As things rolled on, and I saw marvel scramble to make a mess out of the potential concept of "Sam Alexander"/Vol.5 and any potential Nova "mythos " contributions. Marvel put 3 different writers on the book in 10 issues, and I soon learned the book was a "soup sandwich" of directionless or generic storylines that went nowhere. At times, the book felt like some hollow ultimate version meant for five year old denizens of Matt Judge's Idiocracy reality. (I do reference this movie often)
Sam was a poor character who was not even allowed grow on the scale of Wolfman's original Richard Rider or Peter Parker, characters the model so desperately tried to knock off. Marvel brass dubbed Sam a cross between" Luke Skywalker and Peter Parker"( the exact archetype others described Richard Rider as when he debuted in the 70s). Problem was they all lied, and conveniently left out the fact he was mostly "Poochie" from the Simpsons.. Both Parker and Skywalker grew, and Sam did not. With issue #19 , I called it quits and dropped the title.
At that time, after force feeding myself a bad book, I became unable to understand how anyone could dig the book, especially fans of the old higher brow sci fi DnA/Giffen stuff. Out on the internet, there was a sea of sophomoric fans of Sam that seemed to be hostile to the mere mention of Rider. Worse, a very real gestalt Disney/Marvel consortium , IMO began a campaign to discredit us to force Sam into a bigger role. So with Nova. Vol.5 certified in my book as being a dumpster fire, I didn't see it as expanding any sort of "mythos" of Nova or the Nova Corps, not in a positive way. Admittedly, I became very defensive. This material, was in some ways, dangerous to good taste everywhere.
Thus, in my view, many of these new Sam fans became interlopers, not fellow Nova fans. They spit on even the old Rider stuff and , just as malicious, as this so called "angry group of Rider fans" . For me, embracing them was like making friends with my ex-wife's new boyfriend. ..not gonna happen. Worse, I felt like they were digging something that was not even very good. The comic really was lousy.
Therefore, I began to see supporting Sam's poor quality, poor direction book as a threat . The whole direction was a threat to the stories I wanted out of marvel cosmic. Vol. 5 was a threat to what I considered future good quality comics at marvel. It also was clearly a threat to the future of my favorite character, Richard Rider.
And that is some of the core of where we are. Are these new Nova series/concepts a threat to Rider? I'd answer yes, and there are plenty of scenarios we could explore that would show why. If Sam catches on, marvel cranks out an animated Disney movie w/ Sam as Nova, kids eat it up with a straw, and good old Richard Rider and gritty stories about brothers and sisters in arms gets shit canned forevermore. All the Rider and DnA era gets stuffed in a gutter pretty damn quick...in fact so does the whole genre.(and unless your into Star Wars, its kinda where we are IMO) It could easily happen. Again, the paranoia is reasonable when we simply go back in marvel history and show when it did happen...because it certainly has.
--Previous Message--
: I have not been enjoying Nova/Sam, at all. I
: think I liked more of the stuff with Carrie,
: than the actual action/Nova stuff. It is
: just a bit too childish for me. I am hoping
: things "grow up" because, at this
: point, I will not be purchasing the Sam
: title after Secret Wars ends, if the Sam
: title returns. I have not liked the art or
: the story, but I have kept reading. But I am
: at the end of my rope. It is not fun for me,
: especially after the great stuff we old
: schoolers had with volume four. That was
: great writing, growth, character
: development, and more up my alley.
:
: I have no disdain for anyone who still reads
: Sam. I would be a hypocrite if I did,
: because I have bought each one. I am,
: however, a bit sad that Nova has abandoned a
: great character and made the title (and many
: other Marvel titles) way too simple and
: childish.
:
: I will read the post-apocalyptic Nova title.
: The art looks great, and the story may be
: more up my alley. But after that, I hope
: things change for the better.
:
: The funny thing is, Marvel seems very
: committed to the Nova idea. They are trying
: hard to keep it going. But they are not
: putting out a great product, yet.
:
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