A Geek History of Time - Episode 283 - Nova is Just the Average, Sad, 1970s Spidey Part I

Episode Date: September 27, 2024

Okay, so there's there there are two possibilities going on here. One you're bringing up a term that I have never heard before. The other possibility is that this is a term I've heard before, but it involves a language that uses pronunciation That's different from Latin it and so you have no idea how to say it properly. It's an intensely 80s post-apocalyptic Schlock film. Oh and schlong film. You know, it's been over 20 years, but spoilers Okay, so so the Resident Catholic thinking about that. We're going for low Earth orbit. There is no rational. Blame it on me after.

And you know I will. They mean it is two o'clock in the fucking morning. Where I am. I don't think you can get very much more homosexual panic than that. No. Which I don't know if that's better. I mean you guys are Catholics. You tell me. I'm just kind of excited that like you and producer George will have something to talk about

That basically just means that I can show up and get fed I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom.

I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. This is a Geek History of Time. Where we connect in order to the real world. My name is Ed Blaylock. I'm a world history and English teacher here in Northern California. And in just the last, I don't know, week and a half, two weeks, a problem with our neighborhood has has made itself known to my wife and me in a way that like we'd always kind of known this was this could kind of be an issue, but it was never it never it never showed itself obviously until now. So we live in a neighborhood where on three sides of us it is very solidly residential. If you go north, south or west of us, there's

houses in all three of those directions for several city blocks. And to the west, it's about one block until you hit a major artery, fairly big road. And along that road are a lot of businesses that are solidly fairly commercial or industrial. One of them is an auto body shop that has a very large holding yard. And part of their security system is they have either cameras that are being remotely watched or just motion sensors that are tied to loudspeakers. And when those loudspeakers go off, there is a recorded statement that comes out

in a very officious disembodied voice at very high volume. And it warns whoever or whatever because it could be getting triggered by coyotes or god knows what it warns whoever whatever has wandered onto the property that you know if you don't leave security will be called everything you're doing is being recorded and yada yada yada well the thing is if that initial warning doesn't cause someone or something to leave it just keeps going and Security doesn't actually get called

nothing actually happens and It hasn't really historically been an issue but in the last week Because of changes in the weather and maybe changes in demographics don't know There have been several nights where it has started sometime around 10 p.m. I think that's when the monitoring gets switched on and it has on a couple of occasions Continued playing roughly every 60 seconds with breaks every so often until 1130 midnight And

It is it is Not simply that it's you know kind of annoying as background noise But there's something distinctly of annoying as background noise, but there's something distinctly like creepy pasta about lying in bed at night and hearing this disembodied voice repeating itself over and over and over again in this mechanical kind of monotone that can make one feel like one is living in a Twilight Zone episode. And that's really the part that bothers me So yeah, that's that's what I've had going on. How about you?

Well, I'm David Harmony. I'm a US history teacher up here in Northern California at the high school level You know actually in my neighborhood. There's a thing that has been beeping every 30 seconds at night since before I was divorced. To the point where paramours have, upon opening the window, heard it or not heard it. And then I would say something like, oh, they finally stopped it. not heard it and then I was like and then I would say something like oh They finally stopped it and then it would be you know things like that Yeah, more long-term paramours have were were would laugh at me and how frustrated I would get like

You know when they open the window and then the beep I'm like god damn it. It's still there um It has always been there and will always be there. And the problem with living in the burbs such as I do is that sound bounces. So I cannot triangulate where the fuck it is. Yeah. And I don't know what it is. I did have one person suggest to me

that it is essentially a sprinkler alarm, stating that it needs a new battery. And it's like, okay, that was in 2017 that you said that Yeah, it's been a while while I what what gets me is if you're noticing it then everybody else in the neighborhood has to have noticed it So has this become like a neighborhood cryptid? I don't know I or is it is it that wonderful kind of thing where you all know about it, but nobody says anything

I don't know. I think it may have faded into the background of everyone's existence. I don't know. I genuinely don't know so Yeah, oddly enough. I have a sound like that as well also walking around at night in my partner's neighborhood There is a veterinarian office off the main drag and if you walk by the the corner to turn the corner lights start flashing at you and it says in a robotic voice that you are under surveillance. Oh, yeah. Which, it's like, fuck you. But... So, they have surveillance video of me saying that and gesturing. But... You know, and the thing is, like, okay, I understand why for insurance reasons, like the folks down the street from me have to have some kind of security

system to get that. I understand why a veterinary office where one presumes there are the veterinary versions of some human drugs being stored there that they need to have some kind of security system for having worked as a security camera live monitor and having managed the people who watched those cameras What I failed to understand is why The well, I mean I understand why but it irks me because I know enough to know that a system like the one that the vet's office has and the one that mine my Industrial neighbor down the street have is the absolute cheapest bullshit solution

Having an actual live monitor who can get over the PA and say hey move along and can then respond appropriately to a situation like, you know, there's somebody walking by the back corner of the business. They're not doing anything suspicious. There's no need to shout at them. You know, the technology exists to have that like, hey, motion sensor went off. Let's show the camera to a human and the human can look look at it and go, yeah, no, he's, he's walking by. I don't need to yell at him, you know, or, Oh, he's up to shit.

