Nova Week: Heroes for the 90s

I was just the right age to love the comics Marvel put out under its “Heroes for the 90s” tag in 1990.  Spider-Man by Todd McFarlane? Check.  Ghost Rider by Howard Mackie? Only the best Ghost Rider comics ever.  Namor by John Byrne? You bet. (Also part of the line: Robocop and Guardians of the Galaxy.) And, what did 15-year-old me find to be the best of the bunch? New Warriors.

The book was written by Fabian Nicieza with a pre-superstar Mark Bagley on art.   On the splash page of the opening issue, Night Thrasher is holding a depowered Richard Rider off the edge of a roof.

He’s hoping the adrenaline causes Rider’s Nova powers to kick in.  Fortunately, it works, or this would have been a much shorter series than the 75 issues the first series ended up running.

With his powers restored, Nova — who was called ‘Kid Nova’ for a while, I believe for trademark reasons — became the hotheaded young man of the New Warriors team. Nova takes the forefront in “The Starlost” from New Warriors 40-42 and in January 1994 again received a solo series, from “New Warriors” writer Nicieza.