NOVA v4 #4
Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Sean Chen/Scott Hanna and Brian Denham
"Alone"
Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER (last in
Annihilation: Conquest Prologue)
XANDARIAN WORLDMIND (last in
Nova v4 #3)
GAMORA [Phalanx Select] (last in
Annihilation #6, "Selected")
NOVA 0001/STELLAR CAPTAIN KO-REL [Kree] (first appearance)
Other characters:
- Chief Yan [Kree]
- "DIMPLES" [Kree]
- "FLAGPOLE" [Kree]
- Various other Kree
- Three PHALANX scientists
Summary:
pg1-4
Hala System
Rich stargates into the Hala system, and 2.6 seconds later, a Kree Sentry tries to kill him. A "radiation pulse of astonishing magnitude" then comes from Hala, and briefly knocks the Worldmind offline.
When the WM's rebooted, it explains that "all [communication] links outside the Kree Empire have just been suspended".
A bunch more Kree Sentries then attack them, and the WM says something's trying to hack it. As soon as it realises what it is, he orders Rich out of the sector immediately - the Sentries have been "violated by the Phalanx".
pg5-7
Phalanx nerve centre (or something like that, it's not captioned - the Babel Spire?)
Meanwhile, several Phalanx Scientists work on identifying Rich, and as they do, send eight more Sentries at him. They don't last long, and "Select Gamora" comes in to tell them where they're going wrong - she is, of course, infected, and asks for a hundred Sentries to take on Rich with.
pg8-9
Hala System
Worldmind exposits on the Phalanx for Rich's benefit, and works out fairly accurately what happened in the Prologue. It wants Richard to get out and stay away before he's "contaminated". Rich refuses, but as the WM's telling him what to do "contrary to [its'] express recommendations", the Sentries Gamora asked for start to teleport in.
pg10-11
Phalanx nerve centre
Gamora starts to pin down Rich with the Sentries, after getting frustrated with the "slow" Phalanx Scientists. The Scientists work out that Rich hasn't succumbed to the transmode virus because an "artificial intellect gestalt" is inhibiting it.
Gamora regrets having to kill Rich - she'd rather make him a "Select".
pg12
Hala System
Rich is indeed pinned down and injured. Being crushed by several Sentries, he opens a Stargate, destroying multiple Sentries and blowing others away.
pg13
Phalanx nerve centre
Gamora fills the Phalanx in on what Rich did, and is ordered to "pursue and apprehend him".
pg14-15
Stargate, in-transit
Rich has broken ribs and various other injuries (and a torn suit).
Trying to exit Kree Space, they see the barrier too late, and run out of space to slow down, hitting it at near-full-tilt...
pg16-22
"Drez-Lar, Kree Outworld"
Drez-Lar is an ex-Kree Colony world that "perished in the Annihilation War". Most were evacuated, but the Light Cruiser
Spirit of Supremor was shot down while acting as part of a rearguard. 102 Kree Soldiers out of the 2000 on board survived. They're still alive.
Stellar Captain Ko-Rel, a Battlefield Medic, was the highest-ranking survivor, and sends a message every day asking for rescue even though the comlink's probably broken, wanting to get back and see her son, Zam.
Something crash-lands some distance away, and she's called by "Chief Yan" [named in #5] , and they and a few others put on anti-radiation suits to go out and look for it.
Of course, the thing that hit was Nova, who is still alive despite looking very, very dead. He's mindlinked with her (Rich's box style rather than the Worldmind's), and, after being shocked by the mindlink, a huge energy pulse jumps from him to her, and Ko-Rel finds herself a Nova Centurion...
Continuity notes:
The stargate Nova exits at the start of the issue is apparently the one he entered at the end of #3.
Gamora hasn't appeared between Annihilation and this issue, to my knowledge.
Goofs:
Denham draws the diagonal points on Nova's helmet a lot shorter than Chen throughout this arc.
Not sure if it's a goof or not, but Ko-Rel's hair suddenly gets lighter (going from a blue darker than her skin to silver-white) on the last page, when she's revealed in-costume. Either way, it stays silver-white from here on in.
