The Good
With the third and final part of the Original Sin tie-in story, we finally get some answers about why we haven't seen Richard Rider, Nova, since 2011.
The issue begins with Gamora angered over trying to get answers about why Star-Lord, Drax, and Thanos were able to return from the Cancerverse but not Richard. She's not believing Star-Lord's story and the telling spills over to the rest of the team. What it comes down to is Nova made them swear not to talk about what happened.
During the battle against the Revengers, Nova lost his arm. While they couldn't die since they weren't from that universe, there were some questions about what would happen if they were killed and reborn in a situation like this. Would Nova return with his arm or come back without it? With Thanos running around and a Cosmic Cube, a decision was made with a cost.
The art is split between Ed McGuinness and Valerio Schiti. We get some pretty great fight scenes over in the Cancerverse. The combination of two-page spreads, close ups, and wide panels gives a good sense of the action.
The Bad
Despite only being three issues, it felt like this story took too long to tell. Part of it may be that we've been waiting since 2011 but looking back, it doesn't feel like it really needed three issues. I wonder how long it took Peter to tell Gamora the events the way we saw them here.
While we won't go into the full details of what happened to Richard and why he didn't return, obviously fans of the character won't be happy. I've read over the pages a few times and still haven't fully decided what I think of how it played out. He went out a hero but why didn't he want Gamora to know what happened? Call me an optimist but I feel the story isn't quite over yet. In comics, we know characters can return whenever it's decided by the higher ups. It's unclear why editorial has decided Nova's fate was meant to go unanswered all this time and why they wanted Brian Michael Bendis to take it in this direction. We'll just have to wait to see what happens next.
It felt like there was more inconsistency with the art in this issue. You can clearly see some differences in characters' looks and expressions. This is always a big distraction for me.
The Verdict
We've been waiting for a few years and we finally get an answer as to why Nova hasn't return when Star-Lord, Drax, and Thanos did. The heroes and villain went through some hard times in the Cancerverse and now we know why they never spoke of what happened. Obviously fans won't be happy until Nova is back. The main problem is it felt as if this story went on too long despite only being three issues. It could have been been cut down but now we're left with processing what happened. We have some great fight scenes but other moments of inconsistent art caused some distraction. With this story over, we can now look forward to the next exciting chapter dealing with the Symbiotes. Meanwhile, I'll be sitting over here still waiting for Nova to return someday.
