Nova #8: My monthly helping of table scraps.

[dewinged]

Part of why I stopped reading comics for the most part has been, well, the idea of 'oh, you don't like the A-list characters? We don't want your business.' I was getting to a point where to read about my fave characters, I'd have to wait til some writer remembered they existed, or I could keep my fingers crossed that they'd show up in a group shot background panel in the next big event.

(And to be fair, both of the Big 2 do this.)

I refer to that as 'Table Scraps.' I eventually got tired of it. But, it still exists.

I was hoping after issue #7 last month, something about Nova's New Warrior guest stars would be up in the comic news, with Marvel NOW's 2nd wave. And while there have been some cool announcements...well, nada.

So, I share this, and I keep waiting.





For the context, Sam/New Nova flies off...decides to take off his helmet in mid flight, crash lands, puts the helmet back on before impact do he doesn't pulverize his entire skeleton and falls unconscious. Two heroes witness this...and here's what happens next.












...aaand the scene changes after that.

Comments

[mykoko96]

Was Speedball always like this, because the Speedball I remember reading in Avengers Academy did not sound like this guy at all. Also how does Sam not know who Robbie is wasn't he the most hated man in the United States like two years ago due to Civil War. That seems like the kind of person who would be hard to forget.

[dewinged]

Not to mention Vance is publicly known due to his own murder trial.

But I believe this was written by Zeb Wells, who seems to have a habit of not knowing a damn thing about the characters when it comes to the New Warriors.

[mykoko96]

Really Characters being written massively out of character in Marvel Cosmic is par for the course ever since Thanos Imperative. It's why I stopped paying attention after it and Annihilators.

[silverzeo]

Wait... isn't that one of the reasons EDITORS are for

[icon_uk]

I could see an editor looking at the history of Speedball before the Civil War mess (An aspiring, slightly goofy but well intentioned hero), then reading the vilification of the character in Civil War and the emo horror that was Penance and just decide, "Oh HELL no! We're going back to the FUN guy."

[arilou_skiff]

Anyone featuring P-cat the Penitent Puss cannot be all bad :P

[stolisomancer]

A) It's supposed to be a "fun" book.
B) Speedball had an epiphany in one of the Fear Itself tie-ins, where that lady Miriam from the Stamford disaster finally forgave him, and he's been moving further back towards his original characterization.

It's not quite in lockstep with his early Academy portrayal, but it's modern Marvel. They're willing to fudge continuity if they think they'll get something out of it.

[long_silence]

Exactly, it's trying to be fun and recall some of the tone of the original New Warriors series. Last issue even had a scene where Robbie and Vance were complaining about how hard it is to be run a superhero team if you don't have Iron Man's funding.

I wish Firestar and Namorita could have shown up for this too.

[icon_uk]

If it means we get a slightly goofy, heroically inclined Speedball back, I'm quite prepared to ignore the entirety of what happened to him the last few years (They seem to be happy to do it with the other heroes who took opposite sides in Civil War who now work happily together again as if nothing had happened, why not Robbie?)

[mrstatham]

This. They swept it under the rug quickly enough in Fraction's run for Iron Man that I honestly didn't care about his Civil War characterisation anymore once the Hammer/Mandarin plot got properly rolling. They can just as easily do it for other characters.

[q99]

Speedball looks yoooong!

[darkknightjrk]

I'm pretty sure the 13-15 year-old Sam is actually TALLER than Speedball in this. That's...odd.

[q99]

I mean, I look at this and ask myself, "Wait, is this supposed to be a new Speedball...? No, he knows Nova, so I guess not...".

[icon_uk]

Robbies physical form may well be more a matter of choice than biology, depending on what take of his powers they are going with now.

Though it wasn't in his original solo series, but the time of the original New Warriors, Speedball was physically distinct from Robbie, being taller and skinnier and will longer hair. And he was able to completely alter his costume by an act of conscious will.

If he wanted to get back to his younger, more carefree self (and who can blame the poor sod), he might be doing so.

Or else it's bad art, either works...

[silverzeo]

... so the Relaunch made Civil War nonexistent?

[akodo_rokku]

Civil what? That was like, forever ago, man.

[squirle]

Why do Speedball and Justice look like they are 12 and 16 respectively?

[spacebetween]

Firstly, Sam is a dick. Real heroic of someone whacking someone with something when they rescued you and weren't acting hostile towards you. Heck he was an idiot in the first place for taking off his helmet in midflight especially if he is sloppy at flying.

Secondly, while the New Warriors were never as big as the Fantastic Four, Avengers and X-Men. Should be somewhat well known regardless. Heck as it is both Justice and Speedball have been on the Avengers in one way or another.

Thirdly, why does Vance and Robbie look so young.

[damar148]

So Sam whacks a person in the head with a steel bar for putting him in the back of a truck and clearly just wanting to speak to him? If Robbie's powers didn't depend on kinetic force, he could have killed someone and than just walked off without a care.

So the new Nova is a sociopath apparently.

[supertights]

Table scraps is right. This is just-- damned disappointing. The dialogue for Robbie seems so off. Vance I can see as a lot jaded and possibly fatigued from road-tripping with the blond extrovert there (Robbie is so perky). It's like they went from New Warriors volume three to here with no Civil War, Thunderbolts, Initiative, or anything else that came between.

The truck is a time machine! It de-aged them and made them forget everything including the cat.

[spacebetween]

The more I think about, the more it becomes clear that Sam has no interest in learning about Richard Rider, otherwise he would know who the New Warriors are.

[halloweenjack]

I said some harsh things about the New Nova after reading about Loeb's plans for him, and after reading the preview, and after #1, and I was wondering if all the character really needed was a new writer and a little bit of work to make his character likeable and some sort of decent successor to Richard Rider.

Apparently not! This reads like the writer read a few of John Rogers' early issues of Blue Beetle and learned all the wrong lessons.