Nova v4 #10, Annual 1 and v4 #11-12
Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 2:36 pm
NOVA v4 #10
Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Wellinton Alves
"Vore"
Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER (last in Nova v4 #9)
XANDARIAN WORLDMIND (last in Nova v4 #9)
GAMORA [ZEN WHOBERIAN/Phalanx Select] (last in Nova v4 #9)
DRAX THE DESTROYER [Phalanx Select] (last in Nova v4 #9)
Other characters:
"Merchant caste Pachyceph Voidnaut" (unnamed, dies)
Adult Vore, and a lot of baby Vore (all unnamed, some die)
Summary:
pg1-11:1
Nova and still Select-Gamora wake up in each other's arms. A "THOOM" sound wakes them up, and they immediately back away from each other, followed by Gamora attempting to stab Rich, then shoot him, then back to stabbing. Rich tries to get her to stop, but it's not until he has a glowing hand against her throat that she does. Neither remember how they got there - Drax & Gamora had caught up with Rich, attacked him, and then neither remember anything until they woke up, nor know where they are. The Worldmind can't identify it either, although it can't do much scanning because it's so busy holding the transmode back.
There's loads of "wrecked starships, debris" around. Their teleport passports are blank, and Gamora is lacking her "precog tracking instinct" - she feels "numb, [her] senses dulled."
Another pair of THOOMs lead them to an injured "merchant caste Pachyceph Voidnaut". Just as Nova's about to try and help him, a bunch of glowy... giant amoebas... descend and smother him. Nova grabs Gamora, who's none too happy about being grabbed, and flies away, but they follow. The Worldmind can't tell him what they are, and he needs to stop and rest, as the infection takes its' toll. Gamora tells him to give in to it, and be with her again, and he angrily says he'll fight it, and brings up Ko-Rel's death at Gamora's godblade, and then why he left her to begin with...
pg11:2-11:3 (Flashback)
Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER; GAMORA; PETER JASON QUILL; lots of Kree & bugs who die.
Nova, Gamora & Quill fight off a bunch of Kree collaborators. Nova puts Gamora in charge of interrogating them, as "a vital source of information that could have saved lives". She just kills them instead. Apparently, Nova avoided her as much as he could after that.
Notes: (flashback)
I'm confused as to when this takes place, because the whole thing doesn't seem to fit:
1) In Annihilation #1, they're still sleeping together
2) In Annihilation #3, he sure acts like he's getting dumped when she goes off
3) In Annihilation #4, when Gamora gives them some teleport tech, it's a very brief meeting
4) After Annihilation #6, until the armistice is signed,
And there's also the matter of Gamora being coloured her traditional green in the flashback, when she was coloured blue-white throughout Annihilation even if she's back to green now
pg11:4-22
The amoeba-like things catch up with them. They start cutting/blasting/destroying them, until the WM tells Rich to break off - he doesn't have the power to spare - and leave Gamora behind (she's his sworn enemy, dedicated to killing him. Makes sense). He grabs her again anyway, which confuses everyone.
He heads for a vortex, hoping to get away, while he's clearly in pain, since he's using too much energy to hold the virus back. Once they're through the roughest part, he starts retching, and Gamora shouts that he's got to give in or it'll kill him - and even as he says "NO!", he vomits up metal, which stops the retching at least. She claims he's too stubborn, "so much better and truer than [her], and she stayed away from [HIM] in those last days" because he made her feel guilty. And she likes being a Select because she doesn't feel guilty any more.
The vortex dies away at this point, because the amoebae have showed up. WM pieces together what's going on - they're trapped inside a Vore, an extradimensional predator that snatched them as food for its' young (the amoebae-things). They're now in the birthing canal, and Rich asks for a full-strength shield as they get carried out with the young.
Now that they're safe, Gamora tries to stab Rich again. He knocks her out, spots Drax shooting at the Vore, and throws her at him before heading into teleport-space, back on the road to Kvch - although the WM would have preferred he kill the two of them.
Unfortunately, the transmode infection has become very aggressive. He's got a high fever, his body and costume are covered with transmode detailing, and the Worldmind estimates he's got less than two hours before the infection turns him or kills him....