Calendar notes:
The Kree - the surviving crew of the
Spirit of Supremor - have been on Drez-Lar for "a year", having been brought down while mounting a rearguard action at the end of an evacuation attempt on the planet during the Annihilation War.
It took Nova "twelve minutes to reach the Kree heartworlds" by Stargate, so if - as it looks - it's the same Stargate, then we're very definitely still on the same day as NOVA4 #3.
As already discussed, this issue overlaps the Prologue, with Rich being hit by the Kree bubble-forming energy wave as he approaches Hala on pg3.
If a gap becomes necessary in #4-6, the only place to put it is between pg15 & 16 of this issue, after Rich hits the barrier and before he crash-lands on Drez-Lar - although putting a significant gap in there may well make the Phalanx look relatively incompetent. See calendar notes for #6. Apart from that, the three issues take place over about three hours.
Timeframe:
pg1-15: Space, from Hala System to barrier via Stargate as Gamora observes. Twelve minutes after the end of NOVA4 #3, pg2 is synchronous with
Annihilation: Conquest - Prologue pg31, lasts less than half an hour or so.
pg16-22: Drez-Lar, 10-30 mins total. Probably shortly after pg1-15.
__________________
NOVA v4 #5
Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Sean Chen/Scott Hanna and Brian Denham
"Together"
Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER [Selected/assimilated]
XANDARIAN WORLDMIND (-VO?)
GAMORA [Phalanx Select]
NOVA 0001/STELLAR CAPTAIN KO-REL [Kree]
Other characters:
- Chief Yan [Kree] (dies)
- "DIMPLES" [Kree] (dies)
- "FLAGPOLE" [Kree] (dies)
- "ESS" [Kree] (assimilated)
- Various other Kree (most die)
- LIGHTSTORM (Spaceknight/Phalanx Select, dies)
- various PHALANX hunters (some die)
Summary:
Whole issue takes place on "Drez-Lar, evacuated Kree Fringe World"
pg1-3
(Drez-Lar exterior)
Two groups of Phalanx Hunters teleport to the planet, one led by Gamora, one led by Lightstorm, a [Selected] Spaceknight. Lightstorm's group is rapidly wiped out by something
very fast moving.
pg4-6
(planet surface -->
Spirit of Supremor gathering area)
The Worldmind congratulates Ko-Rel, who found it all too fast to follow, and introduced itself, and dubs her Nova 0001. WM explains the basic situation - it's an "emergency deputation", and she's directed to protect "the Nova Prime" (Rich) and the WM (which is still in Rich's head, and speaking to Ko telepathically) from the Phalanx. Once it starts using her name and describing her life, and mentioning her son, she starts finding it invasive.
Addressing her crew, she sees everybody knows, and asks if anyone's "got a problem with the new and farked-up situation [she] find[s] [her]self in". "Dimples", her second-in-command, defuses her with a crack about how tight the Nova uniform is. Ko asks where the Chief is, and is directed towards Medical.
pg7-9
(
SoS Central Medical)
As Ko looks at him with Chief Yan and "Flagpole", Rich is looking a lot better - still a mess, but his uniform's back, and he's more emaciated than burned - he's "visibly healing". Exactly how bad a state he was in though is spelt out by Flagpole - "Multiple skeletal fractures, organ failure [&] fifth-degree burns over 95% of his body".
Worldmind then has a word with Ko-Rel to warn her that the Phalanx are probably closing in, and she directs Flagpole - who recognises the name - to set up a full, condition red, defence deployment. And that the WM caught him "staring at [her] butt".
