The Heroic Age: Nova Biography

Posted on June 23rd, 2010 by The Heroic Age

Nova 01 The Heroic Age: Nova Biography The Nova Corps was a peace keeping force based on the planet Xandar. The planet was destroyed by the space pirate known as Zorr. When Rhomann Dey Nova Prime member was dying, he chose, at random, Richard Rider to receive his powers. This was a lot for the teenaged Rider but he started a superhero career with them. Rider would often team-up with Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. In fact Rider showed so much potential that Nick Fury recruited him to help Shield against the Yellow Claw. During this time in Rider’s life he often fought Condor, Diamondhead, and the Sphinx. Even making an alliance with the villains to form The Champions of Xandar. When the Skrull Empire threatened Xandar, Rider and the Champions of Xandar went to give their aid. The Champions would lead forces of the Nova Corps against the Skrulls. The Skrull attack force was eventually defeated with a little help from the Fantastic Four and then from Rom the Spaceknight. Rider longed to return to Earth, so he agreed to give up his portion of the Nova force powers to be used on Xandar to live a normal life.

A few months later he was approached by Night Thrasher. Night Thrasher was starting a new superhero team and believed that Rider still contained the power inside him. To prove this, he threw Rider off of a rooftop. Luckily, he was right. They formed the New Warriors with other teenage superheroes and fought on many missions. Nova spent his time with the Warriors and on his own. During Rider’s absence is when Nebula attacked Xandar and destroyed the remaining portion of the planet. Along with most of it’s inhabitants.

After fighting Super-Nova, a Xandarian that had gained the rest of the Nova force and was driven mad, with the help of former Galactus’ heralds, Firelord and Air-Walker, Nova became the Centurion Prime. He was to be the guardian of Earth’s sector of space. Nova was called back to Xandar to assist the Nova Corps in fighting the Annihilation Wave. The wave destroyed Xandar and the entire corps. Nova was the only survivor and inherited the entire Nova-Force. He also gained World Mind, the Xandarian living computer that contains the record of Xandar’s history and helps Rider retain his sanity with the Nova-Force. Later, Nova discovers Drax The Destroyer and Cammi on the surface of Xandar, the only other two apparent survivors of the onslaught. They escape the planet which has been knocked out of orbit of it’s star, which between that and the damage it suffered from the Annihilation Wave is quickly becoming uninhabitable. Nova opens a gate to the planet Nycos Aristides, several light years away. The engines of their vessel cut out and they begin to fall into the atmosphere. They are saved by Quasar.

Quasar talks Nova into helping him evacuate the planet from the oncoming Annihilation Wave, despite Nova’s fears of losing control of his power. They hold their own against the wave and even attempt to kill Annihilus himself, but Quasar is killed in the process and Nova barely escapes with his life. Nova heads up a a resistance movement against the Annihilation Wave with Peter Quill ( Starlord) as his second-in-command. After losing a major battle they decide to dissolve the resistance and form a small strike team to the end of one goal, to kill Annihilus. As the final battle looms Nova is able to challenge Annihilus to single combat and as he looks like he’s about to die at Annihilus’ hands, Phyla-Vell manages to steal the Quantum-Bands Annihilus had taken upon killing Quasar, which turns the tide in Nova’s favor, and he manages to kill Annihilus.

Nova 03 The Heroic Age: Nova Biography Following the events of Annihilation, Nova becomes overwhelmed with work rushing from one crisis to the next. World Mind cautions him of over work and eventually manages to convince Nova to return to Earth for a break. Upon arrival Nova is confronted by Iron Man and SHIELD, having identified him as a Class 12 threat. After telling Nova about the Initiative and the new hero registration laws, Nova is given 24 hours to decide whether he wants to register or not.

Whilst walking around his old neighborhood, Nova is attacked by his old foe Diamondhead, seeking revenge after years in prison. Nova easily shatters his hand, but this draws the attention of the Thunderbolts, who attempt to bring him in for being an unregistered hero, unaware that Nova still has time to decide. After the fight is called off by Iron Man, Nova returns home, where he has an argument with his parents about the fight with the Thunderbolts. Shortly after this, Nova meets up with his old friend Robbie Baldwin, now known as Penance. After seeing what’s happened to him, Nova decides to leave Earth, since too much has happened since he was last there.

