Happy 2008! (Better Late than Never!)

2007 has been and gone and we're six days (as I write this) into 2008. So Happy New Year!
2007 was a very good year for Rich Rider; the year than brought Nova to the attention of the masses. No longer the Marvel C-lister who had been Earthbound and plagued with obscurity, the former jock from Harry S. Trueman, native Long Islander became a true citizen of the Marvel Universe.
With the destruction of the Nova Corps, Richard became the custodian of the Xandarian Legacy. With the Worldmind giving him access to an extensive database of universal knowledge and tactical know-how and with the full energies of the Nova Force at his disposal Rich became serious..he had to leave behind his teenager roots and go forth being the Man Called Nova.
Leading the United Front he fought valiently alongside Drax, Gamora (his new love), former Starlord Peter Quill and ended up becoming an honorary member of the Kree. As for Annihilus; the long time foe of the Fantastic Four...well that moment Rich ripped out his guts...that was the stuff of legend.
No content with that Rich, when he returned to Earth, made no excuse for the way he felt Earth's heroes had lost their way with Civil War.
"I became Nova because of them, I'll stay Nova in spite of them!" he bellowed at Peter when he first heard about what was happening on Earth and to add fuel to the fire he was more than happy to put Director Stark in his place "I pulled (Annihilus) him inside out and saved the universe. What have you been doing lately Tony?" The new improved bad-ass boy from Long Island was now here to stay.
Having seen what Earth had become and finding out about the deaths of his New Warriors associates after Stamford, and also alienated from his own parents, Rich said goodbye to Earth and turned his back on it; now the stars were his new home. But space is a dangerous place...
From out of one fire into another: Conquest. The Phallanx took over Kree space and Rich, the hero tried his best..and lost.
He nearly dies when impacting upon the enclosing barrier surrounding Kree space..and while recovering has to deputize Ko-Rel, a Kree officer trapped on a radiated world in at the edge of the empire. But then...Gamora comes back and having been made into a Select coverts Rich with a "kiss" into a villain...who ultimately ends up being partly responsible for Ko's death. Worldmind manages to get Rich's true personality back but there is still a heavy price...heavily infected with the transmode virus..Rich, now at the edge of the known Universe, his having to rely on a fractional percentage of the Nova Force, the rest keeping his deadly disease in check...if not..he will revert back to being a killer. With Gamora and Drax hot on his heels Nova is still in dire straights as we head in 2008.
Nova 10 is out next week and in Feb new readers will get to read a re-telling of Nova's origin in the first ever Nova Annual!
Reader wise Nova's fourth volume remains at around 32,000 readers..hopefully that figure will imrove more especially if Nova takes part in Secret Invasion, this year's mega opus featuring the shape shifting Skrulls..and Nova has histroy with the Skrullls...
Marvel itself recognsed Nova's new found popularity when recently at Marvel.Com Nova was placed 4th in the top ten most popular heroes of 2007. Quite a remarkable feat! Lets hope by the end of 2008 Nova gets Position 1!