The Condor Man can!

[IMG]http://i32.tinypic.com/1inyuh.gif[/IMG] nova 2


Title: "First Night Of The Condor!"
Cover Date: October 1976
Cover Artists: John Buscema & Frank Giacoia
Writer/Editor: Marv Wolfman
Artist: John Buscema
Inker: Joe Sinnott
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Michele Wolfman
Nova successfully halts a bank heist, but to his dismay the consequences and fall-out do not reflect the blind gratitude for which he’d hoped. But one spot of blindness secretes a sinister winged figure, the Condor, already figuring an angle on using the new super hero for his battle with the “Dreaded One,” and prepares to meet with his partner---or pawn---Powerhouse.

Back at Casa Rider, we see Nova’s helmet do a handy “depolarization” trick that renders it malleable like cloth, and are then treated to some basement hijinks with Rich’s genius little brother.

The controlling Condor is miffed with the absent Powerhouse, still amnesiac from the apparent onset of his powers. Psychologically playing Powerhouse, Condor “reminds” him that he discovered Powerhouse adrift after his ability to siphon life force activated and killed everyone on board his ship. Now he must don a costume of Condor’s devising to help control these powers and prepare for their target, Nova.
Rich’s Peter Parker moment comes when he spots the winged fiend outside Harry S. Truman High School, and in his rush, knocks over resident swell-head Mike Burley, who swears he’ll make Rider sorry, very loudly.
Nova’s on-the-job refinement of his powers leaves him swift but less accurate and agile than his foe, and when Powerhouse puts the squeeze on, the young hero’s attempted aid is all lemons. Though they escape, it’s just as well Rich makes it home, in time to save his brother and extinguish an accident-driven fire. There are no safe insurance premiums with the Rider boys in the house.
A night patrol yields the two villains again, stealing an Egyptian wizard’s mummified corpse. In the course of super-human events, Powerhouse crumbles the sarcophagus, which contained a valuable spell lost now to Condor’s efforts to combat the as-yet unseen Dreaded One. Angry, he rips the bars free from the window and leaves Powerhouse to his fate.
Confronting Powerhouse, who he has noted is near his own age and even seems disoriented rather than evil, Nova becomes the test of loyalty for Condor, and despite his pleas to reason Powerhouse is again siphoning his powers. All things happen for a reason, no less so here, as the fire extinguisher episode earlier inspires Nova to spray Powerhouse, apparently smothering the siphoning ability and rendering him temporarily at Nova’s mercy. With victory apparent, Rich is faced with the question now: what to do with Powerhouse?