Nova and the secret of the Comet

The intensity’s been building; I think you’ll agree, we’re heading into one of the best issues!


“From the Dregs of Defeat!” Wolfman / Infantino / M. Hands / Novak / Cohen / Shooter


Atop his rather cool and strange robot body, the brain that is Doctor Sun watches the Comet and Nova on one of those spy-screens that, Bob assures us, constitute one of hundreds these super villains manage to secrete in satellites about the Earth! (Not an actual Church of Sub Genius joke, but sounds subversively similar to one!)
Sun watches the pair follow a holographic version of the super criminal Diamondhead, who cleaned Nova’s clock just the issue before. Comet’s electron energy revitalized the Human Rocket, whose life, we learn, has been haunted by Sun for some time now, behind the scenes in the Yellow Claw and Inner Circle stories. Not only did he divert the rocket headed for a spy satellite he’s commandeered, towards Washington, D.C.---he spies on brother Robbie, whose Sherlock robot he built was imbued by Sun with intelligence, for his own purpose. The goal : uncovering the secret of the Nova Prime starship!



Now---Nova radiates impact all through the room, smashing in on the rough-and-tumble fighter. So, the transmitted voice (last issue---Liltin’ Lue) was right---Diamondhead bellows, in time to be greeted with the Comet’s lightning bolts. Nova goes from bowling Diamondhead over to being nailed into the floor with a blow to the head outside, where he next feels the business end of an uprooted tree. His stomp generates a landslide; now the Comet blasts again, to little effect. Apparently Diamondhead gets in a throw, bashing the Comet into the ground face first and then hurling him away. The champ wishes to find the “voice” as well---and smash him, too!


We’ll see. Doctor Sun now controls a bulldozer by remote, scooping Nova up to the great surprise of the construction workers nearby. Soon in Sun’s lab, Nova’s strapped within the grip of angular waldos, while Sun prepares to probe his mind. Robbie attempts repairing Sherlock, who at first is non-responsive, then renders Robbie unconscious.


Rich’s friends Ginger and Bernie see Mike Burley, alive, hurrying through Hempstead with a brush off for them both. They visit Rich Rider, who, robed, declines their invitation. They leave, puzzled, while a mechanical hand slips off the Rider disguise, to reveal Sherlock, who noses through Rich’s room, leaving only the latex mask.
Burley’s rush brings him to the side of the stunned Comet, who called for his aid.

Now the Comet, prodded, reveals the wonderful, ordinary life he had before: wealthy, enjoying his family as a husband and father. But every hero dreads his secret identity’s discovery by the underworld; in flashback we watch the explosive fired within his home, leaving nothing of his wife and kids to bury. Lying in the hospital three months, Comet decided his career was ended, and so began thirty years of alcoholic oblivion.

Nova awakes, to meet Doctor Sun. His origins in China’s Cultural Evolution open the next chapter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIylUcGDi-Y&feature=fvst Invisible Sun

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