I just had to share my excitement at my second-favorite board. The comic book series that hooked me as a child and activated the comic-book gene inside of me, "Nova" is being released as a "Marvel Essentials" book in 2006. I can't believe they are actually doing this, but it is good news to me.

Houston

[bigred]Essential Nova, Vol. 1[/bigred]
[lilred]by Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, John Buscema, and Joe Sinnott
April 12, 2006[/lilred]



http://www.amazon.com/dp/0785120939/?tag=imwan-20

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Altered subject line to match our SHOWCASIEST Showcases thread. ~ Linda

Complete list of [lilred]Marvel Essentials[/lilred] black & white trade paperback collections:

Amazon USA • Amazon Canada • Amazon UK

Hmm! Wasn't Nova cancelled suddenly and its story concluded in another book?

Still waiting for Essential Power Pack

Don't forget Essential Dazzler.

Or Essential Darkhawk.

...I don't know why I'm poking fun - I like Nova. I remember the issues of Rom that he (and Nova-Prime with a big honkin' gun) showed up in.

Hey - howzabout Essential Rom!!!!!!!

Nova ended with issue #25, and his story continued in the pages of Fantastic Four and Rom.

Houston

Hey! You act like Nova's main run was 30 years ago and that he has had several books fail miserably since then.

Oh, wait. That is what happened.

Houston

Ah, but will it have the Nova issue of What If...?

Nova What If..? was in the back of the Daredevil issue, wasn't it? Or was it the FF issue? I cannae remember and I'm too lazy to look it up!

'Twas the FF issue.

Yep, and it revealed what happened when Rich Rider returned home, before seguing into "What If Richard Rider Refused to Give Up the Powers of Nova?"

Not that I'm a fan or anything.

There was also a What If? about several other people getting the Nova powers, I think. One was a grieving widow who used them for vengeance, and she came to no good, and seems like Peter Parker was another...? Where he didn't get spider powers but became all Nova-y instead and I'm sure he came to no good.

I never much liked the What If? books as a kid because they always seemed to end so grimly. I wasn't ready for Twilight Zone twists and such as an eight-year old, I guess. In fact, the very first issue -- where Spider-Man joins the FF and Sue feels left out and so she ends up going to live with Namor and marries Namor, forsaking Reed? That... really bothered me as a kid. I mean, deeply bothered me, like finding out something bad about my parents or something. It was just wrong. Watcher's creeped me out ever since.

Huh. Kinda feels good to get that off my chest now.

Essential Nova... funny, but I'll have to go with Omega: The Unknown Classic for pure comedy gold.

Wouldn't you want your classic Omega story to be known.

Actually, I was talking about this issue (it's the one Dan was talking about).

I want Essential Warlock and Captain Marvel!

I'm sorry, that's linguistically impossible.

Dang!

I used to love NOVA as well (even if his origin is a rip-off of Spider-Man's and Green Lantern's).

He was bitten by a radioactive nova from a crashed space craft?

Close.

I'm with ya, but I think I'd rather see these as "Visionaries" volumes focusing on Jim Starlin so that they'd be in color.

Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-in-One annual #2 would have to be included in the Warlock volumes.

Jim

Jim, yer preachin' ta the choir! I cannot STAND Essentials.
On a related note, I stopped in Barnes and Noble to check out the Marvel Masterworks they offer in paperback (I'd been interested in the Silver Surfer two-volume set).
Do you realize they offer ten (or so) issues IN COLOUR fer $12.95?? And the dang things aren't available to our LCSs??? THAT is one of the things that is wrong with the comic industry.

Darren,

A few years back, I was waiting for a particular Essentials to show up at my LCS. I don't remember which one it was. ( I think it was Essential Iron Fist. )

They used to get two copies of each one that came out, so unless they were ear-marked by someone, I could go in on Wednesday evening and decide whether I wanted a copy.

The evening that I visited my comic shop and didn't see *any* copies of this Essential, I asked the owner if they'd all been sold.

He told me that he stopped ordering them for shelf-stock because he couldn't compete with Barnes and Noble. He further stated that B&N are allowed returns on all of their graphic novels and he just couldn't compete with that.

In reference to the Masterworks issues above, I think B&N does the printing and then certainly the shipping, so they own the whole process. They seem to be able to license the properties above, obtain the printing plates and what have you, and circumvent the existing third-party printing/distribution network, so they can offer these up at a reduced cost.

Maybe this is the next evolutionary step in comic publishing? Maybe Marvel and DC will become brands sold exclusively through chains like B&N.

Jim