Happy Anniversary: Nova #100 Review

There are bigger and more ostensibly important comic books that have been released this week, but none of them had quite as much resonance with me when I saw the cover as Nova #100. Not because Nova is the biggest book in the world, but because it sure as hell isn’t the biggest book in the world.

My dad bought me Nova #12 when I was about five years old, mostly because Spider-Man was on the cover. And I really fell for the character, as I did DC’s Firestorm who debuted at about the same time, because even at five years old, I kind of understood that there were so many Spider-Man and Batman and Superman stories that I would never be able to never be able to read them all. But when you find a new hero that I found on the 11th issue? Well, that was someone who could belong to me.

However, I soon learned that the world of comics publishing didn’t revolve around the excitement of five and six year olds with 50-cent per week allowances willing to contribute a big $4.15 to the annual bottom line for a single comic book, because it was cancelled in 1978. And then it was cancelled again in 1995 after Eric Larsen brought it back, and again in 1999, and again in 2010 before returning in its current incarnation with a different dude under the helmet.

So it’s kinda cool that after 37 years, Nova has finally hit the hundred issue mark, showing simultaneously that sometimes the things you love when you’re five stick with you forever, and that the tastes of five year olds should never be used as a publishing strategy unless you want to wind up owned by a toy company, or worse, Disney.

But I’m not writing about Nova #100 just because of nostalgia, even though that is the reason it made its way to the top of my stack. It’s because in recent months, this book has become a fun and solid read, getting the mix of millennial spirit and fun, goofy dialogue that the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon on Disney XD often whiffs in trying so hard to deliver. And this issue is no exception, with a couple of cool stories about a kid trying to figure out how to be a hero when he’s got classes in the morning and his family has money trouble out the yang. And it’s a lot of fun.

Normally this is where I would summarize the plot of the book, but there are two stories by two different creative teams, and besides: it’s Thanksgiving here in the United States and I’ve got a date with a turkey coma to be supplemented by an alcoholic blackout. But each story deals with Sam trying to reconcile how to be a hero with him mom trying to keep him safe, while still allowing him to be a superhero. The opening story deals with Sam having to figure out how to deal with his desire to be in The Avengers while his mom doesn’t want him to, but still seems to be okay with his joining The New Warriors, even though that “team” is comprised of a couple of dudes living out of a pickup truck. The second has Sam helping with an interstellar attack between two ships while his mom tries to calm down Sam’s principal due to his absences while he’s out superheroing.

Each story is really character driven, showing Sam earnestly trying to do the right thing by his folks and by The New Warriors, and trying his best to be a good hero, interspersed with some fantasy sequences and cool dialogue that shows Sam is just having a blast being a superhero. He’s a likeable guy, and writers Zeb Wells and Gerry Duggan do a great job in making him likeable.

Look, I’m kind of out of time here: the doorbell’s ringing with out Thanksgiving guests, which means I need to start drinking away Uncle Pete’s racism. But trust me when I say that if you’ve got any kind of love for the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon, or of old school Spider-Man stories when he was trying to juggle high school and his family, you’re gonna have a lot to like in Nova #100 and the title in general. Besides, the Nova Corps is gonna be in the Guardians of The Galaxy movie, and you might as well get in on the ground floor.

Now if you’ll excuse me, Uncle Pete would like to discuss something called “The Trilateral Commission” with me. It sounds super-effective!