Notes:
Drax & Gamora caught up to Rich in the teleport stream between the end of last issue and the start of this, with the fight entirely off-panel. No sign of how long that took, or how long Nova & Gamora were out cold, but we're talking hours rather than days, and the issue itself progresses quickly too.
NOVA ANNUAL #1
Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Mahmud A. Asrar; Wellinton Alves; "Klebs"
Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER (last in Nova v4 #10)
XANDARIAN WORLDMIND (last in Nova v4 #10)
Other characters:
A PHALANX.. thing
Summary:
pg1:1
Nova is "approximately 960 million light years from Earth" as he rockets towards Kvch. Feverish and in severe pain, his mind drifts...
pg30-36
He awakens in an airless cocoon, wires and circuits surrounding him inside and out. He realises the virus has been playing with his head, and the Worldmind finally reaches him, and he tells it to route him power, letting him burst out.
The Worldmind explains that he was so far gone, it induced a coma, but then couldn't wake him and he was nearly dead. Eventually, his dreams knocked him out of it.
He turns and sees the remains of the cocoon form into a huge, misshapen mirror of himself. He destroys it, but is still sick - although not in such imminent danger of death. He asks how far to Kvch, and the Worldmind says he's made it. This is Kvch.
Notes:
The present-day/"real" segment picks up almost directly from the end of NOVA4 10, and leads absolutely directly into NOVA4 11. How long passes in reality while Nova is comatose is unclear.
There's a segment set in the future that's complete fiction, and the segment set in the past, while a heavy homage to NOVA1 1, is also very twisted - the dialogue is different, Ginger wasn't a goth, and the football-guy didn't intervene just before Rich collapsed - and that's before the Phalanx stuff becomes involved and Rhomann Dey isn't dead. So none of the dreams count AFAICS.
____________________
NOVA v4 #11
Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Paul Pelletier
"Terminal"
Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER (last in Nova Annual #1)
XANDARIAN WORLDMIND-VO (last in Nova Annual #1)
WARLOCK III [TECHNARCH] (last in Warlock (M-Tech) #9)
TYRO [TECHNARCH] (first appearance)
GAMORA [ZEN WHOBERIAN/Phalanx Select] (last in Nova v4 #10)
DRAX THE DESTROYER/ARTHUR DOUGLAS [Phalanx Select] (last in Nova v4 #10)
Other characters:
picture of New Mutants (Cannonball, Warlock, Cypher, Magma, Karma, Sunspot, Wolfsbane, Magik)
picture of New Mutants (Cannonball, Karma, Magma, Wolfsbane) vs. Magus [Technarch]
Unnamed SIREDAM
Flashback to Warlock rocketing through space
Summary:
pg1-9
[Kvch, surface]
Rich asks the Worldmind to "say that again". The WM reiterates that its' Kvch. And then to reiterate that there's no lifesigns. The WM confirms that the planet is dead. Rich says then, so is he.
After a few moments of detail, the WM suddenly detects movement 28km away, and discover a "massive machine entity" that the Worldmind can't scan. It then starts fighting another one - but as Nova tries to get away, his transmode infection flares into overdrive, and he starts to explode into circuitry.
At that moment, one of the MMEs notices the "alien lifeglow" and orders the other one to stand down. When it doesn't, it blasts it, and tells "Tyro" that "self meant it", as it shrinks and changes shape, becoming recognisable as Warlock, back in his original form. Seeing Nova's technorgified body melting into the surface, he expresses concern...
pg10-13
Nova, recomposed into a broadly normal shape, wakes up on a wheeled transport, with Warlock standing over him. Nova feels sick, and doesn't recognise Warlock until the rebooting Worldmind gives him a pointer. Warlock gave him "a little lifeglow to boost [him]", and apologises - the Phalanx virus became critically agitated in the presence of "technarchology". He can't do more without, "you know, killing self." Rich is disappointed to hear Warlock can't control or cure his virus, but Warlock says "It is not quite as simple as that. Not anymore." He's busy trying to "redeem [his] stagnating race".