He has a crowbar in his hand and he's coming for the back door. I better contact law enforcement cause he's about to try to break in. That system does not do either one of those things. It is the worst of all possible worlds So yeah, yeah, so anyway tonight I Wanted to talk to you about a sadder Malaysia spider-man Wait no you you did

Speedball that's people yeah you you did that with with Gabriel Cruz. Yeah, but he was not sadder to start with he was made sadder Because society or got shittier. No. No, this is a sadder more malaysie spider-man Look when you were writing a comic book for 13 years Look, when you are writing a comic book for 13 years, such as Spider-Man, and you kind of have to age this teen angsty hero up to adulthood, you know, because people grow up, but you still want to make a teen angsty superhero for the kids, but the times they are a change in and you now have adult fans as well who would reject how Mary Sue your original Teen ht hero would be if they were to meet with him today. What do you do?

Well 13 years later we're talking 1976 So me well, okay. It's the 70s right when we're doing this so Are you thinking the same exact formula, but put it in space Because if so, that's that's one possible answer. You're right Tonight, I'm talking about Richard Ryder Nova the sad Peter Parker in space Okay. Yeah. So the sadder, malazier Spider-Man. The one who is called Nova.

All right. Now you've intentionally said malazier. So you're gonna reference Carter here. Well, it can't help but do so since this comic starts in 1976. Okay. Now, see if you can spot a pattern here. There's a kid whose name has alliterative properties and he is given powers entirely by accident that he doesn't even understand, but he's elated to have them as they allow

him to escape his unsatisfying life wherein he had a bit of an inferiority complex, struggled with self-doubt and self-esteem and feeling like he didn't fit in, who banters through most of his battles due to this newfound confidence that these self-seem powers have given him while becoming more and more selfless as he learns about the importance of responsible use of power. Oh, and give him a nickname that ends with head. Okay. So, does this sound like anybody you've ever read? Oh and give him a nickname that ends with head

Okay, so does it sound like anybody you've ever read Well obvi Peter Parker right or Richard Ryder Yeah, aka Nova whose nickname is buckethead All right, okay But because it's 1976 you can't have him actually be a bookworm. In fact, this time around, he's a pretty poor student. His younger brother is the brains. Younger brother, Robbie, is the brains, adding to his inferiority angst. And because it's 1976 and no fault divorce is a thing,

instead of having him be an orphan whose uncle abruptly dies Have his parents hint at the possibility of divorce from time to time and struggling marriage But they always stay together and I cannot overstate the fact that he's a loser a loser an average loser In fact in the very very first issue in the very very first page The comic book has a Nova or Richard Ryder who had become Nova Failing to block a shot on the basketball court allowing the girls to beat the boys in PE

Now in this day and age is not a big deal because we have seen some really amazing women basketball players since we were teenagers But in 1976 a boy beaten by a girl and letting his whole team down Yeah, that's a pretty big deal. The bully doesn't even beat him up because he says you're not worth it Wow, yeah and writer as a reaction to this says quote I'm a punk with a capital P and that's all I'll ever be Okay, so we are setting up our loser, right? Wow Yeah, and the next page because we're establishing his character hard in the paint at this point He says to me girlfriend, thank you, thank you.

He says to his girlfriend, who I couldn't really ever find them being romantic, but there seems to be an intimacy there of two people romantically intertwined. But he says to her, quote, "'It seems that everyone in school "'does everything better than I do.'" And that is a vital point to why I like him so much as a character later on. Okay.

So Richard Ryder is the updated for the 1970s Spider-Man for a new audience. So let's take stock real quick about what's happening as we get to the summer of America's Bicentennial, when the Nova comic hits the stands Politically holy fucking shit Yeah, Wow Nixon resigned rather than let himself be impeached Ford right burdens him afterwards and a lot of people are pissed about that We had a president whom nobody elected on the prior ticket as he had replaced Spiro Agnew who himself had resigned due to corruption charges that stemmed from a local Baltimore corruption investigation

In fact, Spiro, is that you? I thought you died in jail His corruption investigation was actually broke in the press by the hyper liberal anti-establishment Wall Street Journal Man speaking of losers, um like So done fucked up son. Yeah. Oh, yeah So from that point forward actually Watergate and the Agnew investigations were competing for space in the newspapers in 1972 or yeah in about 72 And and which is just a hell of a thing in in the 70s like

Daily, you're gonna see the two now it's Spiro Agnew interestingly enough ended up getting getting lent money to pay for all of his you know Trial legal fees and everything right by none other than Frank Sinatra After he resigned from office Okay, wait, um Frank's not for the guy who famously sang vote for Kennedy, uh-huh Okay, American in history is fucking weird. All right cool So he then would receive a no interest loan of two million dollars in 1980

From the crown prince of Saudi Arabia claiming that he Agnew Had been the target of Zionist Jews who were out to ruin him He was part of the Nixon administration, yeah Nixon was famously anti-semitic actually well one Nixon was famously anti-semitic but Well, yeah, right. Yeah Policy wise though. They were they were I Know I know but it's it's he's writing to It was a Fahd bin Abdul Aziz al Saud

And he writes to him in a letter that The money would quote Continue my effort to inform the American people of their control of the media and other influential sectors of the American society Okay, Henry, mm-hmm sit down calm down right Okay, Henry, sit down, calm down. Right. Um, I'm sorry, I'm still getting over the idea that, that an administration that was as like, yes, personally antisemitic, but like as pro-Israel as the Nixon administration and Henry goddamn Kissinger,

yeah, who, who also remarkably enough anti-Semitic despite being Jewish. Right. Even famously said, if I hadn't been born a Jew, I would have been anti-Semitic. Yeah. And you just can't approve that you are. Despite having been born Jewish, um But they're their foreign policy was so how do you do the metal gymnastics required Money dear boy. Yeah. All right fine. He got a billion dollar loan

In 1980 money. Yeah. Yeah. My God. He also in that same letter congratulated the crown prince. Again, this is Fad Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. He congratulated him for his declaration of jihad against Israel after they declared Jerusalem their capital. Money dear boy. All right. Wow. Now, when you get a loan of $2 million, you send a thank you note, right?