Once she and the Chief alone, Ko explains the situation with the Phalanx to "Yan" - who's heard of, and possibly encountered, them before - as the Worldmind explained it to her, and gets frustrated that she can't just go and fight Phalanx/save her son, Zam (a hologram of whom she apparently carries at all times).
pg10:
(planet surface)
"Ess", one of the Kree sent out to be part of the defence perimeter, is attacked and assimilated by Phalanx
pg11
(
SoS corridor)
Phalanx Hunters enter the ship, and are fired upon by a group of Kree led by Dimples, who gets beheaded by a PH just after she reports to Ko-Rel
pg12-15:4
(
SoS, to planet surface)
Lots of Kree get cut down by more Phalanx Hunters. Ko-Rel gets upset, and annoyed at the Worldmind for repeating that "the Nova Prime" is what she's to focus on [a brief cutaway to Rich shows that he's now conscious and mostly healed, but still too weak to get up].
Ko then flies out, trying to lead the Phalanx away against the Worldmind's "specific instructions". Seemingly, they all teleport after her, leaving the surviving Kree to tend to their wounded.
pg15:5-22
(
Spirit of Supremor)
...however, Gamora is still on the ship, unnoticed by the Kree's scans. She kills off five uniformed Kree in quick succession, then checks up on the Hunters - a quick cutaway shows them all fighting Ko-Rel, and Gamora tells them to "damage her if you can. Keep her busy, at least. Make her believe her charade has worked" before cutting the connection.
Chief Yan then goes by, inquiring after "Jul" and "Tiptoe", before saying her's going to check on Rich. Before he can, he's stabbed in the back by Gamora - who then enters the medibay and transmodes Rich with a kiss, which heals his remaining wounds, and he stands up, a Select, feeling "perfect".
Continuity notes:
"Lightstorm" is, as far as I can tell, on his first (and last) appearance this issue. He doesn't look like any of the five Spaceknights from the Prologue, nor is he - either visually or, per JLH's list from the Annihilation analysis thread, by name - one of the SKs to appear in Ann #5. He can be seen here -
http://www.popcultureshock.com/nova-5-preview/42235/4/ - if anyone knows different.
Oh, and I'm not sure how to list the Worldmind's appearances. In NOVA4 #4 & 7 (along with Ann:Nova #1 & 2, at least), it "appears" as a hologram of sorts (usually that only Rich can see). In NOVA4 #2, it briefly uses Rich's body while he's asleep. Obviously, full appearances for these.
But, at other times, it's speech-captions only in the DnA issues, and Giffen didn't bother with it at all in Annihilation (except for one brief mention in Ann #2). Oh, and as this issue clarifies, it specifically resides at present "in the cerebrum of the Nova Prime" (i.e, the main bit of Rich's brain) rather than more generally distributed around his body, so technically it won't appear on-panel unless Rich gets his head literally cracked open.
I'd say full appearances when it's seen as a hologram (or using Rich's body), -VO for caption-only apps, -BTS for that Annihilation #2 bit and nothing if it's not seen or heard even when Rich is on-panel (unlike, say, the situation with the Uni-Power, it's not the same thing as the Nova Force. SuperNova carried, basically, the whole force without the Worldmind before, after all.). But I'd like some clarification here...
No direct links to other Conquest minis.
Goofs:
Running complaint about how the standard Kree uniforms are all green [which should be reserved for Captains]...
Calendar notes:
Continues more or less directly out of #4 (there's been enough time to move Rich to the medibay and for the news about Ko-Rel to spread, but neither would take long at all), and all within an hour or two, which means we're probably still well within 24 hours of Rich departing Earth in #3 (Drax thing in #6 notwithstanding...).
Timeframe:
pg1-22. Drez-Lar, over an hour or so, continuing shortly after the end of #4.
Other stuff:
DnA seem to have loosely based the naming/ranking of the Kree on the [New] Battlestar Galactica as much as anything else - it's a mix of ranks, nicknames/codenames, and only a very few are wearing [versions of] the standard Kree uniform.
__________________
NOVA v4 #6
Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Sean Chen/Scott Hanna and Brian Denham
"Inside"
Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER [Phalanx Select]
XANDARIAN WORLDMIND (-VO?)
