“Photon is Another Name For...?” Writer/ Editor: Ocean Doot Penciler: Ross Andru Inks: Mike Esposito Colors: Glynis Wein Letterer: Joe Rosen Spider-Man looks over the crime photos of the wall melted out and Doctor Rider’s body lying before the ripped out calendar pages of the last half of the year. We get our six suspect ovals again, as Inspector Steel reminds him it’s a matter of police jurisdiction, and he has no plans to deputize Spider-Man and Nova. Spider-man insists there’s a good man, dead, and they will find the killer one way or another! The warning stands. Then he recaps the entire murder scenario written up above. All suspects but Michael Lincoln have fled, and the butler, who nearly revealed Photon’s i.d., is a cold body removed now by the police---one of whom announces a train left unchecked, excluded from their roadblocks. They stand near the wall melted outward by Photon. Nova’s on the case; he speeds past a hydrofoil on the water and overtakes the train, zoo...

Dream On over Nova’s helmet during flight 12. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txlXcJDtDwM [IMG]http://i28.tinypic.com/352mdsi.gif[/IMG] Wolfman / Buscema / Giacoia / Rosen / Glynis Wein Your chance to guess along in a Special Mighty Marvel Mystery Spider-Man meets Nova---and together they try to discover--- “Who is---the Man Called Photon?” Here we’re presented with ovals showing Futon, then the suspects: Harry Daze Jason Dean Michael Lincoln Peter Parker Franklin Risk -- ---across a tableau that finds Nova and Spidey standing beside a melted wall ---and who is this unfortunate corpse, fingers out stretched over torn calendar pages, July through December? The first clue was Charles Rider’s words to Rich last month...it’s a week after that...Nova’s flying up to see Uncle Ralph. He changes to Rich Rider (who doesn’t need any Detroit Wheels) and goes inside the luxurious home, noting he is the only person in the family who isn’t punctual (but it’s poor Ralph who i...

I've been reviewing a superhero and his late 1970s adventures, inspired by Spider-Man. But when I kicked back to read SPIDER-MAN CLASSICS #6, reprinting AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #5 from 1963, I have to say, I see the resemblances, but I also notice how much difference there is in a story with 22 pages of art as opposed to one with 17, like NOVA in 1977. For one, the supporting cast gets a bit more room to be themselves and give the story more depth. For another, Doctor Doom and Spider-Man meeting for the first time just happens to be one of the most fun issues ever of Spidey's comics. it's a blast seeing the arch enemy of the Fantastic Four plot to take over the world with Spider-man. There are so many little details developed here, exploring all of Peter's relationships with cast while never slowing down, in a giddy, juvenile-fiction flavored dynamo of expressive art and hilarious and knowing writing. Even the colors are joyous. I'll tell you a little more about it...

Oh, No Va No more! Magic man Heart [IMG]http://i36.tinypic.com/jfu9o2.gif[/IMG] British cover, 1977 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd254scA8XU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKibjh1XYME&feature=related Welcome to Machine “Nova no more!” //">http://i30.tinypic.com/egodcn.gif Wolfman/ Buscema/ Giacoia/ Gaspar (Saladino)/ Marie Severin Inside his Pyramid of Knowledge, the Sphinx lays low all invaders. We resume just before the end of last month’s battle between Nova and Powerhouse, essentially replaying the incident, leaving all unconscious at the feet of the Sphinx. Nova’s sympathetic thoughts about P-H’s motivations end with P-H’s drain attack and confession that he cannot betray the Condor, feeling trapped by fate. Sphinx renews his search for “the one dark question I still must solve!” but first, exiles his lackey Kur with the Ka Stone, to a month in a Hell-like dimension. Faceless Sayge warns him he exalts himself too much as a god, which he defends; Sayge remind...

So here's Nova Ten. (this title reminds me of a line early in The Book of Law about the four powers of the Sphinx. The star man, the sphinx...for a science fiction book, I must admit it's more mystical in some ways than I remember.) Issue Ten “Four Against the Sphinx!” So we open between issues...a fight already in progress, at Westhaven Nuclear Generating Station. Amidst walls of flame, Nova dukes it out with an insectoid-headed villain resembling Stingray. Nova ends the impressive-looking fight by diving both of them into the local lake, and presses his attack to the last. Along with this good news, Nova learns he’s been cleared of the warehouse breaking and entry (see Nova #7). Now as Richard Rider he prepares for math and science mid terms, while his silly brother Robbie rubs in his a+. The assault on the Sphinx continues. Condor, Powerhouse and Diamondhead find they face creations of light, as Kur rouses his master. Sphinx breaks with his pyramid meditation to fac...

Nova, I finally get you. This morning it becomes an epiphany, dawning like a warm shower on the sense. NOVA is written as it is so that little kids, too, can enjoy it. Truthfully, many ex-fans cluster here to talk of many things. Or make that, ex-buyers...of comic books, at least. Some of the more popular product amongst people who overlap that crowd are the kid-friendly comics, which seem to have versions of the characters that evoke their sense of wonder and fun. Now, it’s true, by the time Shooter has Pym losing his marbles, it’s evidence that the path to redemption played over and over again went now into a darkness found in adult life, though these things affect many of the young readers, too. But it’s heavy. What Alan (Watchmen) Moore grasped was an alternative, which to this post-modernist genius of deconstruction became clear as A-B-C Comics in the decade after his revolutionary masterpiece of the medium. His efforts at straight-up super heroes convinced some more than ot...

Aunt Clara lounges in a frilly something in the living room of the home beside the amusement park she once co-ran with her husband, Caps’ uncle Nat. She offers him some hot chocolate---“that IS what kids your age drink still, right?”---as well as her surprise to see a member of the family. “Don’t tell me your father’s decided to finally forgive his wanton sister!” she says. What a pistol, this woman. Roger/ Caps only wants to tell her Uncle Nat is alive, which causes Clara to panic. Meanwhile, her boyfriend, familiar to the hidden Mega Man, comes back from the store with booze to share. He slaps Caps for frightening Clara, but Caps insists it’s true, and Mega Man comes into the room to prove it. He gives the a-hole boyfriend a taste of his own medicine before begging Clara to take him back. Caps wisely decides to call the police as Mega Man blasts the house. The call sparks an emergency police broadcast, “intercepted by the alien circuits located in a certain human rocket’s helme...