Yes. Agnew, in his thank you note, wrote, quote, the resources, the thanks for, quote, the resources to continue the battle against the Zionist community here in the US. You... That's the man that Nixon picked as his running mate. That's the man that was so corrupt that he quit before Nixon quit. Oh my god. all right. Yeah Wow Also in 1975 let's fast forward again and then you know, we've we've already gone forward to 80

I just want to give you an idea as to the kind of God spirit Agnew was but in 1975 We finally left Vietnam fully we'd actually officially left in 73 turning the war effort over to the South Vietnamese government and He actually officially left in 73 turning the war effort over to the South Vietnamese government and left a bunch of guys behind to advise them and whatnot. But by 1975, as had been the Nixon plan, the North Vietnamese overtook South Vietnamese defenses and took Saigon, ending the civil war that the French had started. But since enough time had passed since the time that US left, that means it wasn't on the US despite the overwhelming images of American advisors fleeing and pushing helicopters into the ocean and thousands of people fleeing the new regime. All the stuff we've talked about.

Right. Yeah. And despite the length of time where the US could claim that such a loss wasn't on us, thereby sidestepping the calamitous errors of the Truman Doctrine of investing our credibility in literally every goddamn fight everywhere, Americans were super bummed and bitter about their first defeat, even though you could absolutely count 1812 and the Korean War as defeats if you look at them objectively. Yes. At best, they would be troughs. Yes. As best they would be draws. Yes.

So, the president, whom nobody elected, Gerald Ford, who then pardoned the guy who put him in the position to assume the presidency, was again running for president in 1976. Right. He was running against a relative outsider known as Jimmy Carter. Yes. Now he was getting primaried by the mutated conservative wing that left Goldwater in the dust and glommed on to the glimmering glib Gipper governor who grew gains from going gaga against ginned up good-for-nothing grifters in the system. Wow, you had your whole V for Vendetta moment there. Nicely done.

Yep. In short, he had a legitimate challenge from Ronald Reagan, who pulled Ford further to the right and into culture war territory that had very little basis in reality. Ford defeated Reagan in the primary in 76, but Reagan learned a lot of really important lessons and so did the moral majority and all kinds of right-wing religious grifters. Trust in the government, however, went down to roughly 35% in the summer of 76 when Nova came out. Incidentally, in the prior year in September of 75 there were two attempted assassinations on Gerald Ford so it was a pretty shit time for politics in America yeah by the way do you know where those assassinations

attempts took place where San Francisco and Sacramento oh Oh, really? Yeah. I had not been aware of that. Oh, wow. So, Ford goes on to lose to Carter. And then trust in the government falls even further because Republicans were big mad that they lost despite

the fact that the guys that they put into power were helicorrupt. Well, were hand picked by hella corrupt guy who had hand picked another hella corrupt guy. Yeah. Who defeated a well, I mean, honestly, we're kind of seeing a repeat of history, aren't we? Anyway, economically, the unemployment rate had been rising from 1973 forward and had been unsteady in the few years prior to that It was up. It was down. It was up. It was down in 1973 when we finally went off the gold and silver standards and went to the promissory note standard

Unemployment was at four point nine percent, which was down by zero point three percent from the previous year Okay, so the previous in 72 it had been 5.2. However, inflation had more than doubled from 3.4% to 8.4% in the same amount of time. Yeah. So, in 1974, unemployment was at 7.2% and inflation went up to 12.3 percent then in 75

Unemployment went up to set to 8.2 percent, but inflation came down to 6.9 percent So there's this weird thing that's happening, but essentially it fucking sucks Yeah, well, I think that's the technical economic term. That is the technical economic term, and it was the era in which economists coined the term stagflation. Yes. Where we pinned all of our hopes on bachelor movies. Very strange stuff. Yeah, weird. Very weird. But this was actually breaking the clouds. Inflation would begin a steady climb until the early 1980s, where then it started dropping off significantly.

Of course, unemployment wouldn't drop off significantly, and after settling around 6% in 1979, it would steeply rise as inflation steadied through the 80s. So we can't have both, apparently. Now the high school dropout rate, which is measured by folks who are from 16 to 24 who are not enrolled in high school and without a diploma or a GED, went down to 13.2% in 1975.

It dipped just a little. It was always right around there. But then it began to rise until 1984, noticeably dropping below that number for the first time. So it's not until 1984 that the high school dropout rate goes below 13.2%. Now among males, it would be a slightly different thing. So when you factor out women, it would take until 1986 before the rate dropped below 1975 numbers. So from 75 to 86, it was a steady climb amongst males.

