Old Friends And Stolen Ships — Reviewing ‘Nova’ #4

Life’s tough when a whole alien culture’s repository lives inside your brain, needing constant energy replenishment to escape eternal oblivion. It gets even tougher when someone decides to steal your spaceship and your crew.

Just another day in the life of Richard Rider, as Nova #4 puts the last Centurion in a tight predicament. Another grand cosmic adventure from Jed MacKay, Matteo Della Fonte, Mattia Iacono, and Cory Petit.

There’s a visual shift with this issue, as Della Fonte takes over fully. It’s not their first go around with the high-flying Nova, though. Their artwork was the centerpiece of the Imperial War: Nova: Centurion one-shot that came out last year ahead of this series.

That issue was my first exposure to Della Fonte’s work and I was quite impressed. Nothing has changed in that respect with this particular issue. He has such a smooth and dynamic style that lends itself to the vast landscape potential for cosmic settings, hitting some bit of grounded almost realistic feeling vibes without going too far into that direction.

Sharp angular lines with rougher textures contrast comfortably with the aforementioned smoother textures. Character emotions are clear upon the page with the right amount of gravitas, playing into the character-based realm that MacKay lives as a writer with such ease.

Everything feels vast, but confined and intimate at the same time. Notably because of the smart and intriguing paneling choices and utilization of the page space. This adds to the depth already present in the artwork and the colors that Iacono provides.

They live within the middle space of the color palette, leaning on a lighter and more neutral side of things. Especially since the world that we’re seeing here is one that has more western outpost, on the edge of the frontier sort of feeling. This is a place where ships are hanging out to get gas and work and provide a pit stop for their crews.

It feels kind of grimy and dirty and hefty. Plenty of darker tones sprinkle in to add even more to this overall tone, really giving it that tangible want to wipe the dust off your pants sort of sensation.

While it’s not technically a done-in-one story, this issue has that feeling. There is a cliffhanger, but the overall situation and threat are dealt with in the issue. I love how MacKay tends to do this with a lot of his work. He captures that classic feeling where an issue feels complete as a read while still laying an ongoing plot path, weaving the subplots and background situations into what is a fun issue of ship theft.

I’m a big MacKay fan. Everyone that has read my reviews of Black Cat, Strange, Doctor Strange, or this series knows that by now. There’s just something so perfect about the way that he can pull the most out of any character. He utilizes the vast toybox of the Marvel Universe in a foundationally building way rather than as an anchor, balancing easily on the line between continuity usage and new reader friendly.

Arm-in-arm with that character focus comes nailing authentic feeling voices. Having Petit around always makes sure that those voices are clear and true. modifying things ever so slightly and significantly to pull out every ounce of emotional depth possible. This keeps it smoothly flowing across the pages to be both visually stimulating but never overwhelming in amount.

Nova #4 is now available from Marvel Comics.