It's Those Little Things

It's the little things that can bring joy or annoyance so easily. Because I want the blog to be upbeat we'll start with the annoyance, so that we can end with the joy.

Nova #2: It isn't that Nova didn't beat up Iron Man. I get that. Rich is older, more seasoned. He's seen war in a way, on a scale, I don't believe Stark ever has (I don't think Tony was only the front lines during Operation Galactic Storm the way Nova was during Annihilation), and so I'd imagine violence isn't something he'd engage in casually anymore. It's reserved for when there's a suitable reason. And Stark hasn't really given Rich a reason to fight him... yet.

No, my annoyance was with Nova's scar, or lack thereof. For those who don't know, Nova sported a sizable scar on the right side of his face, from a vicious backhand Annihilus gave him on their first go-round* [Annihilation: Nova #4]. It was a persistent feature throughout Annihilation. So far, there's been no visual evidence of it in Nova. Now that by itself is OK; in the first battle of Annihilation #1, Nova lost a leg, and we're told that the limb was regrown after the battle. So I could certainly see Rich taking a little time (prior to the start of his series) to get the scar fixed too. Except that Justice directly mentions the scar during their chat, alluding to what it signifies about the changes Nova's gone through. Except there's no sign of this scar Vance speaks of. And it's just a little thing that bugs me, which bothers me, because I've been enjoying Sean Chen's art on Nova very much so far thank you, and I think Chen could draw a very nice scar. He just hasn't up to this point.

Now to the joy.

Amazing Spider-Girl #8: A little of the joy is that it's a self-contained story. A single issue with beginning, middle, end, that still leaves possibilities for the future. Most of the joy though, is from Sara's parents discussing what they should do when she's let out of medical care. The choices were to let her go back to Midtown High, or send her to one of those schools for genetically gifted children. The father says it in slightly less happy terms than me, but that's still the part I liked, because he talks about 'one of those' schools. Meaning there's more than one. Kids that develop powers don't just have Xavier's as their only choice of where to go to hopefully be accepted more than they might be in your standard high school.

To me, that says that in the MC2 Universe, human-mutant relations have improved to the point that there are now multiple schools for kids with special powers, and they openly advertise this. Xavier tried to keep that fact about his school hidden for a long time (up until Morrison's run, correct?), because he feared bigoted responses. That's why it seemed like a lot of their students were ones Xavier sensed with Cerebro, then sent the team out to keep from harm (or keep from causing harm), until he could convince the parents to transfer the child to the Xavier Institute. That line, mostly meant to depict a father letting fear for himself override concern for his daughter, suggests that isn't a concern in that time. Or at least not as much of a problem. Ther are always gonna be bigots (I think Gene Thompson is one, and May's old off-and-on boyfriend, Brad, was as well), but by and large, people have grown less fearful and more understanding. I just really like that. It feels like a counterpoint to the current social climate of the 616 universe.

One thing I didn't like was the person in the letters page asking if we'd ever see May don Spider-Armor ala her father's look during his days as Stark's lapdog. Oh please no. However, if they do wind up doing this for some reason, go with armor that Peter constructed for himself (Web of Spider-Man #100). It's not as fancy as the Starktech, but it's at least Parker designed.