From 75 to 84, it was a steady climb amongst all demographics or against males and Females, okay, of course We could dig deeper and we'll see that the dropout rates increased based on ethnicity shock of shocks and as teachers ourselves We can see the damage that Programs have done to various groups 1975 was the first time measured that the high school dropout rate among Hispanic students dipped below 30% Jesus yeah at 29.2% but then it rose again And remained above 30% until 1983 When it dipped below 30% again and then rocketed back up until 1988

It took until 1992 before it finally started staying below 30% and since then it's been on the decline. Still much, much higher than white students though. Yeah, the disparity is huge. Oh, it's enormous. The dropout rate amongst black students would be at 22.9% in 1975, and it mostly dropped thereafter never getting above 20% after 1980. Now it's around 3.94%, which is actually half

a percentage lower than white dropout rates. Now if we do it by income Lowest income quartile their dropout rate in 1975 was 28.8% and it would take until 2001 before it ever got below 20% Yeah for a whole host of reasons though, that's unsurprising and you're of course gonna see overlaps right lowest quartile Most marginalized communities, etc, etc. Yeah. I also found an interesting correlation in unemployment and high school dropout status in 75 and 76 Nearly 16 percent of high school dropouts from 60 or from 75 to 76 were unemployed So yeah dropped out. You were also gonna be unemployed. 16% of those who dropped out would just stay unemployed.

Now that number would continue to climb and it settled above those rates until 1987 when it finally dipped back below 14% for the first time. Oh wow. If you wanna look at it another way, if we remove the unemployed and the not in the labor force from that equation, only 46% of high school dropouts were considered employed in 1975. Wow. Yeah. And that number rose to above 50% in 77. And it has consistently

or inconsistently rather remain above that. There this dip from 81 to 85 and then it started climbing back up until 1991 where it has stayed above that Now another interesting and odd wrinkle in the year 2000 the total high school dropout rate was ten point nine three percent That's factoring everybody in High school dropout rate was ten point nine three percent. That's factoring everybody in But when you break down those numbers further the male dropout rate was nearly twenty percent in 2000 she many Christmas Yeah Female dropout rate was still in the nines and continuing to drop and it was just that single year that it spiked so high for males

The next year it actually dropped to eleven to 12 percent again, and it continued dropping going forward I have not been able to figure out what the fuck happened there. I almost wonder if there was a reporting error of some sort because 911 doesn't happen until the tail end of 2001 so a dropout rate that occurs in 2002 would have Confirmed that bias for me, but it was not the case. It was literally in the year 2000.

Anyway, Nova. His origin actually goes back to 1966. It was conceived of by a guy named Mark Wolfman, the co-creator of Blade and the Crisis on Infinite Earths. He also helped to create Black Cat and Bullseye, those characters, to name a couple. This version of Nova that he created was in a fanzine that he was active in, and the character was called Star.

And he took pills that would change his superpowers every five minutes, which I think is a pretty cool idea, but it's also so desperately 1966 that it hurts. Oh very yeah in in 1966 we have Griswold versus Connecticut Which is about birth control yeah The pill that's also the year that the mother's little helper song was released as a single by the Rolling Stones that the Mother's Little Helper song was released as a single by the Rolling Stones. Also, a pill. A pill, yeah.

Anyway, he ends up reimagining the character once he got hired at Marvel, and he had done good work with Blade, which he'd helped create, and he'd also helped create Bullseye. He got together with Steve Buscema, who drew the first Nova run, and they hashed out the character revamp with John Romita Sr. John Romita Sr. was famously Steve Ditko's replacement when Steve Ditko left Spider-Man in 1966. He and Stan Lee brought in many of the things that have lodged themselves in our minds regarding Spidey.

The focus on romance. Mary Jane looking like Anne Margaret. Bigger eyes on Spider-Man. Angst over Aunt May. Self-doubt. Rejection of his own powers. College life. All these things are John Romita and Stan Lee creations. Okay. Now his... So John Romito worked with Steve, did I mix up names? Steve Buscema, yeah, it's all Johns and Steve's. So Steve Buscema was well known for his Avengers run, but also he and Stan Lee were the co-creators of the Silver Surfer original run. Not the character, but the run. The character is Jack Kirby's creation.

But Usima was the artist for the first run of the solo comic where the Silver Surfer was an intellectual, high-powered philosopher traveling through the cosmos in the mid-1960s when psychotropic and psychedelic drugs yeah yeah big deals right Buscema did help co-create Mephisto though okay anyhow these are the guys who created Nova Wolfman and Buscema and it makes a lot of sense and I'm going to show you a couple of pictures so that you can get a feel for What I'm talking about cool All right So I've shown you the the first

issue with blade Yeah, the first Nova issue The first silver server issue Yes, and finally the 12th issue of Nova where he fights spider-man Okay, so what are you noticing about all four of these? The What are you noticing about all four of these? Um the

Design of nova just the visual Uh Yeah, the visual shape of of him Is very very heavily kirby influenced. Yes Like looking looking at his helmet Looking at the you know, uh, is that kang? on the on the The man called nova the the original issue cover. No, that's actually uh, the very first person that he fights

Okay. Yeah, that's zor the very first person that he fights. Okay. Yeah, that's Zor, the intergalactic space menace. Okay. And, um, that's like everything I'm looking at there is, is like, shouts Kirby to me. Like I can see, I can see the influence very much there. Um, even though this is not Kirby, but you're right. No, but, but I can, I can see, yeah, I can, I can see the influence being there. Um,

we have like, if Nova is supposed to be a teenager, he's, he's got guns, man. Um, he's, he's very heavily, um, masculinized lack of a better word. There's a very blunt kind of, um, aspect to his, to like the shape of the helmet and all that. Um, and I see a very significant similarity in the muscularity between that and, uh, the silver surfer cover.

