What If…? #15: Nova Had Been Four Other People?

60 Cents @ July 1979 (Cover Page and 34 net pages)

Writer/Co-Editor: Marv Wolfman
Framing Art: John Buscema & Joe Sinnott
Colors: Michele W.
Letterers: Higgins & Watanabe
Co-Editor: R. Thomas
Consulting Editor: R. Thomas

Watcher Quote: “Worlds co-exist with many other worlds. For there are levels of reality. And your planet Earth exists on but one such level. On one Earth, a man will live, yet, on an identical Earth -- the man will die, while on a third identical world, the man will lie comatose... The man exists on all three worlds, the same man, and yet, a very different man. Listen now, and learn of four such worlds, and four heroes, similar and yet different from the man you call, Nova!"

"Four worlds, four Novas, and four fates! Such is how reality is. We've seen the corruption of absolute power, and we've witnessed charity rewarded with death! On one world, the powers of the gods are rejected, and on a fourth world, the powers are abused! All the while, I stand and observe. I can do no more, for, I am the Watcher. And that is both my destiny and my curse!"

Synopsis: The story began with the Watcher narrating the origin of Nova, the Richard Ryder Nova Corpsman. He then does a monologue doing a brief history and description of the Nova from the regular Marvel Universe. Then he went on to tell the story of the other four Novas in this issue.

The first one is about Helen Taylor. A thief just murdered her husband and got away as he died in her presence in the street. She vowed the murderer will pay for this dastardly deed. In a snowy winter, visiting her husband's grave, she was struck by a laser from above. And she was instantly transformed to a Nova Corpsman. She begged for a miracle, and it happened. Realizing her power, her rage for vengeance took over, and she went through the criminal world in search for her husband's murderer. Her violence knew no bounds as she tried to unearth information about the killer, even citing that the innocent victims are the cost of her personal war. Her violent search through the criminal world eventually landed her in the presence of the Kingpin, who tried to discipline her high atop his high-rise skyscraper headquarters. He failed and as she left his premises by crashing through the window, the Kingpin was drawn outside and fell to his death as he begged Helen to save her. Helen Taylor's actions as Nova drew the attention of the President, and he instructed the Fantastic Four's Reed Richards to immobilize her to keep the general public safe. Helen was attacked by robots and disposed of them. And it was the Fantastic Four who wanted to take her in and neutralize her. They did battle, and she was more than a match individually against three of the Fantastic Four. At the end of the battle Helen's oxygen supply was cutoff when the Invisible Woman placed an invisible force field around Helen and thus suffocating her to unconsciousness. The team brought Helen back to the Baxter Building and placed her in stasis and then sent her to the Negative Zone until they can bring her back to their world where it would be safe for mankind. Reed Richards is troubled as to what caused Helen Taylor's psychosis that drove her mad. The story ended with cops pulling a car from the bottom of a river with a crane and finding a dead man in the steering wheel. Unknown to them, it is the man that murdered Helen Taylor's husband.

The second story is about changing a person's outlook of not putting the superpowers to altruistic use. We join the story of a tramp who was kicked out of a house along with his pet cat in the middle of a snowy winter. Apparently he was just looking what kind of work he could do for the household for payment for his stay for the day. As he gathered his things and led his cat away, a piece of clothing came out of his bag which he picked up and placed back inside his bag. It was the uniform and face-gear helmet of a Nova Corpsman. Above the planet Earth a fleet of Skrulls are heading for the Earth to plunder its rich mineral wealth. Their sensors sensed a high energy that is not of the planet's origin, and headed for the location. Meanwhile, the tramp managed to knock on a door of an orphanage and asked the lady if there is anything he can help with for his payment for their hospitality for the night. And he helped look after the kids for the night, and he told them a story. His story. His name is Jesse, and he told the kids his story. The children surrounded him and gave them his attention. The orphanage governess noticed this paying attention that the kids almost forgot about their dinner as they were in complete payment of attention to Jesse's story. And suddenly the door is blasted open and a Skrull emerged from the doorway, and Jesse confronted the aliens about the damage they caused. And the Skrull just blasted Jesse with his blaster. There was no damage other than tattering Jesse's clothes. In quick fashion, Jesse put on his Nova Corpsman uniform and started tangling with the Skrulls, one of which turned into a giant alien snake which coiled around him and squeezed. The Skrulls brought Jesse with them to their warship. Feigning unconsciousness, Jesse listened to the Skrull's plans, and then finding out that he was in the presence of the Captain of the Skrull Armada, he went into action and battled the Skrulls around him. And then he attacked one of the consoles which according to the Skrull captain was suicide. After Jesse attacked, a burst of explosion happened. Down on the orphanage, the children pointed out to the sky where there is a star-like light that kept getting brighter and brighter, a nova.

