Nova's History
Raye's biological father deserted his family when she was young. Her mother married a man she knew as Thomas Raye, an eccentric repairman who worked in his small laboratory as a hobby. Frankie's mother passed away, leaving her in her stepfather's care. Without any other family activities, she helped him in his lab.
When Thomas first learned about the Human Torch (Johnny Storm) of the Fantastic Four, he flew into a rage. Frankie had no way of knowing his secret: his real name was Phineas T. Horton, and he had created the first Human Torch, an android. The government later shut down his research and put the deactivated Torch and his old equipment in a warehouse. Raye went with Horton to the warehouse. While carrying some bottles of chemicals, she fell through some weak planks. The bottles broke. The chemicals doused her and burst into flame.
Raye not only survived the experience, she found that she could generate flame from her own body, like the Human Torch, and even control nearby fires. Horrified, Horton tried to protect her from the alienation that he had seen the first Torch undergo, so he hypnotized her and ordered her to forget the experience and to develop pyrophobia (fear of fire). He also created a transparent suit for her that would suppress her powers and hypnotically ordered her to ignore the suit. Finally, to protect her from his ghosts, he left her to live on her own at the age of fourteen, although he sent a check every month.
For the next few years, Raye lived a relatively normal life. She finished high school and college and got a job as an interpreter. A subconscious compulsion drew her to Johnny Storm despite her pyrophobia, and when they met, they began a relationship. The new Human Torch eventually became aware of her transparent suit, a mystery made even deeper by her insistence that it didn't exist. Reed Richards soon solved the mystery and released her from her hypnotic conditioning. Sue Storm convinced Richards to let her join the team as another Human Torch. She soon learned to control her powers more precisely than Storm, albeit at lower levels.
The arrival of Galactus interrupted Raye's new-found freedom. Despite his oath to spare Earth, Galactus had become weak and felt he had no other option. Raye saw an opportunity to save Earth and to emulate both her fathers by abandoning it: she volunteered to become Galactus' new herald. He agreed to the proposal because it allowed him to keep his oath. Raye received the Power Cosmic and became Nova.
Raye now had almost unlimited freedom. Her only duty was to find new worlds for Galactus to consume. Because she guided death to billions of people, and possibly because of her chaotic upbringing, she became inured to the suffering of others. Victims of Galactus during Nova's time as his herald included Tarnax IV, the throne-world of the Skrull. The Silver Surfer became a friend during this period. He saw her falling into the same apathy he himself had experienced when he was Galactus' herald. He showed her a world and asked if she would choose it for her master. When she said yes, he confessed that he had taken her back in time and shown her her own planet: Earth.
Her compassion made her useless to Galactus. He replaced her with Morg, and she became the Silver Surfer's companion. Along with several other former heralds, they attempted to remove Morg to protect countless inhabited worlds. In the ensuing battle, Morg killed Nova by blasting her from behind. As punishment, Galactus stripped Morg of his Power Cosmic, and the other heralds finally defeated him. The Silver Surfer entombed Nova's body in a star.
Frankie recently showed being not-dead-after-all, working in a diner in Nevada. A psychic shock-wave from space struck Las Vegas and Frankie flipped out, stabbing one of the patrons before hopping in her car and speeding down the road. She saw her father standing in the road, and swerved to avoid him, crashing her car. He father greeted her, and Frankie exploded in a flash of light. As the series continues, female superheroes Emma Frost, Hellcat, Monica Rambeau, She-Hulk and Valkyrie find her and after a brief discussion where they speculate that she could be a returned Frankie Raye, which she denies, claiming her name is Frances, they agree to take her to the Baxter Building. At the same time, a fully flamed Nova arrives in New York, causing Johnny Storm's powers to activate automatically.
