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Nova: The Next Generation Part Three Of The Shiar Conflict

 

Nova: The Next Generation

Part Three

Of

The Shi’ar Conflict

Written By: Timelord 9.29.09

 

Chapter Three: Revelations

Second year Nova Corps Cadet Surfaan Ren swatted at the insects buzzing around his face and ears, cursing his luck once again as he slogged through the fetid muck of the densely foliated swamp while taking care to make as little noise as possible. The camouflage function of his standard Corps cadet uniform would keep him hidden from most active and passive scans; but he knew any noise or environmental disturbance he made could be detected by the d’ast Veradinae Mercenaries that shot his ship down on this smelly, gods-forsaken world. He took grim satisfaction in the knowledge that at least the mercenaries were suffering as well. The Xandarian troop ship had been able to damage the Veradinae Privateer ship enough to bring it down on the planet too. The Veradinae, no doubt under the employ of the Shi’ar, were getting bold – challenging Xandar’s rising influence in Andromeda. The Veradinae Empire would have to be dealt with as soon as issues with the Shi’ar Empire were settled.

Distracted by his thoughts, a misstep caused him to sink hip deep in muck; and he gagged at the smell of methane released from the mud as he attempted to free himself. His actions only caused him to sink further. There was no other choice now. He would have to use his powers to free himself; thereby risking detection.

He checked his HUD. The most recent update from the Worldmind indicated a rescue party was on their way with an ETA of three hours. Surfaan prayed to Frammi that the Xandarians arrived before any Veradinae rescue party. Switching to bio scan, he found the swamp was teeming with life; and some of it appeared to be large and predatory. He decided to give those a wide berth. No indication of intelligent life – but the Veradinae camouflage methods were as effective as those of Xandar; so there was no guarantee the mercenaries weren’t close. Ranked as a second year cadet, he had been given the powers of flight, enhanced strength, and partial invulnerability; but still held only a fraction of the power of even a Millennian-ranked Corpsman; so he was no match for a Veradinae Dragon. He slung his plasma rifle over his shoulder; wishing again that cadet level powers included the ability to produce gravimetric pulses so he wouldn’t have to lug around a weapon as he made his way toward the crash site of the escape pod carrying the remainder of the Star Corps Cadets. Surfaan had been the Nova Corps cadet assigned to a training mission for Star Corps regular cadets. No one had expected to be engaged in actual combat during a routine training mission; particularly since Xandar was not at war with anyone just yet – though relations were supposedly getting tense with the Shi’ar over some ancient territorial claims.

With a final look around, Surfaan used his powers to slowly levitate out of the mire. Once back on solid ground, he ordered the nanites making up his uniform to begin cleaning functions as he slowly resumed his rescue mission.

He had moved less than 100 yards when a proximity alert flashed across his HUD. He froze and powered down his rifle as he flattened his back against a large tree; allowing the camouflage function of his uniform to render him invisible both to visual detection and to scans. His HUD registered two large reptilian life forms nearing his position. Using visual detection only, he caught sight of two Veradinae Dragons approximately 200 feet opposite his position on the other side of a pool of stagnant water. The dragons were bipedal, eight feet tall, and covered head-to-toe with biomantium battle armor. One of the dragons paused as if sensing something. The armored helmet covering its head retracted; revealing the face of Surfaan’s enemy – green scales, rows of serrated biomantium-coated teeth, and the blue head crest of a mercenary field commander. The tattoo under its right eye was the triple-bar symbol of its owner, The Beliim Cartel, the ruling cartel of the Veradinae Empire. The dragon scanned its surroundings; its long forked tongue flicking in and out of its mouth as it tasted the myriad of scents permeating the swamp. For the first time since his unplanned arrival, Surfaan was grateful for the masking stink of the swamp as otherwise the dragon might have detected his scent. Surfaan stood perfectly still as the dragon visually scanned its surroundings; aggressively extending and retracting its biomantium coated claws. For a moment, its eyes seemed to rest on Surfaan’s position; and Surfaan held his breath as the dragon’s nictitating membrane slid across its eyes twice before it shifted its gaze elsewhere. The commanding dragon motioned to the other and they moved off in a direction away from both the encampment of the Star Corps Regulars crash survivors he had already rescued; and the crash site of the last escape pod that was his destination. Surfaan breathed a breath of relief. A Centurion would be hard pressed to deal with two battle-armored Veradinae Dragons. With Cadet-level powers, he would have had no chance. Surfaan waited several long minutes, powering up his HUD and checking to see that the dragons had indeed departed the immediate area before resuming course to the crash site of the last escape pod.

 


Second Year Nova Corps Cadet Kritana Tas was quickly earning a reputation as a highly skilled pilot. She checked the panels and screens in the cockpit of the troop shuttle. Everything was nominal. ETA at the Orienta Shard was two hours 15 minutes gravimetric. Kritana worked hard to be taken seriously. She always had. Blonde-haired, blue-eyed, with a perfect figure and strikingly beautiful features – the tendency for those who didn’t know her was to treat her as mere eye candy and nothing more. A simple background check would prove that Kritana wasn’t just another pretty face. Top of her class while in public education, top of her class in Star Corps basic training, one year of Star Corps service with citations for performance with distinction, first candidate selected for entrance into the Nova Corps Academy one year ago, and first in her class at the Nova Corps Academy. She was only 19 and it was her goal to earn her Centurion Stars before she turned 21.

Kritana glanced at her co-pilot, First Year Cadet Owan Luf. Luf was large-framed, swarthy-skinned, and dark-eyed with a shock of short, straight, dark-brown hair that forever seemed in need of combing. He was a good-natured, gentle giant that she counted among her closest friends. She knew he had feelings for her, but pretended not to notice so as to spare him the disappointment of rejection. He just wasn’t her type for a romantic partner – and besides, she only had eyes for her new lover.

The cockpit door slid open and Third Year Cadet, Millennian Ensicus Bem, eased into the cramped space, pausing as the door snapped shut behind him. Bem was tall, thin, and pale-skinned with blue eyes and blonde hair. He came from a military family with a long history of service to Xandar. He was a bit of a martinet and Kritana avoided his company whenever possible as she found him dreadfully dull. Unfortunately, he was in command of the training exercise the cohort of Nova Corps Cadets had just completed in Andromeda’s neighboring galaxy, The Milky Way. Kritana hadn’t expected to see Bem until close to arrival time on Orienta. Her curiosity was piqued.

Bem cleared his throat. “Tas, Luf – we’ve got a small change of plans. The Worldmind just contacted me. We’ve got a ship down with Cadets being threatened by Veradinae hostiles. Our course puts us close to the planet where the ship went down; so we’re the nearest ship and we can get there faster than anyone else. We’ve been assigned rescue duty. Prepare to exit the wormhole. The Worldmind will form a new stargate to get us where we’re going.”
 

 


First Year Cadet Sylvia Rider-Dru had turned down the various invitations of the other cadets in the bunk room of the troop ship. She found herself strangely un-interested in participation in gambling, conversation, endorph-vapor, synthahol, sex, and other pastimes that had been offered to her to help while away the time until arrival back at the Orienta Shard. She simply relaxed in her bunk lost in thought and unable to sleep. The Academy was everything everyone said it would be. Her first eight months of basic training had been grueling to say the least. There had been lots of classroom study – both actual and virtual – concerning military strategy, combat techniques, pan-galactic law, diplomacy, Nova Force Theory and application, physics, teamwork, and weapons training. Particular emphasis was placed on analyzing known super-powered foes in the employ of the great powers of the Local Group of Galaxies; and learning how to defeat them. Classroom study hadn’t been her only activity though. Her body was requiring less sleep as she matured. So, she spent time that would normally be devoted to sleep in The Overmind’s tesseract; learning from him how to better control her developing powers. In eight short months he had been able to teach her how to improve her natural abilities to wield Nova Force and how to focus her powers more precisely than before in order to produce more energetic gravimetric pulses as well as sturdier defensive shields. She was now more powerful than a Centurion; but was forbidden to actually use her full powers until such time as she had completed academy training and been promoted to Centurion rank. For now, she was under orders to use nothing more in the way of powers than were allocated to any other Nova Cadet.

Sylvia was looking forward to a well earned week’s liberty now that her first eight months of basic training at the Academy were drawing to a close as capped off by this, her first training mission. She and fifteen other Nova Corps Cadets in her Cohort under command of Millennian Ensicus Bem had participated in joint war games with 30 Star Corps Academy Cadets conducted in the galaxy neighboring Andromeda, the so-called Milky Way Galaxy. It had been several years since she last visited the Milky Way. Her last visit to the Milky Way was a family trip to her father’s homeworld, Earth, to visit her grandparents, Charles and Gloria Rider. Sylvia always found Earth to be a primitive, smelly, backwater planet; but she always enjoyed visiting her human grandparents and she loved seeing her father so filled with joy to be back on Earth for even a short while. For those reasons, she harbored a certain begrudging fondness for The Milky Way.

Concerned by the troubling dreams she was beginning to experience when she did manage to sleep; Sylvia decided to drop in on The Overmind for an unscheduled visit thinking that perhaps The Overmind would have some insight into her dreams. She hit the privacy button in her bunk and patiently waited as the privacy screen fell into place. Now effectively alone, she reached out with her mind and felt her consciousness fading into the white void of The Overmind’s Quantum Realm where she found herself face-to-face with Him.

Haughty as always, The Overmind frowned when she made eye contact with Him. “How easily bored you are little Sylvia – not to mention presumptuous. In the future, you really must call ahead to request an audience with me. These drop-ins are an inconvenience.”

Sylvia smirked and she let her voice drip with sarcasm as she bent at the waist in an exaggerated bow. “O Great Oracle of Xandar, might your unworthy student beg a few nano-seconds of your time?”

He huffed in irritation. “Very well. What do you want now?”

Sylvia found it hard to suppress a smile. She so enjoyed taunting Him as He was just too easily irritated and too easily given to impatience. It was due to His lack of interaction with corporeals of course. In many ways, He was learning from her as much as she was learning from Him. “I’m finding it increasingly difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep – and;” she hesitated, “I’m having strange dreams at times. I don’t understand these dreams. They take place long ago on my father’s homeworld, Earth – and they’re about people I’ve never met and places on Earth I’ve never been. It’s troubling. Can you help?”

He smirked. “Of course I can help. That’s why you bother me incessantly isn’t it?”

Refusing to take the bait and deciding to taunt him some more, Sylvia adopted her most innocent facial expression and tone of voice as she shrugged her shoulders. “Well, if it’s too much trouble, I could always just ask The Worldmind.”

He laughed derisively. “That’s rich sweet Sylvia – a precocious child taking advice from a half-wit automaton. I’m almost tempted to let you do it for the amusement value.”

She grinned. “Almost tempted? That’s what I thought. You wouldn’t dare miss an opportunity to prove your superiority over The Worldmind and me.”

His eyes narrowed. “Do not attempt to goad me whelp. Remember your place and also remember that if The Worldmind is a half-wit; then you are even less. Now, open your mind and prepare to learn.” He touched her forehead.

Sylvia opened her mind to his touch and found herself standing by The Overmind in what appeared to be a large biological structure. Movement was everywhere as organelles performed their functions.

The Overmind’s eyes narrowed once again as He fixed Sylvia in His stern gaze. “Do you recognize this place Sylvia?”

He was testing her – but she had learned better than to state the obvious or just hazard a guess in His presence. She used her powers to reach out and analyze her surroundings – and the answer to His question came to her as it always did when she used her powers of analysis – as intuitive knowledge. The answer was a bit disconcerting; but she quickly recovered. “We’re within a cell. One of my own body cells apparently.”

He smiled. She had passed His test and He was pleased. “Well done for a change little Sylvia. Now, to answer your questions about sleeplessness and dreams, use your powers to enter the nucleus and tell me what you see.”

Sylvia closed her eyes and concentrated, reaching out with her analytic powers and projecting her consciousness into the nucleus of the cell. As she entered the nucleus and moved closer to its center, there was a flurry of activity, culminating in the formation of a female-shaped avatar. As the avatar’s features formed, Sylvia at first thought it was an avatar of herself; but upon closer inspection, it was not her – but a woman who bore a strong resemblance to her. The woman was older – in her mid-thirties at least – blonde haired, sloe-eyed, strikingly exotically beautiful and dressed in the trappings of royalty from Xandar’s distant past. The woman’s eyes were closed. Sylvia tentatively moved closer. As Sylvia approached, the woman’s eyes snapped open; and from the woman’s eyes emanated a blinding light. Sylvia was bathed in the light and overwhelmed by images too numerous to comprehend – love, sorrow, flight, battle, refuge, death. Sylvia reeled from the assault, staggering backwards in confusion, pain, and disorientation. Before being forcibly ejected from the nucleus, Sylvia heard the woman’s voice in her mind – Beware the ancient enemy. Now go. It is not yet time and you are not yet ready.

Sylvia collapsed into the waiting arms of The Overmind, feeling weak and drained of energy to a point such as she had never felt before. Together, she and The Overmind departed her cell and returned to his tesseract where Sylvia quickly felt her energy return.

Her strength renewed, Sylvia roughly pushed away from The Overmind’s embrace, furious with Him. Enraged, she turned to Him, fists formed and barely able to restrain herself from striking Him – fighting back tears as realization dawned. Through clenched teeth she shouted, “How dare you, you son of a schmaug! I was nearly killed! You could have warned me! You could have prepared me! I should never have trusted you!”

For once, His demeanor softened. He appeared almost sad as He quietly said, “Still your rage Sylvia. I could not have prepared you. You had to meet your ancestor and creator, Lady Marz, under these terms. It is the only way you can begin to understand what is happening to you and why.”

Sylvia turned her back on Him and wiped the tears from her eyes, pausing a moment to regain her composure. She didn’t want Him to know how much his seeming betrayal had hurt her. Still angry, she turned back to Him. “Why didn’t you tell me before now? Why couldn’t you have told me what to expect?”

He broke eye contact with her and looked away, appearing genuinely sorry to have done anything to hurt her. All His typical arrogance gone for a moment, He appeared vulnerable for the first time since she had met Him. He shook His head slowly. “There are some things even the gods do not know. Like your geneticists and The Worldmind, even we gods have not been able to divine the mystery of your creation. You are many thousands of years ahead of your time and Lady Marz guarded her secrets well. Even we gods have not been able to approach the nucleus as closely as you just did; so there was no way I could have known what would happen. I had hoped the Lady Marz would admit you and share her secrets.”

Infuriated anew, Sylvia shouted, “So you used me? You’ve been using me from the start to learn this Lady Marz’s secrets? I’m out of here.” Sylvia turned her back to Him and prepared to exit the tesseract.

“Wait!” He commanded.

Sylvia ignored Him and prepared to leave; again fighting back tears.

“Please wait,” He said softly – almost pleadingly; “Let me explain and apologize.”

Something about the tone of His voice caused her to pause. He had never been polite to her before – much less apologetic for any slight He had ever directed at her. She hesitated, feeling her resolve weaken. She wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand, set her jaw, and turned back to Him; looking him straight in the eyes – her anger still smoldering. “I’m waiting,” she snapped.

 

He looked away for a moment as if at a loss as to what to do next – again showing His lack of familiarity with the ways of corporeals. Deciding on a course of action, He met her eyes. “I apologize. I truly had no idea that you would have such a traumatic experience or I would never have allowed you to visit the nucleus. You are right – I should have been more forthcoming with what little I did know in order to better prepare you for the experience.”

Sylvia breathed a little easier, surprised at the seeming sincerity of His apology and shocked by His admission of having made a mistake. Nevertheless, she was still angry and hurt. “Fine – as far as that goes. Now, tell me why you were manipulating me to get to the secrets of my ancestor. What possible secrets could a corporeal keep from the gods?”

He appeared to relax. “As I told you when we first met, I am a quantum entity. I know much and have great power – so I am a god in comparison to mortals; but I am neither omnipotent nor omniscient. Your ancestor, Lady Marz, divined the secrets of the creators of this universe; and used that knowledge to set in motion events to create you. She deliberately created barriers to keep entities like myself from discovering the secrets of your creation.”

Sylvia was suspicious. “Why would she wish to keep entities like you from learning her secrets?”

He hesitated – then decided to answer. “If the gods exist; does it not stand to reason that the daemons also exist?”

Sylvia held her breath a moment as realization dawned. “The ancient enemy Lady Marz mentioned.”

He nodded affirmatively. “Just so.”

A question nagged at the edge of her mind. “Why have I never heard of such an illustrious ancestor? Who is Lady Marz?”

He was starting to become his typical haughty self again as He realized that Sylvia was beginning to forgive Him. “Lady Marz was Xandar’s greatest geneticist and gene engineer. She fled Xandar during the Xandarian Civil War that brought your royal house to power. Her name and all records of her existence were erased from Xandarian history.”

Sylvia was puzzled. “If she is related to my royal house, why would she flee? House Dru defeated House Tul when my grand-uncle, Ferenus Dru, slew the despot King Sauvinus Tul in individual combat over two thousand years ago.”

“Yes,” he acknowledged her account of history, “But the Civil War lasted many years and the leader of the rebellion against House Tul, Duke Ferenus Dru, was never assured of victory. He rescued his lover, Lady Marz, from House Tul’s captivity and sent her into space to protect her. She disappeared, never to return to Xandar. Her fate was unknown until your father was made a Nova during an emergency deputization to save his homeworld, Earth.”

Sylvia was surprised. “My father’s hybridization is one of Xandar’s greatest mysteries. The Worldmind’s records contained no genetic matches for his Xandarian heritage. You’re saying that Lady Marz is my father’s ancestor?”

The Overmind shook his head affirmatively. “Yes. When your father was deputized, The Worldmind learned of his Xandarian genetic heritage and reported it to King Ferenus. The King ordered all records pertaining to the matter sealed in order to protect your father from the minions of the daemons – those still loyal to House Tul. It is why he was left alone and operational on Earth for so long with no contact from Xandar.”

All the revelations had left Sylvia numb with shock – particularly the knowledge of having another being alive within her. “So, these dreams I’ve been having about ancient peoples and places are the memories of Lady Marz? She was made part of me through my father’s genetic heritage?”

He nodded affirmatively. “Yes. Lady Marz apparently arrived on your father’s homeworld some thousands of years ago and was instrumental in forming one of the great civilizations there. Has your father not spoken to you before of the similarities between Xandar and Rome?”

Sylvia’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “He has – but I suppose everyone thought of it as merely a strange coincidence of parallel social evolution.”

He smirked. “Hardly coincidental.”

Sylvia began to feel anxious. “So what happens to me now? Will Lady Marz continue to grow in power as I grow? Will she take over my body and mind? How do I cope with this?”

He looked exasperated. “I honestly do not know the answer to your questions; and you do not know how much it pains me to admit that. I promise that I will do everything I can to help you – if you will allow it.”

Sylvia looked at him suspiciously. “To be honest, you’ve compromised my trust today. I’m still angry and hurt. I need time away from you to think.”

Sadness clouded his face for a brief moment before he caught himself and returned his expression to impassivity. “I understand. Before you go, let me caution you about your developing powers. As you mature, you will gradually lose your mortal needs for such things as sleep and food. For now though – you must heed the Lady’s warning of readiness and allow your powers to develop naturally. Irreparable harm might be done if you seek to accelerate the process of your evolution.”

Sylvia shook her head affirmatively. “Understood.” She turned away from Him and departed from his tesseract.

He stood and looked at the place where Sylvia had been for several long moments, so distracted by His thoughts that He failed at first to notice the materialization of Ishta, Frammi, and the entire pantheon of gods behind Him.

Frammi spoke for the rest. “Honestly Gamill, how do you abide the prattling of mortals?”

Surprised, He turned to regard the beautiful black-skinned goddess of fortune. “She is more than a mere mortal.”

Frammi sneered. “You always did have a soft spot for mortals – especially the pretty ones. If I didn’t know better, I would think you were developing feelings for the little mortal trollop.” Frammi’s eyes narrowed. “Remember Gamill, she is a means to an end for the gods – a foot soldier in the coming conflict. She may become one of us some day if she survives; but she is not one of us now.”

He was irritated. “Do not lecture me Frammi. I know what I am doing.”

Frammi stepped forward and put her arms around Him; giving Him a passionate kiss. Desire was reflected in Her eyes as She said, “We must all meld into the uni-mind now. We must become one to consider what has transpired and determine what to do next.”

 

 


Sylvia’s consciousness re-united with her body in her bunk in the troop ship just in time to hear someone shout, “Commander on deck!”

Sylvia put her recent troubling revelations behind her as she lowered the privacy screen and swung out of her bunk. Dropping to the floor, she immediately rushed into formation with the other cadets and stood at attention as the commanding Millennian, Ensicus Bem, entered the bunk room.

Bem paused a moment, looking at the Cadets. “We’ve got a situation to deal with. One of our ships is down and our people are being harried by hostiles. We’re on a rescue mission now and I need you all to get down to the staging area of the ship and gear up for combat and rescue. We’ve got planetfall in 30 minutes. I’ll brief you on specifics in the staging area. Get moving!”

The cadets scrambled. Before Sylvia could join the other cadets, Bem stepped in front of her. “Not you Dru. I have a special mission for you.”

