By Kiel Phegley
It seems that everything old has become new again these days in NOVA.
Rich Rider returned to earth in recent issues to find former allies like Darkhawk waiting for team-ups and the Xandarian Worldmind activating new Nova Corps members left and right including Rich's little brother! The old school shocks roll on in December 24's NOVA #24 when Rich's old New Warriors teammates pop in for some action as well as in January 14's NOVA: THE ORIGIN OF RICH RIDER special which features two classic origin tales from the 70's bolstered by all new framing sequences by current series writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning.
Of course, squeezing in extra tales of the gold-plated warrior proves an astonishing feat considering the fact that the British duo best known as "DnA" remain hard at work crafting War of Kings, the upcoming Marvel event which finally brings cosmic Marvel and Earth's warring factions together. While the story builds on events in Joe Pokaski's SECRET INVASION: INHUMANS and Chris Yost's X-MEN: KINGBREAKER, DnA's first major contribution comes in the form of January 7's SECRET INVASION: WAR OF KINGS one-shot.
With so many cosmic comics hitting Earth's shelves over the next two months, we shot a series of questions to the writers on Nova's place in the world, the Warriors' return to duty—and pizza eating—and how their GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY series plays an important role as well.
Marvel.com: You guys have been treating readers to the return of the Nova Corps for the past few NOVA issues, and coming up we get an appearance by the original New Warriors to boot. Had it been your plan from early on to synch up all your long-running threads?
Dan Abnett: We've basically been working through a whole string of ideas that we wanted to play out in NOVA, and slotting them together in ways that seemed to make the most sense to us. This seemed like the ideal time to explore the Corps storyline and we feel it has more resonance if it takes place on Earth.
Marvel.com: Despite Rich being upset about the sudden reactivation of the Corps and his brother getting slotted in, doesn't a reinvigorated Corps throughout the galaxy allow him to step up and be the big name hero of earth?
Andy Lanning: Yes it does, but that doesn't mean he isn't worried about the reformation of the Corps especially as it was done so secretly. As Richard has become a bigger and bigger hero, his responsibilities have grown too.
Marvel.com: Have you missed the opportunity to play up Nova's past exploits because he's been in space for so long? Why has the whole crew assembled? I'm assuming it's not just for a barbeque…
Dan Abnett: It's important to remind readers that Rich has a past and a lot of that past was spent on Earth. [With] both this story and Nova's previous return to Earth at the start of this series, it's been particularly satisfying to have him revisit his past.
It's not [actually] the whole crew, it's Justice and Firestar, and Rich has turned to them because he needs some friend to talk to. He's troubled by developments with the Corps and he wants to unload on some people he can trust and on people who know about team dynamics. And it's not a BBQ, it's take out pizza!
Marvel.com: Why was now the time to revisit Nova's origin in the upcoming one-shot you're writing framing sequences for?
Andy Lanning: It seemed that now was an opportune time for Marvel to republish the origin story as the character is growing in popularity. The framing sequence takes place just before the events of the Galactus story [from NOVA #13-15].
Marvel.com: The march to War of Kings starts this month in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. While there are definitely some bigger developments brewing for the Guardians' mission of literally keeping the universe together, which storyline has begun to work its way back towards War of Kings?
Dan Abnett: They all link up. If a major war is going to break out in the Marvel cosmos, the Guardians are going to be front and center to stop it. They want to make sure that innocent populations do not suffer, but they are also well aware that major hostilities could cause so much destruction that they might, quite literally, tear the universe apart.
Marvel.com: WAR OF KINGS seems to be the major storyline that finally draws everything that's happened on earth over the past few years together with everything that's happened in space. What's the back and forth been like with you and writers Joe Pokaski and Chris Yost on setting the stage for the new event?
Andy Lanning: Both sets of editors, Bill Rosemann for the cosmic books and Nick Lowe for the [X-Men] titles, keep us all copied into everything and if a question arises, we make sure that we can answer it for everybody's benefit. It's a friendly, ongoing process that makes this sort of huge "event" a creative challenge but very rewarding.
Marvel.com: You guys are picking up the Inhumans stuff with your January one-shot. How do you guys view that story as it plays the connecting role of being the final chapter of Secret Invasion for Black Bolt but also the prologue for War of Kings?
Dan Abnett: You've described it to a tee. It is a story that bridges the end of Secret Invasion and the start of War of Kings. It's also incredibly dramatic with some really shocking developments and revelations. This is definitely not a space-filler.
Check out more by DnA on Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited.
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