Once they reach the crèche, Tyro comes up, in a form (very) loosely patterned after Warlock, and is angry at Warlock for stopping the drill and wants to take "the meat thing's" lifeglow. Warlock says no, and introduces Tyro as his adoptive son. He'd given Tyro his non-aggressive version of the transmode virus, and is trying to raise Tyro to be like him.
Nova still wants Warlock to save the Kree, but Warlock says it would take all his own lifeglow just to save Nova, and he's sworn the Technarchy won't take lifeglow ever again.
pg14-16
"Three and a half thousand kilometres away"
Drax & Gamora land on Kvch - and promptly, involuntarily, turn into a Babel Spire and send out a signal...
pg17-22
[Crèche]
Warlock explains his history, with the aid of pictures of his New Mutants (oddly excluding Moonstar - is this a reference to a specific story?), and some of the New Mutants fighting Magus. Eventually, he decided to return to Kvch and work to save his race (skipping over the death/Douglock/Warlock-with-Doug's-memories bits)
Tyro moans the whole way through.
Warlock says he doesn't have the power to help Nova, and he won't rob it from one lifeform to save another. He also hopes he has at least a decade to train Tyro before his actual siredam turns up to challenge him. Challenged further, Warlock's guilty, but asks if Nova would put saving the Kree above saving the human race, and Nova's forced to admit he would choose his own kind. He turns to leave, when the Babel Spire starts to drive Tyro crazy. Warlock begins to feel it, "though not as intensely", and scans for it. Nova picks out Drax & Gamora from the spire. Warlock realises it will summon "a Siredam. The Spire they have made is summoning a fully mature technarch. All is lost."
Continuity notes:
The three pictures in this issue - displayed by Warlock as FBs, despite him appearing in him - are of a NM lineup featuring Cannonball, Warlock, Cypher, Magma, Karma, Sunspot, Wolfsbane and Magik (all in original-NM outfits). The second is of Cannonball, Karma, Magma and Wolfsbane fighting Warlock's dadmummy, the Magus (still all in original-NM outfits). I can't place either of these due to unfamiliarity with the original NM series, and don't know if the absence of Moonstar is a clue to place the first picture with the second.
The third is simpler, and is of Warlock rocketing through space (in classic/current form, rather than the Ferry-designed form from his series), and the context makes it clear that it's placed between his last appearance (that series) and this issue. No explanation is given for his lack of Cypher-traits, or his reversion to his original form and speech pattern (and given that DnA have drawn significantly from the M-Tech series' retcons of the Phalanx's origins for Conquest, including in this issue they're obviously aware of it).
Notes:
Picks up directly from the Annual, and leads directly into #12.
Timeframe:
Same day as Nova Annual #1. A couple of hours, tops.
___________
NOVA v4 #12
Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Paul Pelletier
"Inheritance"
Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER (next in Annihilation: Conquest #6)
XANDARIAN WORLDMIND (next in Annihilation: Conquest #6)
WARLOCK III [TECHNARCH] (next in Annihilation: Conquest #6)
TYRO [TECHNARCH] (next in Annihilation: Conquest #6)
GAMORA [ZEN WHOBERIAN] (next in Annihilation: Conquest #6)
DRAX THE DESTROYER/ARTHUR DOUGLAS (next in Annihilation: Conquest #6)
Other characters:
Unnamed SIREDAM
Summary:
pg1-4:1
[Space to] "Kvch, the Technarchy homeworld"
The Siredam, drawn by the Drax/Gamora Babel Spire, flies rapidly to Kvch and starts tunnelling down, aiming to kill Tyro.
pg4:2-17
"Crèche Terminal, far below the surface" [to surface]
This leaves Warlock very depressed.
Tyro, meanwhile, is desperate to fight.
And Nova is helpless, with his T-O flaring up.
Warlock tries to persuade them to flee, but Nova weakly says they wouldn't get far. Warlock asks how, and Nova says he's "got the entire N-Nova Force inside [him]... f-for all the good it's doing [him] right now."
Tyro is into raving lunatic mode by this point, but Warlock checks him and orders him to go, with his "last command" to him. Tyro, calmed, says he won't forget him and goes.
