Nova #16-#18: "Secret Invasion"

**** (four of five stars)

Favorite Quote:  "So...?  How's this play?  Are you really Richie, or do I have to craddle your gunshot, Skrull-i-fied corpse in my arms and howl "NOOOOOO" at the ceiling?"  -- Robbie Rider, making me hope we seem him more over the course of this series 

Summary

Nova, still Worldmind-less, arrives on Dendron to respond to a distress signal from a research team of botanists.  There, he's the victim of a surprise attack by a group of Skrulls disguised as the botanists.  Just as the Skrulls start to get the upper-hand, one of them reveals himself as the Super Skrull and helps Richard fight off his comrades.  The two then flee from the pursuing Skrull warship until Nova decides to take the direct approach and destroy it.  Kl'rt tells Nova that the events of the Annihilation Wave had changed him and he had begun to see the "vile, jihadist fervor afflicting the soul of [his] species."  He then informs Richard that the Skrulls had intended to assassinate him to make sure he did not interfere in their plan to invade Earth.  (He had joined the strike team to see who its target was, only discovering it was Richard when he arrived).  Nova starts a hasty departure for Earth and Kl'rt requests to go with him, since his daughter is on Earth and he already lost his son to the Annihilation Wave.  Nova agrees, and, upon exiting his stargate, they find themselves in the middle of the Skrull invasion fleet.  Kl'rt pretends to kill Nova to distract the Skrulls, and Richard returns to Earth.  He checks on his parents, who send him to Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. to check on his brother, Robbie, who's working there as a technician.  Upon arrival, Nova discovers the Skrulls have already attacked, and he's blindsided by Darkhawk (in a great splash page) who worries he's a Skrull.  Robbie verifies Rich's identity and brings him to meet with Director Gruenwald (awesome).  Nova learns that all the weapons that could fight the Skrulls are locked in the vault, which was super-locked (if you will) to keep the Skrulls from getting them.  The one weapon available (that happened to be outside the vault for testing) requires a super-computer to process, but the Skrulls have infected P.E.G.A.S.U.S.' StarkTech.  Nova and Darkhawk repel a Skrull attack and Nova requests to see the weapon in the test lab.  Robbie and his boss explain that it's something called the "Quantum Flask," which they retrieved from the Negative Zone a few weeks earlier.  Nova informs them about Worldmind being just the super-computer they need, but unfortunately being off-line, and Robbie's boss offers to try to re-boot it.  They're successful in doing so, but the Skrulls attack in the middle of the process.  Worldmind reboots, and, in so doing, opens the flask, revealing that its "contents" were Quasar, who's been brought back to life (or, at least, mostly to life, since he appears to be made entirely of energy now).  Nova and Quasar arrive to provide support to Darkhawk and his men, beating back the Skrull advance.  Worldmind links with Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S.' computer and overrides Director Gruenwald's lock of the vault.  He activates the Minion project, deploying a group of robotic defenders to help Nova and Darkhawk repel the attack.  The Skrulls beat a strategic retreat, revealing their intent to destroy the base with one of their warships.  Before Worldmind can route power through Nova, the ship is destroyed...by a group of Nova Centurions!

The Review

This arc was excellent.  Seriously, seriously excellent.  It's hard to put into words, but I felt like I had returned to the '90s, reading some of the best stories with some of my favorite characters.  DnA give us all sorts of great moments here that show the emotional connections between these characters, like Nova telling Darkhawk how good it would've been to have had his support during the Annihilation Wave.  It's why I'm so excited about them taking over "New Mutants," because I feel like they find ways to imbue emotions and history in all the interactions that Nova has with supporting characters.  It's something few comic-book authors do well, and it's just such a joy to see them do it here, particularly when it comes to characters that I loved but Marvel put in dry-dock. 

The Really Good

1) DnA really do a great job walking us through Kl'rt's soul searching.  He talks about how the unity that all the various races of the United Front displayed during the war against the Annihilation Wave had taught him about priorities and he had begun to realize his race was locked on an "ignorant, religious crusade."  As motivations to change long-held beliefs go, war and its aftermath are pretty good ones.  I've been impressed by all the post-"Annihilation" stories because the authors have made the characters involved really struggle with the aftermath.  "Annihilation" is going to be considered one of the best events of all time because, unlike every other event that promises to "shake the Marvel Universe," this one actually did.  It actually had real impacts that weren't forgotten immediately in the first post-event arc.  I'm so used to authors just changing the personalites of long-established characters because it suits their purposes for the time being.  DnA do it the hard way here, building off years of various stories and works of other authors to bring Kl'rt to where he is when this issue starts.  I give them a serious round of applause for that.

2) DARKHAWK, PEOPLE, DARKHAWK!  Man, I LOVE that DnA brought back Darkhawk.  He was one of my favorite characters in the '90s.  His series unfortunately got kind of weak, if I remember correctly, at the end, but I remember being totally entranced by the first few issues.  I was roughly the same age as he was, and I remember feeling more connected to him than almost any other character.  I'm so stoked to see him here, with Nova, another character I loved in the '90s.  I've got to find my flannel and listen to some Nirvana!  The '90s live!

The Good

1) The cat-like alien in distress named "Botanist Maow?"  Awesome.  The Skrulls posing as kitty cats to lure Nova?  Double awesome.  I also love Richard's and Kl'rt's hilarious conversation about how despicable it was later.

2) Richard's conversations with Darkhawk and his brother when they're all first reunited were awesome.  I loved Darkhawk telling us he's been attacked by Captain America, Thor, and Dick Cheney and constantly screaming "They all say that!" every time Rich tries to prove he's not a Skrull.  I also loved the witty banter between Rich and his brother, the quote above being perhaps the best of a damn good bunch.  Again, DnA with the great dialogue AND compelling plots!

3) I've talked a lot in these reviews of "Nova" about how happy I am to see Nova finally getting the chance to mature and for the other superheroes in the Marvel Universe to notice.  To that end, I thought DnA did a great job showing that throughout this arc, with both Darkhawk and Quasar commenting on how capable he seems.  You can see Chris idolizing him a bit here, inspired by his conversion to adult superhero (and maybe hoping he can pull of the same thing).  Great stuff.

4) I'm glad we got some closure with Richard's parents.  It was bugging me.  Dude is busting his ass saving the Universe.  He deserves to have his parents be proud. 

The Bad

1) The introduction page for issue #17 was bizarre.  It was clearly meant to come first, because it talks about Kl'rt "betraying" Nova.  But, it comes after we learn that Kl'rt didn't betray Nova, he only pretended to do so to save him.  Weird.

2) I have to say, the only thing keeping me from giving this arc a five, which I had totally planned to do, was the anti-climatic ending.  I feel like DnA threw us TOO much of a curveball having the Skrull threat -- the main plot of these three issues -- suddenly evaporate via the introduction of a new plot, the return of the Nova Centurions.  I really liked the chaos of these three issues, with everyone haphazardly having to team together to fend off the Skrulls.  As such, it felt a little like Nova, Darkhawk, and the Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. team were denied a win when the problem is suddenly magically solved by the Nova Centurions, whoever they actually are.