Also look at their placement on the page, right? So, yeah, they're very central. Yes. Very central. There's a lot of space behind them. There is a frenetic movement by their feet, but you see they're very masculine torsos. Yeah. And then with the blade comic, the tomb of Dracula and the leader number 12 Nova comic, uh, there's a similar representation of flight through

something streaming out behind them. In this case. It's it's his legs being blurred With Dracula it's it's it looks almost like the cape is is Draping all the way down to the ground behind him And you see that there's like a point of impact at the bottom and then it swoops up and they're honestly they're mirror image swoops Yeah, they're reversed from each other. Yeah Honestly, they're mirror image swoops. Yeah, they're reversed from each other. Yeah Yeah, there's a damsel in distress on the tomb of Dracula cover that isn't there No, but you do notice that there is a person lying down

Yeah, like there's in both. There are people also not prone, but they're kind of flattened by their distance Yeah in both images there is somebody on the ground that appears to be kind of in the image in order to stress to us the altitude right and the Brunettic yeah kind of nature of the motion So yeah, so yeah, you see you see what's going on there, right? These influences are very, very much dependable influences. Oh yeah. Also, Guardians of the Galaxy had also been given their own comic series out of Marvel

Presents number three in February of 76. Okay. So, 76, we're seeing a lot of space. We're seeing, like you just saw, these same kinds of conventions being used. Yeah. Now, the initial NOVA run was 25 issues long, okay? And you would think 25 issues would be over two years, just over two years. It actually stretched from 76 to 79. So, while at first it was somewhat constant,

it became a little spottier. And then the actual story of Nova did not finish until, well, it didn't finish within the Nova comic. It finished by weaving into a few issues of the Fantastic Four and Then space night rom is where you actually see the end of Nova's story. Oh Okay, that's an interesting place for that show up that's a pretty niche comic it is and it kind of shows that Nova as a comic was not particularly

successful in the 70s. But there's not that much that is successful in the mid 70s that was new. There are plenty of things that weren't successful in the comics. Most of what was successful was legacy stuff that had been previously successful. Giant-size X-Men or stuff that had been previously successful. Giant size X-Men. Or stuff that had been ongoing. Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, stuff like that. New stuff, a lot less so, right? I would count Silver Surfer as being a legacy thing too,

because he was very popular from being in Fantastic Four. Right. Nova and Howard the Duck both came out to a great opening interest but quickly flagged, right? Yeah. X-Men, Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, they still crowded out the top spaces for sales that year multiple times. So the story of Nova is Richard Ryder's story. He was just a C average high school student when a Nova Centurion from Xandar named Roman Day threw a Hail Mary pass with his dying effort hoping that someone even a rando Would take up the mantle of the Nova and fight the fight that he was losing at the time and this fight carried him Of course to earth

He was fighting against a guy named Zor like I said the intergalactic space menace, right? Zor had destroyed Xandar which would get destroyed more times than the king's fat castle would fall into the swamp, and then ran off to Earth to hide. Roman Day tracked him there, but he was so injured from the destruction of Xandar that he was his best, this was his best possible plan. Rich Ryder is having a hard day anyway, and suddenly he's hit because he's the rando that gets hit and it hospitalizes him.

Oh wow. All right. Now Ronan Day communicates to Rich Ryder telepathically to tell him what great power and great responsibility he'd been given, sending him the outfit the next day via telepathic Sears Roebuck catalog, I guess. It's 1976. It's space magic. And remember, space had been capturing the imagination of Americans for a while now.

Well, yeah, I just went and looked up the date of the Apollo 11 moon landings because that was something that came to mind thinking about all of these You know Space fantasy. It was 1969 right that all of these space fantasy comics were Showing up around around the same. Yeah time now in 1975 the first crude inter crude as in not crude as in like You know, I could I made it together. Yeah. Yeah, although The first modern standards international space mission That was with a crew there we go went off with the Apollo Sue yes test project success

with the Apollo-Suyuz test project success. Millions of people around the world in July of 1975, one year before this comic came out, watched on TV as the final Apollo spacecraft to ever take flight docked with the Suyuz space station. Vance Brand, Deke Slayton, and Thomas Stafford collaborated with Valerie Kubasov and Alexei Leonov to have Apollo eclipse the Sun for Sue Yez Allowing the cosmonauts to get photos of solar corona Cool pretty cool. Yeah, and I find it hilarious that I have zero problem pronouncing Russian names, but give me a French name and I'm fucked. We're poor.

As you could tell from previous episodes where I was pronouncing Congolese names, no problem. No trouble at all. French names don't... Yeah. Yeah. It's the uncanny valley effect of linguistics It's like it's just it's just close enough to looking like Latin that you feel like you ought to pronounce it that way And you are so wrong. Yeah. Well, I dare say it Latin makes your tongue work a lot

I'm not used to letting my tongue just kind of vaguely hang there as I blow vowels past it and we call them consonants. I think that's part of what it is. I have never heard French described so effectively in my entire life from a mechanical standpoint as right there. Yeah. That's brilliant. Just kind of blow past your tongue, kind of let it half-heartedly do shit.

Right. So anyway, it's always been fascinating to me that this space race was at once so competitive and so cooperative. Like, we're not gonna let those bastards beat us. We're gonna send our own men to be roasted alive in the hopes that they do something first, but at the same time What's that? Oh sure. We'd love to pose for a picture with you Like yeah, even Henry Kissinger was down for it

Well, yeah, yeah, he he his response to NASA's leaders at the time in 75 was And I'm gonna actually speed up his response Because that way we can keep this under two hours Quote as long as you stick to space do anything you want to do It's as opposed to what there, Henry? Well, as opposed to bombing the shit out of Cambodia.