The third story started with Peter Parker getting bitten by a radioactive spider. But on this Earth, the spider has absorbed too much radiation, that Peter's body could not metabolize it. He is rushed by an ambulance to a hospital. His guardians arrive, and upon learning what happened to him, his Aunt May has a heart attack. She is rushed into the emergency room. And Uncle Ben withers down to a chair helpless as his two loved ones are in critical care. Hours later, the surgeon approached him in the waiting room and informed him that Peter was saved, but that May had just succumbed to death. Some time later, a disabled Peter Parker (the result of the bite of the radioactive spider) is being wheeled chaired by Betty Brant and he becomes so embittered and full of self-hate that he tells Betty to stay away from him if she values her life as bad things happen to those he love. In the University, Peter becomes so self-absorbed with work in the laboratory that he becomes a recluse and refused to even have a life outside of the laboratory. Just then, and emerald laser hits him and he is suddenly dressed in the garb of a Nova Corpsman. He finds out that he is able to walk, and fly. He flies home to ask Uncle Ben what to do as he always valued his advise. Upon reaching his home, he sees a burglar sneaking in through one of the windows and he sees the burglar surprise and pull a gun on Uncle Ben. He crashed through the wall and the burglar suddenly fired the trigger. Fortunately, the bullet hit the side of Peter's bulletproof armor, and it ricocheted and hit the burglar and thus killed him. Peter, who was so full of self-hate since being crippled by the radioactive spider, couldn't believe his bad luck. He blamed himself for killing the burglar and not even considered it self-defense as his uncle pointed out. He confessed to the policemen that came in afterwards, who also told him that it was self-defense. A self-loathing Peter Parker discarded his Nova Corpsman uniform and vowed to never ever use his powers.

The fourth story is a gloomy ending indeed. The recipient of the Nova Corpsman powers did not even have a name except that he helped the means of eliminating the superheroes of the Earth by joining forces with the Red Skull, Dr. Doom, and the Sphinx, and utilizing the deceased former Nova Corpsman's satellite as a space base of operations. Upon defeating the superheroes of Earth, this villainous Nova Corpsman declared victory and that he should lead. It was a very uneasy and unstable alliance amongst this group of supervillains. This did not bode well with Dr. Doom who treacherously teleported himself later that night to Nova's quarters to eliminate the novice supervillain. But the blast missed Nova and they did battle. Doom gloated and told Nova to pledge his allegiance to him , and that he, Dr. Doom, would spare his life. And suddenly Doom just started choking on his words and collapsed to the ground. Nova picked up Doom and found out he was dead. Then he was blasted from behind by the man who killed Dr. Doom, The Red Skull. The Skull decided that he has been trying to conquer the world for such a long time, that he cannot rule it with others. It did not take out Nova permanently and blasted him again. The Red Skull turned to the Sphinx and gloated. The Sphinx in turn disintegrated the Red Skull with the spirit stone that was in his forehead. The Sphinx was looking for peace, and trying to find out about death. A severely weakend Nova, tried to attack the Sphinx, but was himself disintegrated by the Sphinx's spirit stone blast. And the Sphinx is the lone survivor, who for centuries has been seeking nothing but death.

Comments: The first story is about how a tragedy opens a person's descent into madness and vengeance.

The Helen Taylor story is a good story about how a tragedy can put a person to a path of madness and vengeance. The only problem I have is Reed Richards taking the President's orders without fail and sentencing a comatose Helen Taylor to the Negative Zone. She may be powerful as a Nova Corpsman imbued powerhouse, but she has just received her powers recently and she is in Annihilus' domain now. It is like Reed Richards sentencing someone to death. This genius level thinker is acting like the Wildstorm Publications genius supervillain Tao.

The second story was one of great selflessness. The great powers were not even thought to be used for any reasons other than when there was a dangerous situation present. Perhaps because there was no precedent about superheroes populating this Earth, that Jesse just did not have any inclinations to showcase his power to the public.

The third story is about Peter Parker who ended up with so much self-hate and feeling that he's a jinx that the radioactive spider bite that left him a cripple turned him into a recluse lab rat. Even being bestowed with Nova Corpsman powers did not set him right. He was full of too much self-loathing that he blamed everything on himself and couldn't see things correctly anymore in life. Too much negativity affected the psyche, and he couldn't escape the self-hatred and self-blaming that built up in him.

The fourth story just tells you the end of the superheroes on Planet Earth. Basically, just having a space based HQ and a really good gameplan of attacking the superheroes at their weakest points, can provide ultimate victory for the supervillains. And even after that victory, these guys just plain hate having equals to rule the world, that they turn on each other.