over the past several months and when he was shut down a few issues ago, these new recruits all received distress signals and are just now catching up with Nova on Earth.

It was an interesting way of going about their introduction and makes sense in regards to how Worldmind usually acts, but I was kind of expecting more. At the very least, more than a page of dialogue saying, "Oh, I activated them in your sleep.".

Despite my misgivings over the rather simple and brique explanation of their arrival, I think the new recruits add a nice dynamic to the book and add some much needed momentum after the lackluster Secret Invasion tie-ins. I'm also looking forward to seeing where they go with Nova's power levels. I'd hate to see him reduced to the old New Warriors-level, but I imagine the sharing of the Nova Force with these new members, as well as the hundreds of new recruits they all returned to at their current base of operations on Earth, will have negative impacts on his power levels.

Speaking of the new recruits at the end, the Worldmind, while Nova was away, apparently recruited hundreds of humans, including Rich's brother, as new centurions. I can't imagine this will be permanent, but I hope, just as Nova, as a character, was becoming one of the more well rounded and interesting characters in the Marvel Universe, they don't dilute and drown him out in a sea of new Novas.

Verdict - Must Read. Much like this week's Guardians of the Galaxy, this issue does a lot to renew my faith in the cosmic line and has me pumped for both Nova and GotG again after some disappointing tie-in issues. Great issue with great introductions to several new and interesting characters.

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