I guess, like why would... Okay. Like, yeah, he said that right before starting the bombing campaign in Cambodia. And by April of 1972, both the US and the USSR had committed to this 1975 mission oh well um interestingly and I love things like this Stafford and Leonov stayed friends until the death of Leonov in 2019 that's pretty cool that is yeah

Viking 1 and Viking 2 launched an orbiter to Mars later in the summer of 1975. So again, this is still a year before all of this, but this is what's going on. Both were aimed at getting pictures of Mars, the lander of which touched down in July of 76. Yep. And this comic released in that same month. And it touched down actually on the anniversary of the Apollo moon landing Oh

Yeah, I'd forgotten that detail Yeah, there was an attempt to do it on the anniversary of another space thing I think it was on the anniversary of John Glenn getting to space But there were some programming issues getting to space. But there were some programming issues. And within seven minutes of landing, the first panoramic picture of Mars was taken and sent back to Earth.

The next day, the first color picture of Mars was taken and sent back to Earth. I didn't know that we had colonized Mars with robots that early on. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, what I find even more, uh, interesting is that while we send something in that direction, the Soviets sent probes in the opposite direction in the solar system and they were the first ones to land on Venus. Really? Yeah.

And they're probably lasted. They're probably lasted on the surface for a matter of, I mean, it was less than 30 minutes. Sure. Because the heat, the caustic atmosphere and it like, they got, they got, I want to say they got a few photographs of essentially the ground around the lander and then it just it died Yeah but I mean Venus is historically like it's or famously has Horrid atmosphere whereas Mars. Yeah doesn't have much atmosphere. Yeah

Yeah So yeah, we we've we've been doing that Yeah So yeah, we we've we've been doing that You know, I it makes sense why I have a hard time wrapping my head around this this shit happened before I was born You were already I think confirmed Fuck you right. Yeah now most superheroes at this point had been Adultified by virtue of having been around for a while Peter Parker had been in college starting in 1965

Onward so he's clearly an adult Incidentally He is I mean you know he he's harder for a middle schooler to relate to okay, that's fair right fine He actually graduates from college in 1978 which itself was a wolfman issue Of course in Marvel years, that's like roughly from 65 to 78 is roughly four years right, so yeah, Johnny Storm had been at college starting in 1966 in the very issue where he met Wyatt Wingfoot

and had gone to Wakanda to meet Black Panther actually. Oh, all right. The X-Men had been in college since 66 as well. Most of the youngest heroes are adults in college in some form or another. And most of the heroes in general are adults. And then you've got Cosmic Adventures with Silver Surfer, shit that Dr. Strange does, others.

Additionally, people of color are getting their own comic books by 1976. Luke Cage got his own book, Heroes for Hire, in 1972. Black Panther became the main story starting in a comic book called Jungle Action. Yeah. In fairness Wakanda was in the jungle but also okay. Yeah. Now that steps forward. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's issue five of jungle action in 1973 This is where he's fighting the white gorilla Mbaku Okay villain These have since rehabilitated him in very interesting ways that I've liked

Shang-Chi got his own comic book starting in 1974 Mmm. Yeah speaking of again problematic steps forward. Yeah. And the X-Men got rebooted in 75. So yeah, there's a lot that's happening here that's changing the face of comics, appealing to different audiences, etc. And there's a potential gap in the market. That gap, of course, being there's nothing that specifically appeals to white teens as white teens as opposed to early in the superhero game. It was all appealing to white teens. Yes. Specifically right and that was what built the house for Marvel. So a Wolfman space-based homage to Peter Parker

hits all sorts of buttons. And he even himself mused, or he being Rich Ryder, muses to himself on a walk home before he gets blasted with the telepathic Sears delivery uniform, quote, "'Real kids don't become superheroes. I mean, Iron Man or the Vision or even Spider-Man, they're not kids.

This is in issue one, like in the first few pages, right? Now, the series only ran 24 issues and its dangling threads, like I said, were tied up in Fantastic Four and ROM, but in the first few issues when last we left him Richard Ryder had gotten a telepathic catalog order sent to him by a dying Roman day. He is gifted with the powers of a Nova Centurion and the outfit to match and at first he's elated with these powers as he tests them out at a junkyard because okay 1970s yeah I mean

there was even a TV series based around a junkyard yeah Sanford and son mm-hmm then because shortwave radio ham radio and police scanners were coming into vogue we see it happen in his new helmet And route to the danger Richard Ryder muses to himself quote You know flying like this gives a guy the confidence he needs to feel like he can say say or do anything Which means it gives me the confidence to think I'm almost as good as everyone else instead of being Richard Ryder boy nothing Wow Yeah someone else instead of being Richard Rider, boy, nothing. Wow. Yeah. So we're really just making sure that you know,

that this guy feels like an a number one loser. Yeah. And that the powers have gifted him with more confidence. So what I find interesting about that like at this point in a narrative Peter Parker Wasn't a loser like he was a little bit of a sad sack like You know there was there was he was not the most popular kid in school. He had bullying problems But he was also famously respected as a bookworm. Yeah. Yes. You know, and he had something going for him. He was a smart guy. Yes. And I find it very, very 70s.

Yes. That we're taking that away from him. And no, no, no, it's not enough that, you know, he's got normal teenage problems, but he has some strong areas. It's no, no, I want you to understand this guy is truly pathetic. Yes. And yeah. And like you said in the beginning, it's the malaise. Yeah. Yeah. That's wow. There are heroes because this is a superhero comic, but our protagonists have nothing going for them.