While responding a distress call, Nova was ambushed by a team of Skrulls. He managed to defeat them but was not prepared to face his old allied KI’rt . Thanks to him, Nova learned of the Skrull Invasion in his home planet. He traveled to Earth and arrived to witness the Skrull siege of P.E.G.A.S.U.S. facilities. Aware that his brother was in P.E.G.A.S.U.S. Project, Nova launched himself against the hordes of Skrulls, managing to stop them for a few moments with the help of Darkhawk. But things got complicated with the invaders retaliation leaving the heroes between the sword and the wall. Miracously, the scientist at P.E.G.A.S.U.S. were able to bring not only World Mind back online but Quasar as well. With no chance to win, the Skrulls decided to obliterate the facility with everyone inside. But it was Nova’s lucky day because in that exact moment, the Skrull ships were completely destroyed. Finally, the Nova Corps arrived to defend Earth.

After the Invasion was over, Nova found out that while he was sleeping, World Mind decided to gather again the Corps to help him in his mission. These new members were Fraktur, Rael, Tercel, Morrow and Qubit who proved to be a wise choice by World Mind. Although Nova was pleased with these Corps, he was still reluctant to gather the whole Nova Corps again and made a deal with World Mind to wait a little bit more before accepting more Centurions. But World Mind decided that the wait time was over, and he recruited everyone inside PEGASUS, including Nova’s brother, Robbie Rider. World Mind used the rest of the corps to search for a new host for him, they found it in Ego the living Planet. When Ego appeared right outside Earth Nova dispatched to the planet, only to find World Mind had surprised Ego the Living Planet and turned him into New Xandar.

World Mind wanted Nova to return the main reserves of the Nova Force. Nova went back to Earth but before he returned he was stopped by the Fantastic Four. He went back to return the rest of the Nova Force, but decided it wasn’t right. World Mind sent the rest of the corps to restrain him but he was too strong. Then World Mind stripped Nova of his powers and sent him back to Earth.

The Heroic Age:
Dying from overexposure to the full Nova-force, Richard asks Doctor Eve Necker from P.E.G.A.S.U.S. for help. With H.A.M.M.E.R. shutting down P.E.G.A.S.U.S., Dr. Necker tries to persuade Richard to accept help from A.I.M.. Richard refuses and walks away from her. Remorseful, Eve gives him the Quantum flask inhabited by Quasar’s consciousness so it wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands. Richard breaks the flask, and suddenly Quasar appears and offers Richard the Q uantum bands, potentially saving his life until he can regain the Nova Force. With the power of the Quantum Bands at his disposal Richard traveled to confront Ego and get back his Nova Prime powers. Once there he saw that World Mind had been corrupted by Ego and attacked him. To save World Mind he was forced to lobotomize Ego, but the backlash caused severe damage to World Mind and he was shut down but was replaced by the mind of the deceased Nova Corps member Ko-Rel. Richard returned the Quantum Bands to Quasar and took back his role as Nova Prime.

He is currently part of Steve Roger’s Secret Avengers alongside Beast, War Machine, Steve Rogers, Valkyrie, and Moon Knight

The Heroic Age: War Machine Biography

Posted on June 16th, 2010 by The Heroic Age

War Machine Secret Avengers The Heroic Age 01 The Heroic Age: War Machine Biography James “Jim” Rupert Rhodes was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He first met Tony Stark while flying combat missions in Vietnam. Rhodes’ helicopter had been shot down by Viet Cong rocket fire, and while trying to get the aircraft airborne again, he encountered Stark in a bulky prototype suit of powered armor. At that moment the Viet Cong attacked, and Stark, in his suit, helped to drive them off. Together, Rhodes and Stark made their way to a nearby enemy base where they stole another helicopter, flying it back to the American lines.

After the end of the Vietnam War, Stark, who had secretly become the superhero named Iron Man, offered Rhodes a job as his personal pilot, and Rhodes soon became one of Stark’s closest associates and confidants as well as Stark Industries’ chief aviation officer. As a result, he had numerous adventures with his employer where his daring and skills were valuable assets. When Tony relapsed into his alcoholism, James Rhodes took over the Variable Threat Response Battle Suit (War Machine). James Rhodes took up the mantle of Iron Man for some time, and would return to using this suit.

Rhodes was fired by Stark after War Machine kills two hostage takers on national TV, one in cold-blood. After his dismissal, Rhodes is attacked by former War Machine pilot Parnell in an attempt to recover the War Machine armor. The two are picked up by Nick Fury and taken to the Helicarrier. It is revealed that Jacobs had sold his stolen War Machine to Hydra for money when he learned his wife was pregnant. SHIELD was able to recover the armor and was in the process of reverse engineering the Stark technology. Nick Fury planned to field a squad of War Machines commanded by Rhodes.