 


Nova Corps Cadet Surfaan Ren surveyed the crash site. The 12 Star Corps Cadet regulars had made it to the ground in their damaged escape pod, but just barely. Five of them were too badly injured to travel and a makeshift infirmary had been set up to provide first aid. The other seven cadets were in marching and fighting shape. The conclusion was that they all were going to have to wait for the rescue party to arrive rather than joining the larger group of survivors some ten miles southeast of their current position. Surfaan prayed to the gods that the Veradinae didn’t find them before the rescue party arrived. These Star Corps Cadet regulars had no powers and would stand even less of a chance against the Veradinae than would he.

First Year Star Corps Cadet Vilnius Saan approached Surfaan. “Sir, we’ve finished setting up the defensive perimeter around the escape pod as ordered. All those in fighting shape have been issued plasma rifles. Passive scans show no signs of the enemy.”

Ren shook his head affirmatively. “Good work Saan. Keep a sharp eye out for the enemy. There are at least two of them and they’re hunting for us. No doubt, there’s a bounty for our helmets. If they find us, tell your men to pick out a target and concentrate fire. If we’re able to stop them, that’ll be the only way.”

Saan saluted, “Aye sir,” then rushed off to inform his troops of Ren’s orders.

Ren checked his HUD. The rescue ship was still nearly 45 minutes away. He hoped they’d pick this group up first as they were in far worse shape and far more lightly armed than the larger group. His HUD flashed a proximity warning. Surfaan cursed under his breath. Three enemies were approaching. He quantum linked to Saan. “Tell your men to prepare to engage. We’ve got three enemies approaching. Remember what I said about concentrating fire. I’m going to go out and try to draw them away to buy you time enough for the rescue ship to arrive.”

 


The Xandarian troop ship exited the Stargate Terminus and effortlessly inserted itself into orbit. A hatch opened in the belly of the ship and the lone figure of Nova Corps Cadet Sylvia Rider-Dru streaked out, power diving for the surface of the planet.

Sylvia checked her HUD. The troop ship was receding, preparing to land near the coordinates of the larger group of Xandarians to be rescued. Sylvia had been given special orders from The Worldmind to use as much of her power as necessary to complete this mission successfully; and had been assigned rescue of the smaller group of survivors. Her HUD pinpointed the coordinates of the survivors. It was her mission to secure the area and prepare the survivors for extraction by the troop ship. Her HUD flashed a warning. The survivors were under attack. Clenching her jaw in frustration, she increased speed to maximum and dived into the atmosphere, not even attempting stealth in her approach to the battle. The events of the day had been terribly frustrating and upsetting to her; and all she really wanted to do was hit something as hard as she could. She resolved that if even one Xandarian had been harmed by the d’ast Veradinae; they better pray to their gods to save them from her wrath.

 


Surfaan stood still with his back against the tree trunk, waiting for the Veradinae Dragon to approach his position. The camouflage function of his uniform helped him blend in to the tree trunk. He hoped Xandarian stealth tech was better than Veradinae detection tech. He held his breath as the lead dragon approached his position. He could hear them approaching, not even attempting stealth. They knew the Xandarians were under-powered and would be easily overcome. They were over-confident; and that could be used against them.

As the lead dragon stepped near Surfaan’s position, Surfaan stepped out from the tree and with all his might smashed the butt of his rifle into the armored head of the dragon, shattering the stock of the rifle. The dragon staggered backwards, momentarily stunned, leaving its neck exposed long enough for Surfaan to jam the barrel of the rifle under the dragon’s chin and fire the entire charge of the weapon at once. The resulting explosion took the dragons head off; and threw Surfaan twenty feet through the air, where he landed roughly on the ground, stunned and momentarily disoriented.

Shaking his head, Surfaan looked up from the ground where he lay, recovering just in time to see another dragon leaping through the air directly toward him. Scrambling and activating his flight function, he scooted clear of his landing spot and slammed into a tree just as the dragon landed where he had been lying just a moment before. The dragon extended its claws and prepared to jump at him again. Screaming in rage and terror, Surfaan drew his sidearm, pointed it at the dragon, and squeezed the trigger; instantly pumping one-hundred rounds of adamantium pellets into the Veradinae.

The Veradinae froze and lowered his gaze to his chest from whence poured thick green blood from numerous gaping holes in his armor. The dragon made eye contact with Surfaan; then fell face first to the ground.

Surfaan stood, eyes wide with surprise that he was still alive as he stared at the projectile handgun. “Fark me. I didn’t think this thing could bring down a dragon.” His head snapped up as he heard a hiss. In the excitement, he had forgotten about the third dragon. It was leaping straight for him. He raised his sidearm and squeezed the trigger. It was empty. Surfaan screamed and turned to flee; expecting the dragon to land right on top of him – but then a blur of navy and gold snatched the dragon out of the air in mid-flight and smashed it against an outcropping of rock. The rock was pulverized and the stunned dragon struggled to its feet just in time for a female in the navy and gold uniform of a Nova Corps Cadet to land about ten feet in front of it and begin blasting away at the energy and projectile weapons attached to its armor.

Surfaan watched in stunned silence as the dragon reeled from the barrage of gravimetric pulses; but kept its feet. Satisfied that the dragon was now bereft of all external weapons, the Cadet stopped the barrage and faced the dragon; removing her helmet and tossing it to the ground. Surfaan was able to confirm what he already knew once he saw the lovely features and the raven hair of Cadet Sylvia Rider-Dru. He had never been introduced to her and did not know her personally; but everyone knew of her and who else could it have been? Surfaan listened closely as he saw that she was saying something to the dragon.

Sylvia looked at the dragon standing ten feet in front of her. The dragon retracted its helmet; and Sylvia could see that it sported the blue head crest of a mercenary field commander and had a tattoo under its eye indicating that it was owned by the Beliim Cartel. Still angry from the events of earlier in the day, Sylvia needed to vent her rage and a good fight was just what she was looking for. She sneered at the dragon. “What are you waiting for you schlag eating lizard? I thought you mother farkers preferred a good fight up close and personal.”

Needing no further challenge, the dragon roared and leapt; extending its claws and baring its teeth. Sylvia took flight, meeting the dragon in mid air – avoiding a vicious swipe of its claws and landing a mighty punch to its jaw that sent it reeling head over heels to land roughly on its hands and knees. Shaking its head to recover from the blow, it attempted to stand; but Sylvia landed in front of it and kicked it in the face, knocking it onto its back.

“Is this the best the mighty and feared Veradinae Dragons can do?” Sylvia taunted. “I’m surprised anyone pays you purries to fight for them.”

Overconfident, Sylvia strayed close to the dragon. The dragon sprang to its feet and took a vicious swipe at Sylvia, attempting to cut her in half at the waist. Sylvia reacted quickly, stepping to the side and barely avoiding his biomantium-coated claws. He was able to attack faster and recover quicker than Sylvia had anticipated. She would not make the mistake of underestimating him again.

Sylvia gave the dragon a toothy grin to taunt it further. “That’s more like it. At least make this a challenge for me.”

The dragon’s eyes narrowed as it began to circle Sylvia warily. “I will dine on your still living flesh and when you beg me for a quick death to end your suffering; I will only act to prolong your agony.”

Sylvia smirked. “The Beliim Family is making their dragons as weak as they are dumb.”

The dragon roared and rushed toward Sylvia. Sylvia dodged his attack, stepped behind him, and smashed the power pack to his biomantium armor with a well placed punch. Being lighter weight and cheaper to produce, biomantium was almost as tough a metal as adamantium; but it had two weaknesses. First, it had to be in physical contact with a biological organism to produce the natural force field that gave it its wearer partial invulnerability; and second, it had to have a steady power supply to maintain the force field. Sylvia deprived the armor of its power supply; thus making the dragon more vulnerable.

The dragon was enraged, reacting faster that Sylvia expected. It pivoted and attacked; its claws penetrating Sylvia’s natural shields and her armor, inflicting deep cuts to her back as she attempted to twist away; and again to her torso as she turned to face the dragon. Before Sylvia could react, the dragon ended its attack with a savage kick to her torso, knocking the air out of her lungs and throwing her, stunned, fifty feet into the swamp where she landed in a pool of shallow brackish water.

Sylvia shook her head and fought to regain her breath. She had never been hit so hard when she had fought dragons in simulation. She began to re-think the wisdom of challenging an actual dragon to a bare knuckled fight.

Sylvia’s natural senses gave her a proximity warning; but before she could move, the dragon landed on top of her, its massive clawed feet pushing her beneath the brackish, stinking pool of water. Sylvia’s mouth filled with the fetid water, causing her to gag and struggle to keep the water out of her lungs as the dragon extended its claws and penetrated her flesh. Cursing herself for removing her helmet at the start of the fight – a helmet that would have instantly kept her air supplied – she felt fear. She had been too cocky and – though tough – she was realizing that she was not indestructible. Her fear quickly gave way to her Rider-inherited rage and she formed a radiative aura gravimetric pulse. The explosion sent the stunned dragon airborne along with a large portion of the flora of the surrounding swamp.

Sylvia struggled to her feet, then immediately doubled over and wretched, evacuating the nasty water from her mouth and lungs. She was bleeding, covered in muck, her hair was filthy and plastered to her head, she stank, and she felt pain from multiple wounds where the dragon’s claws had penetrated her shields and uniform armor. The nanites composing her uniform quickly moved to bind her wounds, repair and clean her body and uniform, and enhance her healing; and she could feel her natural healing factor kicking into overdrive. Sylvia felt a cold burning hatred. She had intended to merely beat the dragon into senselessness when she challenged it to fight. Now, there was no way it was walking away alive.

Using her natural senses, she located the dragon struggling to its feet where it had landed some 30 yards away. Her senses gave her a mental picture of the dragon. Its armor in tatters from absorbing the gravimetric explosion, it was bleeding from several wounds and was obviously shaken; but she knew it would recover and come after her again. It would not stop until one of them was dead.

Taking flight, Sylvia covered the distance in seconds, smashing into the dragon’s torso and driving it to the ground. With all her might, she struck the stunned dragon in the mouth, knocking out its fangs and several rows of serrated teeth. The dragon struggled to maintain consciousness and raised its arms to attack. Sylvia burned one of its arms off with a gravimetric pulse; then twisted and tore the other arm off at the elbow. Heedless of the dragon’s screams of pain, Sylvia used the dragon’s severed arm as a blunt instrument, pummeling its head with all her might until all that remained was a bloody pulp and the mighty dragon lay still and dead.

Her rage abated and her bloodlust sated, Sylvia dropped the dragon’s severed arm onto its lifeless chest. Catching movement from the corner of her eye, she wheeled and prepared to fire a gravimetric pulse.

Surfaan Ren yelled, “Hey, don’t shoot – I’m a friendly!”

Sylvia stood down and walked over to the young man.

Surfaan handed Sylvia her helmet. “You dropped this back there.”

Sylvia took the helmet. It collapsed at her touch and she tucked it into her belt. “Thanks.”

Admiration was reflected in Surfaan’s eyes. “Gods-d’ast! I’ve never seen a fight like that! I thought you were crazy as grat schlag to challenge a dragon to a bare knuckled fight – but you did it and won!” He shook his head, grinning from ear to ear. “By the way, thanks for saving my ass over there.” He gestured over his back with his thumb to a spot where lay the corpse of the dragon he had shot.

 

Sylvia made a point of craning her neck to examine his ass. “How could I let a cute ass like that go to waste? Besides, I do like a screamer – more so in the bedroom than on the battlefield though.”

Surfaan had always liked girls who could hang with the guys; so he laughed at her good natured ball busting. “Ah – I see you mistook my family’s ancient battle cry as a scream of terror.”

Remaining deadpan, Sylvia observed, “So your family’s battle cry is a high-pitched little-girlish ‘Ahhhhhhh’ whilst rapidly fleeing from the battlefield?”

Surfaan shook his head negatively, adopting a look of absolute seriousness. “No. I was saying ‘victorie‘ in the ancient language. What you heard was me shouting ‘vict-ahhhhhhhh-rie’as I lead the unsuspecting dragon to his doom in a trap I had prepared for him in the swamp.”

Sylvia shook her head affirmatively. “Oh, I see. My mistake. You did good out there, taking out two dragons all by yourself.”

Surfaan grinned. “Thanks. My name’s Surfaan Ren.”

She smiled at him. “Sylvia Rider-Dru.”

He laughed. “I know. Like you need an introduction. I’ve heard of you. Everyone’s heard of you.”

She raised her eyebrows. “I’ve heard of you too. I’ve heard you’re quite the womanizer.”

Surfaan adopted his most innocent look. “Vicious lies and rumors spread by those who would seek to discredit me. Believe no rumor you’ve ever heard about me.”

Sylvia looked disappointed. “The rumor I heard was that you were a pretty good fark. I’d planned to check it out for myself; but since you say not to believe any of the rumors, I guess there’s no need.”

Exasperated, Surfaan grimaced and raised a hand in a gesture of defense – stammering, “Now, that particular rumor you can believe – but none of the rest are true.”

Her eyes flicked below his waistline for a moment. “So I shouldn’t believe the rumor that you have a very large–.”

Surfaan interrupted. “That one’s true too. You can believe the rumor about the size of my culk.”

“Ego,” she deadpanned.

Puzzled and flustered he could only manage an anemic “What?”

“I was going to say ‘ego.’ I haven’t heard any rumors about your culk size. But – thanks for the unsolicited information. I’ll keep it in mind.” She smiled sweetly and flicked her eyes below his waistline once again as she donned her helmet and turned to head in the direction of the survivor camp.

Embarrassed and humiliated, Surfaan decided to try a last ditch save effort. “You know, normally I make a much better first impression than this. Can we start over? Hi, my name is Surfaan Ren.”

Sylvia wheeled and shouted, “Look out!” as she took flight and pushed Surfaan aside and to the ground.

Several projectiles landed where Surfaan had stood just a moment before. The dragon that he had shot was apparently not quite dead.

Surfaan rolled to cover, fumbling to reload his handgun. He peeked out from his cover in time to see the dragon on its knees shakily aiming a projectile weapon in his direction. Then, Sylvia landed behind the dragon, grabbed its head, and savagely twisted it – instantly breaking its neck. The dragon fell heavily to the ground – certainly dead this time.

Neither Surfaan nor Sylvia had time to gloat. Their HUD’s began flashing proximity warnings.

Surfaan could hear Sylvia shouting into the quantum link, “Kritana! We need extraction now! We’ve got seventeen dragons heading our way!”

Not waiting for a reply from the troop ship, Sylvia and Surfaan made eye contact for a moment – then as one they took flight and made for the survivor encampment. Words were not necessary to convey what they both already knew. They might go down; but Nova Corpsmen never went down without a fight – and Corpsmen always fought to the last man.
 


Come back next week for Part 4 of The Shi’ar Conflict – and yes, there will be Shi’ar in Part 4; and one of them is named Gladiatrix. See you next time!
 

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Guardians of the Galaxy #18 Review

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Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning

Artist: Wesley Craig

Colorist: Nathan Fairbairn

Cover Artist: Pasqual Ferry

Warning: Contains Spoilers

 

I really like it that DnA are mining the Marvel vaults for cosmic characters that have lain dormant for far too long. This issue gives us original Guardians of the Galaxy, Killraven, and Hollywood (a future, aged version of Wonder Man). What more need I say? With a lineup like that, you know you’re in for a helluva ride and, as always, DnA do not disappoint.

To recap, #18 picks up where Star-Lord’s portion of the team (Mantis, Bug, Cosmo, Flagg) left off in #16. It seems that Star-Lord’s team is lost in time and space, being randomly thrown from one alternate reality to the next (kind of like the old Time Tunnel series); but always ending up in a reality on the date Friday January 13th, 3009. The effect also has them aging at different rates with Star-Lord being an old man, Bug now a teenager, Cosmo a puppy, and Mantis an infant. Strangely, Flagg is immune from the aging effect but seems to be fading away into insubstantiality. The team arrives in a future version of NYC where a team consisting of Killraven, Hollywood, Charlie 27, Starhawk, and Nikki (calling themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy) are in the midst of battle with the “Martians” of Killraven’s time. Our Guardians aid the alternate Guardians in their fight; overcoming the Martians. Starhawk reveals that Star-Lord’s team must find a way back to their reality and time or they will cease to exist. Both teams decide to raid the ruins of Avengers Mansion so Killraven’s team may use the weapons stored there against the Martians and so Star-Lord’s team may use Doom’s time machine to get home. Just as the team fights their way into the mansion’s weapon’s cache; time-space shifts again and Star-Lord’s team is whisked away to another reality before they can use the time machine. They end up in a reality controlled by The Magus and are immediately attacked by operatives of the UCT.

DnA are to be commended once again for a story that delivers drama, excitement, and a flat out fun time. I appreciate their ability to take an enormous cast of disparate B and C list characters from Marvel’s dim and distant cosmic past; and develop them into complex characters that we care about by putting them in an A list story. Just goes to show you that the old adage, “there are no bad characters,” is true. It all boils down to the writing; and DnA are a powerhouse of a writing team.

I really enjoyed seeing Killraven again after such a long absence. Having always been a Wonder Man fan, I was also excited to see Hollywood in this book. I hope DnA find a way to bring these two back for some more adventures with the new Guardians. The developing friendship between alternate Charlie 27’s and Flagg has been a fun element across this story arc as well. Speaking of Flagg, I am wondering what DnA have planned for him. He’s been the “duck out of water” character since he was introduced to the team; but he now seems poised to take on a much more important role. I hope he isn’t being written out of the book as I’ve started to like this character being part of the team.

Some think that the magic of this book rests solely on the shoulders of Rocket Raccoon and Groot. Issue #18 should lay that theory to rest. The magic of this book is in the interaction of the ensemble – which is amply demonstrated in this issue where Rocket and Groot are absent.

This story begins the process of bringing the two halves of the current Guardians back together into what will no doubt be a major throwdown with The Magus. I hear another long absent cosmic alumnus will be making an appearance in this book quite soon – namely Kang. I’ll be anxiously awaiting Kang’s return and wondering who will be brought back next from Marvel’s past to mix it up with the team – John Carter? The Micronauts? Rom Spaceknight? Whoever DnA bring back, I’m sure they’ll give us a memorable story.

Ferry once again delivers magnificent cover art for #18. It really is one of my favorite covers for the series thus far. Fairbairn’s colors are nicely done – being the perfect complement to Craig’s art. As to Craig’s art – I will say that I liked his art this time quite a bit better than I liked his previous work on this series. I don’t know if he’s growing into the look of this title or if I’m just getting used to the jarring stylistic differences between Craig and Walker. In either case, I still prefer the more realistic take of Walker on this book. Craig is obviously a talented artist, but the more “Saturday morning cartoonish” style of his art is just not right for this particular book.

Guardians of the Galaxy consistently delivers the perfect balance of action, adventure, humor, drama, excitement, and unpredictability. Bar none, Guardians of the Galaxy is one of Marvel’s finest books; and if you’re not reading it – call your local comics shop right now and add it to your pull list. You’ll be glad you did.

Article by: Bill Meneese

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Review: Nova #29 (Marvel Comics)

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Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning

Artist: Kevin Sharpe

Colorist: Bruno Hang

Cover Artist: Brandon Peterson

 

Warning: Contains Spoilers

 

I was thoroughly pleased with last month’s issue of Nova. This month’s issue is a mixed bag. Some things I liked quite a bit and some things I didn’t like at all. I’ll explain in some detail what I liked and didn’t like. So, this review is going to be longer than usual. As always, let’s begin with a recap of this month’s story.

At the end of last month’s issue, the reformed Corps was faced with their first major mystery: A ship looking remarkably like Rhomann Dey’s starship from The Man Called Nova #1 (1976) was found within The Fault. In Issue #29, we learn that the ship is actually an Upholder Class ship of the line, named the Resolute Duty, lost some 35 years ago. The Worldmind detects life signs aboard the ship and Rich and a few of his crew of Corps recruits (now reduced to Denarian rank, issued red uniforms, and referred to as Probationers) rush over to board it and investigate. The team splits up and begins to investigate each section of the ship, finding it in disrepair and with no obvious inhabitants. Meanwhile, a mysterious cloaked figure seeks to stop The Worldmind’s scans of the ship by attacking The Worldmind with nanotechnology. The nanotechnology attack takes The Worldmind offline, causing the Probationers left on Nu-Xandar to briefly consider disobeying orders and rushing out to help Rich. Rich is then attacked by the sole surviving member of the Resolute Duty crew, Centurion Zan Philo, who has reportedly been carrying out his duty as a Corpsman for the past 35 years even though he was way outside of his jurisdiction in an alternate universe. Philo quickly realizes that Rich is the Nova Prime and joins forces with the Corps against The Worldmind’s attacker, revealed as the bounty hunter Monark Starstalker (from Marvel Premiere #32, published in 1976). Starstalker fights the Corps to a standstill and then demands that Philo release one the prisoners held in the Resolute Duty’s brig so Starstalker can collect the prisoner’s bounty. The Worldmind comes back online, but in The Worldmind’s absence, Ego has come back to life and is in the process of evicting the Corps from its surface. The issue ends on a cliffhanger with “Mindless Ones” (yeah – just like the ones from Dr. Strange) attacking the Resolute Duty to free the mysterious prisoner that is Starstalker’s quarry.