Nova, meanwhile, is melting into circuitry once more. Warlock asks if he will promise to hold the Siredam for as long as he can, gives him all his lifeglow, and falls, dark.
The Worldmind reboots just as the siredam crashes through the ceiling, and Nova, suddenly cured thanks to Warlock's sacrifice, flies it straight back out again.
Once the Worldmind tells him that Warlock must have cured him, Nova says he made him a promise, and he always keeps his promises... at which point the WM points out that (a) even at full power, he can't win and (b) he promised to keep the Worldmind, as the last repository of all of Xandar's culture and knowledge, safe. Rich doesn't have an answer to that one.
The fight goes on, and just as the Worldmind estimates they have 46 minutes before it catches and kills them, Tyro shows up, saying "Pathetic Meat Thing" won't shame him, and promptly gets torn in half and eaten.
As the Worldmind's telling Rich to go, and Nova's claiming he's going to kill the siredam ("You can't"), the giant Technarch convulses. The WM notes its' energy profile is altering rapidly... and Tyro's voice comes out of the Siredam's oversized mouth. Tyro says he'd intended to use Warlock's transmode virus to try and convert the Siredam, but it's "feral personality could not cope with the viral overwrite. It perished and Tyroself found himself in control".
pg18-19
"Twenty-four minutes later..."
Nova, having finally found Warlock's body, brings him up for Tyro to revive using the Siredam's immense lifeglow reserves. Warlock is alternately confused, scared and confused again as he's filled in on what happened.
Afterward, Nova has a request of his own - would Tyro cure Gamora & Drax, please.
pg20-22
Once Tyro's done it, the reconstituted Drax is ornery as ever; but Gamora is shocked and panicked, feeling "worthless" without the "true purpose" from being a Select, Rich hugs her, and Drax walks off, and finds himself in Tyro's immense shadow.
Nova tells him to stand down. Meanwhile, Warlock brings up Nova's request for help from earlier, and Nova says that if it's an offer of help, he'll take it.
Continuity notes:
Leads out of NO4 11, and ends with a "to be concluded in Annihilation: Conquest #6", note, where Nova stargates the five of them to the barrier.
Timeframe:
Same day as Nova #11. A hour.
Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Wellinton Alves
"Vore"
Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER (last in Nova v4 #9)
XANDARIAN WORLDMIND (last in Nova v4 #9)
GAMORA [ZEN WHOBERIAN/Phalanx Select] (last in Nova v4 #9)
DRAX THE DESTROYER [Phalanx Select] (last in Nova v4 #9)
Other characters:
"Merchant caste Pachyceph Voidnaut" (unnamed, dies)
Adult Vore, and a lot of baby Vore (all unnamed, some die)
Summary:
pg1-11:1
Nova and still Select-Gamora wake up in each other's arms. A "THOOM" sound wakes them up, and they immediately back away from each other, followed by Gamora attempting to stab Rich, then shoot him, then back to stabbing. Rich tries to get her to stop, but it's not until he has a glowing hand against her throat that she does. Neither remember how they got there - Drax & Gamora had caught up with Rich, attacked him, and then neither remember anything until they woke up, nor know where they are. The Worldmind can't identify it either, although it can't do much scanning because it's so busy holding the transmode back.
There's loads of "wrecked starships, debris" around. Their teleport passports are blank, and Gamora is lacking her "precog tracking instinct" - she feels "numb, [her] senses dulled."
Another pair of THOOMs lead them to an injured "merchant caste Pachyceph Voidnaut". Just as Nova's about to try and help him, a bunch of glowy... giant amoebas... descend and smother him. Nova grabs Gamora, who's none too happy about being grabbed, and flies away, but they follow. The Worldmind can't tell him what they are, and he needs to stop and rest, as the infection takes its' toll. Gamora tells him to give in to it, and be with her again, and he angrily says he'll fight it, and brings up Ko-Rel's death at Gamora's godblade, and then why he left her to begin with...
pg11:2-11:3 (Flashback)
Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER; GAMORA; PETER JASON QUILL; lots of Kree & bugs who die.
Nova, Gamora & Quill fight off a bunch of Kree collaborators. Nova puts Gamora in charge of interrogating them, as "a vital source of information that could have saved lives". She just kills them instead. Apparently, Nova avoided her as much as he could after that.
