Nova #1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Wow.

I didn't really know what I should expect here.  After all, I'm Team Rider all the way.  I'm remarkably annoyed that we still don't know if he's alive or dead, particularly given that it appears that Star-Lord has somehow survived getting trapped in the Cancerverse with Thanos at the end of the "Thanos Imperative."  But, I was willing to give this series a try, mainly in the hope that we'd see Rich return in its pages at some point.

But, man, Loeb and McGuinness make you almost forget about Rich immediately.  (Almost.)  I thought that it was brilliant of Loeb to take a page from "The Last Starfighter" and give us a 15-year-old boy living a life without a lot of prospects in Carefree, AZ.  Instead of focusing on high space adventure immediately, Loeb spends the issue showing us who Sam is.  You're quickly reminded that Loeb has spent time with a lot of teenage superheroes in his day, because he paints a pitch-perfect portrait of Sam, filling him with the type of angst-ridden embarrassment that only a teenager with an alcoholic father who also happens to be a janitor at his high school can muster.  But, to make matters worse, Sam's dad isn't just those things; he also tells stories about being the greatest Nova ever, stories that may entertain Sam's little sister but makes Sam all the more embarrassed.

But, when Gamora and Rocket Raccoon appear in his hospital room, maybe he's not so embarrassed.

Loeb is clearly going to have to address at some point how Sam's dad, Jesse, was a Nova 17 years ago, particularly since I'm pretty sure that we've previously been told that Rich was the first human Nova.  Moreover, I'm pretty sure Gamora and Rocket Raccoon weren't a team 17 years ago, so we probably have to address that at some point, too.  But, if Loeb can navigate those waters in a remotely believable way, I think we've got a hit on our hands here.

Loeb makes sure that we know that Sam has angst, but he also makes sure that we know that he's a good kid.  He takes care of his dad and worries about his little sister and just want some chances in life.  In other words, he's like Peter Parker without the genius.  You've got all the bones of a really great character her.

Moreover, Ed McGuinness is amazing in this issue.  Whether it's showing a Southwestern desert vista that emphasizes how isolated Sam feels or a deep space battle that displays his father's heroism, he manages not to lose emotion in the middle of the grandeur.

As I said, if the next few issues manage to deepen the story in a believable way, I'm going to be very, very happy with this book.