Nova's History
Chosen at random by the dying Xandarian Rhomann Dey to receive his Nova Corps powers, teenager Richard Rider found himself thrust into the role of superhero, a role he grasped with relish. He battled foes such as Dey's nemesis Zorr, the avian criminal Condor, the amnesiac Powerhouse (actually a Xandarian sent to locate the missing Dey), his uncle's murderer and member of the Maggia, Photon, and the mysterious Sphinx. The latter eventually kidnapped Nova and several others, using Dey's spaceship to transport them all to Xandar.
Learning that Xandar was threatened by the Skrull Empire, Nova and his fellows (bar the Sphinx, who had returned to Earth, and Dr. Sun, who teleported to an unknown location) pledged their aid; the Skrulls were eventually driven off with the help of the Galadorian spaceknight Rom. Homesick for Earth, Richard agreed to give up his powers, which were needed to help rebuild war-ravaged Xandar's defenses, and returned home a normal human once more.
Or so it seemed. Months later Richard was tracked down by Night Thrasher, who believed Richard's powers were merely dormant and wished to recruit Nova for his prospective hero team. To test the theory, Night Thrasher dropped Richard off a roof; luckily for both of them, Night Thrasher was correct, and the adrenaline rush reawoke Richard's abilities. Alongside several other teenage heroes he founded the New Warriors, and also resumed his solo career. He fought alongside the New Warriors for years, including encounters with Nova's old foe the Sphinx and a brief stint during which the Warriors worked with Cable and X-Force. He was eventually hunted down by Super-Nova, the Xandarian who held the rest of the Nova-Force inside his body and had been driven mad by it. The two of them, aided by the New Warriors and Galactus' Xandarian heralds Firelord and Air-Walker, ended up setting off protocols that led to Xandar's resurrection. The StarCorps was reinstated, and Rider was appointed Centurion Prime and assigned to guard earth's sector of space.
Returning to Earth, Rider was confronted with dual lives as Centurion Prime and a member of the New Warriors. He also encountered another Nova from an alternate timeline named Nova 0:0. Nova 0:0 attacked Rider to prepare him for defending his Earth from the force that had destroyed Nova 0:0's Earth, the Deathstorm. After stopping the Deathstorm and saving Earth, Rider was replaced as Centurion Prime for Earth's sector of space by Garthan Saal, the former Super-Nova, after failing to follow orders at a crucial time.
When Saal sacrificed himself to save earth from the Dire Wraith queen Volx, he passed his powers back to Rider. He continued to fight alongside the New Warriors until the team broke up, reformed, and broke up again. He agreed to come back as part of the New Warriors reality TV show, and travelled the U.S. with the team, fighting menaces that'd taken up residence in communities that didn't have resident heroes. The team fought several criminals who'd escaped the Raft during the massive prison break that led to the reestablishing of the Avengers, before being recalled to Xandar alongside the rest of the Nova Corps to deal with the threat of the Annihilation Wave. Rider was the only StarCorps member to survive the Wave's surprise attack, and has become the bearer of the entire Nova-Force, as well as the Xandarian Worldmind, the living computers that contain the entire record of Xandarian civilization as well as the minds of all its deceased members.
Nova then came into contact with Drax who taught him how to better control the Nova Force and how to kill. Realizing his new leadership abilities, Nova created the United Front, an army opposed to Annihilus. Several beings joined the United Front alongside Nova including Silver Surfer, Ronan, Gamora, Phyla-Vell, Moondragon, the Spaceknights, Blastaar, Stardust, Firelord, Red Shift, Super-Skrull, Star-Lord, and others. Alongside these beings Nova was able to squash Annihilus's forces and kill Annihilus.
After the war, Richard started to scan the galaxy, searching for beings who needed help. Continuing this for an undetermined amount of time he became fatigued and homesick. The Worldmind advised Richard to return to Earth to rest. Taking Worldmind's advice Richard returned to Earth to find the state of the world after the Civil War. While back home Richard was approached by Iron Man, who strongly urged Richard to register. Stark then sent Justice to try and convince him to register. Failing to see the point to any of the madness Richard left Earth and returned to his Nova duties.