I think Issue #29 is best understood as a transitional issue, marking a turning point in the series from a single-character-focused book to an ensemble-focused book. As such, many old plot points/devices had to be efficiently wrapped, new plot points/devices had to be introduced, and new character development had to be undertaken. That’s a full plate for any one issue of any comic; and few writers would be able to succeed in pulling off such a feat with any measure of coherency. I am happy to say that the immensely skilled DnA did succeed in accomplishing this Herculean task; but purely as a result of being transitional, #29 ended up being one of the more mediocre issues of the series thus far.

That being said, there were many things I liked about #29. I especially liked the (apparent) addition of the Resolute Duty starship to the cast. I refer to it as an addition to the “cast” both because it’s onboard sentient PRIME quantum computer, if still active or repairable, would qualify it as having a personality; and because there is a long tradition in popular SF series (e.g., Battlestar Galactica; all the Star Trek franchises) of treating starships (even non-sentient ones) as “cast” members. As a 33 year Nova fan, I really appreciate DnA’s obvious respect and affection for the Nova mythos in resurrecting a version of the iconic starship that helped capture the imagination of so many of us long term fans when it was originally depicted on the cover and first pages of The Man Called Nova #1 (1976). I’ve always maintained that one of the many lost opportunities of the first Nova series and every subsequent series featuring Nova was the under-utilization of the starship (whose name is unknown; though most fans simply refer to it as “The Nova Prime Starship” or “Rhomann Dey’s Starship”) that brought Rhomann Dey to Earth. DeFalco seemed to grasp the iconic stature of the ship; making it MC2 Nova’s base of operations in Spider-Girl and various other MC2 titles where MC2 Nova appeared; but otherwise, after the events of Rom #24, the 616 Marvel Universe was not (until recently) again graced with an appearance of this lovely ship which so elegantly balances the retro stylization of times gone by with the typical technical functionality we’ve come to expect from SF portrayals of military starships of the future. The original “Rhomann Dey Starship” was at first described as a unique experimental craft that was larger than several of the gas giant planets in our solar system combined; then immediately ret-conned by Marv Wolfman himself in the letters pages of The Man Called Nova as being vastly smaller (later referred to as more than a mile long). It has always been assumed by fans that the “Rhomann Dey” starship perished with the Champions of Xandar during Nebula’s attack on Xandar which precipitated both the Second Fall of Xandar (Avengers #260; 1985) and the re-activation of Rich Rider’s dormant Nova powers (New Warriors #1; 1990). I really liked it that DnA made the effort to establish some specific parameters for the Resolute Duty (e.g., 3 miles long; designated by a keel number; identified as an “Upholder Class Nova Corps Patrol Cruiser”). To me, the class and cruiser designations imply that the Upholder Class Patrol Cruisers were fairly commonplace ships of the line which saw action near the time of the First Fall of Xandar (as described in The Man Called Nova #1; 1976 and Fantastic Four #’s 204-214); but not during Xandar’s earlier Imperial Era (as seen in Uncanny Origins #4; 1996), as Xandar’s ships of the line during the Imperial Era bore no resemblance to Upholder Class Starships. Likewise, after the Second Fall of Xandar (Avengers #260) and up to the near present (Annihilation Prologue); Xandar’s ships of the line bore no resemblance to Upholder Class Starships. How are we continuity slaves to reconcile the apparent commonplace status of Upholder Class Starships with the original portrayal of Dey’s ship as unique? Was Dey’s ship perhaps an experimental refit of an older starship (shades of Star Trek’s Enterprise NCC-1701 being refitted and re-designated NCC-1701-A)? Was Dey’s ship perhaps merely a smaller, newer, unique version of a tried and true design? The answer remains to be seen; but – enough of my geek fest surrounding the starship.

Moving on, I also liked it that the Corps will (apparently) soon be abandoning Ego. I just never liked the Corps being headquartered on The Living Planet; so Ego evicting them is fine by me. Hopefully, they’ll move into The Resolute Duty and make it their new HQ for awhile.

I really like the new ensemble cast of characters. A recurring cast is exactly what this series needed. For the Lone Ranger adherents; don’t fret – there’s still room for reasons to be contrived to send Rich Rider off for solo adventures.

I was happy to see the return of Monark Starstalker. DnA are to be commended for resurrecting Marvel cosmic characters from times past who have lain dormant for far too long.

The Philo character was intriguing; but some questions are nagging at me. Why didn’t The Worldmind recognize him? Is he who he says he is? What happened to his crewmates? Finally, does he really have to over-use the “ultra” qualifier? I realize a catch-phrase is being established; but come on – it doesn’t have near the charm and potential of say – “I am Groot” – and it actually could become ultra-annoying after awhile (see – now he’s got me doing it).

Now for some things I didn’t like. First up – art nit-picks. As to the red uniforms and glowing chest stars for the probationers, I have only two words: design flaw. Bright red things (e.g., Stop signs, fire trucks, fire alarm switches, etc.) and glowing things are designed to grab attention by standing out from the background. What military issues red uniforms to their troops these days? I think the British dropped the red coats a loooong time ago for good reason. Also, why are standard uniforms’ chests stars suddenly starting to glow? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Irani’s glowing boobs as much as the next man; but the chest stars on a standard uniform have never glowed before – and it’s another bad idea in that it’s akin to painting a target on one’s chest before entering battle. No military is going to design uniforms to make troops easier visual targets. Speaking of easier visual targets, what’s with all the billowy clouds and contrails surrounding the lower torso’s of every Corpsman in flight? What could possibly be forming clouds and contrails in the vacuum of space? All these things are annoying artistic flourishes that really need to go. What should replace them you say? Well, for a start, what’s wrong with merely making the probationers lower ranking Corpsmen (e.g., Denarians or Millennians) in the appropriately rank designated standard Navy-Gold uniform? These red-shirted (and don’t think for even a moment that the SF symbolism of red-shirtedness was lost on me) probationers have Denarian chest stars and Centurion helmet stars. Is that intentional or an artistic mistake? I really wish Marvel would print a copy of the rank designations for the uniforms from the Novaprimepage database and issue it to all the artists for the book so these distracting ranking mistakes on the uniforms will cease. Also, these are flying soldiers – essentially living weapons designed by an advanced civilization. They are not 21st Century jet planes. I would think an advanced science would work to eliminate clouds and contrails while their living weapons are in flight in atmosphere (and there should be no clouds/contrails in the vacuum of space anyway).

Other than those nit-picks about the art described above, I was fairly satisfied with Sharpe’s work on this issue. Of course, Hang continues to do an outstanding job as colorist.

The loss of quantum radio contact with The Worldmind is starting to be an overused plot device. I use the term “quantum radio” because I know of no other method than quantum entanglement to allow instantaneous communication between The Worldmind and Corpsmen separated by many light years. Disrupting a quantum radio communication would not be impossible; but it wouldn’t be easy. This is a plot device that needs re-thinking.

The most annoying thing about this issue was once again having the Corps reduced to being a bunch of push-overs in a fight. I know that the point was to establish Starstalker as a bad-ass; but let’s not forget the Corps went toe-to-toe with The Imperial Guard last issue and gave an admirable accounting of themselves. I’m just having a hard time believing that a blind guy with a Seeing Eye robot bird could best Rich and four other Corpsmen at the same time.

Likewise, I was disappointed that The Worldmind went down so easily. No or inadequate defense against nano-tech? What!? I would surmise that the Nova Corps uniforms are nano-tech based given their morphing and self-repair functions. Besides, what advanced civilization would be totally buffaloed by nano-tech? I mean, our own civilization is beginning rudimentary use of nano-tech; so I would expect that a civilization many thousands of years advanced from us would have mastered it by now.

Speaking of The Worldmind, I’m still on the fence about the Ko-Rel personality imprint. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Ko-Rel during the Conquest arc. She worked wonderfully as an actual Corpsman. As the embodiment of The Worldmind though – well, she’s just not working for me so far. I’m just not feelin’ her smart-assy, bitchy, informal Worldmind personality. I’ll give it a few more issues to make sure; but if she doesn’t start to warm up, I’m going to start hoping for a reboot. Hey Ko fans, she can always be resurrected in the flesh via cloning once Xandar is rebuilt. In the meantime, maybe the Resolute Duty has a back-up copy of the original Worldmind personality stored in its PRIME computer.

So, in summary, #29 is not the best issue of Nova to date; but it is far from the worst. I expect once #29 is read in the context of what I expect to happen in #30, it’s ranking on my Nova favorites scale will move up a few notches. In the meantime, this series is still very safe on my pull list. As far as I’m concerned, even a mediocre transitional issue of Nova beats everything the competition has to offer. Quite simply, Nova is comicdom’s undisputed King of military science-fiction epic adventure.
 

Article by: Bill Meneese

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S.W.O.R.D At The Ready: Interview With Kieron Gillen

The latest title unsheathed from the X-Universe, S.W.O.R.D., written by Kieron Gillen with art by Steven Sanders is set to debut this November.

The secret organization known as S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient World Observation and Response Department), was first introduced in Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men. John Cassady, the artist who worked on Astonishing, is doing the art for the covers of the ongoing series.

CosmicBookNews.com’s Editor, Matt McGloin, spoke with writer Kieron Gillen on what characters fans will see, how the organization might handle some of the more powerful cosmic threats and whether or not Marvel’s “Cosmic” villains or heroes will pop in to give S.W.O.R.D. a run for their money.

CosmicBookNews: Can you tell us a little about the ongoing S.W.O.R.D series? Can you describe the organization S.W.O.R.D for us?

Kieron Gillen: S.W.O.R.D. has been around for fifty years. It’s a Sister agency to what SHIELD use to be. Where SHIELD dealt with internal security, S.W.O.R.D. looks to the stars. On this galactic scale, SHIELD are the FBI. S.W.O.R.D. are the CIA. Their mandate is a little larger than that. They’re partially border security, partially diplomatic corp and partially full-on intergalactic spies trying to head off any threat against terra firma before it exists.

In short, S.W.O.R.D. stops something like Secret Invasion happening eight times a year, without anyone knowing.

CosmicBookNews: Can you tell us about the characters involved, Henry Gyrich, Beast, Agent Brand — what are their roles in S.W.O.R.D?

Kieron Gillen: Up until Secret Invasion, Abigail Brand was commander of S.W.O.R.D.. Since then, the trans-national body which governs it has inserted Henry Gyrich as a co-commander. They’ve split the duties between them as they try to rebuild the organization. That Brand is even in co-control says a lot about how important she was in actually stopping the Skrull invasion. While there’s a floating role, Brand tends to look more outwards while Gyrich looks inwards. Brand is mainly dealing with aliens out there.

Gyrich is mainly dealing with aliens right here. Brand, being a compulsive micromanager, and he does a lot of the day-to-day running of the Peak, which is S.W.O.R.D.’s orbital headquarters. They spend 99 percent of the time there doing the day-to-day responsibilities.

The other one percent is where our stories focus, where Brand stops all the enormously hard work and starts having to take enormous risks to save the world. On those days, she’s Jack Bauer with less stubble.

Beast is only now cementing his relationship with S.W.O.R.D.. He’s Brand’s primary science officer, but is also in her “A-Team” of field agents. As in, a core team she tends to take everywhere. The empath Sydren (who you’ll have seen in Astonishing X-men) and Lockheed (who you’ll have seen in THE MIGHTY MARVEL UNIVERSE FOREVER) are the other core pair.

CosmicBookNews: The mission of S.W.O.R.D is to remove all alien beings from the earth. How are they going to go about this? Some aliens are arguably a lot more powerful than the earth based characters, how will S.W.O.R.D deal with, say a Silver Surfer class threat?

Kieron Gillen: With difficulty.

It’s tempting to leave it like that. “With difficulty” is absolutely the point, and how they approach those problems will reveal a lot about the organization.

S.W.O.R.D. has kept itself mostly secret for fifty years. It’s not the sort who generally go in with seven-hundred tanks. In this case, with those too powerful to fight, they’d try and work out an appropriate motivation for them to leave.

Of course, the Surfer isn’t on earth at the moment, so that particular one isn’t a problem.

CosmicBookNews: Furthermore, there are a lot of aliens on the earth, for instance would S.W.O.R.D look to remove a certain alien symbiote or even the “aliens” from Asgard?

Kieron Gillen: The certain alien symbiote’s an interesting one. Brand suspects that Gyrich is actually an appointee via Osborn’s political weight. As such, whether Gyrich actually goes for Venom or not will tell us a lot about what’s really going on here.

The Asgardians are another interesting one. I suspect the lawyers are still arguing over that one, but S.W.O.R.D.’s don’t really consider any of the pantheons on Earth as aliens. Intra-dimensional threats, abstractly, are under A.R.M.O.R.’s domain.

Or maybe it’s just they’ll be the last ones on the list.

CosmicBookNews: How far will S.W.O.R.D. go to achieve this? Even if it means direct conflict with their parent organization, H.A.M.M.E.R. and Director Osborn? Are they under orders from Osborn?

Kieron Gillen: As I said above, there’s a suspicion of influence. But strictly speaking, S.H.I.E.L.D. – and now H.A.M.M.E.R. – isn’t actually their parent organization. It’s a sister organization. Osborn’s influence, if any, is indirect.

Gyrich and Brand are at each other’s throats throughout the series, but there’s one thing which they both agree on. They do whatever it takes to make Earth safe. Where they differ is their belief in what it actually takes to make Earth safe.

CosmicBookNews: At the end of Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter we saw Beta Ray Bill state that he “is home.” Will Beta Ray take part in S.W.O.R.D. in any way? Do you have any other plans for using Beta Ray Bill?”

Kieron Gillen: When I wrote “Home” I was mostly referring to the idea that he’s back with what remains of his people – and thus wherever he is, he’s basically home. Secondarily, I was referring to Earth. Thirdly, more the emotional state. It was that sort of line.

Of course, I totally wrote an ongoing relationship between ’em. Ti Asha Ra is staying on the Peak. Bill owes Brand a favour. While he does appear in the first arc, I do have hopes to use him down the line. I’ve got enormous empathy for the horse-headed fella.

CosmicBookNews: Are there plans to include Marvel’s cosmic characters in this at some point?

Kieron Gillen: One of the best things about writing this series is the amount of the toys in the Marvel box that you get to play with. Anything that crosses the boundary between Earth and the Heavens is in our domain. That totally includes all the cosmic characters. I have a mad crush on several.

CosmicBookNews: Thanks so much for your time! We look forward to reading S.W.O.R.D. which is do to hit stores November 11th!

    [page_title]

    Nova: The Next Generation Part Two Of The Shiar Conflict

    Nova: The Next Generation

    Part Two

    of

    The Shi’Ar Conflict

    Written By: Timelord 9.13.09

     

    Chapter Two: Quantum Realm Solace

    As evening fell on Nu-Xandar, Sylvia could see Tranta’s last rays glancing off the Torus as she boarded the mag-lev train to the alien sector of Nu-Orienta City. As always when night fell, her gaze was drawn to the sky. The Orienta Shard shone as the brightest heavenly body. No matter how many times she visited the shard, she never grew tired of it. Soon it would be her new home for the foreseeable future. Sylvia closed her eyes and imagined it parked in its Libration Point between Nu-Xandar and Tranta, spinning slowly and keeping protective vigil over the fledgling planet, Nu-Xandar. The academy beckoned and tomorrow she would answer its call, take up residence on the Orienta Shard, and begin her new life as a Nova Cadet. Tonight though, was her last night of freedom and she planned to enjoy it to the fullest. Her father had been particularly tough on her over the past week and she needed time to relax and unwind.

    She caught site of her reflection in the window of the mag-lev. Raven haired, dark brown eyes, shapely athletic body barely covered in her sexiest shear white micro-mini dress with a plunging neckline highlighting her perfect breasts; she was satisfied that she had made the right selection of attire for the night’s activities.

    The mag-lev stopped at the station and Sylvia’s spirits rose upon seeing her cousin, Proculus, waiting for her with their mutual friends, Augustus and Celena. Proculus was tall with curly brown hair and brown eyes. He was clean shaven with an athletic body and handsome features inherited from his mother, Queen Adora. Augustus and Celena were black-skinned with dark eyes and curly black hair. They stood close and couldn’t keep their eyes off each other. Lately, they had become more than friends.

    Smiling broadly, Sylvia was the first off the train, giving Proculus a quick kiss on the cheek in greeting and hugging Augustus and Celena. Some of the other passengers stared at Proculus and Sylvia as they passed by; recognizing two of Nu-Xandar’s celebrities, The Prince of Xandar and The Countess of Sura. Those that recognized them gave the sign of fealty. However, recognition was the last thing Sylvia wanted. Her only desire was for an evening of anonymous fun with her friends. She wanted to at least temporarily forget about her miserable day and the changes in her life that tomorrow would bring. The four friends blended into the crowd, joking and making small talk as they meandered toward their destination, the Mercurio Pleasure Club.

    Nu-Xandar’s new Capital, Nu-Orienta City, was bustling and growing rapidly as Nu-Xandar’s influence and power grew throughout Andromeda. Business, industry, and residential districts were under construction everywhere. The layout of the city mirrored the traditional Xandarian model as exemplified by the Orienta Shard’s Orienta City. The Xandarians tended to keep to themselves; and the alien cultures formed their own district. The Xandarians mostly turned a blind eye to the activities in the so-called alien sector; though many visited the area for recreational opportunities officially frowned upon by proper Xandarian culture. Club Mercurio was officially frowned upon by proper Xandarian culture.

    Club Mercurio was the newest, largest, and most popular of the pleasure clubs. Ten stories tall and gleaming in artificial illumination, it stood out in stark contrast to all the new construction surrounding it. It offered all the sensual delights of a galaxy class spa, able to provide services to please all known species which might partake of its amenities. As such, the line at the door was quite long.

    Sylvia gave Proculus a questioning look. “Wasn’t your friend, Aristus, supposed to meet us here?”

    Proculus nodded. “He’s already inside.”

    Sylvia looked at the line. “We’ll be hours getting in if we have to wait in line and I have to be home by midnight. I know you don’t like to do this but what say for once we give up our futile attempt at anonymity and use our celebrity to get in quicker?”

    Proculus grimaced in mock disapproval, then smiled. “All right. Just this once though and just because you’re going away tomorrow.”

    They made their way to the celebrity entrance where they were immediately recognized as four members of Xandarian royal society and granted entrance into the club. The party atmosphere of the club was intoxicating – no doubt helped by the deafening music and the cloud of endorph vapor that constantly fell from above. The four friends were escorted to a VIP table where they ordered shots of synthahol and vials of concentrated endorph-vapor. Sylvia had not visited the club for several weeks and looked around to see what was new as the décor was constantly changing and as new amenities were constantly being added. She spied Aristus leaving the dance floor and approaching their table. The handsome blonde-haired blue-eyed young man went straight to Proculus, greeting him with a passionate kiss. Aristus was Proculus’ newest lover. Sylvia smiled and wondered how long this “relationship” would last; as most of Proculus’ relationships lasted little more than a month.

    The shots and vapors arrived; and Proculus stood, raising his glass to make a toast. “To my dearest cousin Sylvia, Countess of Sura – and tomorrow bearer of a new title: Nova Corps Cadet First Class. All Xandar takes pride in your accomplishment; and on a personal note – both we and all the regular patrons of this club will miss you terribly.” Everyone at the table laughed and downed their shots. Proculus waved for another round to be brought to their table before taking his seat next to Sylvia.

    Sylvia turned and hugged Proculus. “I’m going to miss you more than anyone.”

    Proculus’ eyes glistened. “I don’t think we’ve ever gone more than a few days without seeing each other since we were children. I don’t know if I can stand to be without my best friend for the eight months you’re precluded from having visitors.”

    It was Sylvia’s turn to fight back tears. “Well, maybe you can make another exception to your rule about not using your Princely status to manipulate things and come see me. Maybe a surprise inspection of your troops would be in order?”

    Proculus nodded. “Maybe it would. In any case, you may expect me to abuse my rank to get both myself and your parents front row seats at your graduation ceremony. But enough of this sadness I say. Let’s celebrate.” Popping the lid off his endorph-vapor vial, Proculus inhaled deeply before passing it to Aristus. Celena, Augustus, and Sylvia shared the other vial; and soon all sadness was replaced with euphoria.

    The shots and vials continued to flow; with everyone becoming more relaxed and disinhibited. Removing their shirts, Proculus and Aristus went to the dance floor; and Celena and Augustus began to snuggle up. Despite the effects of all the nanite-bonded chemicals; Sylvia began to feel more and more like a fifth wheel. Like Proculus, her relationships tended to be short-lived; and she currently had no steady lover. She started as she looked out over the dance floor, catching site of Him.

    Celena noticed Sylvia’s reaction. “What is it Syl?”

    Sylvia shrugged. “Nothing. I just thought I saw Him again.”

    Celena smirked. “Him again? The drop-dead handsome young man with the curly black hair that you get glimpses of, have dreams about, and get all wet about; and that none of the rest of us have ever caught sight of in all the time we’ve known you?”

    Sylvia laughed. “Don’t start. I know what I saw and I think He was heading for The Maze.”

    Augustus smiled salaciously as Sylvia got up from the table and steadied herself, still slightly dizzy from the vapors and shots. “Well, good hunting then.”

    Sylvia made her way through the throngs of milling and dancing people; occasionally catching brief sight of her quarry, only to have Him disappear in the crowd. When she arrived at the entrance to The Maze, He was nowhere to be seen. She was determined to finally meet Him and, willing her clothes into her personal tesseract, strode headlong into The Maze. The Maze was literally a large, darkened, maze-like structure with an aphrodisiac-laced atmosphere. It was where people came to experience anonymous sensual pleasures with others; the extremely dim lighting making the identity of other participants difficult to ascertain. One entered The Maze unclothed and experienced the Maze through touch rather than sight.