Notes: (flashback)
I'm confused as to when this takes place, because the whole thing doesn't seem to fit:
1) In Annihilation #1, they're still sleeping together
2) In Annihilation #3, he sure acts like he's getting dumped when she goes off
3) In Annihilation #4, when Gamora gives them some teleport tech, it's a very brief meeting
4) After Annihilation #6, until the armistice is signed,
And there's also the matter of Gamora being coloured her traditional green in the flashback, when she was coloured blue-white throughout Annihilation even if she's back to green now
pg11:4-22
The amoeba-like things catch up with them. They start cutting/blasting/destroying them, until the WM tells Rich to break off - he doesn't have the power to spare - and leave Gamora behind (she's his sworn enemy, dedicated to killing him. Makes sense). He grabs her again anyway, which confuses everyone.
He heads for a vortex, hoping to get away, while he's clearly in pain, since he's using too much energy to hold the virus back. Once they're through the roughest part, he starts retching, and Gamora shouts that he's got to give in or it'll kill him - and even as he says "NO!", he vomits up metal, which stops the retching at least. She claims he's too stubborn, "so much better and truer than [her], and she stayed away from [HIM] in those last days" because he made her feel guilty. And she likes being a Select because she doesn't feel guilty any more.
The vortex dies away at this point, because the amoebae have showed up. WM pieces together what's going on - they're trapped inside a Vore, an extradimensional predator that snatched them as food for its' young (the amoebae-things). They're now in the birthing canal, and Rich asks for a full-strength shield as they get carried out with the young.
Now that they're safe, Gamora tries to stab Rich again. He knocks her out, spots Drax shooting at the Vore, and throws her at him before heading into teleport-space, back on the road to Kvch - although the WM would have preferred he kill the two of them.
Unfortunately, the transmode infection has become very aggressive. He's got a high fever, his body and costume are covered with transmode detailing, and the Worldmind estimates he's got less than two hours before the infection turns him or kills him....
Notes:
Drax & Gamora caught up to Rich in the teleport stream between the end of last issue and the start of this, with the fight entirely off-panel. No sign of how long that took, or how long Nova & Gamora were out cold, but we're talking hours rather than days, and the issue itself progresses quickly too.
NOVA ANNUAL #1
Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Mahmud A. Asrar; Wellinton Alves; "Klebs"
Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER (last in Nova v4 #10)
XANDARIAN WORLDMIND (last in Nova v4 #10)
Other characters:
A PHALANX.. thing
Summary:
pg1:1
Nova is "approximately 960 million light years from Earth" as he rockets towards Kvch. Feverish and in severe pain, his mind drifts...
pg30-36
He awakens in an airless cocoon, wires and circuits surrounding him inside and out. He realises the virus has been playing with his head, and the Worldmind finally reaches him, and he tells it to route him power, letting him burst out.
The Worldmind explains that he was so far gone, it induced a coma, but then couldn't wake him and he was nearly dead. Eventually, his dreams knocked him out of it.
He turns and sees the remains of the cocoon form into a huge, misshapen mirror of himself. He destroys it, but is still sick - although not in such imminent danger of death. He asks how far to Kvch, and the Worldmind says he's made it. This is Kvch.
Notes:
The present-day/"real" segment picks up almost directly from the end of NOVA4 10, and leads absolutely directly into NOVA4 11. How long passes in reality while Nova is comatose is unclear.
There's a segment set in the future that's complete fiction, and the segment set in the past, while a heavy homage to NOVA1 1, is also very twisted - the dialogue is different, Ginger wasn't a goth, and the football-guy didn't intervene just before Rich collapsed - and that's before the Phalanx stuff becomes involved and Rhomann Dey isn't dead. So none of the dreams count AFAICS.
