Nova #26 Review

Writer: Gerry Duggan / Artist: John Timms / Marvel Sam Alexander is finally getting a win. He’s put Nova on the shelf and gotten re-adjusted to life as a teenager. He’s gotten better in school, he finally took an opening to pursue a relationship with Carrie, his doctors are giving him the A-Okay and even in chess Sam is becoming a better strategist. His teacher is proud and tells him he is no longer rushing head first into their matches, and is taking the time to plot out his moves. This is a huge reflection on Sam’s benched Nova life as well. He never wants to go through another concussion so he’s done skateboarding and hung up the Nova helmet for a while. However, Sam misplaced his trust in an inverted Carnage. Carnage knows Sam’s name and is running amok in carefree. Sam had to put away is safety procedures and dive back into the thick of the hero life. We get some great banter back and forth between Sam and Carnage. The banter is humorous but also displays the confidence same has acquired the past 26 issues as well. The boy (even with a busted helmet) is coming into his own as a Nova.

The art work is very fitting for this book. John Timms on the track makes Sam look very much like a teenager in his depiction. Where as pervious artist mad Sam look a bit shorter and more like the size of a 13-14 year old. Timm’s art got me seeing Sam as 17-18 year old which is a totally different light. He gets very close up with the faces of his characters like a old school Hype williams…