Nova #23 Review

NOVA #23
Written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Art by Wellinton Alves

This issue of Nova is actually part of a pseudo crossover with Guardians of the Galaxy. I use pseudo because it's not a typical continuation of story crossover. It's actually only a continuation of the Quasar subplot, which starts the issue in Nova, shunts over to Guardians for a few pages and then finishes up at the end of the issue in Nova.

And therein lies the start to the problems with this month's issue of Nova. Last month ended with us knowing Richard was dying from the lack of the Nova Force, which had mutated his biology to accomadate the huge amount of power he was wielding. This issue picked up with him moping in his brother's old room and Quasar's energy form checking in on him to see how he was holding up. He then disappears for 20 pages or so and shows up at the end to, as you can see from the cover, give Richard the quantum bands so he can become the new Quasar.

I have no problem with Richard becoming a short term Quasar to help get him back into space to track down the Worldmind, who took his new corps and left for Kree space and a guest spot in War of Kings. What I do have a problem with is the fact everything else in this issue, from the trip to Project Pegasus, where HAMMER was dismantling the first semblence of a supporting cast for Richard, to the needless subplot about Dr Necker being an AIM terrorist with a heart of gold, all felt completely unnecessary and pointless when compared to how important Quasar's involvement in this story was. Why did Quasar need to get shunted off to Guardians for the bulk of this issue? Why did we waste time going in circles for 20 pages before actually seeing him return and not just show the events of that story without doing a senseless crossover like this?

I bought both issues and I still think it was a ridiculous idea to chop up the story and fill in the blanks with circular fluff subplots. It's like they couldn't progress the story any further until War of Kings #2 comes out and just decided to tread water for the time being in both Nova and the Guardians issues this month.

Verdict - Check It. As disappointed as I was with how this 'crossover' turned out, Nova does become Quasar here, which is a pretty big plotpoint moving forward, so I'm giving it a Check It for that. Otherwise, it felt more like filler and, while not outright bad at any point, never felt like it justified the price of admission either.

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