He would take a break from heroics for a while, Rhodes founded his own marine salvage company, but an extravagant lifestyle and an unscrupulous accountant left him bankrupt. Rhodes had heavily invested in Grace & Tumbalt due to their stated purpose of improving urban ethnic neighborhoods. While investigating the death of his sister Jeanette, he learned the company was corrupt, using their resources to fuel gangs and drugs. He would then form a team of superheroes called “The Crew.” The team consisted of The White Tiger, Junta, and Josiah X, the son of the 1940’s super-soldier Isaiah Bradley, the black Captain America. Rhodes used part of a prototype War Machine armor to face off with Triage, the head of the 66 Bridges, and the gang was dispersed by Rhodes and his allies.

War Machine Secret Avengers The Heroic Age 03 The Heroic Age: War Machine Biography While serving as a military consultant at a base in Dubai and test piloting a combat plane, the base was bombed by terrorists Rhodes had been severely injured and without limbs while fighting the terrorists . Dieing from his injuries Tony saved his with life cybernetic implants and James becomes a cyborg.

After the events of the Secret Invasion, War Machine swore to get rid of Osborn’s evil power and influence. This brought Jim to Aqiria where a friend of him, Dr. Glenda Sandoval, was kidnapped. With the help of Parnell Jacobs (Glenda’s ex husband) and Bethany Cabe, War Machine infiltrated Aqiria and fought against Eaglestar’s private army in order to free his friend

After a vicious battle, War Machine confronted Ares and also Davis Harmon, Eaglestar’s CEO and the man who kidnapped Glenda. Jim managed to defeat Ares, even for a brief moment and Harmon freed Sandoval from the confinement area. Harmon was sure that he couldn’t be prosecuted by his war crimes due to the legal status of Aqiria, but that didn’t stopped Glenda of taking justice into her own hands. But Harmon’s deep secrets were opened by Ares, a rabid pack of prisoners infected by the ultimo virus. And Glenda was of the first victims becoming an enraged slave of the virus. While this is going on Bethany Cabe is currently working on making a clone body for Jim to download his mind into because his cybernetic implants were meant to be permanent , but this is discovered by Norman Osborn who steal the body.

During this arc, James found himself facing the Doomsday device known as Ultimo, and in order to defeat it, he formed an alliance with Norman Osborn and together they defeated the robot. But Osborn revealed his true motives: to claim Ultimo for himself. While James was fighting Osborn, his Team War Machine ally Suzi Endo escaped to space with Ultimo in order to reprogram it. After Osborn defeated James, it was revealed that he was actually buying his team time in order to expose the Bainesville Ten, a group of politicians and industry captains responsible for horrific acts around the world. In order the prevent the prosecution of the Bainesville Ten, Osborn made a distraction of his own by sending Rhodes to the Hague to be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The longer Rhodes’s trial continues, the more time Osborn has to thwart the prosecution of the Ten and smuggles them out of the country. Rhodes sends away his lawyers and awaits prosecution in his cell room although evidence of his innocence exists. Rhodey’s mom comes to his cell and attempts to talk him out of surrendering himself, but he tells her that he’ll never give up and contacts his team who are in possession of his clne body, and are about to get the tranbod close enough to Rhodes so they can begin the transfer process of his conciousness into the body. However their plan was discovered by Osborn and sends a team of H.A.M.M.E.R agents after Team War Machine to thwart their plan. Jim was discovered talking to his team by the guards who started attacking him until Ares appeared and fought alongside Rhodey claiming to be his “champion”. In the meantime, alll of the Bainesvelle Ten have left the U.S and Norman gave a speech claiming that Rhodes was kidnapped by Tony Stark and that a Starktech cyborg (the real War Machine) commited the “astrocities” in James’ name, while Osborn was attempting to control the clned body of Rhodes and condem the real War Machine.

War Machine Secret Avengers The Heroic Age The Heroic Age: War Machine Biography In the Hague, War Machine was apparently killed while trying to protect a child. When all seemed to go well for Osborn and the Bainesville Ten, the data that was stored in James’s cyborg memory was transferred to the Bainesvelle Ten, and they started seeing every recodrding of every person that has suffered because of them over and over again causing them extreme pain. After seeing this, Osborn turned around to see James in a whole new body, and he punched him in the face. Team War Machine was successful in transferring Rhodes’ conciousness into the new body. Rhodes left Osborn to deal with his defeat. He was cleared of all charges and given a new “fresh” body.

