Nova Centurion #1: Here We Go Again…

As the embers begin to cool from the intergalactic war, reaching some of the furthest reaches of the Marvel Universe. Mix that in with the sparse number of  tie-ins, Jonathan Hickman has cultivated parts of Marvel’s cosmic line of books. This chapter begins a new beginning for the HUMAN ROCKET, NOVA by Jed MacKay and Alvaro Lopez!!! Not only is Nova responsible lot maintaining intergalactic peace, he’s also the living vessel that’s keeping the Xandarian Worldmind alive. So let’s get on with the show!!

Jed MacKay has become one of Marvel’s most prolific writers over the last few years. He’s slowly worked his way up, after launching two very popular solo series for the Black Cat, which landed him other projects, like the Alpha Flight special, Moon Knight, and eventually the Avengers flagship book, as well as the X-Men flagship book that helped launch the From the Ashes era for our Krakoa-less merry mutants. Seeing him attached to one of the post-Imperial space opera tie-ins came with no surprise, and the book, along with artist Alvaro Lopéz, has garnered mostly positive reviews from all over the interwebs, but it didn’t scratch everyone’s itch, and that’s what we’re going to focus on this book.

The best part of this issue is how MacKay grounds Rich in this very cosmic tale. Rich has been one of the strongest cosmic characters in the Marvel Cosmic pantheon of heroes since the first Annihilation, where he was the last Nova Corpsman (think Kyle Rayner when he was the sole Green Lantern), and it’s been a pretty wild time ever since. No longer the limitless power from the past, Rich is shouldered with thoughts of inadequacy, financial turmoil, and from the Mighty Marvel textbook, emotional and familial distress. It’s this take on Nova that hits hardest. It shows that MacKay really gets who Rich is.

MacKay also deals with the relationship Worldmind, giving us a relationship that feels very reminiscent of Rick Jones and Genis-Vell’s from the incredibly amazing Peter David run on Genis’s Captain Marvel series. MacKay also uses other past traumas, like sacrificing himself to contain the Cancerverse, as well as the Annihilations, War of Kings, death to the Nova Corps, scratching into the emotional trauma these wounds, showing that even though it’s been years, they’re still a huge part of Rich’s over the last twenty years. MacKay, while not 100% spot on, his grasp of who he is, and what he’s become thanks to being in a continuous war for decades. I really hope that he’s going to get the chance to write him again.