____________________
NOVA v4 #11
Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Paul Pelletier
"Terminal"
Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER (last in Nova Annual #1)
XANDARIAN WORLDMIND-VO (last in Nova Annual #1)
WARLOCK III [TECHNARCH] (last in Warlock (M-Tech) #9)
TYRO [TECHNARCH] (first appearance)
GAMORA [ZEN WHOBERIAN/Phalanx Select] (last in Nova v4 #10)
DRAX THE DESTROYER/ARTHUR DOUGLAS [Phalanx Select] (last in Nova v4 #10)
Other characters:
picture of New Mutants (Cannonball, Warlock, Cypher, Magma, Karma, Sunspot, Wolfsbane, Magik)
picture of New Mutants (Cannonball, Karma, Magma, Wolfsbane) vs. Magus [Technarch]
Unnamed SIREDAM
Flashback to Warlock rocketing through space
Summary:
pg1-9
[Kvch, surface]
Rich asks the Worldmind to "say that again". The WM reiterates that its' Kvch. And then to reiterate that there's no lifesigns. The WM confirms that the planet is dead. Rich says then, so is he.
After a few moments of detail, the WM suddenly detects movement 28km away, and discover a "massive machine entity" that the Worldmind can't scan. It then starts fighting another one - but as Nova tries to get away, his transmode infection flares into overdrive, and he starts to explode into circuitry.
At that moment, one of the MMEs notices the "alien lifeglow" and orders the other one to stand down. When it doesn't, it blasts it, and tells "Tyro" that "self meant it", as it shrinks and changes shape, becoming recognisable as Warlock, back in his original form. Seeing Nova's technorgified body melting into the surface, he expresses concern...
pg10-13
Nova, recomposed into a broadly normal shape, wakes up on a wheeled transport, with Warlock standing over him. Nova feels sick, and doesn't recognise Warlock until the rebooting Worldmind gives him a pointer. Warlock gave him "a little lifeglow to boost [him]", and apologises - the Phalanx virus became critically agitated in the presence of "technarchology". He can't do more without, "you know, killing self." Rich is disappointed to hear Warlock can't control or cure his virus, but Warlock says "It is not quite as simple as that. Not anymore." He's busy trying to "redeem [his] stagnating race".
Once they reach the crèche, Tyro comes up, in a form (very) loosely patterned after Warlock, and is angry at Warlock for stopping the drill and wants to take "the meat thing's" lifeglow. Warlock says no, and introduces Tyro as his adoptive son. He'd given Tyro his non-aggressive version of the transmode virus, and is trying to raise Tyro to be like him.
Nova still wants Warlock to save the Kree, but Warlock says it would take all his own lifeglow just to save Nova, and he's sworn the Technarchy won't take lifeglow ever again.
pg14-16
"Three and a half thousand kilometres away"
Drax & Gamora land on Kvch - and promptly, involuntarily, turn into a Babel Spire and send out a signal...
pg17-22
[Crèche]
Warlock explains his history, with the aid of pictures of his New Mutants (oddly excluding Moonstar - is this a reference to a specific story?), and some of the New Mutants fighting Magus. Eventually, he decided to return to Kvch and work to save his race (skipping over the death/Douglock/Warlock-with-Doug's-memories bits)
Tyro moans the whole way through.
Warlock says he doesn't have the power to help Nova, and he won't rob it from one lifeform to save another. He also hopes he has at least a decade to train Tyro before his actual siredam turns up to challenge him. Challenged further, Warlock's guilty, but asks if Nova would put saving the Kree above saving the human race, and Nova's forced to admit he would choose his own kind. He turns to leave, when the Babel Spire starts to drive Tyro crazy. Warlock begins to feel it, "though not as intensely", and scans for it. Nova picks out Drax & Gamora from the spire. Warlock realises it will summon "a Siredam. The Spire they have made is summoning a fully mature technarch. All is lost."
Continuity notes:
The three pictures in this issue - displayed by Warlock as FBs, despite him appearing in him - are of a NM lineup featuring Cannonball, Warlock, Cypher, Magma, Karma, Sunspot, Wolfsbane and Magik (all in original-NM outfits). The second is of Cannonball, Karma, Magma and Wolfsbane fighting Warlock's dadmummy, the Magus (still all in original-NM outfits). I can't place either of these due to unfamiliarity with the original NM series, and don't know if the absence of Moonstar is a clue to place the first picture with the second.