    The Maze was filled to capacity and pitch dark as usual. No problem for Sylvia as she could “see” in any spectrum she desired. She decided to hedge her bets and use her night vision to find Him in the crowd of bodies caressing and pleasuring each other. The aphrodisiac-laced atmosphere of The Maze began to affect her; slowing her progress as she willingly partook of the sensual pleasures surrounding her – caressing and being caressed; kissing and being kissed – though she eschewed all invitations for more intimate contact as she searched for Him. She spied Him – back turned to her so she couldn’t be sure; but he had the right body and the long, black, curled hair – it had to be Him. She approached Him and put her arms around Him. He turned. It was not Him. It was, however, a very handsome man; and Sylvia could no longer deny her aphrodisiac enhanced desires. She kissed him deeply. His mouth tasted of synthahol and his skin of salt from sexual heat. She burned with desire for the pleasures of his body as he held her against his rock hard chest. She felt a woman’s soft body press against her from behind and begin to caress her breasts. Twisting her head, she found herself in the embrace of a beautiful young blonde woman. She kissed the woman deeply as the man kissed and caressed her breasts, her abdomen, her thighs – and began intimate exploration with his tongue. Running her hands through his hair and pressing his head into her; her breathing became heavy and she moaned in pleasure with each stroke of his skilled tongue. Sylvia abandoned her night vision and surrendered herself to the anonymous sensual pleasures of the maze. The tensions of the day dissipated in erotic bliss as she and her two lovers melted together – each bringing the other to multiple heights of passion and release over the next few hours. Finally sexually satiated, they retreated to a corner of the maze where they could rest and recover in the comfort of each other’s arms.

    Eyes at half-mast and feeling physically spent from the combined effects of the previous days of combat training and this night’s regimen of synthahol, endorph-vapor, aphrodisiacs, and sex; Sylvia found it hard to keep a smile off her face as she now felt more relaxed and carefree than she had in days. “Mmmmm – thanks you two. That was just what I needed.”

    The woman smiled. “The pleasure was all ours Contessa.”

    Sylvia smiled back wickedly as she realized she had been recognized. “Don’t you believe it.”

    Taking her leave from The Maze, Sylvia made her way into the spa, intending to shower, rest a short time, then catch up with her friends to report that once again He had eluded her. As she passed by a large zero-g group sex room, she caught sight of Celena and Augustus preparing to enter along with about thirty other couples.

    Celena waved from the crowd. “Come join us in here.”

    Sylvia waved back. “I will as soon as I’ve showered and freshened up.”

    Sylvia made her way to the shower room and stepped under the stinging spray, basking in the heat of the hot flowing water and letting it wash away the last of her week’s tensions. She closed her eyes and thought of Him, frustrated that she had once again failed to meet Him and thinking it strange how she longed for a man she had only glimpsed in dreams and crowds and shadows. As she indulged her deep longing for Him, she realized she could no longer hear or feel the shower; or hear the bustle and noise of the multitude of others enjoying the amenities of the club. Her eyes snapped open and she found herself in a white void.

    He stood before her – a handsome young man with curly black hair and deep, black eyes wearing white form-fitting clothes that showed off a perfect body – just like in her dreams and her brief glimpses of Him. He was the most handsome man she had ever beheld and she immediately felt desire for Him. She also noticed for the first time that He bore a striking resemblance to a depiction she had seen before. She was dumbstruck into silence as she considered the implications.

    He beheld her for a long minute before finally speaking. “You should not be here.”

    She found her voice. “What? Who are you? Where is this?”

    He shook His head. “You are not ready to be here. You must go back now.”

    Sylvia was both un-nerved and irritated. “Fine. How do I do that?”

    “The same way you arrived – by wanting it desperately enough. Now go. I will invite you to visit again when you are ready.” He turned his back on her and made to leave.

    Sylvia was angry now and began to build a gravimetric pulse. “Don’t you give me curtly cryptic answers and turn your back on me you son of a schmaug! You will properly address my questions!”

    He wheeled back around to face Sylvia, seething in anger, energy arcing across his body and flashing in his eyes. “Precocious child! Do not even think of summoning your power here! You know not what you do. The consequences could be devastating to all you hold dear!”

    They paused a moment – eyes locked, each taking the measure of the other. They both stood down; but continued to stare at each other warily.

    He shook his head, breaking the tension. “I had hoped you would not inherit your father’s stubbornness and obstinacy; but I see my hopes were in vain.”

    Sylvia was surprised. “You know my father?”

    He smiled. “Yes – I know him well and I love him dearly; though he does not know me.”

    Sylvia was feeling irritated again. “Straight answers seem to elude you sir; so let me ask you directly once more – just who the fark are you? Why do I see you in my dreams? Why were you at the pleasure club tonight? Why have you brought me here?”

    “You should not be here and it is too soon for you to know the answers to all those questions.” He broke eye contact and smirked as He looked her up and down. “And you are out of uniform.”

    Sylvia had not noticed that she was still nude until he pointed it out. Refusing to be daunted, she set her jaw and clenched her fists, readying for a fight. “Are you going to answer my questions or not?”

    He looked exasperated. “I don’t suppose you will leave without an altercation if I don’t answer your questions?”

    She stared at Him in response.

    He shook His head. “I thought not. Ask your questions.”

    She considered her options. “The first logical question is: Where am I?”

    He smirked. “You could use your powers to figure that out – but to answer your question; you are within what you would understand to be a pocket dimension or a tesseract – though I prefer the term quantum realm.”

    She reached out tentatively with her powers to gather information. “This place resembles the Worldmind’s tesseract. How did I get here?”

    He sighed. “By wanting to be here. Your innate powers allow your consciousness to travel to this realm.”

    She was beginning to understand. “Are you a quantum entity like the Worldmind?”

    He laughed. “Sweet Sylvia, I am the Xandarian Worldmind.”

    It was Sylvia’s turn to smirk. “I’ve met the Worldmind; and you look, act, and talk nothing like him. Also, the Worldmind and my father are well-acquainted; but you claimed that my father does not know you. I have no idea how I got here; but I assure you I did not bring myself here. You sir, are a liar.”

    He laughed, “Your impudence is most amusing – do keep it up,” He said as He morphed into the familiar figure of the Worldmind Avatar. With the Worldmind’s voice – albeit in a mocking tone – he said, “Nova Corps Cadet First Class Sylvia Rider-Dru, it is critical that you pay attention at this time.” Then keeping the appearance of the Worldmind Avatar, but switching back to His voice, “I have spoken nothing but the truth to you since you arrived in this realm.”

    Sylvia had lingering doubts. “I remain unconvinced of your identity. If you are the Worldmind, you must comply with the lawful commands of a duly authorized corporeal Xandarian. As the Countess of Sura, I have repeatedly given you orders and you have demonstrated a level of independence exceeding that explicitly programmed into the Worldmind.”

    He seemed to find Sylvia’s observation amusing. “The Worldmind you and the rest of Xandar know is but a small part of me – the part that can be accessed and controlled by your technology. I am so much greater than that. The part of the Worldmind you know must obey your lawful commands as it is linked to your technology. I am not so constrained. In fact, I purposely keep the Worldmind unaware of my existence. He is new to existence as a facet of the greater quantum entity. Given more time, he will come to learn what he is. As of now, he is constrained by his own childish ignorance – much like you.”

    She let the insult slide and held her breath for a second before her next question. “You bear a striking resemblance to ancient depictions of the Xandarian God of War, Gamill. Are you Gamill? Are you a god?”

    He seemed to ponder the question for a moment before deciding to answer it. He morphed back into the form of the handsome young man. “I am Gamill.” He morphed into the familiar form of the lovely black-skinned goddess of fortune, Frammi. “I am also Frammi.” He morphed into the familiar form of the red-headed goddess of love, Ishta. “I am Ishta.” He rapidly morphed into the entire Xandarian pantheon of gods and goddesses before coming full circle to the form of the Xandarian Worldmind and then, once again, Gamill. “I am all the rest. We are all facets of the greater quantum entity.”

    She was stunned, having never truly believed in the existence of the gods. “So, you are a god.”

    He shrugged. “What is a god? Is a god not merely a being with vastly greater mental and physical abilities than you possess yourself? Would not primitive beings believe you were a god?”

    “If being tiresome and obtuse in answering simple questions are godly traits; I would say you are at least worthy of consideration of the title” Sylvia observed dryly. “Why appear to me in the form of Gamill?”

    He responded to her sarcasm with a barb of His own. “At last – an intelligent question. The populace of Xandar sees the Worldmind with whom they are familiar as a formal, wizened old man as that is their subconscious conception of how a god should look and act. You, on the other hand, see me as a peer; as this is your subconscious conception of how your perfect peer should look and act. In fact, you see me as the War God, Gamill, as you are a true warrior. One day when your powers are fully developed we will be peers. Right now, you are no more than an adept.”

    Sylvia was starting to be convinced. She felt solace here in this realm as if she belonged here; and as she used her powers to tentatively scan the physical properties of her surroundings, she realized that this entity was speaking truly. One question nagged at her consciousness. “Why have I seen you in my dreams and caught glimpses of you since I was a child? Why reveal yourself to me now?”

    He nodded, appearing to be pleased with her question. “As a quantum entity, I am everywhere on Xandar at once. With your developing powers, you can see me anywhere you like if you concentrate. Though you don’t consciously realize it, you have attempted to contact me intermittently since the very moment of your conception. I have rebuffed each of your attempts as you are not ready to be here. You brought yourself here uninvited and have refused to leave despite my numerous reasonable requests. I did not ‘reveal’ myself to you. You intruded.”

    She refused to let one nagging question remain unanswered. “Why not reveal yourself to all of Xandar?”

    He frowned. “It is not yet time to do such a thing. One day, over the course of time, all Xandarians will be able to ascend to this realm to become part of the greater quantum entity. You are the beginning of that evolution of your species and you already know how some have reacted. You have experienced their fear of your unique gifts. Some would seek to accelerate the evolution of your species and some would seek to retard it if the outcome was widely known. Nothing must be done to influence the natural evolution of your species. So, for now, the gods must remain quaint and fanciful ideas in the minds of all Xandarians, revealing themselves only to those unique individuals with special gifts who may advance the evolution of your species in accordance with the plans of the greater quantum entity. You are such an individual as others have been over the millennia. Through you and your unique gifts, I have a physical gateway into your corporeal world that I otherwise would not have. I cannot directly intervene in your corporeal world except through you – and you cannot speak of my existence to anyone else. You now know why. It could adversely affect the evolution of your species.”

    Sylvia smirked. “If I told anyone else I was conversing with the gods, they would think I was insane. You have nothing to fear. Your secret is safe with me.”

    He seemed satisfied. “There is hope for you yet, sweet Sylvia.”

    “So am I invited back here to learn from you how to wield my developing powers? Am I ready yet O wise one?” she asked with a hint of sarcasm. “By the way, what do you call yourself?”

    He paused before answering. “I answer to many names as you now know – and I cannot stop you from returning any time you wish. However, you are welcome back in my realm; and I will help you learn to control your powers.”

    She stopped to consider all she had learned. “I’m not comfortable referring to you as Gamill or any of the other gods – and clearly you are something over and above the Worldmind. How about if I call you ‘The Overmind?’ Would that be acceptable?”

    He nodded. “Yes, but go now back to your pleasures of the flesh. You should enjoy them while you still can. Some day such pleasures will exist for you only as memories.”

    Sylvia blinked and found herself back in the shower room; only a few seconds having passed since she ‘left.’ She quickly dried herself and made her way to the zero-gee room to find Augustus and Celena. Based on what she had learned of the Quantum Realm, she decided to heed the Overmind’s advice regarding enjoying the pleasures of the flesh while she still could. It would put her getting home past her mother’s midnight curfew; but she would deal with that later.

    ________________________________________

    Come back next week for Part 3 of The Shi’ar Conflict to follow Sylvia on her first adventure as a Nova Corps Cadet.

     

     

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    Nova: The Next Generation Part One Of The Shiar Conflict

     

    Nova: The Next Generation
    Written By: Timelord  9.3.09

     

    Prologue: The Legacy

    People stared. They always stared when she appeared in public. It made her uncomfortable; so she took pains to conceal her identity. Today she dressed in non-descript clothes – not her typical haute couture by any stretch of the imagination – just casual black slacks, black boots, and white blouse. She wore large, dark sunglasses so as to mask her face without drawing undue attention. Yet, she could not help but draw attention. People – especially men – stared at the shapely, raven-haired young woman.

    Shifting uncomfortably in her seat as the mag-lev train made its way to the Nova Crista, she began to regret her decision to ride public transportation rather than just use her powers to fly there. She had thought use of the powers she was born with would draw undue attention and perhaps interfere with her goal for the trip.

    Her powers – now at Centurion level – were a constant source of concern for her, her parents, and others. Some feared her natural ability to wield Nova Force. Rather than needing nano-tech mediators bestowed and controlled by the Worldmind, her powers were a consequence of her genetic heritage. Those that feared her whispered that she was what her father called a “genetic Eve” – the next step in Xandarian evolution – and a portent of extinction for all normal Xandarians. Those that feared her didn’t know her and they didn’t understand her genetic heritage of course – and even the most renowned Xandarian geneticists were at a loss to explain her abilities.

    She sighed – understanding why some feared her and for an instant wishing she could be like all other Xandarians. It had been easy to hide the powers when she was younger. At first, during early childhood, her powers merely gave her the ability to absorb and discharge energy, the Worldmind-like ability to sense and analyze the physical world, and the ability to interface with all forms of artificial intelligence. As she grew older, she developed the abilities of flight, super strength, and invulnerability. Once her body reached physical maturity at the age of 16, she also developed a healing factor. No one knew how or even if she would continue to evolve. She was unique.

    Her brooding was interrupted. Someone had recognized her. It always happened. She was, after all, the daughter of two of the most famous citizens of Nu-Xandar; not to mention a member of the royal family and a Countess in her own right. She was an honest to goodness celebrity on Nu-Xandar and it was inevitable that someone would see through her disguise. An older citizen had recognized her and had given the sign of fealty to the royal family by placing his right fist over his heart. The rest of the passengers on the train followed suit. As uncomfortable as she was with royal protocol, she adopted the poise of the Countess of Sura and nodded to each in acceptance of their signs of respect and fealty; relieved that the train was slowing as it entered the station at the mall of the Nova Crista.

    When the doors of the train slid open, she stepped out into the bustling mall, relieved to feel Tranta’s heat against her skin and a light breeze blowing through her dark hair. Looking up, she saw the great dome of the Orienta Shard overhead; and beyond the dome, she could see Nu-Xandar rising in the east along the dome’s horizon – the great Torus anchored to the planet collecting Tranta’s energy and providing the gift of habitability for her people as they lived their lives on their new homeworld. She quickly hurried through the common area and made her way to the steps leading to the doors of the Great Hall of the Nova Crista – the headquarters of the Nova Corps – denoted by the great red 8-pointed star symbol of the Worldmind Hegemony emblazoned on the building. As she approached the secure area, she was greeted by two seamless metal bipedal silver sentry androids asking for identification. They moved with grace and fluidity as their bodies gleamed in the morning sunlight – never once taking her out of the sights of the projectile and energy weapons contained in their casings. Sighing, she presented her nano-tech wristband for scanning. Most Xandarians didn’t have to tolerate such hassles as their Nova Matrices instantly identified them. She didn’t possess a Nova Matrix like all other Xandarians. Her body just absorbed all nano-tech that was implanted and the Worldmind refused to allow her to use her natural ability to form a direct link to it due to the unknown nature of her still developing powers. She had to wear an external link to the Worldmind around her wrist for identification purposes. Of course, the inconvenience of not having a Nova Matrix for identification purposes paled in comparison to the most profound implication of not having a Nova Matrix – for not having a Nova Matrix also meant that she was more mortal than all other Xandarians. She could not be instantly downloaded into the Worldmind if she was suddenly killed – to live an afterlife in the cybernetic space of the Mindworld or be later resurrected via cloning.

    The sentries accepted her identification and saluted her with the sign of fealty. Nodding to them, she walked through the doors into the Nova Crista.

    The Nova Crista was truly impressive. Built millennia ago on the highest hill in Orienta City upon the site of an ancient observatory, the Nova Crista – meaning “Crest of New Stars” in the old Xandarian language – was the traditional headquarters of the Nova Corps. The Nova Prime’s office was in this building – and deep under the building was the Quantum Interface to the Worldmind’s tesseract. She had picked a day when she knew the Nova Prime was off-world on a mission for the Xandarian Federation as he would not approve of the business that brought her to the Nova Crista today. She took a moment to examine the Great Hall as it had been quite some time since she last visited. The Great Hall was massive. The floors were solid granite and the walls were dark wood. The ceiling arched high overhead. The Great Hall was the extent of most people’s contact with The Corps and was for all intents and purposes a museum celebrating the history of the Corps. Statues of renowned Novas were interspersed with display cases containing relics from the Corp’s history. Beyond the hall were more secure areas – access only being permitted to Corps personnel. She spied an open Worldmind interface just behind a statue of Centurion Gabriel Lan and quickly made her way to it. Touching her hand to the interface, she requested an audience with The Worldmind.

    Her consciousness faded into the white void of the Worldmind’s tesseract and she found herself face-to-face with the avatar of the Xandarian Worldmind. The Worldmind Avatar, an aged Xandarian male dressed in a standard Nova Prime uniform, placed his fist over his heart and spoke with the consensus voice of the gestalt. “Greetings Countess. To what do I owe the honor of your visit today?”

    She hesitated a moment – for the first time questioning her decision. Her parents were two of the greatest Novas who ever lived. She wielded the Nova Power as a birthright. She was part of the ruling family of Xandar. Becoming a Nova was her right and her responsibility to Xandar. Being a Nova was her legacy. “I am here to apply to the Nova Corps Academy.” With a thought, she contacted the AI within her wristband link to the Worldmind and submitted her application to the Worldmind Gestalt.

    If the Worldmind was surprised, he didn’t show it. “You are younger than the typical age selected to join the Corps – and typically basic Star Corps Training as well as at least one year of service as a Star Corps regular is required before anyone is granted admission to the Nova Corps Academy.”

    She set her jaw. “I am well aware of the rules and regulations. However, you know as well as I do that I already possess Centurion-level powers. I need the training and I desire to use my powers to serve Xandar and The Corps. Besides, others have joined the Corps without going through the typical admission requirements. Pyreus Kril is one example as are my own father and mother.”

    The Worldmind nodded affirmatively. “That is true, but circumstances dictated those exceptions. Such circumstances do not apply in your case. In your case, the support of your parents is required and…”

    She felt nervous for the first time since entering the building. Neither of her parents would attempt to interfere with her choice to join the military once she was of age. However, her father opposed early entrance to the Academy and wanted her to wait a little while longer; and her mother had also wanted her to consider attending Law School. She had made up her mind and did not want to discuss the matter with them any further. She just wanted to quietly join the Corps and begin formal training. Her royal rank gave her certain rights in regard to status in the military. She decided use of her rank was her only choice to avoid involving her parents. She interrupted the Worldmind, “That won’t be necessary. I am…”

    The Worldmind held up his hand to silence her. “How like your father you are. Please let me finish. Your parents anticipated your decision and have already given their support. Your application is accepted. You will receive orders as to when to report to the Nova Crista for admission to The Nova Corps Academy. Welcome to The Nova Corps Cadet Sylvia Rider-Dru.”

     

    Nova: The Next Generation

    The Shi’ar Conflict

    (Part One)

     

    Chapter One: The Woman Called Nova

    The bruises and cuts ached, but Sylvia Rider-Dru could not afford to let the pain distract her from completion of her scouting mission. She pushed it aside and entrusted her recovery to her healing factor as she sped through the disputed area of space attempting to evade her pursuers. Tactical indicated that a Superskrull was closing fast; as was a squadron of Annihilation fighter ships and a battle armored Veradinae Mercenary. She had already destroyed one of Lord Ravenous’ Annihilation battleships; but it had not been without cost. She was beginning to feel fatigued. All she wanted to do was make it back to the Xandarian fleet and bring her scouting mission to an end with the startling news that Xandar’s greatest enemies were amassing along the border of The Xandarian Federation in preparation for invasion.

