Nova #14

By Gerry Duggan & David Baldeon

Nova’s adventures with Beta Ray Bill continue in Nova #14, as the duo catch up to the space pirate Skaarn. Writer Gerry Duggan and artist David Baldeon take the two to the nefarious establishment called Knowhere, (yes, Knowhere) after we learn a bit about Beta Ray Bill’s past.

It’s nice to see Duggan positioning Beta Ray Bill as a mentor of sorts to Nova. Since becoming the cosmic hero, Sam hasn’t had a lot of long term interaction with other heroes outside of the Watcher and he isn’t the most talkative Marvel character. The scenes with the two talking and Nova learning from and about Bill are the strongest in this issue, but the quality tapers off by the issues end.

Baldeon is on art duties this month. His style is a bit different than the usual artists but the result is still a good issue. The one complaint I have is that Nova looks much older than 15 in a lot of scenes in the book, particularly the first scene. It isn’t a dramatic difference, but it was enough to pull me out of the issue even for just a moment.

Nova is still one of the strongest all ages books on the stands right now, and it continues to be a struggle to read Duggan’s writing without a smile on your face. Based on the cliffhanger, I’m excited to see where the story goes and continue to see Nova and Bill’s mentoree/mentor relationship progress.