Yes, Marvel fans. If the leaks are to be believed, then our favorite Nova Corps member, Richard Rider, is making a return. As a fan of Marvel’s previous cosmic superhero comics, Richard was easily my favorite Nova Corps member. Sure he had a weird name, and no, I won’t repeat what others call him. He eventually matured, had several major comic arcs, including the Annihilation arc, and had proved that he had what it took to be one of Marvel’s top cosmic superheroes.
The guy literally had to put this hand into the throat of Annihilus in order to kill him and even became another cosmic here for a time, Quasar. Talk about a badass.
That was, however, until someone had the fancy idea of killing him (or was he?) off and replacing him with a newer and young Nova character. Many fans of the character, including myself, had asked Marvel repeatedly about Richard Rider’s status. Was he dead? If not, why isn’t he coming back? However, in a classic Marvel twist, Brian Bendis replied to that fans with, “Oh, and you want to know why Richard Rider isn’t back? Who said he wasn’t?”
Since then, we’ve been holding out that he would return in some sort of capacity, only to have that not happened over the last few years. He was mentioned briefly during the current Nova comics run, but that was it. But now it looks like we’re finally going to get the real deal. As part of a leak of Marvel’s upcoming comic line-ups, a teaser with Richard Rider’s Nova Corps helmet has appeared. And yes, it’s definitely his helmet, as this was the evolved form once the XanddarianWorldmind was integrated into it.
Yes, the OG Nova is making a return. Obviously, Marvel hasn’t made it clear how he’s making a return, but the image is more than enough for me, and I’m pretty sure that fans of the character are in the same shoes.
Welcome back, Richard. You’ve been gone a long time, and we’ve missed you! Now, give us back our Quasar next!
