It could be RIP Nova once again, folks, as a new teaser image from Marvel Comics for Jonathan Hickman’s upcoming big event, Imperial, has been released online.
The image comes via Marco Checchetto’s Instagram Story who is known for being the artist on Ultimate Spider-Man, Daredevil, Star Wars, Punisher, Avengers, and more.
The teaser image states, “Jonathan Hickman presents the end of the beginning.” It features Richard Rider’s Nova helmet amid what looks to be burning rubble. The issue will be released in June 2025.
Killing off Nova? Again???
What’s interesting is that the teaser follows the news that the MCU is/was going to develop a Nova TV series. The comics are now only geared, per Brevoort, toward serving as “creative fodder for eventual film and animation development.” So since Nova was going to appear in the MCU, now Marvel Comics follows suit with putting the character in a big event. Recently saw the news that Marvel has decided to pause the Nova series, though there is still hope it might see the light of day.
Marvel did something similar with Nova back in 2011. They killed the character off along with Star-Lord right before James Gunn’s first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. While Bendis brought back Star-Lord as a goof f’k to sync up with Gunn’s MCU, Rider was replaced by a woke version. Eventually, Marvel brought back Rider as Nova, but it hasn’t been the same since those Abnett and Lanning years.
What is Imperial?
Marvel.com announced Imperial in December, described as “new saga from visionary writer Jonathan Hickman. The series will debut in summer 2025.”
Details revealed at the recent ComicsPro event this past week include Hickman’s Imperial will be what he did with “House of X, Powers of X, and Ultimate Spider-Man” but with Marvel Cosmic. Hickman was going to do an Imperial Guard book but it never got to see the light of day, so this looks to be it, which incorporates the Shi’ar and Nova Corps in some way. Marvel should release new details soon.
