Discover Top Posts Tagged with #robert rider

I occasionally go back and read the old Nova comic and I always find new stuff that I want to talk about.

Up until this point in the Nova comic, Charles loses his job and has problems getting money, so he ends up making a deal with a shady criminal organization called the Inner Circle for money and in turn they want him to do something for them. Charles gets in trouble with the law, ends up in jail, which causes a lot of distress for the Rider family.

Rich has been having problems balancing his social life, his school life and his super hero life and ever since Nick Fury has involved him in a secret SHIELD mission things get worse. Rich is failing school, he has neglected his friends and family and since he’s on a secret mission and none of them know he’s Nova his constant disappearing, especially in moments where his loved ones need Rich’s support is causing a lot of problems. Rich is also under a lot of stress and acting moody and confrontational. He’s still a teen at this point and he’s not handling any of this well.

When Rich finally goes to join up with the rest of his family to see his dad, Robbie and Gloria want to know why he’s been absent, Charles sarcastically comments about his family falling apart, Rich then replies by reminding his dad that he’s he one in jail. Rich talking back to his dad angers Gloria and she strikes Rich for being disrespectful.

Gloria slapping Rich makes him think his family hates him, he feels guilt for what’s happening. He runs away from them thinking they don’t want him (which also gives him guilt because he also thinks he’s not trying hard enough for a reconciliation and that he’s abandoning them) and spends the rest of the issue and the next issue finishing up his mission with Fury and facing his own feelings, fears, and guilt about what’s been happening.

During the fight with the main villain, the villain causes Rich to have some hallucinations of monsters followed by Rich’s own guilt and fears regarding his problems with his family.

The villain tries to mind control Rich but Rich’s resolve to make things right with his family, help his dad prove his innocence, patch thing sup with them and his friends, is what makes him resist the mind control.

“If I fall I’ll drag the rest of the world down with me”

Basically it’s Rich thinking of others and their well-being and his desire to make things right that makes him fight the mind control. It’s one of the things I like about this character. He’s empathic, he cares about others so much that even when he’s having problems with others, when he’s in a position where he thinks he can’t voice his own feelings, he’s mostly thinking about how he’s hurting them.

His one big failing (and it’s something that’s barely been touched on and dealt with in Ewing’s Guardians) is that he overlooks and undervalues himself and in doing so it also negatively affects his relationships with his loved ones when he pushes them away.

I also like that he considers making things right for others, patching up his relationships, and basically being emotionally responsible and healthy to be what makes him a man.

Rich now as a newfound resolve to want to make everything right and that in turn gives him a newfound positive attitude.

It’s also what gives him the courage to go see his family again because he wants to set everything right and he knows he’ll succeed at it.

Rich and Fury defeat the villain and next time we see the Rider family hey are in court, the Judge says that Charles has shown good behavior so he is freed without bail until his actual trial starts and Rich shows up late.

While I like that Charles apologizes to his son (and his whole experience in jail and with the Inner circle is what makes him realize that he has been too strict and harsh with Rich and after this he becomes more lenient and supportive towards him), it bothers me a lot that Gloria never apologizes to Rich, especially for for hitting him. He thought she hated him and blamed himself for that so it rubbed me the wrong way that he apologized and she just brushes everything off and wants everyone to be happy.

Other than Gloria hitting Rich and the main villain being an awful racist yellow peril caricature (which was really off-putting especially in some panels) I really liked these Nova issues. They provided a good insight to Rich’s character, and his early life, and how this all contributes and builds up to his character in New Warriors and later in Annihilation, and Ewing’s Guardians.

Also Gloria and Charles are heavily flawed, they care about Rich and are generally supportive, but they’re also very out of touch with his life and what’s happening with their son. Even after they know he’s Nova (and they’re even more out of touch when he goes cosmic). They raise him with a low of good values and a desire to help others but also unintentionally hurt him and give him multiple insecurities as well as a major inferiority complex.

Pages are from Nova vol.1 #16, #17, and #18

#robert rider

Trending Tags

Recently Viewed Tags

#robert rider