Nova #9

By Zeb Wells, Paco Medina, Juan Vlasco, & David Curiel.

This issue of Nova is the second tie-in to Infinity and finds Sam battling Kaldera, the slave of Proxima Midnight as he attempts to save his mother and sister from her evil clutches.

While this latest installment had excitement and big battles between Kaldera and Sam, the script still felt as if it were lacking veracity. There was no sense of urgency to the battle over Sam’s family. It was predictable and a bit dull. Also, Marvel should use the term “tie-in” a little bit better, as the only connection to Infinity the last two issues of Nova have had is the fact that Kaldera is linked to Proxima Midnight. Other than that, the tie-in story line doesn’t add anything to the main event story line. Nova doesn’t interact with any of the other characters involved in Infinity and it’s surprising that this space hero isn’t off fighting the good fight in the cosmos.

The art for this book was cartoonish and animated. Paco Medina’s facial expressions all seem to stem from surprise and fear, as most of the time the characters were seen with mouths agape and wide eyes. The fight scenes looked stiff and a bit lifeless. The colors were the saving grace for the art, as the brighter tones and shades tried to bring some urgency to the battle.

In all, this book has not been the strongest in the latest run of Nova. But with Wells setting up for the New Defenders and the tie-ins to Infinity coming to an end, this may have just been a small bump in the road.