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Nova is the name of two fictional superheroes in the Marvel Comics universe.
The first Nova is Richard Rider, a teenager who was chosen at random by the alien Rhomann Dey last surviving centurion of the planet Xandar's elite Nova Corps, who had been mortally wounded in battle with the intergalactic pirate Zorr and needed to transfer his powers to another to replace him in the fight.
Rider gained great strength, resistance to injury, the ability to fly, and a uniform with a sealed life support system, but little training on how to use these new powers.
He functioned briefly as Nova, the Human Rocket, until fate called him to space and over a year of service in the protection of the planet Xandar, the same world where his great powers had originated. Eventually tiring of a life of constant intergalactic war and hoping to rejoin his high school friends, the boy requested to return home to Earth. When he was told he would have to relinquish his powers in order to do so, Rider agreed.
For years, Rider lived as normal a life a person could while struggling with a disrupted education; flipping burgers and barely making ends meet, he spent his time trying to pick up the pieces of the life he had left behind, all the while wishing he could find a way to regain the powers he had lost. During this period, the planet Xandar was destroyed in an attack by the alien Skrulls.
The superhero Night Thrasher, in a bid to secure new super powered allies, deduced that Rider's powers were not gone, but simply lay dormant inside the young man. Sure that a high stress situation would be enough to reignite Rider's powers, Night Thrasher kidnapped Rider and dropped him off the top of a building. The theory proved correct with Rider instantly coming back to full power before he hit the ground.
Since then, Richard Rider has resumed his superhero career on his own, as a member of the New Warriors, and as an occasional member of the revived Nova Corps.
The Nova name has also been used by Frankie Raye. She was originally a superhero with fire-based powers like her boyfriend, the Human Torch, and was the daughter of the scientist who had created the original Human Torch. She was later upgraded to the power level of the Silver Surfer when she became the herald of Galactus, who she served for years. When Richard Rider resumed his Nova identity alongside the New Warriors, he was briefly called "Kid Nova" to distinguish himself from Raye. Frankie Raye was ultimately killed by the alien Morg, who had replaced her as Galactus' herald, in Silver Surfer #75 (1992), although the demon Mephisto later made it appear that she had returned from the dead.
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