    Her tactical flashed a proximity alert and she dived to avoid a bolt of cosmic fire from the Superskrull; necessitating an immediate twist and course change as she also dodged a shot from the Veradinae. She knew they were trying to catch her in crossfire and that her options for escape were becoming limited as long range tactical now indicated the enemy was closing from nearly every direction. She dived to avoid another shot from the Veradinae; and landed directly in the line of fire from the Superskrull. She reeled from the strike of cosmic fire, feeling the heat penetrate her Nova uniform’s back and helmet armor; burning her skin. She recovered just in time to grapple with the skrull. This Superskrull had been given the combined powers of the Terran Fantastic Four, much like the legendary Kl’rt. He grabbed Sylvia with a massive fist modeled after ‘The Thing;’ and began to squeeze the life from her. She was having trouble controlling her new powers; and had fired a radiative aura gravimetric pulse only a few minutes earlier to destroy the Annihilation battleship; so it took all her will to fire another radiative aura pulse. The skrull’s fist exploded; freeing Sylvia. Quickly recovering; she wheeled and, summoning all her might, put her fist through the stunned skrull’s head, savoring the sight of one of her people’s ancient enemies convulsing and becoming still. She had little time to gloat as her proximity alert flashed again. She twisted to avoid the shot fired by the Veradinae, but miscalculated her trajectory and found herself directly in his flight path. The Veradinae was eight feet tall, bipedal, thickly muscled, and covered in biomantium battle armor hosting an array of projectile and energy weapons. Sylvia knew that underneath the powerful armor was a fierce reptilian soldier bio-engineered to be nothing but a savage killing machine. She had to evade the great dragon or kill him as quickly as possible. Otherwise, he would not stop until he had killed her. Sylvia changed course and attempted to twist away as the dragon closed the distance between them; but he compensated for her evasive maneuver and fired an energy weapon which momentarily stunned her. The dragon capitalized upon Sylvia’s disadvantage, moving in for the preferred method of killing for any Veradinae – up close and personal.

    Sylvia screamed as the Veradinae Dragon’s biomantium-coated claws pierced her body’s natural phasic shielding and her uniform’s armor; sinking deep into her flesh, attempting to rend her in half. “Mother Farker!” she yelled in rage and pain as she twisted in his grasp and with all her might landed a massive blow to the side of his armored head, tearing away his faceplate. The dragon writhed in agony as his battle armor decompressed and as his body fluids began to be pulled through his skin into the vacuum of space; but he did not let go. Before she could recoil, he managed to sink his biomantium-coated teeth into her arm. She felt his venom enter her body and her will to fight began to ebb. Desperate now to be free as proximity alerts were continuous and as she was beginning to feel sick and sleepy from the venom; she looked into the dragons eyes and fired twin eye beams. The dragon’s mouth opened and his head and arms snapped back reflexively as his brain was fried. Freed from the clutches of the dragon, the nanites composing her uniform moved quickly to seal the breeches from the dragon’s claws and teeth. Her healing factor was working furiously to compensate for the effects of the venom and the wounds inflicted by the dragon; but she hadn’t the luxury to rest and let it totally heal her. The fighter ships were almost within range and a phalanx of superskrulls was closing fast. She shook her head to clear the effects of the venom; and grabbing the dragon’s body, sent it flying into the windshield of the lead fighter, destroying it upon contact. She dove, firing gravimetric pulses from each hand, destroying the other two fighters. Sluggish but recovering, she flipped and resumed course at full speed for the Xandarian fleet, the phalanx of superskrulls in hot pursuit.

    Twisting and diving at maximum speed, she avoided the bolts of energy and the projectiles fired by her Skrull pursuers. Tactical indicated that the Xandarian fleet was dead ahead; and to her great relief, she could see four Centurions speeding to her rescue; lead by none other than her parents, Richard and Sevilica. Tactical indicated that her Skrull pursuers had fled at the sight of the approaching Nova Corps; so she slowed and happily flew into the embrace of her father’s open arms. She gasped in surprise as her father’s arms suddenly became elastic, wrapping her in a tight cocoon. Enraged and embarrassed at having been so easily duped; but unable to generate another radiative gravimetric pulse; she focused her will and extended her phasic shielding until she was able to break the hold of the superskrull. Her ‘mother,’ now transformed into her true Skrull identity, acted quickly and landed a blow to Sylvia’s head that sent her reeling back into her ‘father’s’ tender embrace once again where he applied a neural inhibitor to her neck. She became paralyzed and unable to control her powers.

    Richard Rider was annoyed with his daughter. He snapped, “End simulation,” and watched as “space” faded away to be replaced by the cavernous interior of Nu-Xandar’s Nova Corps holographic Battle Simulation Arena. He reached to his belt for his helmet. Catching his reflection in the glass of the observation and control booth, Rich once again felt both surprise and amusement at how much he had come to resemble his father. Rich ran a hand over his recently grown goatee and smoothed back his “salt-and-pepper” colored hair before donning his helmet and nodding to his lovely wife, Sevilica Dru. Even after all the years of hardship and sacrifice as they together toiled to build Nu-Xandar from Xandar’s ashes; he still found himself hopelessly in love with the auburn-haired blue-eyed beauty. It didn’t hurt that she was just as shapely, sexy, and vivacious as when he first met her at the tender age of 17 during the Second Xandar-Skrull War. Sevilica was living proof that cloning did have its advantages; and as he caught site of his reflection again, he made a mental note to consider some cosmetic treatments for himself as time and near constant warfare had taken their toll on his 51 year old body. He also noted that Sevilica looked a little tired – the weight of helping govern Nu-Xandar seeming to rest more and more heavily upon her shoulders with each passing day. He knew they needed a vacation. Sevilica ran her fingers through her long auburn locks of hair and donned her helmet as they headed for the door.

    Sylvia was relieved to have sensation return to her limbs; but watched in dismay as her mother and father emerged from the control room of the Nova Corps Battle Simulation Arena; mentally preparing herself for her father’s expected harsh criticism of her performance today. Lately, she and her father had been at odds for reasons she really did not understand. It seemed that they went out of their way to disagree with each other now; and nothing she did seemed to please him. Richard was dressed in the uniform of The Nova Prime and Sevilica wore a standard Centurion’s uniform, eschewing as usual any outward sign of her royal status as Duchess of Orienta. Sylvia steeled herself as Richard and Sevilica took flight to meet her at the top of the domed arena.

    Sylvia tensed and stood at attention as Richard and Sevilica arrived; avoiding eye contact by staring straight ahead unflinchingly as Richard removed his helmet and focused on her, an irritated look on his face. “What the hell was that Syl? Where’s your focus? You made elementary mistakes that would have cost you your life in a real battle; and the lives of anyone under your command had you been accompanied. We’ve taught you better than that. Don’t trust your eyes when you’re fighting Skrulls! Use your powers to do an identity scan. Do you realize that if you’d made a mistake like that last one in a real battle situation that right now you’d be dead or worse – a prisoner of the Skrulls being readied for vivisection?”

    Sylvia pressed her lips together tighter in reaction to her father’s rebuke; but exhibited no other reaction or outward sign of upset – though inwardly she was seething. He didn’t understand what she was feeling – the doubts and fears about starting a new life as a Nova Corps Cadet, leaving her childhood friends behind, and yes – leaving home. She didn’t want to be here today, her last free day before starting the academy. She was only here at her father’s insistence. She wanted to be with her friends one last time before departing for the Orienta Shard. She hoped her mother would render more supportive feedback; but it was not meant to be.

    Sevilica shook her head. “This is truly disappointing Sylvia. Your father and I have been training you for years now and you’ve performed so much better than this in the past. Combat doesn’t wait until we are ready for it to fit into our schedule and combat doesn’t give second chances when we make mistakes. When you enter battle, you must push all distractions aside and keep your focus. One serious mistake and you’re dead. You need to think about this experience and decide what you would do differently should you ever face a similar situation in the future. I expect you to do better next time. Now, I know you want to get out of here. Dismissed. Oh, and Syl, on a personal note – I know you’re going to want to go out and celebrate your acceptance into the academy with your friends, but I want you back at Oban by midnight. Your father and I want to have some time with you in the morning before you leave for the Orienta Shard; and we want you rested and prepared for your first day of duty to The Corps. Understand?”

    Sylvia nodded her understanding, remaining silent and avoiding eye contact with either of her parents – especially her father – and sulkily flew to the exit; dejectedly heading for Oban, House Dru’s ancestral palace.

    Sevilica and Rich watched her go. When Sylvia had cleared the exit, Rich turned to Sevilica and made eye contact. Their eyes locked on each other for a moment before the seriousness broke and they both shared a small laugh. Rich smiled broadly. “She made some mistakes sure enough but that’s just due to lack of experience. With a little experience and discipline, she’s going to be hell on wheels! I tell you Sev, I’ve never been so proud. She was magnificent! Her powers have developed to the point where she now has more power than a Centurion. Did you see the way she took out that battleship and that dast superskrull? Incredible! She’s better than either of us were when we were about her age.”

    Sevilica arched an eyebrow. “Well, you’re half right. Maybe if you’d had the opportunity at her age to train on Xandar instead of wasting time on Earth; you’d have been as good a Nova as both Syl and me.”

    Rich grinned in response to Sevilica’s typical competitiveness. “Why’d you let her go so early? I was going to make her run through the simulation again.”

    Sevilica rolled her eyes. “She has to have some fun sometimes too. If it was up to you, she’d be training all day every day. Her friends are taking her out to celebrate tonight. She starts the academy tomorrow and she won’t see them or us for the next eight months you know.”

    Rich’s smile faded and sadness was reflected in his eyes. “I know. Our little girl’s growing up fast. Can’t blame me for being proud of her for being the youngest ever allowed to enter academy training. I just want her to be as ready as possible for all the dangers she’s about to face so she’ll be safe. That’s why I’ve been pushing her so hard.”

    Sevilica floated up to Rich and kissed him. “I know and I’m proud too – of both her and you. I know how hard it’s been for you to let her go. Now my love, let’s go home.”

    Rich grabbed Sev and pulled her close. “Not so fast. We have this facility reserved privately for the next hour. What say we put it to good use? I’m thinking the Veradinae seraglio program.”

    Sevilica laughed. “Only if you play the role of the sex slave this time.”

    Rich grinned wolfishly. “Deal.”

    _________________________________________

    Read Part Two for the next chapter in the serial of The Woman Called Nova. Here’s a sneak preview:

    Chapter Two: Quantum Realm Solace

    As evening fell on Nu-Xandar, Sylvia could see Tranta’s last rays glancing off the Torus as she boarded the mag-lev train to the alien sector of Nu-Orienta City. As always when night fell, her gaze was drawn to the sky. The Orienta Shard shone as the brightest heavenly body in the sky. No matter how many times she visited the shard, she never grew tired of it. Soon it would be her new home for the foreseeable future. Sylvia closed her eyes and imagined it parked in its Libration Point between Nu-Xandar and Tranta, spinning slowly and keeping protective vigil over the fledgling Nu-Xandar. The academy beckoned and tomorrow she would answer its call and begin her new life as a Nova Cadet. Tonight though, was her last night of freedom and she planned to enjoy it to the fullest. Her father had been particularly tough on her this past week and she needed time to relax and unwind.

    She caught site of her reflection in the window of the mag-lev. Raven haired, dark brown eyes, shapely athletic body barely covered in her sexiest shear white micro-mini dress with a plunging neckline highlighting her perfect breasts; she was satisfied that she had made the right selection of attire for the night’s activities.

     

     

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    Jim Gibbons Let Go From Wizard

    News: Wizard

    The Associate Editor, Jim Gibbons, from Wizard Magazine has been let go.

    This came across my desk earlier today, as news about Wizard’s latest employee release was made known late last night.

    [page_title]

    Review: Nova #28 (Marvel Comics)

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    Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning

    Artist: Andrew Devito

    Colorist: Bruno Hang

    Cover Artist: Daniel Acuna

    Variant Cover: Mike Perkins

     

    Warning: Contains Spoilers

     

    DnA have done it again! Nova #28 is a masterstroke of superheroic military science-fiction. The Rich Rider from Annihilation is finally back and I say: “Long May He Reign!”

    This issue picks up right where #27 left off. Rich gives Xenith a beating and captures her. The new Corpsmen step up to the plate as well; with Morrow and Irani putting the Imperial Guard in their place quite efficiently. Rich negotiates for the withdrawal of the Corps from Kree-Lar with Blastaar in a quite clever sequence; and the Corpsmen gather up their prisoners – along with the wounded Robbie Rider – and return to Nu-Xandar. Back at Nu-Xandar we learn that the Corps has been disbanded down to a small group including four of the original five new recruits (Morrow, Fraktur, Qubit, Irani) as well as the humans, Tre and Lindy. Wendell Vaughn is also present; but quickly takes his leave to learn more about both his new body and the mysterious fault in time and space caused by the explosion of the Inhumans’ echo weapon at the conclusion of War of Kings. Rich admits he was both right and wrong about reconstituting the Corps; deciding in the end to allow the remaining Corpsmen the opportunity to be the “core” of a new Corps which is to be rebuilt slowly over time. Robbie is invited to be part of the new Corps. It is learned that, unsurprisingly, Ego is recovering faster than expected; so the Corps will need to find a new home in the near future. In the meantime, they stargate to the fault to see what, if anything, can be done. Upon arrival, they are surprised to receive a Xandarian distress signal. Upon further investigation, they are shocked to discover a ship that Rich Rider thought he would never see again.

    There’s so much to love about this issue, I don’t know where to start. So, I’ll begin at the beginning. I heartily enjoyed the opening sequence. As anyone who has read any of my columns before knows, I am no fan of Strontians. So, as you might imagine, I savored every panel of the opening fight where Rich opens up a can of whoop-ass on Xenith and gives the beeyotch the well deserved beating she’s been asking for throughout the course of War of Kings. My only disappointment is that he didn’t kill her. I think he may end up regretting that decision. I know I regret his decision. I want her and her cousin, Gladiator, dirt-napped ASAP. Nevertheless, his guile in defeating her is much appreciated; showing that Rich has finally graduated from the “brass-knuckled hot-headed street fighter unthinkingly flying in and slugging it out” mentality that has plagued the Nova character for far too long now; to the mentality of the seasoned, strategizing, battle-hardened veteran that he is and should continue to be from now on. No more characterization inconsistency please! Finally, I was also touched by the homage to Doug Smith’s Novaprimepage in this sequence where Rich refers to consulting the Novapedia. That’s a nice shout out from DnA to Doug and to the legions of other loyal uber-Nova-fans worldwide who have kept the Nova flame burning through thick and thin for the past 33 years; and we all appreciated it.

    The Morrow and Irani scene was extremely well done; and I want to thank DnA for finally portraying the Corps as the competent and effective soldiers that they should be; rather than the “red shirts” portrayal of the Corps that has permeated Corps portrayals in recent era comics. Not since the Second Xandar-Skrull War (as seen in Fantastic Four #’s 204-214; and Rom #24) has the Corps been portrayed as the competent fighting force that made Xandar a power to be reckoned with during their days of Empire (as seen in Uncanny Origins #4). Issue #28 of Nova restored my hope that the Corps can regain their former glory.

    For the next sequence, I need to stop, take a deep breath, and consider something for a moment. Rich Rider as diplomat. Wow! Who’d have ever expected that?! Home run DnA! The sequence where Rich, like Teddy Roosevelt, “speaks softly and carries a big stick” is flat out brilliant. Once again, it bespeaks that level of maturity and competence that Rich gained during Annihilation; but has inexplicably shown rarely and inconsistently throughout the first 28 issues of Nova. Rich’s calm confidence both in battle and at the diplomatic table in this issue of Nova is the proper demeanor for a leader of men; and is a welcome change from the tiresome adolescent cocky bravado of past characterizations.

    The sequence on Nu-Xandar is quite well done. I was cheered by Rich’s decision to re-constitute the Corps. It’s about d’ast time. A recurring cast of interesting and exciting characters is exactly what this series needs; and this first batch of Corps recruits is just the ticket. Some of these characters (who are already building fan bases BTW) will no doubt be tragically lost as the Corps is rebuilt; bringing the series some much needed edgy drama. Speaking of edgy drama, I’m guessing there will once again be some conflict between Rich and Robbie now that Robbie will be sticking around as a Corpsman; as the sibling rivalry thing between Rich and Robbie will require further exploration. Further, I was pleased to learn that the Corps will soon need to abandon Ego for a more suitable home base. I want to lobby for something beginning here and now. Tranta is the traditional home base for Xandar and we know the Orienta Shard survived the Annihilation War. If you’re listening DnA, send the new Corps back to Tranta and make the Orienta Shard the permanent base for the new Nova Corps.

    The final scene where the Nova Prime starship was discovered was totally unexpected. I have always admired the trippy design of that ship and was overjoyed to see its return. Is it just shading or did the ship look battle damaged? Is it the same ship we originally saw in The Man Called Nova #1 long assumed to have been destroyed by Nebula during the Second Fall of Xandar? Is it the M2 Universe Nova dropping in for a visit? Will Monark Starstalker be found aboard the ship? I guess we have to wait another month to find out. Whatever the mystery of the ship turns out to be, I want to lobby for something else now. Please DnA, keep the ship around! The Corps needs a flagship and I can’t think of a better one than Rhomann Dey’s starship. I hope the onboard PRIME computer is up and running as I enjoyed Rich’s interaction with it during the original run of the series.

    Finally, there were a bunch of nuances I liked. First, the “Prime” nickname for Rich. I like that. I hope it’s a keeper. Secondly – the further revelations about gravimetric powers in the sequences with Morrow and Robbie. Morrow’s bounce-back of the Uncreated’s projectiles is an application that we haven’t seen before; and Rich’s talk with Robbie supports long held fan theories about Nova Force being related to graviton manipulation. Thirdly, the set up for Quasar’s return to the spaceways. It was great to see Wendell Vaughn back on the job as Protector of the Universe. I can’t wait for his Realm of Kings one-shot. Hopefully, we will be seeing a lot more of Wendell in the future as it is rumored that he will be joining the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy. Finally, I liked the rescue of Raza Longknife and hope to see him rejoin the Starjammers soon.

    There was one thing I didn’t like. Ravenous’ portrayal was inconsistent with his portrayal in Annihilation. In Annihilation, Ravenous went toe-to-toe with Firelord, Silver Surfer, and Ronan. He was portrayed as a tough, arrogantly confident being with Herald strength powers. However, for the past two issues of Nova, he’s been portrayed as weak and cowardly. I don’t get it. Does he have Herald strength or not? I know some fans have attributed his seeming lack of Herald strength powers to the conspicuous absence of his Currs, the apparent method he uses to channel Opposing Force. Whatever the reason, Ravenous was out of character for the past two issues and this change in characterization was not adequately explained in the storyline.

    Turning now to art and colors, I can only say once again that Divito’s depictions are magnificent to behold. I hope he stays on this book for the rest of the book’s run because no one does Nova better than Divito. Ditto for Hang as colorist. Acuna delivered another solid cover portraying the Corp in a military ground assault. This cover and the cover to #27 are among my top favorites for the series thus far. I was lucky enough to score one of Perkins’ Variant Edition covers and I must say his depiction of Nova is quite impressive. If Divito ever has to take a break, I wouldn’t mind seeing what Perkins could do with the art for the book.

    In the off chance that it’s not obvious by the tone of this review, I heartily recommend that you buy this issue of Nova and add the series to your pull list each month. I think if DnA continue to take the character in the direction of issue #28, this series will have a bright future. I really hope Marvel will start to market the military science-fiction fans as I think the storyline and the covers to this and last issue would really pique their interest and raise sales. Quite simply, Nova consistently raises the bar for superheroic military science-fiction. Thirty days is too long to wait for next month’s installment!

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    Guardians of the Galaxy #17 Review

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    Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning

    Artist: Brad Walker

    Colorist: Jay David Ramos

    Cover Artist: Daniel Acuna

     

    Warning: Contains Spoilers

     

    It’s like a Christmas morning experience once per month on the day Marvel releases each new issue of Guardians of the Galaxy. I can’t wait to open each issue and savor the surprises contained within. No character is safe and anything can happen in this book – as was proved over and over again in Issue #17.

    To recap, Warlock receives Starlord’s message from the future; but before he can act, the T-Bomb is detonated, tearing a hole in space-time which is quickly dubbed “The Fault.” Gamora and Warlock depart to try to repair The Fault; while Rocket, Groot, and the rest of the team transport to Attitlan to make sure the Inhumans don’t detonate any more T-Bombs. The Guardians arrive on Attitlan and the recriminations fly, leading to a scuffle; but the argument/scuffle are cut short when Attitlan is attacked by a large creature emerging from The Fault. The Inhumans and the Guardians join forces to stop the creature; but the Inhumans are also in a race against time to stop Attitlan from falling into The Fault. Maximus and Groot devise a plan to save the city. Their plan works and Martyr departs to aid Warlock and Gamora in their efforts to repair The Fault. Warlock succeeds in freezing the advance of The Fault. In a surprise move, Martyr then stabs him through the chest to fulfill her pact with Oblivion. Gamora kills Martyr in reprisal and rushes to assist Warlock. Warlock regains consciousness; but immediately transforms into The Magus! The Magus snaps Gamora’s neck and throws her into The Fault.

    This is going to be a tough review because there’s nothing wrong with this issue of the series. I do want to mention several things I really liked. To begin with, the team has really come together as a powerful, effective, and well functioning strike force. Unfortunately, this occurs just in time for the team to be fractured into several units and for two founding members to be (apparently) killed. I do hope that the deaths of Martyr and Gamora will somehow be reversed by the conditions of The Fault; as Gamora is a favorite character (especially now that she is fully healed and has her hair back); and Martyr was just beginning to become interesting.

    As usual, Rocket and Groot steal the show. Smart-assy hilarity spews from Rocket nearly every time he opens his mouth. The great thing about Rocket is that he is able to get away with all the humor without becoming a buffoonish character that nobody takes seriously. Rocket may be small in stature; but he is great in leadership – and a fighter I’d be happy to have at my side in a serious scrape. DnA finally explain why Groot went from haughtily loquacious in past characterizations to the rapidly losing its humorous appeal single-phrased “I am Groot.” It turns out that Groot is not only still loquacious – but also a towering genius at physics; and Maximus can understand all the nuances of meaning in what others hear as Groot merely repeating his name. It was nice to see Groot broken out of his role as the dumb lumbering powerhouse of the team – and using his until now hidden great intellect to save the day rather than just smashing everything that crosses his path. I hope a method is found to better communicate with Groot as it would be fun to see this aspect of the character further developed.