Recently the Phalanx took control of Kree Space and infected many worlds. Finding himself trapped inside Kree Space, Nova crashed into an energy barrier and landed on a Kree outpost severly damaged. There the commander, Ko-Rel took him in and tried to oppose a horde of Phalanx and an infected Gamora. Richard being too weak to fight back, the Worldmind uploaded some of the Nova Force into Ko-Rel turing her into a Nova Corps member. Gamora then slipped past the Kree defenses and infected Richard with the techno-organic virus, turning him into a Phalanx Select. From there Gamora and Rider left the outpost and returned to Hala.
Seemingly accepting the transmode virus, Richard alongside Gamora then hunted down and infected Drax with the techno-organic virus. Returning to Hala, Richard was attacked by Ko-Rel who was led by the Worldmind. However, Ko-Rel was not powerful enough to defeat Richard and died at his hands. After returning from the battle, Richard was then taken inside his mind by Worldmind and showed Richard that he was indeed fighting the techno-organic virus. Now boosted with hope and the help of Ko-Rel's returned power, Richard managed to break free of the Phalanx control and escaped from Hala. Richard then created a wormhole and was followed by Drax and Gamora. Once going through the wormhole they were all transported into unknown space.
Nova soon found himself at the edge of the universe in a place called Knowhere. Unfortunately, even here there would be no peace for the last of the Nova Centurions as he was attacked by zombies under the control of an unknown evil called Abyss. However, after making an ally in a talking dog named Cosmo, Nova was able to defeat the villain and restore peace to Knowhere. Learning that Nova was transmode positive, Cosmo used the resources at his disposal to chart Nova a course for the birthplace of the Phalanx, Kvch, in hopes that Nova can find a way to cure himself of the virus that was slowly killing him. Nova's journey was temporarily interrupted when a creature called a Vore tried to feed him to its unborn young. Nova did make it to Kvch, as did Gamora and Drax, where he met Warlock, of the New Mutants. Warlock told Rider how he was trying to put an end to his race's murderous ways, starting with his new charge, Tyro. While on Kvch, a technarchy monster was coming to challenge Tyro for his right to live, and Warlock new that even the combined powers of the three individuals would not be able to stop it. The only solution was for Tyro to flee, and in order to give Tyro the necessary time to escape, Warlock sacrificed himself and used his life energies to cure Nova. Richard did as he promised and fought the monster despite the fact he would probably not survive, but in a surprising turn of events, Tyro returned and defeated his would-be killer by taking over his body and asserting his consciousness over the creature. With the danger passed, Tyro gave some of the enormous life energies he now possessed to revive his adoptive parent, Warlock, as well as Gamora and Drax. Now free of the transmode virus, the group returned to Hala and helped put an end to the Phalanx invasion.
Recently, Nova assisted the citizens of the world Orbucen in a planet-wide evacuation when Galactus decided Orbucen would be his next meal. Nova ran into two problems during the mass departure. The first was the herald of Galactus, the Silver Surfer, and the other was a homicidal entity called Harrow. Harrow proved to be the bigger threat because he preyed on the inhabitants of Orbucen as they struggled to survive the threat of the world devourer. Nova was almost killed trying to apprehend the telepathic intruder, but he escaped onto Galactus' ship. There, Nova found Harrow's primary body, hiding from Galactus' attention, and engaged the parasite in battle. Eventually, the Silver Surfer intervened, determined Harrow was nothing but vermin, and alerted his master to the alien being's presence. Harrow attempted to escape, but Galactus incinerated him on sight. Nova thought he would share Harrow's fate, but Galactus teleported him to safety. The Silver Surfer warned Nova to stay away from his master because Galactus never spares anything twice.
