A seasoned writer like Jeph Loeb certainly knows how to start a series off in style. I admit I picked up this title with trepidation: it’s clearly a comic aimed at kids (and why not?) and I’ve always thought of the Nova Corp as Marvel’s less-engaging version of the Green Lanterns (I also have to admit I’ve got no clue what eventually happened to Richard Rider and why he’s not headlining this comic). Yet from the first page there’s a fantastic sense of excitement. The central character, Sam Alexander, is a cynical kid who listens with outright skepticism to his father’s tales of being in the Nova Corp. By the end of the issue he’s in no doubt that what he believed to be fantasies are very real. Ed McGuiness’ art is great in capturing both the dull sense of a small town and the excitement of space battles and adventure. There’s nothing really new about anything that happens in this comic but it does establish the foundations of what could be an enjoyable ongoing title.