The Heroic Age:
After the Siege storyline, War Machine joined the new Secret Avengers team, alongside Beast, Nova, Steve Rogers, Valkyrie, and Moon Knight

The Heroic Age: Valkyrie Biography

Posted on June 10th, 2010 by The Heroic Age

The Heroic Age IAmASecretAvenger Valkyrie 01 The Heroic Age: Valkyrie Biography Valkyrie is an Asgardian demi-goddess by birth, her real name is Brunnhilde. Among her other aliases are Barbara Denton-Norriss, Samantha Parrington and Sian Bowen who all were host bodies to the spirit of Brunnhilde. Her first appearance was in The Avengers vol. 1 #83. For much of her history she was a mainstay of the superhero team known as the Defenders. Samantha Parrington, a previous host to Brunnhilde, later received the Valkyrie powers herself and became a member of the Defenders as Valkyrie.

At a young age, Brunnhilde, along with Sif, were one of the few female Asgardians to enter into training in order to become warriors. Although the two girls started out as rivals, due to Sif’s jealousy, believing that the blonde Brunnhilde would be more competition for winning the affections of Thor. Even though the two initially get off to a rough start, they eventually became allies when Brunnhilde helped Sif to break an enchantment on Thor which was placed by Amora when she used the Mirror of Mycha. To to this day, Sif is perhaps the only female Asgardian who may be equal to Brunnhilde in combat. Once Brunnhilde had grown and completed her training she was appointed by the All-Father, Odin, to lead the Valkyrior in combing the battlefields for worthy mortals on the brink of death and leading them to Valhalla. Brunnhilde was so proficient at this task and so renowned for her skills that she was able to maintain this position of power for centuries. Her success and combat prowess caused Odin to revere her so much, that she was even tasked with subduing his son, Thor, when he destructively tore through the mortal realm of Midgard after the humans he had been protecting ate his beloved steeds. Although Brunnhilde was doing well in combat against the Thunder God, the two were forced to join together and defeat a Storm Giant who came to destroy Midgard. Afterward, both Asgardians seemed to enjoy a brief tryst before returning to their respective duties.

The Heroic Age IAmASecretAvenger Valkyrie 02 227x300 The Heroic Age: Valkyrie Biography During this time, however, Odin entered into a deal with the other Gods of Earth and the ancient Celestials, forcing him to cut off all interaction with Midgard, leaving Brunnhilde and her Valkyries only slain Asgardian warriors to choose from when performing their duties. Since Asgardians rarely died due to their long life-span, Brunnhilde attempted to occupy her time by finding new adventures to face. On some occasions, she would even accompany the Enchantress from time to time, although when Brunnhilde tried to move on to other tasks, Amora turned on her and trapped her essence inside a soul crystal, keeping her there for centuries. Amora often used this crystal to access the Valkyrie’s superior physical abilities for herself, or to enhance her pawns.

Centuries later, Amora used her crystal to bond Brunnhilde’s essence to the mortal Barbara Norris, who eventually joined the Defenders. Some time later, Brunnhilde’s actual Asgardian body was recovered, although she continued to serve with the Defenders until the team disbanded. After this, Brunnhilde returned to Asgard to resume her role as leader of the Valkyrior and even allowed Samantha Parrington to work as new Valkyrie on Earth, after Lorelei and the Olympian Death God Pluto transformed the mortal for their own schemes.

Brunnhilde and her horse were slain in battle by Durok the Demolisher, however, she passed on her leadership of the Valkyries and her mighty sword, the Dragonfang, to Sif, who quickly avenged Brunnhilde’s death, just before Loki’s ultimate destruction of Asgard during the Ragnarok. After Thor was reborn, he restored many of the Asgardians with the Odinforce.

The Heroic Age IAmASecretAvenger Valkyrie 03 The Heroic Age: Valkyrie Biography The Heroic Age
Valkyrie later joins with She-Hulks new Lady Liberators to bring to justice the new Red Hulk whom they beat and confine, but he later escapes thanks to help from Thundra. After Norman Osborn caused the destruction of Asgard Valkyrie was personally invited to join the Avengers by Captain Rogers.