Wow. Well, you're an illustrator looking out his window at the interest rates going up, unemployment rates going up, dropout rates going up. Your conception of what it is to be a teenager is no longer, well, I knew a bunch of bookish fellows. Yeah, all right. It's the most unlikely hero makes the most interesting hero, but the most unlikely hero now is really unlikely

Yeah, all right yeah, and of course Richard Ryder's bully flash. I'm sorry Mike Is is a big fan of the superhero persona of Richard Ryder? Oh? Yeah, we saw the same thing with flash is a big fan of the superhero persona of Richard Ryder. Oh, yeah. We saw the same thing with Flash, Flash Thompson. Yeah. Now, there's no instructions really or explanation as to what these powers are, but sure enough, Richard, now Nova,

finds Zor and goes to confront him. And yes, the white teenage boy with an alliterative name who just got his powers is going to bring justice to the guy who killed the not father even though kind of a mentor sort of character was to him. In this instance though, our hero doesn't quite defeat the guy like we saw 12 years earlier or 13 years earlier, but he does help the intergalactic police bring him to justice because the Nova Corps is the intergalactic cops

right he He brings him to judge area helps them bring him to justice by way of disintegration above the or aboard the Novus and Turan starship so Wow, yeah, okay in Turian Starship. So. Wow. Yeah. OK. This uses the computer prime energy to carry out the justice, which is actually Ronan Day's final mortal act. The issue will then end with Rich Ryder saying, quote, I guess I'm alone now with powers I've

only yet to learn about. But I've learned one thing. My powers must always be used for justice, no matter what the risk, no matter what the danger, for that is the destiny of Nova. Okay. It sounds like great power. And being intertwined with great responsibility. Yeah, that he's now taking, right?

Right, yeah. All of which was accidentally given to him at a time that he was reeling from feeling low. Right. And immediately Richard Ryder starts taking on costume bank robbers like the Condor and Powerhouse. And then we see writers home life Mom works and dad works Dad I think is a principal at a school mom is vaguely working

Okay, Richard and his brother Robert are left to their own devices at home. This is the 1970s Peter Parker lived with his elderly aunt who was always home, presumably on social security, especially since her husband had been murdered. Yeah. Right? Richard Ryder. And possibly some kind of a survivor's pension from whatever union job he had.

Good point. Richard, and he was some sort of contractor because he was always Mr. Fix-It Richard writers parents both are working both our parent age But they're both largely absent and he and his brother are left to fend for themselves He okay and Richard in 70 so the comment came out in 76 76. Yeah, and he was He's maybe a sophomore or junior in high school. I think he's a sophomore in high school because he's kind of so 15 16 yeah in

76 so he would have been born in 69 He's would have been born at 59 59. Okay. No, so yeah All right. I was I was looking at demographics. So what's interesting about that is He's a boomer. Yes, he is But he's a latchkey kid Yes for that before before the phenomenon of latchkey kids, right? Got any any press. Right.

And it is a feature of their friendship as brothers, and they get along pretty well. There's a little bit of teasing back and forth. There's a little bit of banter, but by and large, it's a pretty friendly relationship. His brother actually starts a electric fire at one point by accident. And we see Richard Ryder's school life

continue to be explained in the same way that we saw in the first issue. Meanwhile, his rogues gallery continues with a guy named Diamondhead who actually will be kind of a semi-constant character that he ends up fighting against a bunch. In Diamondhead we actually see a villain who just loved being the villain literally going through flashbacks talking about I always wanted to play the bad guy when me and my friends played Captain America

I always wanted to be the red skull There's there's a real psychosis here He always said I always wanted to be a crime lord and he's been working toward that end And in this issue, we also find that Nova isn't just strong and flying fast, he's also invincible to ballistics. He's also beginning to crack wise a little bit more often. Now what's different with this series of introductions as compared to the early rogues gallery for Spider-Man is that Nova keeps letting them get away from him. Spider-Man kept like catching them and leaving them for the cops.

Nova doesn't do this. And then his villains meet up with each other and team up really quickly. Spidey at least sent them away to prison for a while and then later they develop into the Sinister Six or something. Also Spider-Man's bully was only more sport competent than Peter Parker, right? Flash Thompson was the big man on campus. He was the quarterback from the football team, I think. Right. Nova's bully, Mike, is actually smarter and more talented. Like, it's constantly referred to that he's got better grades

He's better at all the classes and he's more competent physically Wow, yeah, so just again Nova Rich writer does not add up in anybody's book. He has nothing over anybody Peter Parker was clearly smarter than flash Thompson And then he had to hold back so that nobody realized that he was spider-man, you know Yeah, rich writer is is not smarter than than Mike and nor is he better as an athlete Also Peter Parker largely was a loner. Rich Ryder has three specific friends. Caps, little kid who wears a cap.

Ginger, the semi-girlfriend, and Bernie. And Bernie is absolutely coded as a Jewish intellectual kid. Oh Wow. Yeah Like to the point where he talks I think at one point he talks about going to Hebrew school school He talks about speaking in Hebrew and he uses Yiddish words a lot. Oh wow. All right now soon Nova in episode in issue 12 ends up fighting spider-man and Oh, actually, I'm sorry. I skipped over a little bit. Um Interestingly in the first couple of issues probably around issues four five and six

We actually get a peek into Mike's inner life his inner struggle and that's centered in some of these issues. Mike, Rich Ryder's bully, complains to his girlfriend that everyone except expects him to excel at everything and that the pressure is getting to him. And so it actually kind of humanizes him and shows why he's taking things out on Richard and then he goes and has his first hero fight Rich rider does goes and has his first hero fight and teams up with Thor against a character named the Corruptor Who for a little bit mind controls Thor? Nova fights him Thor's like how dare you hit, and all that kind of shit.