The third is simpler, and is of Warlock rocketing through space (in classic/current form, rather than the Ferry-designed form from his series), and the context makes it clear that it's placed between his last appearance (that series) and this issue. No explanation is given for his lack of Cypher-traits, or his reversion to his original form and speech pattern (and given that DnA have drawn significantly from the M-Tech series' retcons of the Phalanx's origins for Conquest, including in this issue they're obviously aware of it).
Notes:
Picks up directly from the Annual, and leads directly into #12.
Timeframe:
Same day as Nova Annual #1. A couple of hours, tops.
___________
NOVA v4 #12
Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Paul Pelletier
"Inheritance"
Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER (next in Annihilation: Conquest #6)
XANDARIAN WORLDMIND (next in Annihilation: Conquest #6)
WARLOCK III [TECHNARCH] (next in Annihilation: Conquest #6)
TYRO [TECHNARCH] (next in Annihilation: Conquest #6)
GAMORA [ZEN WHOBERIAN] (next in Annihilation: Conquest #6)
DRAX THE DESTROYER/ARTHUR DOUGLAS (next in Annihilation: Conquest #6)
Other characters:
Unnamed SIREDAM
Summary:
pg1-4:1
[Space to] "Kvch, the Technarchy homeworld"
The Siredam, drawn by the Drax/Gamora Babel Spire, flies rapidly to Kvch and starts tunnelling down, aiming to kill Tyro.
pg4:2-17
"Crèche Terminal, far below the surface" [to surface]
This leaves Warlock very depressed.
Tyro, meanwhile, is desperate to fight.
And Nova is helpless, with his T-O flaring up.
Warlock tries to persuade them to flee, but Nova weakly says they wouldn't get far. Warlock asks how, and Nova says he's "got the entire N-Nova Force inside [him]... f-for all the good it's doing [him] right now."
Tyro is into raving lunatic mode by this point, but Warlock checks him and orders him to go, with his "last command" to him. Tyro, calmed, says he won't forget him and goes.
Nova, meanwhile, is melting into circuitry once more. Warlock asks if he will promise to hold the Siredam for as long as he can, gives him all his lifeglow, and falls, dark.
The Worldmind reboots just as the siredam crashes through the ceiling, and Nova, suddenly cured thanks to Warlock's sacrifice, flies it straight back out again.
Once the Worldmind tells him that Warlock must have cured him, Nova says he made him a promise, and he always keeps his promises... at which point the WM points out that (a) even at full power, he can't win and (b) he promised to keep the Worldmind, as the last repository of all of Xandar's culture and knowledge, safe. Rich doesn't have an answer to that one.
The fight goes on, and just as the Worldmind estimates they have 46 minutes before it catches and kills them, Tyro shows up, saying "Pathetic Meat Thing" won't shame him, and promptly gets torn in half and eaten.
As the Worldmind's telling Rich to go, and Nova's claiming he's going to kill the siredam ("You can't"), the giant Technarch convulses. The WM notes its' energy profile is altering rapidly... and Tyro's voice comes out of the Siredam's oversized mouth. Tyro says he'd intended to use Warlock's transmode virus to try and convert the Siredam, but it's "feral personality could not cope with the viral overwrite. It perished and Tyroself found himself in control".
pg18-19
"Twenty-four minutes later..."
Nova, having finally found Warlock's body, brings him up for Tyro to revive using the Siredam's immense lifeglow reserves. Warlock is alternately confused, scared and confused again as he's filled in on what happened.
Afterward, Nova has a request of his own - would Tyro cure Gamora & Drax, please.
pg20-22
Once Tyro's done it, the reconstituted Drax is ornery as ever; but Gamora is shocked and panicked, feeling "worthless" without the "true purpose" from being a Select, Rich hugs her, and Drax walks off, and finds himself in Tyro's immense shadow.
Nova tells him to stand down. Meanwhile, Warlock brings up Nova's request for help from earlier, and Nova says that if it's an offer of help, he'll take it.
Continuity notes:
Leads out of NO4 11, and ends with a "to be concluded in Annihilation: Conquest #6", note, where Nova stargates the five of them to the barrier.
Timeframe:
Same day as Nova #11. A hour.