GAMORA [Phalanx Select]
NOVA 0001/STELLAR CAPTAIN KO-REL (dies)
DRAX THE DESTROYER (last in
Annihilation #6)
Other characters:
- Chief Yan [Kree] (corpse only)
- various Kree corpses
- various PHALANX hunters (die)
Summary:
pg1-6
"Kree Fringe World Drez-Lar"
Ko-Rel suddenly notices that the Worldmind's gone quiet, even though she's destroyed all the Phalanx. She then notices the burning
Spirit of Supremor, and clicks what's happened.
She makes very short work of the three Phalanx Hunters Gamora left behind to "exterminate all survivors", knocking the last one about a mile, and runs inside to see all the corpses. She talks to the hologram of her son for a minute, angry and embarrassed, when the Worldmind cuts in, "faint" and "far away". It tells her about "the Nova Prime"'s Selection, and that it won't last long before it's also taken by the Phalanx. It asks Ko to kill it - and Rich - before that happens, and opens a Stargate to Nil-Rast, one of the "inner Kree worlds" where Rich is, for her. ETA 38 minutes.
pg7-11:1
"Kree planetoid Nil-Rast"
Select-Rich toys with Drax for a bit, while selling the Selection plan, while Gamora looks on, and refers to it as "a test of [his] Selecthood". Eventually, Drax stays down. Gamora comments how he makes it seem easy.
They "deliver Drax for Selection".
pg11:2-22
"Kree Geothermal Refinery Faciloid"
(technically, the caption's on 11:1, but there they're looking at the place from a distance, while they're in it as of :2 and have dropped Drax off)
They watch Drax being taken away by a couple of Phalanx (probably Hunters, possibly Scientists), and Select-Rich is slightly bothered by how "normal" he feels. [BTW, yes, there's a point to saying "Select-Rich" if I'm going to be consistent for #7
]
Gamora explains that the Phalanx "has moved beyond its regimented mindset" and that it has been taught that, in order to succeed, it must value individuality and free will". She dodges a question about who "taught" them, and says that they're "coded to serve the needs of the Phalanx Collective", "but independent enough to act on [their] own instincts".
Select-Rich then hears a stargate open just as he starts kissing at her neck, and is promptly knocked from Gamora's arms by Ko-Rel, who grabs him without slowing down. She asks the Worldmind what to do, and is told that "Nova Prime" is about to... and is cut off as Select-Rich knocks Ko away with an omnidirectional blast.
Select-Rich then asks the Worldmind to track Ko, and is told in no uncertain terms that he's getting no help from it as long as it keeps the transmode virus at bay.
WM then guides Ko-Rel to lead Select-Rich a merry chase, with Gamora following behind as fast as she can (teleporting?). It's at best a stalemate for Ko - she gets a couple of solid blasts in, but can't hurt the vastly more powerful Select-Rich, while he can't get a lock on her thanks to the Worldmind's help (at one point, the increasingly frustrated Select-Rich rants at her and the WM, and gets an "I'm not listening to you, Richard" in return from the WM).
Eventually, the Worldmind directs Ko down toward the central thermal processing core. While a blast from Select-Rich grazes her head, they manage to get him to run into a magma pipe, downing him temporarily. WM says he's vulnerable, and begs her to finish him - and it - off while he's down, but she can't do it, saying she's not a murderer. And is immediately knifed in the back by Gamora ("I am") as she looks away.
Select-Rich taunts her as he picks himself up just as Ko collapses, catching her. She says "Don't... you've got to... This isn't you", and his eyes momentarily clear as a result as she expires with a last word, "Zam...".
Afterward, he confirms she's dead, and wonders what her hologram-projector is as it falls & activates, before stepping on it when Gamora says it's nothing of any significance.
They go to "hit the showers", leaving her corpse where it is.
Continuity notes:
Again, Drax's first appearance since Annihilation-proper as far as I'm aware.
No direct links to other Conquest minis.
Goofs:
The shift to Chen on p13 sees the ledge Gamora & Rich are on change a lot, in both surroundings, shape and in that the railing Rich leaned on at the top of p11 vanished. Plus, the star on Rich's back is missing after "Stellar Captain Kree Shlag" slams into him.