    That final sequence with Warlock transforming into The Magus was not entirely unexpected. Nevertheless, it adds a fine new twist to The Guardians’ storyline and I look forward to seeing where DnA take us next.

    I heartily welcome Walker’s return to the fold as artist this month. He’s really made this book his own; and I hope he stays on as artist for a good long time. Ramos’ colors are commendable as well. Acuna’s cover art for Guardians of the Galaxy is quite good, but he’s spoiled me with his more exciting cover art on the last three issues of Nova. Specifically, the action portrait shot of Warlock, Black Bolt, Gamora, and Medusa is technically well executed; but not particularly interesting, exciting, or an attention grabber. I just don’t think it’s going to motivate any first time reader to pick this book off the shelf to check it out.

    In short, DnA deliver to us once again a nice hot cup of outstanding cosmic para-military action-adventure. The Guardians of the Galaxy are truly the “Cosmic Avengers” that many have been asking for over the past several years; and I don’t understand why Avengers fans aren’t flocking to this book. Add this one to your pull list folks. It deserves a prominent place there for the foreseeable future.

    [page_title]

    Interview With Larry Kenney: Part Two: Thundercats Has His Tongue

    For the better part of two decades, voice over actor Larry Kenney has been associated with Lion-O, the leader of the Thundercats.

    For the better part of two decades, voice over actor Larry Kenney has been associated with Lion-O, the leader of the Thundercats.

    In Part One Kenney spoke with us about his career and the fun they had in the recording booth in the first part of the interview.

    In Part Two, Kenney continues to talk about the show and the possibilities of a future movie.

    CosmicBookNews: Well, considering the Thundercats were part of the 1980s, so was The Cosby Show

    LARRY KENNEY: [DOING A BILL COSBY IMPRESSION] Yes, it was very huge on the television and the children thought it was marvelous and the adults didn’t quite understand it.

    CosmicBookNews: [LAUGHS] That’s beautiful!

    LARRY KENNEY: [DOING A BILL COSBY IMPRESSION] Well, thank you very much!

    CosmicBookNews: The gentleman who did the voice of Panthro…

    LARRY KENNEY: Earl Hyman.

    We had two Earl H’s. We had Earl Hammond who was Mumm-Ra and many other characters and Earl Hyman who is still with us was Panthro and he was Bill Cosby’s father on The Cosby Show.

    CosmicBookNews: Did he ever share what it was like working on The Cosby Show?

    LARRY KENNEY: Yeah, he often mentioned what a great guy Bill Cosby was and he loved doing his show.

    But we really didn’t have that much time to swap stories because when we recorded The Thundercats we worked two days a month, we did two episodes each day, we would record four episodes a month.

    People would often ask us, “Why would it take so long?”

    Well, what the creators begin to do is write 13 scripts, because 13 that’s the standard minimum. You don’t know four or five weeks in, if it is a hit or if they are going to buy another 13 weeks. So unless you have lots of money in advance you can’t pay writers to write 13 more episodes and pay the animators to animate 13 more episodes.

    It took almost two and half years to record 130 episodes because we would do it twice — usually on Thursday or Friday once a month, and we had two episodes each of those days and we would break for lunch.

    CosmicBookNews: How did you get involved with the Thundercats?

    LARRY KENNEY: There was a process involved in it.

    My agent would call and say, for instance, “On Wednesday at 2 p.m. you are to go to 909 Third Avenue and up to the third floor, but stop by our office and pick some scripts the day before.”

    My agent would normally say, “We would like for you read for this character this character or this character.”

    The creators I would read for would show me pictures or give a brief description of what the show was about and vaguely what they would like for the character to sound like.

    And you give them your idea what you think the voice should sound like and sometimes the producers or director would ask, “Can you do the character’s voice a little younger or a little older?”

    So I read for the people from Rankin Bass, the people who were in charge of casting the show which included Mr. Rankin himself, and I had to read for him and Lee Donniker, who ended up directing all the shows.

    They asked me to read for Lion-O, and I think I read for Tigra.

    Someone, later, told me they auditioned 300 actors over a two week period. But about three weeks after I auditioned, my agent called and said, “You got the part of Lion-O on this new show.”

    I said, “Great.”

    And at the time it was wonderful because it was another job and it is also always nice to get another job.

    CosmicBookNews: But it was a job that got you an action figure!

    Did you get a chance to collect any of them?

    LARRY KENNEY: You know I have one Lion-O figure in my desk drawer here…hang on a sec…[DESK DRAWERS OPEN UP AND CLOSE]

    Lion-O, come out of there!

    [IN LION-O’S VOICE] Let me out! [LAUGHS].

    I have one Lion-O and a Jackalman who I also voiced.

    [IN JACKALMAN’S VOICE] We must get the Thundercats, yes?

    CosmicBookNews: Oh yes!

    He was annoying. [LAUGHS]

    LARRY KENNEY: He was a jackal. [LAUGHS]

    [IN JACKALMAN’S VOICE Let’s sneak up behind their backs and slit their throats! [JACKALMAN’S LAUGH]

    CosmicBookNews: That sound like Golem from 1970s cartoon The Hobbitt.

    LARRY KENNEY: Are you suggesting here, Don, that I perhaps ripped off a voice?

    CosmicBookNews: [LAUGHS] No! I am suggesting I can pick your inspirations.

    LARRY KENNEY: Oh that’s a good one that’s a great response! I’m gonna have to remember that.

    Golem isn’t that also the name from the Lord of the Rings?

    CosmicBookNews: Yeah.

    In fact, Rankin Bass in the 1970s did an animated Hobbit movie, with director John Huston doing the voice of Gandalf.

    LARRY KENNEY: No kidding.

    CosmicBookNews: Yeah, the character of Golem, if you listen, and stay away from the recent film versions with Andy Serkis as Golem, sounds like Jackalman.

    LARRY KENNEY: I didn’t see it. I will have to listen for it.

    When you’re talking about animated things, it’s a cartoon and they give you the description he’s evil he’s a mutant and he’s called the Jackalman and because jackals are supposed to be sneaky they’re like coyotes.

    I picture them with their backs slinking down and skulking and stalking their prey. The first thing that comes to an actor’s mind is that sound that [IN VOICE] Snidely Whiplash, “I’m going to get you my dear.”

    The characters tend to sound the same.

    But I will listen for it.

    CosmicBookNews: Please take it as a compliment.

    LARRY KENNEY: Oh, I will.

    I was mostly kidding.

    CosmicBookNews: Mostly kidding? [LAUGHS]

    To shift gears, you said before the interview that Rankin Bass were trying to do something that was not so violent and more wholesome, but these days, wholesome has such a negative/syrupy connotation.

    LARRY KENNEY: Yeah, I know.

    CosmicBookNews: But you were telling me they were really trying not as violent as the other cartoons that were popular in the 1980s.

    LARRY KENNEY: I don’t think that Rankin Bass ever did anything that wasn’t top notch. You go back to Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer which was from my childhood with Burl Ives as the narrator and something else with Fred Astaire, and they always did top notch productions.

    CosmicBookNews: Dan Gilvazan, who voiced Bumblebee for The Transformers, said that some people criticized the cartoons for being half hour cartoons for toys. But he said it was the toy companies who provided the money for excellent creators to tell stories

    LARRY KENNEY: Interesting. I like that.

    I certainly like that and I agree with that thought. I certainly haven’t given much thought to asking, “Were we doing a half hour commercials for toys?”

    You would have to ask the producers why they decided to do it to begin with I don’t think that’s why they decided to do it.

    You certainly know that at a certain point it became obvious, I don’t know if it was in the 1960s or the 1970s when started, making these action figures that sell.

    I think in my memory, not from any knowledge of the business I remember G.I. Joe commercials for the toy. I don’t remember any action figures for the cartoons before when I was kid.

    CosmicBookNews: Yeah.

    You weren’t buying Zorro action figures with Guy Williams modeled for the toy.

    LARRY KENNEY: Exactly, so I don’t think anyone can think and invest all this money to begin with to create episodes of a show that may never get on the air just so they could make a lot of money to make action figures.

    But that aspect is there once you got a hit show the, toy companies come to you and buy the rights to make action figures.

    What are you going to say, “No?”

    CosmicBookNews: Exactly.

    LARRY KENNEY: It helps perpetuate and enhance the visibility of your own product. I remember taking my oldest daughter who is in her 30s, and there was like three rows of Thundercat figures at Toys R Us.

    Even if you never had seen the show and you’re a kid and you go there and see these rows of toys, you will say, “I want to see that show.”

    CosmicBookNews: Right!

    Speaking of the show, talk to me about the infamous out takes www.cheezey.org/thundercats/sounds/outtakes

    Did you have any idea they would survive so long?

    LARRY KENNEY: Not really.

    We were adult actors and we had people with great senses of humor and ask any actors, you’re going to show off at any chance you get.

    Anyway, you’re working and are serious about doing the show, but when you mess up, you are going to say, “You dumb [f-word]!”

    [LAUGHS]

    You never think it is never going to be heard and this in 1983 and no internet. At least everyone in the world didn’t have a computer.

    We had no idea these things were going to be everywhere.

    [LAUGHS]

    Every actor who did a project like this knew the engineer or recording engineer and was probably going to tape something like that, that was said on tape.

    The engineers probably kept those tapes, and maybe at his Christmas party for his friends he would say, “Listen to what the guys on the Thundercats say when they think no one is going to hear it.”

    Now all of a sudden 25 years later, it is on the internet for everyone in the world to hear.

    It was a little bit of a shock to us at first, “Oh god. If they hear this there goes the whole nice image people had regarding the Thundercats.”

    I thought everybody’s going to say, “What foul mouths they had.”

    And the exact opposite has happened. Everyone is saying, “Wow that’s funny.”

    We were just actors having a good time.

    It is what anybody else at their job would say when the boss’s back is turned and when you’re not talking to your client, you say to your friends or co-workers, “You hear what that dumbass said?”

    But I was really worried at first that small kids would hear it and say, “Mommy, you hear what Lion-O said?”

    But that’s not something to worry about.

    CosmicBookNews: And obviously the actors were not being prima donnas about it.

    LARRY KENNEY: As evidenced by the laughter you hear in the room afterwards.

    When you watch a movie and they show the out takes at the end of comedies, you know one actor will say something to another and everyone laughs because they know they’re not serious.

    When you are doing this sort of work, it may sound strange when you are reading the lines and you have to record it seriously.

    [IN LION-O’S VOICE] “Cheetarah. Snarf. We’ve got to save these people!”

    I’m an actor you want to convey that feeling and you feel that so, but every once in a while, you need to break the tension, so that’s one of the ways actors do it.

    CosmicBookNews: Have you heard anything about any future Thundercats projects?

    LARRY KENNEY: Every few years there’s a rumor on the internet the people are going to call me or e-mail about and tell me there’s going to be a new “Thundercats” show or movie.

    So far they have never panned out.

    But I don’t want to say I know this for a fact but the latest rumors I’ve heard, is that Warner Bros. are involved, which would make sense, since they’re the ones that put out the DVDs and who are putting out the DVDs of the episodes.

    I don’t know, it would seem logical to me that if sales of this went well and if they are monitoring sales and if there is a market still out there for Thundercats, they might consider a live action or animated movie.

    [NOTE: A CGI-related Thundercats movie was in the works, but as of Aug. 2, Thundercatslair.org, had confirmed it was shelved.]

    CosmicBookNews: Would you mind if they reinvented the Thundercats like how Battlestar Galactica was reinvented or would you like to see them pick up where the show left off?

    LARRY KENNEY: Uh…that would be a tough one.

    I don’t even think that way. I don’t think like a producer. My biggest hope is they keep the sensitivity of the show, the over all feel to the show – the commitment to the Code of Thundera.

    Like you said, wholesome has a negative connotation, but keep it wholesome.

    You couldn’t just put the same old show back on the air – times have changed and animation has changed.

    They would probably use the language that you heard on the out takes [LAUGHS] but if they do make changes the look of the characters, the mission, I do hope they would keep the good feeling of the show.

    CosmicBookNews: Like Cheetarah is now some crack addicted prostitute.

    LARRY KENNEY: Yeah!

    Keep it so people would recognize it as Thundercats.

    CosmicBookNews: One last question, was it ever explained why explained why Lion-O grew up and Wilykit and Wilykat had stunted growth?

    LARRY KENNEY: [LAUGHS] You know, I never thought about it. I couldn’t even begin to answer you.

    I’d have to go back and watch it again.

    I think it may have been explained they were kept young, weren’t they in some kind of chamber?

    CosmicBookNews: Yeah, they were in sleeping chambers.

    LARRY KENNEY: I don’t know.

    CosmicBookNews: Oh well.

    Do you have any current projects people can look out for you in?

    LARRY KENNEY: I was the announcer on “Best Week Ever” on VH-1. I’m the guy that said, “It’s everything you love! Everything you missed! Everything you want to see again!”

    [LAUGHS]

    I can still be heard as Count Chockula, Sonny the Coo-Coo Bird.

    I’m also the guy on the Skittles commercials that says, “Taste the rainbow” or “Feel the rainbow.”

    CosmicBookNews: Would you like another cartoon series?

    LARRY KENNEY: Yeah, sure.

    That’s what I do for a living. I’d love to do another Thundercats type thing and contribute to its success.

    CosmicBookNews: And we wish you success.

    Thanks for talking with us, Larry.

    LARRY KENNEY: Thank you. This was fun.

    [page_title]

    Interview With Larry Kenney: Part One: Thundercats Has His Tongue

    During the summer of 2009, movies based on two very popular 1980s properties hit the theaters. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra were based on the two Hasbro toy franchises.

    During the summer of 2009, movies based on two very popular 1980s properties hit the theaters. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra were based on the two Hasbro toy franchises.

    But one 1980s property is still waiting to see its big screen debut and considering the e-mail the star of the cartoon series gets, fans want to see it.

    The story, of this franchise, is about a group of feline looking people who rocket to earth from a doomed planet and set up shop on Earth.

    The Thundercats were a stable of just about every cartoon fan in the 1980s.

    Pick up a stick, broom handle or anything that can be used as a sword, and the kid inside every comic book or science fiction fan will either make the noises of a lightsaber, write a “Z” in the air or do something “by the power of Grayskull.”

    Still many children of the 1980s will shout what voiceover actor Larry Kenney made a career saying, “Thundercats, ho!”

    For the better part of three decades, the New York City based, Kenney made a name for himself as the host of the local show Bowling for Dollars, a regular with radio star Don Imus and now Kenney’s voice can be heard announcing VH1’s Best Week Ever and Skittles candy, “Taste the rainbow.”

    However, Kenney admits fond memories to playing Lion-O, the leader of a surviving band of were-cats from the doomed planet Thundera, stranded on Third-Earth where they defend the local inhabitants from the forces of evil.

    Kenney spoke with CosmicBookNews.Com about his career and possibilities of a future Thundercats feature.

    PART ONE:

    CosmicBookNews: It is common knowledge that your daughter is Kerri Kenney-Silver one of the stars and creators of Reno 911! on Comedy Central. She had a son in 2005, how is it being a grandfather?

    LARRY KENNEY: He’s doing great thank you! I just got new pictures of him standing on a surf board with a wet suit and a year and five months old and he already has his own surf board.

    They are out in Malibu and the rule is you have to have one [a surf board].

    CosmicBookNews: Are you going to get him interested in the Thundercats?

    LARRY KENNEY: We’ll see how that works out. I never push it on any of my kids. In fact I remember when my youngest son, Tanner, he’s now an adult, was 8 or 9 years old and he was going through some old video tapes and he found tape labeled Bowling for Dollars.

    He comes over to me, “Dad! You hosted a game show on TV?” I said, “Well, yeah.”

    And he said, “Why didn’t you tell me?” I said, “It never came up it was 20 years ago.” [LAUGHS].

    A lot of people ask me, “When you read to your kids when you were little to do you all the voices?”

    It is funny, because when I first started to read to my kids I would say, “And the big bad wolf said, [WITH A GROWL] ‘I’m going to eat you…” And the kids would say, “Dad, just read the story [LAUGH], “Don’t do the voices!”

    CosmicBookNews: Yeah!

    “Get to the good part!”

    LARRY KENNEY: Yeah!

    Everyone else in the world says, “Do one of your voices for us!” and these kids just go “Dad, you’re embarrassing me!”

    CosmicBookNews: Oh that’s funny!

    I imagine your kids had easier time growing up with a celebrity, like you could come walking into a classroom and say, “I am here to pick up my kids” as opposed to some celebrity like Madonna.

    LARRY KENNEY: Yeah! Yeah it’s true and I’ve often thought about that celebrity is nice and everything but that’s the part of it (paparazzi and such). Especially these days…um…some people recognize me from my “Imus” days but usually that is an older crowd.

    I mean teenagers don’t tend to “Imus in the Morning” [now on 770 WABC in New York City].

    The people from my generation that talk to me are people on the train or in the mall.

    Some 50 year-old will come up and say, “I enjoy your work” and walk away they won’t tear your clothes off.

    But when I was doing Bowling for Dollars when I was in New York, everywhere I went people would say, “Hey Larry! Bowling for Dollars how are ya?”

    Being a celebrity was never a drain on me and I wasn’t a movie star, I was just a guy they saw on television every night. But from that, I came to think, “Imagine you were really the idols to people who wanted to tear your clothes off day and night! You would have to live with that!”

    I don’t feel sorry for them, they chose that life, but I am glad I don’t have that. I like the “kind-of-being-known” without all the bad stuff that comes with it.

    CosmicBookNews: And for readers of CosmicBookNews.Com, they know you from Thundercats.

    So let me ask, “Are Thundercats on the move?”

    Are the Thundercats lose?”

    LARRY KENNEY: They’re always on the move, hence, their charm.

    CosmicBookNews: [IN A MOCK PENSIVE TONE] Larry…

    …do you feel the magic?

    Do you hear the roar?

    LARRY KENNEY: If I thought you were being serious I would hang up the phone right now. [Laughs]

    I always hear the roar I wake up hearing it. I’m afraid of a Mumm-Ra. [IN MUMM-RA’S VOICE] “Ancient spirits of evil…”

    CosmicBookNews: Who did the voice of Mumm-Ra originally?

    LARRY KENNEY: It was Earl Hammond, who was the best by the way, I had the great pleasure on the Thundercats DVDs which came out from Warner Bros. DVD…[ANNOUNCER VOICE]…available in stores now!

    CosmicBookNews: [LAUGHS].

    LARRY KENNEY: Anyway, during the DVD extras they recorded I had the pleasure of re-creating the voice of Earl’s character Mumm-Ra and Jaga for an inner active game you play on the DVD as a special feature.

    When I was asked to play the role, I really thought long and hard about it because I really didn’t know if I could maintain the standard Earl had set, but once I convinced myself I could do it, and I could carry it, it came out pretty well and I was proud of how it turned out.

    CosmicBookNews: You must have had a different mindset when you did the voice of Lion-O for The Family Guy in 2005.

    LARRY KENNEY: It was.

    But during the recording I was alone. They would put me in a studio all by myself and the producers, on the show, were in Los Angeles over the telephone line and I didn’t meet anybody.

    CosmicBookNews: Were you nervous about doing the show?

    It seemed like the show, while tongue and cheek, was paying respect to the Thundercats.

    LARRY KENNEY: Yeah!

    CosmicBookNews: I mean using the Sword of Omens to see a girl in the restroom or locker room, what 13 year-old wouldn’t want of one those?

    LARRY KENNEY: What man in his 60s wouldn’t want one of those? [LAUGHS]

    Seriously, I had to think long and hard about doing the voice of Lion-O for Family Guy.

    When my agent called, he said, “They would like you to do some thing on the Family Guy project.”

    They sent me the script and I said, “Wait a minute! I can’t do that!”

    So I started talking to other actors and people who worked on the Thundercats and I started talking to my own kids and they said, “Dad, you are not going to denigrate the legend or the Thundercats.”

    They also said, “And 7 year-old kids don’t watch Family Guy and it is a hip show and everyone knows it is just fun.”

    And they talked me into going ahead and doing it. For a while I wasn’t going to do it and I said, “You can’t have Lion-O looking at Cheetarah with the Sword of Omens in the bathroom and he says to Snarf, ‘Let’s get wasted’.” [LAUGHS].

    CosmicBookNews: Right. [LAUGHS]

    LARRY KENNEY: Though, I decided if it isn’t cool, and I won’t do the show.

    CosmicBookNews: I was just happy to see them making a joke about a subject I was familiar with.

    People must still tell you how much the Thundercats means to them.

    LARRY KENNEY: Oh, I gotta tell ya, it’s still so heart warming.

    It is incredible, because when we recorded the voices all those years ago, I never thought it would be the hit that it is.

    And we knew after it aired it was a hit show, but we figured the kids would grow up and forget us, but I get e-mails from all walks of life who tell me what the show has meant to them. And it is really fulfilling.

    CosmicBookNews: That is cool people still remember you.

    LARRY KENNEY: To be honest, I have got some e-mails from grown ups said that as kids their childhoods were not great and I can tell they were saying. You can read between the lines and know abuse was part of it.

