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Houston Mitchell
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 03 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 222
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| Posted: 25 August 2025 at 11:41pm | IP Logged | 1
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Nova came out when I was 9 and I started buying it a few issues into his run (Don't laugh). He was my favorite as a kid. So, seeing the new Nova Omnibus that collected all the issues from the 1970s series, plus the FF followup and a couple of other issues, I quickly bought it.
On the back flap there are listed "THE CREATORS" and they are in this order:
Marv Wolfman John Buscema Sal Buscema John Byrne Carmine Infantino
I found this odd, as I never considered JB to be a Nova creator at all. I wonder how they came up with those five names? JB did do the art for a couple of the non-Nova issues he appears in in the collection, but still. Not complaining, just seemed odd.
And if I can get something off my chest with people who will understand...
I went to the same comic shop every week when I was young. Comic Vendor in Torrance, Calif. If you spent a certain amount of money in a week, you were entered in a drawing to win $15 worth of back issues. Week after week I entered, and finally, my name was on the board. I won! I immediately used it to buy the Nova back issues I was missing. The person working there made all manner of fun of me for "wasting my money" on something like Nova back issues. He called me out to other people in the shop. I was horrified! Got my back issues, and some other things (Avengers) and never went back. I was 11. Who does that to an 11-year-old.
And, as you can see, it didn't scar me for life or anything.
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John Popa
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 March 2008
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| Posted: 26 August 2025 at 2:51am | IP Logged | 2
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You'd think they'd be happy you got some issues out of the store that probably weren't going to go anywhere otherwise!
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Eric Jansen
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 October 2013
Location: United States
Posts: 2472
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| Posted: 26 August 2025 at 8:10am | IP Logged | 3
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A lot of these reprint editions list the creators simply by page count. Not always though--I have that NOVA Omnibus myself and I see that JB did about 100 pages (all in FANTASTIC FOUR), while Carmine Infantino did almost 200 pages!
You could argue that Sal should be first with over 300 NOVA pages, but brother John did the first two issues (and then one more later) so that sort of trumps everybody that came after.
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Doug Centers
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 February 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 5731
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| Posted: 26 August 2025 at 9:37am | IP Logged | 4
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I was a Nova fan and getting in on the ground floor of a series I found gratifying. I understand some feel Rich Rider was a poor man's Peter Parker but I really enjoyed the cast of characters. I've got the 3 volume Nova Classic TPB's and even his Toon Tumbler. The JB issues are also included.
Houston- That dude sounds like the Comic Book Guy straight out of the Simpson's. What a douche! When I hear stories like that it makes glad I only bought off the spinner rack in my youth.
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Brandon Carter
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2354
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| Posted: 26 August 2025 at 2:29pm | IP Logged | 5
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JB must have done enough work as art robot on the Fantastic Four issues included in the Nova Omnibus that he was listed among the other primary creators of the stories included.
For those interested in Nova beyond the original series, there is a New Warriors: Nova & Night Thrasher Omnibus that was just released this month. It contains issues 1-5 and 8-16 of the 1994 Nova series, as well as other material. (The missing issues of that Nova series have been included already in one of the New Warriors Classic Omnibus volumes)
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135187
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| Posted: 27 August 2025 at 8:31pm | IP Logged | 6
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My first go at FF and Wolfman was using the book to tie up a storyline from his cancelled title.sigh
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Eric Jansen
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 October 2013
Location: United States
Posts: 2472
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| Posted: 28 August 2025 at 12:52am | IP Logged | 7
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I understand how that was a disappointment for you, but finishing up cancelled storylines in more healthy series was part of the joy of enjoying an entire Marvel or DC universe! Characters mostly were never just abandoned.
In contrast, TV networks (especially NBC the last 15 or 20 years) will just cancel a show with a continuing (often sci fi) storyline (as opposed to more standalone series like COLUMBO) and often not care one whit about the audience it's left hanging. (REVOLUTION, FLASHFORWARD, HANNIBAL, SALVATION, ZOO, and so many more.)
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Greg McPhee
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Joined: 25 August 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 5166
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| Posted: 28 August 2025 at 2:55am | IP Logged | 8
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I enjoyed the character of Nova when he appeared in The New Warriors, and the character is a good visual / costume.
But that follow up from Nova 23 - 25 in the FF took up 11 issues with a further closure to the story in ROM # 24!!!
It did introduce Terrax to the FF which is a bonus.
The problem for me with the Nova series was that it was trying to do two different concepts which I don't think work well together. The first is a kid superhero (ala early Spidey) fighting crime.
The second is this cosmic space hero with epic adversaries. All the space hero stuff does not balance well with characters like Crimebuster, Condor, Diamondhead, etc.
Nor does the need for Rider to be in school lend itself to long term space voyages and stories involving Xandar.
Either concept would work fine, but the interplay between them is badly executed. Plus Nova is saddled with a horrible rogue's gallery. I am a firm believer that the quality of one's villains is very important in making a title good, and it's just awful in the Nova series. |
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Houston Mitchell
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 03 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 222
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| Posted: 28 August 2025 at 4:40am | IP Logged | 9
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I never read the FF issues when they came out, but reading them now, the Nova parts appear shoehorned in and don't fit all that great.
I enjoyed Nova's Rogues gallery (Condor, Diamondhead, etc.), but then they introduced this galaxy level threat in the Sphinx and I couldn't understand how Condor ever thought he could take him on.
Anyway, don't mean to turn this into a Nova retrospective, just found JB listed as a creator unusual.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 28 August 2025 at 6:53pm | IP Logged | 10
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Seems like DC is using “create” like the Image boys, as if it’s an ongoing process, not something that happens ONCE at the beginning.
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Dave Kopperman
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Joined: 27 December 2004
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| Posted: 28 August 2025 at 7:15pm | IP Logged | 11
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I wonder if that approach is based in some existing legal definition? And what's DC's institutional memory like? Do they look over their shoulder at the journey of Siegel and Shuster and the arrangements they made in the 1970s?
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 30 August 2025 at 8:00pm | IP Logged | 12
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It’s not entirely accurate to think of Seigel and Shuster having made an “arrangement”. It’s more on the money—ahem—to say they made themselves sufficiently annoying that DC final chose to throw cash at them to make them go away. At the time it was reported they were each given a lifetime pension of $20,000 annually, a substantial sum in the Seventies. What’s really sad in this is that S&S had made a lot of money from the Superman newspaper strip, and could have lived very comfortably, had they not chosen (or been persuaded) to waste so much of it on lawsuits they could not win.
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