As she's stabbed in the back, Ko spits out a spray of (blue-purple) blood, which is dribbling down her face in the next panel (head-on), then vanishes in the last panel as she dies (side-on), then is back as Select-Rich says her heart has stopped (head-on_, then is gone again on the last page focus on her corpse (again, side-on).
Calendar notes:
Continues more or less directly out of #5, give or take ten minutes or so. Page 12 should be 38 minutes after page 6, and the concluding fight is five-ten minutes, so by the end of the issue it's at most an hour since the end of #5 and, again, seemingly still within 24 hours of the end of #3.
Oddly, however, Gamora implies Drax has been evading the Phalanx for longer than that ("He's been evading us since the Conquest. We've tracked him from planet to planet"). It's not a direct contradiction, but considering the tie between #4 pg2 and AC:Prologue pg31, unless Rich was falling for days between hitting the bubble and landing on Drez-Lar without the Phalanx finding him, they've been looking for Drax since before Hala was taken (logical, since they apparently got Gamora herself earlier than that) and Gamora's being economical with the truth, or Gamora's being economical with the truth full-stop, and this is the first time they've found Drax.
Timeframe:
pg1-6. Drez-Lar, shortly after the end of #5, ten-fifteen minutes.
pg7-11. Nil-Rast. May overlap pg1-6.
pg12. Nil-Rast. 38 minutes after pg6, continues directly from pg11.
pg13-22. Nil-Rast, 10-15 minutes.
______________________
NOVA v4 #7
Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Sean Chen/Scott Hanna and Brian Denham
"Out"
Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER [Phalanx Select, stops being so when Transmode Virus is put into remission]
XANDARIAN WORLDMIND (-VO?)
GAMORA [Phalanx Select]
NOVA 0001/STELLAR CAPTAIN KO-REL (Worldmind memory engram of her only - does this count? She gets a line...)
DRAX THE DESTROYER [Phalanx Select]
Other characters:
- ULTRON (you could argue he's BTS the whole way, but DnA confirmed that the eyes looking down on Select Nova were Ultron's, so he's on-panel here)
- various PHALANX Scientists
- various PHALANX Hunters
- various unidentified PHALANX Select
- various Kree, Phalanx-assimilated
- various Kree Sentries, Phalanx-assimilated
- Engrams of lots of dead Novas. Probably only Ko-Rel is pre-existing, but...
Summary:
pg1-5
(Hala, into Babel Spire)
Select-Rich thinks how great it is to be a Select, as he flies towards the Babel Spire along with several Hunters, a Kree Sentry and what looks like a generic Spaceknight - it *may* be Daystar, from the Prologue, but if so it's miscoloured in plain silver and has several details wrong - and meeting up with Gamora, who's missed him even though "it's only been five hours... [he] was rounding up terrorists on Han-Lar".
They're summoned to a briefing and missing assignment - "many, many terrorists [are] still at large, trying to resists" and they need to "help them understand."
While all this is happening, however, he's hearing a voice going "screaming" and "Why aren't you screaming?", and getting flashbacks to Ko-Rel dying in his arms, saying "Don't... you've got to... This isn't you" [one of these, (3:2), is an "alternate angle" version of NOVA4 6 (20:3), looking over Select-Rich's shoulder rather than side-on, the others are straight reproductions of #6 (20:3) and - in the next segment - (20:5), with fade-to-white edges to show that they're FBs]
He begins to be disturbed by this, and asks Gamora, who writes it off as the standard background voices-from-the-Collective, but he starts getting a headache from it, then zones out...
pg6-11
(In Rich's Head)
In his head, he's confronted by a version of himself in his original costume - the "tiny fragment of [his] psyche that the Worldmind has managed to protect from the transmode infection."
Select-Rich is confused, then aggressive, then slips back into sales-pitch mode, when Young-Rich asks why he isn't screaming, why he's accepting what's happening. When Select-Rich says he's accepted Selection and there's no need to fight it, Young-Rich says he IS fighting it, and shows a bunch of Novas fighting Phalanx silhouettes, based on "Worldmind's records of all the lost centurions". But it's all symbolic, and has been happening since he was infected.