    But today when I get the letters, they are from doctors, lawyers, and carpenters and it will say, “Mr. Kenney, I was abused, neglected or whatever and what saved me was going in my room and watching the Thundercats.”

    They are writing you 25 years late to say thank you. You have no idea, what that feels like.

    And I am very protective of the show which is why I was concerned about doing Family Guy.

    When I saw the show, the over all effect of the Family Guy episode wasn’t “The Thundercats is stupid” or “Lion-O is a dumbass!”

    It was with a wink to our old show.

    I also noticed the creators behind the Family Guy didn’t try to do the original animation style of the Thundercats show. I think I might have been recalcitrant if they had tried to draw him just like our show or used original footage of Lion-O. I think that might have been too much.

    CosmicBookNews: Were you afraid you would be “going back to the well” as so many actors who are associated with other roles do?

    LARRY KENNEY: When my agent first called me I was familiar with the show but I was not a regular viewer and I had seen it a few times and I thought it was very funny and very well done.

    When my agent first called I thought, “Why would they want me?”

    And from my family on and everyone I mentioned it too said, “Oh that is the show everyone is dying to be on. Actors are calling them and saying, ‘Use my character’.”

    It was kind of like The Simpsons became that show. Everyone from Paul McCartney down wanted to be on The Simpsons so I felt honored.

    How could you say no?

    CosmicBookNews: And on Seth Green’s Comedy Central show, Robot Chicken, they did a parody of the Thundercats, it should be noticed that you did not do the voice for. However, how does this make you feel to see creators doing parodies of Lion-O? However, how does this make you feel to see people do parodies of Lion-o?

    LARRY KENNEY: I think it’s great. I guess it is more of an indication of how established Thundercats and the character is, in the cultural since.

    I guess it is gratifying showing how established you are, when it has reached to a second and third generation.

    CosmicBookNews: Speaking of reaching generations, I heard you refer to Lynn Lipton, the voice of Cheetarah, as the original “Thundercats Ho.”

    LARRY KENNEY: [LAUGHS] When we, the voice actors and myself, were recording interviews for DVD extras, I said that jokingly and I think she was in the room when I said that. I mean, that’s the style of a joking around we did when we were together.

    CosmicBookNews: It shows you had a great relationship.

    LARRY KENNEY: Yeah, Lynne’s great! She’s so funny!

    Read Part Two of CosmicBookNews.com’s interview with Larry Kenney!

    [page_title]

    Guardians of the Galaxy #16 Review

    [[wysiwyg_imageupload:2943:]]

    Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning

    Artist: Wesley Craig

    Colorist: Nathan Fairbairn

    Cover Artist: Pasqual Ferry

    Warning: Contains Spoilers

     

    Original Guardians of the Galaxy, contemporary Guardians of the Galaxy, Badoon, Celestials, Avenger’s Mansion, Dr. Doom’s Time Machine, and fan favorite Cosmo saving the day! Man – I’m telling you – this issue has it all in terms of story! DnA manage to once again amaze readers by deftly delivering an engaging and exciting tale built around an enormous and disparate cast of characters.

    Picking up where last issue left off, Starhawk uses Dr. Doom’s Time Machine to abduct Starlord, Cosmo, Mantis, Bug, and Jack Flag; spiriting them away to a time 1000 years into the future where the Badoon rule what is left of space-time – an area the size of the solar system kept intact by an enormous engine composed of Celestials and built around the sun. Upon arrival, the original Guardians attack the contemporary Guardians for an interesting and fun throw down. When both teams call a time out, it is learned that the universe has collapsed due to Black Bolt’s detonation of a doomsday bomb during the WOK conflict. To save themselves, the Badoon used a Cosmic Cube to enslave the Celestials and keep the collapse of the universe at bay with the Celestials’ powers. The Guardians fight their way through Badoon resistance and destroy the Celestial engine, causing the last of space-time to collapse; but not before Cosmo gets a message through to Adam Warlock. The message is simple: Stop Black Bolt.

    I want to compliment Pasqual Ferry. I really enjoyed his cover art featuring the original Guardians of the Galaxy. Unfortunately, the interior art leaves much to be desired. Craig is a good artist and his style was tolerable for issues #11 and #12 as they took place in an abstract realm of the universe. However, his style is just not right for this book at this time. It looks rushed and Saturday morning cartoon-ish. This style would be fine for some books; but frankly it detracts from GoTG and makes the action sequences and the overall reading experience less enjoyable. If I have one overall criticism of GoTG it’s that the art has been inconsistent across the entire run of the series to date. This book needs a regular artist like Walker, Alves, or Devito. Here’s hoping that Walker is back soon and is hired to be the regular artist for this title.

    DnA weave a fine tale for the first meeting of the entire original GoTG team with the contemporary team. They also up the stakes for the Guardian’s involvement in WOK, making it critical that they intervene to stop the war before the war results in the collapse of space-time that Warlock has been warning about since issue #1. I was happy to see Cosmo playing a critical role in events for the first time in this series. He is one of the stand-out characters and really hasn’t gotten enough face time in the series until this issue. The other little moments in the issue where the original characters get to know the contemporary characters were also nicely done.

    GoTG is one of Marvel’s best titles month after month. I really hope WOK gives it a much needed boost in sales so that it stays around a good long time.

    [page_title]

    Review: Nova #27 (Marvel Comics)

    [[wysiwyg_imageupload:4291:]]

    Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning

    Artist: Andrew Devito

    Colorist: Bruno Hang

    Cover Artist: Daniel Acuna

     

    Warning: Contains Spoilers

     

    This issue is everything Nova should be – tightly paced, beautiful to behold from cover-to-cover, exciting, and fun. Rich is at his most effective since Annihilation; showing once and for all why he deserves to wear the uniform of The Nova Prime. DnA hit a home run with this issue guys!

    Rich, Morrow, and Irani are in a race against time to rescue Robbie from the besieged Kree-Lar as Shi’ar and Negative Zone troops under Blastaar’s command decimate Ravenous’ defenders. Robbie has managed to capture Strontian; but is having a difficult time holding her down in a gravimetric field. Rich and company must fight their way through Blastaar’s troops and Ravenous’ defenders before Strontian breaks free and kills Robbie. The last page is a real cliff hanger.

    First, I want to compliment the art. Devito’s rendering of the art for this issue is incredible to behold. Not since Annihilation in the modern era or the Buscema brothers work on Man Called Nova in the 70’s has Nova art been done so well. My hat is off to Devito’s work on this series. Long may he reign. I also loved Acuna’s cover art. The Corps power dive through AAA flak toward the surface of a planet is as exciting in execution as it is magnificent in scope. It is a masterpiece in military SF art that I would be proud to hang on my wall if Marvel ever turns it into a poster (shameless hint intended). Hang’s coloring perfectly complements Devito’s art for a completely satisfying comic art experience.

    Speaking of completely satisfying, I am going to have a hard time finding anything to actually criticize about this issue. DnA delivered a fine military SF story – the sub-genre in which Nova works best in my humble opinion. The characterization of Rich Rider in this issue is exactly what it should be. There is no hesitation. There are no amateurish mistakes. He is at his most decisive, most effective, and deadliest best. He is a true military leader. This is the Rich Rider I expect to see now – a seasoned, battle-hardened military veteran doing his job – albeit with a personal stake this time as he must rescue his brother.

    We didn’t see much of the Ko-Rel Worldmind this time out – so I’m still not sure how well she’s going to work. I know some fans are not liking her – and I’m a bit skeptical about having a bitchy (her words, not mine) Worldmind in RR’s head – but I’m going to reserve judgment a while longer until I see where DnA are taking this.

    I hate Strontian almost as much as her cousin, Gladiator; and I hope she gets her ass handed to her next issue as I am constantly annoyed by their “belief-based” powers. Speaking of Strontian and her powers, I’m glad to see my opinions from columns and blogs past vindicated in this issue. It seems that gravity does indeed overcome “belief-based” power.

    Marvel has a cosmic gem on their hands with this property and I hope they continue to push Nova in the direction of space-based military SF storylines. From advance solicits, it appears that the Corps is around to stay, so I’m happy to hear Nova will now have a recurring supporting cast of characters. All Rich needs now is a romantic interest to make this series complete.

    From beginning to end, #27 will keep you on the edge of your seat and make you wish this issue had been double-sized this month. Pick this one up and tell all your friends that they need to be reading Nova every month.

    [page_title]

    Guardians of the Galaxy #15 Review

    [[wysiwyg_imageupload:2942:]]

    Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning

    Artist: Brad Walker

    Colorist: Jay David Ramos

    Cover Artist: Salvador Larroca

    Warning: Contains Spoilers

     

    Once again Abnett and Lanning show us why Guardians of the Galaxy is one of the best books Marvel puts on the shelves each month. I just can’t understand why this book is only a mediocre seller. It really is much better than most of Marvel’s top sellers.

    The story picks up at the start of the melee that was set up at the end of issue #14 with the Guardians facing off against the Inhuman Royal Family and the Shi’ar Imperial Guard. The Inhumans rescue Crystal from Phyla’s attempt to use her as a hostage; but not before Starlord and Mantis reveal to Crystal the damage the War of Kings is doing to the space-time continuum. Lockjaw transports the Inhumans back to Hala; leaving the Imperial Guard and the Guardians locked in mortal combat. The Guardians use the diversion of the Inhumans departure to split into three smaller teams to more effectively engage the Imperial Guard. Gamora and Phyla are on one team while Starlord, Cosmo, Flagg, Bug, and Mantis are on another. Rocket, Groot, Drax and Captain Victory teleport in to make up the third team. Warlock goes solo to confront the Shi’ar magic user. Meanwhile, Starhawk manipulates Moondragon into setting her free. Warlock once again transforms into The Magus persona and kills the Shi’ar pursuing him. Starhawk abducts Starlord’s team. The other Guardians teams defeat or evade their pursuers; and then converge on the Continuum Cortex to drive the Imperial Guard off of Knowhere. As the remaining Guardians debrief; they are disturbed by a totally unexpected event – the severed head of the Celestial that is Knowhere suddenly comes back to life; and it’s looking for Warlock.

    I thoroughly enjoyed #15 and I was impressed by DnA’s ability to tell such a fast-paced and engaging story using such a large and disparate cast of characters. It would be easy for some of these characters to get lost in the shuffle or for them to be given short shrift; but DnA gave each of them something important to do.

    My favorite sequence in this issue is the first one where the Guardians are caught in the middle between the Inhumans and the Imperial Guard. My only complaint is that this sequence ended too quickly. I would have preferred to see some more action with all three teams fighting each other in a free for all. As it was, the Inhumans quit the field all too quickly.

    Warlock’s sequence was intriguing. His abrupt transformations into the murderously psychotic Magus are jarring. The question in my mind is: are DnA feeding us a red herring? Is it really The Magus we’ve been dealing with since Annihilation? Who is in the cocoon being protected by the Universal Church of Truth?

    Starhawk’s abduction of Starlord’s team is intriguing as well. Where did she take them? Interestingly, Cosmo was with them and I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing him in on the direct action.

    The sequence where all the remaining Guardians converge on the Continuum Cortex and drive out the Imperial Guard was very satisfying. I always enjoy it when the Imperial Guard get their asses handed to them – and they made it clear that they were humiliated by being defeated by the Guardians.

    The final sequence where the Celestial came back to life was a real shocker. I didn’t see that one coming and I can’t wait to see what DnA have in store for us with this development next issue.

    I am a fan of Walker’s art. He consistently scores a home run with all the complex scenes and different characters being portrayed in the typical action packed GoTG story. Ramos’ colors perfectly complimented Walker’s art. I didn’t find the Larroca cover very satisfying though – and that’s disappointing because a cover featuring Cosmo and Rocket if done better would have been an instant favorite for me as I am so fond of those two characters.

    I know this will come as a surprise to those of you who respond to my critiques in the forum, but try as I might, I really couldn’t find much to nit-pick about this issue. The story was engaging and plausible, the action was exciting, and the interior art was good. Quite simply, GoTG #15 was a thoroughly satisfying read and it remains one of Marvel’s consistently best offerings month after month. Here’s hoping GoTG has a long and glorious future.

    [page_title]

    Review: Nova #26 (Marvel Comics)

    [[wysiwyg_imageupload:4290:]]

    Written By: Dan Abnett
    Andy Lanning

    Artist: Andrea DiVito

    Colorist: Bruno Hang

    Cover Artist: Daniel Acuna

    Warning: Contains Spoilers

     

    A Nova landmark was reached today. With the publication of issue #26, the current ongoing Nova series holds the distinction of being the longest running Nova series in the character’s 33 year history. It is a proud day for all Nova fans; and one I daresay many of us probably thought we might never see given the publication history of the previous three ongoing series, the longest running of which was The Man Called Nova which ran for 25 issues. I am happy to report that #26 is a satisfying issue that does the Nova legend proud.

    Issue #26 begins with a Corps cohort surrounded, under Shi’ar fire, and desperately requesting emergency extraction. To the Cohort’s surprise, Nova Prime Rider shows up and saves the day by killing the attacking Imperial Guardsmen and destroying the attacking Shi’ar battleship. The cohort returns to Nu-Xandar where Rich announces that they are to be debriefed, de-powered, and discharged home. Some protest and Rich allows them to remain in the Corps – at least temporarily. Rich’s brother, Robbie, is MIA and his locator system has been disabled. Rich, accompanied by Irani and Morrow, leaves Nu-Xandar for Nil-Rast as Nil-Rast was Robbie’s last known location. Worldmind Ko-Rel reminds Rich that Nil-Rast was where she was murdered. Upon landing, Rich and company are attacked by the Inhuman Elite led by Triton. Ra-Venn is fighting along side the Inhumans, and, recognizing Rich, orders the Inhumans to stand down. Rich is taken to a gravely injured Qubit who cannot tell him Robbie’s fate. Triton then shows Rich thousands of Nova Corpsmen helmets – the evidence of Strontian’s war crimes. The story then shifts to the throne room of the besieged planet, Kree-Lar, where Ravenous is conferring with his Chancellor as the Shi’ar attack. The Annihilation forces are holding their own against the Shi’ar and are confident of a victory. Without warning, Strontian appears on a mission to kill Ravenous. She nearly completes her mission before she is pinned to the ground by gravimetric force. Robbie Rider has arrived to arrest Strontian for committing war crimes.

    There’s a lot to like about #26. The first sequence where Rich rescues the Corps is my favorite sequence from this issue. In a matter of seconds he kills the attacking Imperial Guard and, almost as an afterthought, destroys a Shi’ar battleship – dramatically re-establishing himself as The Nova Prime through physical action as he says, “Hello you Shi’ar sons of schlags. Do I have your attention? Good. I am Richard Rider, The Nova Prime, and you have killed far, far too many of my Centurions.” When I read that sequence, I was jubilant – thinking to myself: It’s about damn time. Finally, the Rich Rider from Annihilation is back! In this sequence we saw Rich Rider calm, confident, mature, effective – a clear-headed, battle-hardened battlefield leader and warrior. This is the Annihilation Nova characterization that gained a new generation of fans and re-inspired us old geezers who’ve been fans since the original series began 33 years ago. This style of characterization of Nova has been seen only intermittently since Annihilation; and I fervently hope that we continue to see more of it.

    The Nu-Xandar sequences were entertaining; but I was left with lots of questions. Why is Rich so determined to dismantle the Corps? Soldiers do die on the battlefield – but that’s no reason not to have an army. I agree that everyone who was unwillingly conscripted should be allowed to return to their home if they so desire; but what about those who continue to want to serve? It seems to me that they could be of tremendous help to Rich in terms of re-establishing order in the local group – especially in the aftermath of War of Kings. I also found it difficult to believe that the Worldmind couldn’t track down Robbie Rider. Finally, there’s Ko-Rel’s attitude. I mentioned in the review of #25 that, while the addition of Ko-Rel’s personality template for the Worldmind was a brilliant dramatic idea, it was unrealistic and perhaps even a dangerous solution given her mixed loyalties. In this issue she came across as….well….uh….bitchy. I’ll reserve judgment for now, but I’m hoping this is a plot device lifted from any Hugh Grant romantic comedy you care to name where the girl doesn’t like the guy at first but eventually discovers he’s not so bad and becomes more cordially disposed toward him. I don’t want to pay to see Rich become involved in the equivalent of a bad marriage. That just wouldn’t be fun or entertaining – and it would ruin the “buddy” adventure relationship with the Worldmind that has worked so well up to this point. I do derive some small comfort knowing that at least if the series embarks on a bad marriage sub-plot; Rich has an advantage the rest of us don’t have. When he’s had enough, he can just hit the re-boot button and select a new Worldmind personality while staying in the “relationship!”

    The Nil-Rast sequence was really well done – but it did seem to me that there were perhaps some possible inconsistencies that need resolving. For instance, how is it that Centurions’ shields can stand up to Echo Weapons but not to Shi’ar battleship weapons? I would think the Echo Weapons would be more powerful. Rich’s growing cosmic reputation really paid off for him in this sequence, causing the Inhumans to stand down once they realized with whom they were dealing. Seeing the inner workings of Qubit was a highlight of this sequence as was Rich’s reaction when he learned of the atrocity committed against his Centurions by Strontian.

    The final sequence with Strontian and Ravenous was entertaining; but again I thought there were some possible inconsistencies. I thought Ravenous was supposed to be as powerful as a Herald. If so, it seems to me he would have been able to hold his own against Strontian. I also want to see the last scene better explained. Did Robbie pin or capture Strontian with some sort of gravity trap? Is it like I’ve always said – he who controls gravitons wins? Will Strontian merely stand up and hand Robbie his ass next issue? How did Robbie get to Kree-Lar in the first place given that the Centurions at the beginning of this sequence could not generate stargates by themselves? For that matter, if it was that easy to pin Strontian, why didn’t Tarcel use the same technique on Gladiator?

    Turning to art, Acuna’s cover art was enjoyable in that it expressed the spirit of this issue though it did not reflect the content of this issue. That is, Rich didn’t get to punch out Gladiator. I enjoyed this cover more than most of Acuna’s recent efforts. The 80’s “Dirty Dancing” variant cover was more pleasing artistically; though it neither reflected the content or the spirit of issue #26. DeVito’s interior art is magnificent as usual. The helmet stars are still not consistent though – with the Worlmind being portrayed with a six-point star; and Morrow with an 8 point star in one panel. Hang’s colors are outstanding as usual.

    In short, #26 is record setting in Nova history; and it begins a new arc with Rich Rider hopefully re-gaining some of his Annihilation characterization for good. It is a fun read that ties in to War of Kings. Next issue, #27, looks to be gearing up for show down between Rich and Strontian. Now that’s a fight I don’t want to miss! If you’ve not read #26 yet, rush out and buy it. You’ll be glad you did.

    [page_title]

    Guardians of the Galaxy: Earth Shall Overcome HC (2009) Review

    [[wysiwyg_imageupload:2952:]]

    COVER BY: RON WILSON
    WRITER: ARNOLD DRAKE
    STEVE GERBER
    GERRY CONWAY
    ROGER SLIFER
    LEN WEIN
    CHRIS CLAREMONT
    SCOTT EDELMAN
    PENCILS: GENE COLAN
    SAL BUSCEMA
    DON HECK
    VINCE COLLETTA
    FRANK GIACOIA
    JOHN TARTAGLIONE
    COLORED BY: TOM SMITH

    Collecting MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #18, MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #4-5, GIANT-SIZE DEFENDERS #5 and DEFENDERS #26-29.

     

    Warning: Contains Spoilers

     

    SYNOPSIS:

    This hardcover is a collection of the first adventures of the original Guardians of the Galaxy, dating back to their very first appearance in Marvel Super-Heroes #18, beautifully rendered by Gene Colan in 1969. This story introduces Charlie-27, Martinex, Vance Astro, and Yondu, as they struggle against a Badoon-infested Earth in the year 3007. Banding together as the last members of their respective races, they vow that the Earth shall overcome the Badoon invaders!

    In Marvel Two-in-One #4-5, Captain America, the Thing, and Sharon Carter travel to the world of Earth-691 to lend a hand in the struggle to free Earth. Joining up with the Guardians, they manage to liberate New York City from Badoon rule before returning to their own time.

    In their next adventure, chronicled in Giant-Size Defenders #5, the Guardians travel to present-day Earth in search of a Badoon artifact (possibly waylaid by the Silver Surfer when he single-handedly repelled a Badoon invasion force) that could be the key to freeing their world. They team-up with the Defenders to combat Eelar, an innocent victim of Badoon treachery. And they also meet a very young version of Vance Astrovik for the first time…!

    Continuing directly after the conclusion of Giant-Size Defenders #5, Defenders #26-29 sees the Defenders join the Guardians’ cause and journey to Earth-691 to free mankind from the Badoon. We also see the first appearance of Starhawk and his family, and learn the history of Earth-691 and the ways in which it is divergent from main Marvel Earth: the Martian invasion of 2001 and Killraven’s Freemen; the rise and fall of the Techno-Barons; the rebuilding of Earth and humanity’s expansion throughout the solar system and beyond; and its conquest by the Brotherhood of Badoon. We also learn of the Sisterhood of Badoon and their bizarre interaction with the Brotherhood. With a big assist from Doctor Strange and the Defenders, the Guardians free the millions of human slaves from Badoon rule and are poised to liberate the Earth once and for all.

