Erik Larsen took a few moments to answer some questions about Nova, a favorite character of his since Nova arrived in the 1970's. I'd like to thank Mr. Larsen for sharing his views on Nova!
 
1) You've mentioned elsewhere that you've been a fan of Nova since his introduction in 1976. What was it about the character you enjoyed as a young reader?
 
More than anything it was that this was a new character introduced at a time when there were relatively few new characters. He was young, a loser, a poor student-- everything I wanted in a superhero. Plus, he could fly-- simple, I know, but there was something very basic and straightforward about the whole concept. It worked for me. And that costume just kicks ass!
 
2) In your Nova series, what was the cause of Nova's power fluctuations?
 
It was mostly a way of scaling him back a bit. The reason was simply that the powers had been given back and forth one too many times but on a story/plot level-- the character was just too powerful-- every fight should have simply ended with him blasting the crap out of whoever he was facing with eye-beams. Fluctating powers worked for me-- there were a lot of things I could have done with this.
 
3) What storylines did you have planned for Nova if the series had continued?
 
Too many to go into-- since I expect to get around to all of them in one book or another-- I'd rather NOT go into it in too much detail but I'd certainly have used Red Raven more and brought back a very different Diamondhead. I had a lot of cool plans.
 
4) Your Nova series never seemed to be given the chance to find an audience. What do you feel were the reasons for its early cancellation?
 
I have no idea. I think that they were expecting it to be a bigger hit. They were expecting what they'd gotten on Thor, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and all the Heroes Reborn books. They pushed the first issue pretty well but once the numbers came in they abandoned ship pretty quickly. This is Nova, guys-- he's NEVER been big-- he's had his book cancelled twice and a team book he was part of as well. It's like expecting big things from a Dr. Strange relaunch-- it's NOT gonna happen. I think they looked at how much they spent on promoting the first issue and said, "we'll never earn this back." I think they'd have been better served to have pushed this like they did a title like Thunderbolts or Heroes for Hire--or even New Warriors -- they didn't go all-out on those ones and they got modest selling books that lasted for a while. I'd rather have had a book that sold less out of the gate but lasted longer.
 
5) Would you like to write the character again and, if so, would you approach the character any differently?

Sure I'd like to write him again-- at this point, I imagine I'd handle him much the same, seeing as how I went to all the trouble to get him where I wanted him. It's a bit early for me to start second-guessing myself. Give me a few years and I'll get back to you on a new direction I might take-- at this point, I still thought what I did was a decent approach. There were a few things I should have done differently but not that many. I'm reasonably happy with how things went.