Monday, December 14, 2009

Whatever Happened To Zam?

It's an older lingering question I have about Abnett and Lanning's work on Nova. During the Annihilation: Conquest tie-in issues, the Worldmind briefly empowered a Kree officer by the name of Ko-Rel. She was de facto commander of a downed Kree ship, stranded on a distant world. She was needed to protect Richard Rider, who was badly damaged by slamming into the barrier the Phalanx erected around Kree space at faster-than-light speed. Ultimately, Ko-Rel died trying to fight a Phalanx controlled Nova and Gamora*, and the return of her protion of the Nova Force gave Richard and the Worldmind just enough juice to break free of Phalanx control. Apparently, Ko-Rel's memory patterns were stored in the Worldmind, and she's the basis for its current interface, after the last one was corrupted by Ego, the Living Planet.

Anyway, one of the things we learned about Ko-Rel was she had a son back in the hub of the Kree Empire named Zam. What she really wanted was to get back to him. Obviously, that didn't happen, what with her dying. Since then, nothing about Zam, and I'm left wondering. Did he survive the Phalanx occupation? Was he on one of the worlds Vulcan destroyed? What's he doing these days? We never learned anything about who he was staying with, a dad, a grandparent, some sort of government established set-up for the children of Kree soldiers. Let's assume Zam's staying with his dad, and they both survived. Aren't they curious about where she is? She'd been missing for over a year even before she became a Nova. Seems to me Richard owes it to her to seek out her family, if they've survived, and give them closure.

Granted, he'd need a spare minute to do that, but they could fit that in. Actually, I'm a little surprised the Ko-Rel Worldmind hasn't been using its abilities to access Kree databases and seek out information on Zam. You could always use something like that to stir a little conflict between the Nova Corps and the Inhumans. The Corps ought to be concerned about the Inhumans. They made a weapon that blew a hole in the universe, which clearly marks them as a threat to peace.

* I still contend killing Ko-Rel was a mistake. She'd make a nice contrast to Richard, and nothing says she would have to remain a Nova permanently. She could have retired after the recent recruiting drive. Mostly, I think she'd have been an interesting presence during Conquest, since Nova was across the universe for most of it.

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