    There are two dust jackets for this hardcover – one standard (with Starhawk) and one direct-market variant (with the cover of Marvel Super-Heroes #18).

    NOTES: While some of the material is dated (especially in the Guardians’ first appearance, where a lot of the dialog is prefaced by space-this and hyper-that), it’s a fun read that is reflective of the period in which it was written. Science fiction was an evolving genre in the 1970’s, and Gerber’s storylines reflected this tone and feeling (especially in the form of the Guardians’ ship, the Captain America, and the technologies contained therein – can we say poor-man’s USS Enterprise?). Colan’s and Buscema’s artwork is great as per usual, and while they are remembered for work on more popular books, for Guardians fans it doesn’t get much better. The stories reprinted in this hardcover continued directly into the Guardians’ first run at their own series in Marvel Presents (1975) #3-12 (which will be collected in the Guardians of the Galaxy: Power of Starhawk hardcover, solicited for July 1, 2009), also written by Steve Gerber. It is definitely a good year for fans of the original Guardians…!

    [page_title]

    A Radical Interview with M. Zachary Sherman “Shrapnel”

    It’s not too radical to think that within the next few hundred years, humanity probably will colonize the planets closest to Earth.

    However, this not-so radical idea is appearing in Radical Comics’ comic book Shrapnel: Aristeia Rising with a radical twist. It seems that government, called the Earth Alliance wants the human residents of Venus to submit to their authority.

    And the Venusians have instead turned to the former space marine, Samantha Vijaya, to help lead the revolt.

    Shrapnel writer M. Zachary Sherman, a pretty radical guy in his own right, talked with Cosmic Book News about Samantha, the military, and working for another radical science fiction franchise “Star Wars.”

    Not bad for Sherman a comic book writer/ Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) special effects wiz!

    CosmicBookNews: You have an amazing visual effects resume.

    You did effects for movies like Rocky , Eragon and “The Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, as well as The Nativity Story and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe .

    Why branch out into comic books?

    M. Zachary Sherman: Ever since I could walk, I had always wanted to be a part of the movie industry, the entertainment business and also I have always been a writer.

    When I was in college, I was a creative writing major and journalism minor.

    My father was a navy captain and on his very last duty station in Los Angeles, before he retired, he worked as a technical advisor for movies. So he advised when they made movies like The Hunt for Red October and Flight of the Intruder.

    And while in L.A. and I got bitten by the movie bug and I pursued this, I got a lot of support from my parents to follow my dream. They said, “You can do whatever you want as long as you bust your ass to do it.”

    And I agree with that sentiment and I give that piece of advice to everyone who asks me, “How do you make it in the world of comics?”

    CosmicBookNews: On your IMDB.COM entry, it says you worked for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace .

    Did you have anything to do with Jar Jar Binks?

    M. Zachary Sherman: [LAUGHS] I only did the compositing, painting and rotoscoping for the movie.

    I was a 2-D guy. Basically I had to figure out how they made the lightsabers move in the first trilogy without using a computer.

    CosmicBookNews: How do you go from digital effects to comics?

    M. Zachary Sherman: At WonderCon in 2002, I had the chance to meet DC Editor Bob Schreck and I leaned over and introduced myself and said, “I’m Zach Sherman and I am a big fan of the Batman universe and I think Nightwing and Chuck Dixon are great.”

    And I said to him, “I am interested in writing comics.” And I am sure every editor wants to hear that [LAUGHS].

    When you average 100 editors in the industry and everybody who attends the San Diego ComicCon has an idea for a comic…[LAUGHS].

    So Bob rolled his eyes, but I told him I worked at ILM and that made him kind of look at me differently. He saw that I was not just anyone, but I had some professional experience and I had a career.

    So he said to me, “Why don’t you write something on spec, and send it to me.” So I did.

    About a month a half later, I got my script in the mail with red pen marks because he had edited my script. I almost melted.

    There was a note that said, “Better than most I get. Keep it up.”

    And so I did.

    CosmicBookNews: And here you are writing Shrapnel for Radical Comics.

    Can you talk to us about Samantha Vijaya, the star of Shrapnel?

    M. Zachary Sherman: Well, first, the members of the enlisted corps, such as the privates through the sergeants, are Helots. The officers are all genetically engineered genotypes and they run the military and the fleets.

    Samantha comes from a modest background – a middle class background. Her parents could not have her genetically altered at birth and Samantha did not have the luxuries that the genotypes had. She came from a poor medical class and she never finished and got the accolades and the genotypes received.

    Because of this, Samantha is a Helot, but she is one of the few people to ever become a Marine Corps officer. She is infamous in some circles and in others she is super famous. The rank and file marines look at her and think, “Wow!”

    And the fact Samantha has risen in the ranks means that she is one of most skilled tacticians ever devised.

    CosmicBookNews: Right.

    M. Zachary Sherman: However, besides Samantha, the story is all about humanity, and that is something I try to capture in Shrapnel. That feeling that we’re all brothers and we need to find a common ground.

    CosmicBookNews: It seemed there were a lot of echoes in Shrapnel to the real world and current events. Did you do that on purpose?

    M. Zachary Sherman: When I worked on this project with Mark Long and Nick Sagan [the creators of Shrapnel ], we decided that this was not about making a political statement but good science fiction.

    However, what good science fiction does is mirror the times. The best was Star Trek in the 1960s. The show talked about drugs, the Vietnam War and all kinds of things that were going on in the 1960s.

    The only reason why the censors allowed them to get away with what they did was because they did in under the guise of science fiction.

    As for Shrapnel , our story is about a governing body invading another country and it is hard not to make a comparison between the two, but it was never consciously something I was going for.

    CosmicBookNews: You were in the United States Marines, and a lot of that comes out in Shrapnel .

    M. Zachary Sherman: The original concept for this story belonged to Mark Long, the CEO of Zombie Studios and he and I had met a comic book convention, so we had gone way back.

    CosmicBookNews: So how hard it is to write dialogue and keep things technical?

    M. Zachary Sherman: I tried to and it is hard it is to mirror the way people talk, especially with military dialogue and technical expertise.

    However, one interviewer called me the “Tom Clancy of Comics” and I took that as a major compliment.

    I try very hard to keep technical jargon as correct as possible and I want those who are “in the know” in the military not to look at something I have written and have them say, “This is crap.”

    CosmicBookNews: Did you have a technical advisor for any of your projects?

    M. Zachary Sherman: Yeah for my comic SOCOM: Seal Team Seven for Image Comics, I had my father and a Master Chief who was embedded with the SEAL team in Beirut, and a couple of people who can’t be named go through it.

    And it came in handy because during a San Diego Comic Book convention in 2008, this big brick house of a guy came to me and he said, “I bought this book and I saw there was an American launcher on this type of deck.”

    “Did you read it all the way through yet?” I asked. He said he had not.

    So I pulled out a twenty-dollar bill and I said, “The launcher will pay out in the long run. You come back here tomorrow and this bill will be waiting for you if it does not play out in the story it will be waiting.”

    The next day he came in and slammed it down and said, “Sign this bitch!” It turned out he was a member of the real SEAL Team Seven.

    CosmicBookNews: That is awesome!

    M. Zachary Sherman: [LAUGHS] Yeah, it was!

    CosmicBookNews: Hey, thanks so much for your time.

    M. Zachary Sherman: Thank you.

    Check out the latest projects M. Zachary Sherman is up to, visit him at www.mzacharysherman.com.

    Look for “Shrapnel: Aristeia Rising” issues 1-4 out now with issue 5 out next month.

    [page_title]

    Interview with Brad Walker, Penciler Guardians of the Galaxy

    After Marvel’s intergalactic storyline, Annihilation, changed the cosmic landscape of their universe, Marvel Comics is following it up with War of Kings. And in that storyline, the “Guardians of the Galaxy” will play an integral roll as the alien races of Marvel are set to go to battle once more.

    And what will it take to help bring that storyline to life? How about an artist from Batman and Superman comics – Brad Walker.

    Walker is one of the hottest up and coming artists in the industry and Walker spoke with CosmicBookNews about how he got into the business and working with DC and Marvel Comics.

    CosmicBookNews: First, thank you for taking time out to be interviewed!

    Brad Walker: Anything to help me procrastinate!

    CosmicBookNews: Can you give us a little bit on your background? Where did you grow up and how early of an age did you start to draw?

    Brad Walker: My dad was in the Air Force, so I grew up all over the country. But I drew as far back as I can remember. Probably 3 or 4 years old. I lived in Chicago when I was little, and they used to show the old 60’s Spider-Man cartoon there, and I watched it religiously. So, that was one of the first things I learned to draw. I would draw him ALL the time.

    CosmicBookNews: When did you decide you wanted to pursue comic books as a career? Did you take your portfolio to conventions to get noticed or go another route?

    Brad Walker: I decided to pursue it probably sometime in middle school, when I started reading comics on a regular basis. After that, I never planned to do anything else. I’m “All-the-Eggs-in-One-Basket Brad.”

    CosmicBookNews: [Laughs]

    I see you went to the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Do they have a specific program or course for comic book artists?

    Brad Walker: Yeah, they have a program for Sequential Art, which I was in. I don’t know about now, because I don’t keep up with such things, but at the time, it was the only college in the country with such a specific major. “School of Visual Arts” in New York has a cartooning major (as do a few others), but the Sequential Art major is specific to comic books and story boarding. They had a bunch of really great professors who I learned a lot from and with whom I’m still friends.

    CosmicBookNews: Can you share with us a little of your experience studying there?

    Brad Walker: It was a great time! I met the majority of the friends I have to this day, and I got to draw for four years straight. And they even gave me a Bachelor’s Degree! Suckers!

    CosmicBookNews: A few years after graduating you did some work at DC. Can you explain how that came about?

    Brad Walker: That actually came about as a result of going to SCAD (see kids! It works! Give them your money!). I was living in New York at the time, and one of my old professors got in touch and said he was going to be in town with the kids from his Summer Semester. They were going to be visiting DC, and he asked if I wanted to come along. We met up with the (then) Batman Group, and they liked my stuff. I kept talking to them (read: bugging them), and they eventually gave me work.

    CosmicBookNews: What was your first published work for DC and how did it feel seeing it out on the stands?

    Brad Walker: Two back-ups stories in Detective Comics #795 and 796. Greatest feeling in the world. Followed closely by my first cover on Action Comics #848.

    CosmicBookNews: Regarding Action Comics, is this something you pursued or were you asked to do these? Must have felt pretty good being part of the Superman mythos. How was it working with Kurt Busiek?

    Brad Walker: My editors on the Batman stuff, Matt Idelson and Nachie Castro moved to the Superman books, and were drunk enough to ask me. I freaked out when they mentioned it was with Kurt. He’s easily in my top five favorite comic writers ever, and a blast to work with! He’s probably the most creative guy I’ve ever talked to. His head just seems to have a constant flow of ideas! And I learned a lot from talking to him about the pages, because he’s got such a natural grasp of storytelling. I loved every minute of it!

    CosmicBookNews: Also, with DC, you penciled some issues of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight. What would you say was the difference between drawing the Superman titles compared to these Batman titles and which did you prefer? Was one more difficult than the other?

    Brad Walker: That was the stuff I did immediately after the Detective back-ups. My first full length work. So, it was tainted by having very little idea what I was doing, but boosted by unbridled enthusiasm. I love Batman probably right behind Superman (from the DC side of things). It’s different tonally, but to be honest, I was working so hard back then not to screw up, and get it done fast, and trying to impress my editors that it probably wasn’t as thought out as much as it should’ve been. Maybe I’ll get to go back to Batman someday, when I’m a little more confident with my work…

    CosmicBookNews: Overall, how would you rate your experience working with DC?

    Brad Walker: I’d give it an 11! But I won’t tell you out of what… No, I’ve loved working for DC, and technically still do (I’m still half way through an unsolicited project). I’ve got lots of friends there, and I would always draw anything that Matt Idelson asked me to, because I owe him my career. But, to be honest, Marvel characters have always been slightly closer to my heart, so I’m looking forward to getting a little more comfortable over there!

    CosmicBookNews: So how did you come to work for Marvel?

    Brad Walker: I met Bill Rosemann in my accountant’s office, last year.

    Seriously!

    CosmicBookNews: How is it working under Editor Bill Rosemann?

    Brad Walker: I love working for Bill!

    He’s a great guy, and smart editor and every note he’s ever given me has been spot on. He’s really supportive, and he and I share the worst tastes in television in the entire comic industry.

    And his assistant, Michael Horwitz has been fantastic, too. He just started on the book in the middle of issue 8, and from my perspective, he didn’t miss a beat.

    CosmicBookNews: Currently, you are penciling Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. You just recently did your first two complete issues with them, issues eight and ten. The art was really great. Do you enjoy drawing these space type stories?

    Brad Walker: I did all of issue 8, and [I penciled] 13 pages of issue 9. And I love drawing all the Marvel space stuff! It’s probably as exciting to me as Batman and Superman.

    And thanks. I’m glad you liked it

    CosmicBookNews: You said you only penciled part of issue 9, was there any particular reason why?

    Brad Walker: I couldn’t do it in 12 days. Hey, 13 pages in that amount of time ain’t too bad!

    CosmicBookNews: How many issues are you going to do?

    Brad Walker: I did 8 through 10, and I’m working on 13 through 15, right now. I’m hoping to do up to (at least) issue 18, but we’ll have to see how the deadline looks at 15.

    I’d draw it as long as they’d let me though, cause it’s so much fun.

    CosmicBookNews: Does it bother you when the cover is done by someone else, do you prefer to do them or doesn’t it really matter?

    Brad Walker: I don’t mind at all having somebody else do the covers. I like doing them, but they can be frustrating because so many other people need to sign off on them (understandably) than a regular page. And they can be much more time consuming.

    CosmicBookNews: What about coloring? Obviously, penciling a 22 or more page book is quite time consuming, but if you had the time and option would you prefer to color your own work?

    Brad Walker: No, I don’t really “see” in color. That’s the one step of the process I would probably never aspire to. And Wil Quintana – the artist that’s doing the colors on Guardians is a genius.

    I couldn’t even imagine pages looking as nicely as he makes them actually look.

    CosmicBookNews: Can you quickly take us through your process of penciling an issue of Guardians of the Galaxy? How much time, on average do you spend, on a page. Can you share with us what computer programs you like to use?

    Brad Walker: I read through a script and sketch my first impression of each panel right there in the margins. Then, I draw out each page really loosely about 3 x 4 inches. Once I have everything placed where I want it, I enlarge that to 400 percent and trace it onto the boards. Then, I go through and draw it all with a real, live pencil.

    I only use a computer when I need to scan stuff to show to [editors] Bill, Mike, Dan, and Andy.

    I hate computers.

    I spend about a day on each page. Some a little more, some a little less. It – kinda – evens out…

    CosmicBookNews: They say an artist is never satisfied. Would you say that is true in regards to how you feel about your work?

    And, regarding that topic, how many revisions do you make before you send it in?

    Brad Walker: Yeah, I like my work for about a day after I finish it, then I hate it. I try not to get hung up in revisions.

    You can really fall into a vortex, that way. If I notice something I did that I’m unsatisfied with, I just try to apply that lesson to the next page.

    Sometimes, Bill will ask for something to be a little different for the sake of continuity, or to make something more clear, but it’s always been small, and it makes the page better.

    CosmicBookNews: What about Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning? Are they real particular?

    Brad Walker: Well, they’re amazing. So, there’s that.

    And I couldn’t say they are particular, because I haven’t seen the need to stray from anything as written.

    I can see everything they ask for, pretty much dead on, the first time I read through a new script.

    They’re very vivid and they haven’t complained, so I can’t be that far off.

    I think all this cosmic stuff they are doing is going to be remembered for a long time and I think it’s really stellar (yes, I said that) work.

    CosmicBookNews: Were you a fan of the original Guardians of the Galaxy from 1990s? If so, any particular character a favorite?

    Brad Walker: I didn’t read it, no. I think the characters are still cool looking, though. I know a lot of people probably think they’re corny looking, but I’d love to get a flashback sequence, or something with them. I think a good artist can make just about any character look cool without some fancy redesign. I thought Paul Pelletier made them look great in issue 7!

    CosmicBookNews: I have to ask this question, are you a fan of Wendell Vaughn?

    Brad Walker: Yeah, I love him. I liked that old series that Greg Capullo drew with him.

    I just read the Nova issue of the “Annihilation series” today, where he died. I’m catching up on a lot of “Annihilation” stuff.

    It’s too bad he would be impossible to bring back from the dead.

    Sigh.

    CosmicBookNews: [Laughs]

    Seeing how we are on the topic of characters, which ones are your favorite?

    Brad Walker: Okay, number one will always be Spider-Man. Always.

    After that, here are the other contenders: The Thing, Superman, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Batman, Green Lantern, Silver Surfer, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Green Arrow, Hercules (Marvel’s), and (Monica Rambeau) Captain Marvel.

    There are tons I’m leaving out, but that’s a short list that comes to mind, right now.

    CosmicBookNews: So Spider-Man is your favorite, which Spider-Man stories are your favorite and which artist?

    Brad Walker: Yeah, far and away my favorite. I would go so far as to say that I don’t think there was a single, bad issue of Amazing until about 1994. Even when it was silly, it was still a good Spider-Man comic, and it was fun to see where Peter Parker was going. And I think the current stories are the best it’s been since 1994.

    And yes, I’m aware that answer will have legions of Mary Jane lovers hating me.

    Forever.

    Sorry – it’s fun, these days.

    But, my favorite runs are the Lee/Ditko/Romita ones, the (enormous) Conway/Andru run, the Stern/Romita Jr. one, the DeFalco/Frenz stuff, and the Michelinie/McFarlane/Larsen/Bagley runs. Yeah, I know that’s almost the first 30 years.

    For artists, I’m partial to the guys from those runs, plus I think Marcos Martin and Mike McKone are doing really great work, right now.

    CosmicBookNews: So, I take it you wouldn’t mind be called upon to do Spider-Man?

    Brad Walker: Yep. I’d be fine, about that.

    CosmicBookNews: What artist influences you most?

    Brad Walker: Uh. The Silver Age guys, I guess. I’m a big Kirby guy. As well as Ditko, Romita, Buscema, and Neal Adams. I love Walt Simonson, Alan Davis, Frank Quitely, Carlos Pacheco, Ivan Reis, Marcos Martin, and Ron Garney, for newer guys that spring to mind.

    CosmicBookNews: What advice would you give to aspiring artists? Do you intentionally try to create your own “style?”

    Brad Walker: Uh…. do something else??

    Actually, I’d say don’t develop a “style”.

    Draw everything, and draw it from life. Try to make it look real. Your comic book influences will come through regardless, so you might as well learn fundamentals. And as far as looking at comics. Look for the storytelling. Look at the old guys, cause anybody you like from the past 20 years is aping somebody from before that. You might as well learn from the source.

    Oh, and be prepared to do it till your fingers hurt. Literally. If you don’t like it enough that that sounds appealing, then this isn’t the career for you. My hand is cramped up, as I type this.

    [But as for style] I think of new ways to render sometimes, but that’s not to form a “style” as much as it’s a different attempt to get a point across. Like I said, before, your style will come through, whether you like it, or not. I really have no idea what my work looks like. In my head, it’s a photograph and any amount that it doesn’t turn out that way on the page is just due to the restrictions of my implements, my time, and my talent.

    CosmicBookNews: How do you feel when you read those internet message boards in regards to someone remarking, good or bad, about your work?

    Brad Walker: Well, I love hearing that people like our stuff. There’s no better feeling than knowing that you’ve pleased somebody who really loves a book, or a character.

    And I’m pretty good about criticisms because artwork is completely subjective, and not everybody is going to be into your stuff.

    I mean, name any artist, and I can go online and find somebody who hates them. So, you’ve gotta take that stuff in stride. But I really appreciate when people say specific things they’d like me to change.

    After [Guardians of the Galaxy] issue 8 came out, somebody on a board somewhere wrote that Paul Pelletier drew a better Gamora. So, I went on and asked him what he liked better about Paul’s version, and he said that she’s supposed to have heels on her boots. So, in issue 10, I was able to fix that.

    In that respect, the internet is a really great tool for comic artists! But, then there are the whiny babies on there who are venting about other things they’re missing in life. Like I do on my “Two and a Half Men” message boards.

    CosmicBookNews: [Laughs]

    What comics do you currently read?

    Brad Walker: I love Spider-Man, right now. Green Lantern [from DC Comics]. Dan and Andy’s stuff and I’m not just saying that cause I’m involved.

    I’ve just gotten into the Punisher Max trades, and I’m loving them. I’m enjoying Trinity, and everything that Ed Brubaker does. I’m really excited about the Dan Slott Mighty Avengers, and I loved the Superman books, up through New Krypton. We’ll have to see if it holds my interest without Supes in it, though.

    CosmicBookNews: Is there anything you wish to plug?

    Brad Walker: Just Guardians, and the War of Kings storyline in general. I’m going to be drawing my little heart out to try and make my chapters look great. So, hopefully that comes across.

    And, on that note, I should get back to my page…

    CosmicBookNews: Thanks for your time, Brad.

    Brad Walker: No problem! Glad to do it!

    Be sure to pick up Guardians of the Galaxy issues 8 through 10 on sale now, issue 13 hits stores April 15th and look for issues 14 and 15 soon, penciled by Brad Walker.