Since then, Nova had learned of the Skrull Invasion on Earth and traveled there along with the Super-Skrull who pretended to betray Nova in order to keep him alive. Nova responded to a distress call from the scientists in Project PEGASUS, and helped Darkhawk and a newly revived Quasar fight off a squad of super Skrulls. The Worldmind, thought to be lost after Nova's run-in with Harrow, was reactivated and tapped into the Project's mainframe to activate the Death's Head Guards as back-up troops. However, all seemed lost when a Skrull battle cruiser was about to fire on the installation, but an unexpected emergence of a new Nova Corps destroyed the battleship and saved the day. Worldmind went behind Rider's back to form a new Corps and continued to endow individuals with power, including Rider's brother Robbie, against Nova's wishes. Nova was almost ready to submit to Worldmind's plans, but once he was informed Ego, the Living Planet was chosen to be Nu-Xandar, Nova would not download the majority of the Nova Force into him. The Worldmind concluded Rider had become mentally unstable from holding that much power for such a long period of time, so he forcefully took Nova's powers from him. Rider was then transported back to Earth.
Once a normal human again, Nova discovered he was dying because of the absence of the Nova Force. If that wasn't bad enough, Rider discovered Worldmind was using subliminal control over those he was recruiting into the Corps. Nova couldn't even turn to those at Project PEGASUS for help since Norman Osborn's H.A.M.M.E.R. took over. However, there was a scientist on the inside, secretly working for A.I.M., that wanted to help Rider. She took him to a hidden lab, and using a stolen canister filled with Quantum energy, attempted to cure him. Rider appreciated the gesture, but he destroyed the canister, allowing the energy to be free. Quasar eventually made an appearance with the Quantum Bands and offered them to Rider in an attempt to save his life. Rider accepted, and for a brief time, became the new Protector of the Universe. Nova and Quasar journeyed to Nu-Xandar where they confronted Worldmind and Ego even as the Nova Corps were locked in battle against Shi'ar forces. Ego was exerting his control over Worldmind, and he manipulated many of the individuals in the Corps to attack Rider, but Rider channeled a huge blast of energy to lobotomize Ego. With Ego unable to access his higher brain functions, Worldmind came back online, but knowing his programming was corrupted, he switched to a new persona to interact with Nova. Nova regained his powers and returned the bands back to their rightful owner.
One crisis was averted, but the problem of an inexperienced Nova Corps dealing with hardened soldiers still remained. Rider, as Nova Prime, immediately flew into battle to rescue as many recruits as he could. Upon finding out his brother, Robbie, was missing, he took a small force to his last known coordinates only to be attacked by Triton of the Inhumans and his forces. Trying to avoid a fight at all costs, Nova was spared from retaliating when a former comrade, Ra-Venn, recognized him. It was then Nova was taken to the sight where the soldiers of the cruel emperor Vulcan exterminated a countless amount of Nova Corps recruits - execution style. All that remained were their helmets. However disheartened Nova was to see what was left of the fallen Centurions, his mission to save his brother did not falter. Battling his way through the forces of Ravenous, Nova heard his brother's agonizing scream and feared the worst. Charging headfirst into what could have been his last battle, Nova confronted the immensely powerful Xenith and decisively defeated her, saving both the lives of Ravenous and his brother.
After the war ended, it left the universe in more danger than ever with the creation of The Fault - caused by a devastating weapon made by the Inhumans with the intention of obliterating the Shi'ar race. A Nova Corps starship, the Resolute Duty, which had been missing for thirty-five years, had suddenly resurfaced bringing with it a slew of new problems for the Corps. A Nova Centurian, Zan Philo, still with the ship had a dangerous prisoner on board. A deadly bounty hunter known as Monark Starstalker stowed away only to attempt to wrestle the prisoner away from Centurion Philo, so he can get paid. A catastrophic attack to Worldmind by Starstalker gave Ego the opening he needed to assert himself over the Xandarian supercomputer, and the criminal held in captivity was about to be liberated by those who followed him, the merciless Mindless Ones. If things couldn't get any worse, the Mindless Ones cut the main power to Philo's ship and freed their master. With three threats to contend with, Nova had his hands full. Philo worked to get power restored to the ship. Worldmind downloaded itself into the Resolute Duty. Starstalker was nearly killed, and Ego was out for blood. Nova decided to eliminate two birds with one stone, and with Worldmind and Starstalker's help, Nova's plan w