When Select-Rich notices Ko-Rel among them, he remembers her dying again, and Young-Rich tells him she'll "be on [his] conscience a long time", but that it was her death that gave him a chance to break free - the Worldmind had almost lost, but her portion of the Nova Force was just enough of a boost to turn the tide. Select-Rich starts to panic as he remembers her last word, and Young-Rich says that they can't cure the transmode virus, but they can force it into remission. And by "them" they mean "him".
Young-Rich starts pushing the "Why aren't you screaming" again, as Select-Rich starts to panic more and more, and finally says "I am" the third time, and starts incinerating the Phalanx representations. The last thing he sees before snapping back to reality is Ko-Rel asking him to save her son.
pg12-14:2
(Hala, Babel Spire into space)
Only a moment's passed in real life, as Gamora asks Rich to say something - then he looks up at her, his eyes clear. She mutters that it's "simply not possible", then he blasts her and a Phalanx Scientist into opposite walls.
Rich starts asking the Worldmind for help, and it finally answers him again - he's got Cable Syndrome, with 83% of the Nova Force tied up just keeping the T-O virus under control. Rich says that means he's no match for even one Sentry, and Worldmind says, yup, they need to get outta dodge. When Rich points out what happened last time they tried that, the Worldmind says that, since he's been a Select, they now know how the "Force Shell" actually works, and opens a stargate.
pg14:3-15
(Hala, Babel Spire)
Back in the Spire, a Phalanx Scientist tells Gamora they didn't stop Rich in time, and she tells them to reprocess themselves - but track his course first. The Scientist says he's headed for a neutron star, close to the Barrier. This rings a bell with her, and says she wants to teleport there to "meet him" and get her some support. A now-Select Drax - who even though he loves being Phalanx, hates Rich for making him so (?!) - volunteers.
pg16-20
(Orbit of Ban-Lar 4.77 [Neutron Star], into star)
Meanwhile, Rich has arrived at the star in question, and has the Worldmind's plan, based on the data Rich "absorbed as a Select" explained to him - to use its' immense gravity to create a wormhole to get outside. Rich baulks.
Worldmind: "Who always gives you proper advice?"
Rich: "You do, but--"
WM: "Do you want me to explain it to you? The explanation will involve phrases such as neutron-degenerate matter and high-energy kaons"
This gets Rich angry, and the WM apologises, saying its' temper's frayed from holding back the virus - but they don't have any other options.
Gamora and Drax then teleport in, shooting at him. Rich starts to fight them, but the WM points out that this means he "will die... quickly, and for nothing." Rich finally gives in, and after some "brief" pain, is shot through the wormhole...
pg21
(Very, Very Far Away....)
...into a distant part of the universe. Uncharted territories, looking for a way back to warn others.
pg22
("Epilogue: Two Light-Years Away...")
And, Selects Gamora and Drax were also dragged through the wormhole, and dropped "nearby" (relative term)...
Continuity notes:
Again, the (unnamed) Spaceknight in (2:2) appears to be new to me, but
here's the page for any SK experts to check.
Goofs:
Well, I'd say the blue Pikachu corpsman counts as a "goof".
Other than that, just general inconsistencies between the Chen & Denham pages.
Calendar notes:
It's been a "few days" (according to the Worldmind, that model of precision
), since Rich was Selected.
The issue itself lasts less than an hour or so, provided the wormhole didn't shunt Rich in time (of which there's no indication).
Timeframe:
pg1-15. Hala, Babel Spire. A "few days" after #6, Nova returns "five hours" after departing to deal with an anti-Phalanx resistance cell. Depending on whether the scene in Nova's head is real time or accelerated, between fifteen and thirty minutes.
pg16-20. Orbit of Ban-Lar 4.77. Minutes after pg15, about ten minutes.
pg21-22. Uncharted territories. Immediately after pg21 for the characters, likely to be immediately after absolute.
Other stuff:
Despite the ending and the fact that this is the last labelled Conquest tie-in for the book, according to DnA in a Wizard interview
Nova will be appearing in Conquest.