They fight for a bit. He undoes what the Corrupter had done to him, to Thor, and Thor tells Nova, like, hey, you're a brave guy. You're my kind of guy, and flies off. Right, right, yeah. And then, after that, I think that's issue nine nine or so then after that Nova ends up fighting Spider-Man Because he blamed Spidey for the murder of his own uncle. Oh Okay, so yes

Spider-Man murdered Nova's uncle Right, right, which he didn't actually do no No, of course, yeah, but there's confusion because comic books we got it Yeah, right the battle between the two of them is actually a good one both guys are laying it in pretty thick with their abilities And their mouths you start to see them bantering back and forth which I love because it kind of legitimizes There's a bit of a potential torch passing here, but also like hey, you know he does the same things It ends amicably because again comic books with the possibility of the wisecracking teenage screw-up having his torch passed But it doesn't get passed because there's a scene at the end or but there is a scene at the end

Of their fight where Nova says quote. quote well maybe I was wrong about you Spidey look I'm kind of new at this I'm still making a few mistakes to which Spider-Man replies quote so I've been at it for years and I'm still messing up constantly don't let it bother you right yeah all right after a bit more spoken the guy he sees people. Yeah Now after a bit more sleuthing the two of them team up against a character named photon Who's really the one who killed Rich's uncle and he works for aim advanced idea mechanics? The whole issue is actually ends in a who done it Almost similar to clue, but I looked and clue came out in like the 1980s

So Spider-man one of the defining features of spider-man is what? That's let's actually go through some of them. Okay guilt. Yep I should go through some of them. Okay, guilt. Yep. His... Yeah, Nova doesn't really have that. Yeah.

Spidey, there's a very blue collar kind of character to Spidey, he's very, very grounded. There's hard scrabble might be another word Nova has some of that he does he's a bit more cavalier, but you're right. He does have some of that Spidey is a as has already been mentioned. He's a wisecracker. So is Nova There's an interesting combination of like in, in Canon, in the comics, there's an interesting combination of inborn abilities and a super tech because in the comics, his webs are artificial,

they're not organic. They're, they're technological, not pick the wrong word to start there. They're, they're kind of a techno Marvel. Yeah. You know, his wall crawling and his super strength and Spidey senses, that stuff is all innate, but his webbing is technology. Yes. Now Nova's got fancy space tech. Yeah, he doesn't understand it good. Yeah, all right space magic. Yeah How does Spider-Man feel about his secret identity? Go a secret and he is is Crucial because he desperately desperately desperately doesn't want anything to get back to Aunt May. Yes, because of his guilt over Uncle men. Yep, and also if if Aunt May ever were to find out that would put her in danger

Right. Yes. Okay in issue 21 Richard Ryder reveals his secret identity to his parents While his dad is in the hospital. Oh wow all right again very different than Spidey protecting everyone he loves right? Yeah, rider opens up to them and Spider-man also famously doesn't have parents Yes, right. Yes rich and parents. Yeah, he's an orphan. He's an only child Rich is an older brother his younger brother outshines him in all the things and He has parents and his parents do love him despite not understanding him that well, right? Um, I think I talk about this a little bit later, but famously he well, maybe not famously

It's a Nova comic but he does He does muse whether or not his parents just like his brother better You know and okay, and the case can whether he's the yeah yeah, and case can easily be made that his brother is the favorite, but his dad's in the hospital and Nova opens up To them now is a very different thing than spider-man protecting everyone. He loves right? Nova's mom's response is dead on for Nova quote

Richard you may be a superhero, but you're still the same sweet loving bumbling son I've always loved you went out of your you went out to help your father You saved his life at the risk of your own You went out to help your father. You saved his life at the risk of your own Darling, I've never been prouder of my little boy than I am right now end quote I'm gonna get feels here in light like his family Accepts him Yeah, the very thing that spider-man is deathly afraid of Nova gets handed to him Yeah, and at the same time

She calls him bumbling Yeah, there's there's some yeah, there's that right in The next issue not healthy dynamics involved in that but just just you know Let's make sure that we drive home the fact that he is the most average Most mediocre kid fuck that exists. Yeah, yeah um the next issue He takes his parents on a picnic And he takes each of them on a flight. Okay. Now he's getting to do what

Peter Parker never could do. He is sharing himself with those he loved and he's accepting their love. Okay. Yeah. Don't worry it's not gonna last long. Diamondhead comes back and there's all sorts of fighting that lasts through to the end of the series After a bit more of that rich rider Nova gets called back out into space To protect the rebuilding of Xandar He does so But while he's out in space he should have stayed home finishing high school So he literally drops out and goes to work

Wow security for construction Wow Yeah Okay, all of his friends go on without him And after you know, they they they graduate they do their life after the final battle with the scrolls Because they attacked Xander um Xander is saved the reborn Queen Adora. I assume it's short for adorable But she's the head of Xander. She offers rich whatever he wants and his response is I just want to go home Now this is not unfolding in the Nova comic

This is unfolding in the ROM comp and ROM come in the ROM comic So it stretches from because the scrolls attacking Xandar and all that shit it stretches through the fantastic four and Okay, and scrolls. Yeah, and then the Rom stuff because Rom is a space knight. And so this all finishes up in Rom. Adora agrees to his request but she says, hey, if you go home your Nova powers stay here. They are forfeit because we need it for Xandar. He agrees. So he gives up the great power and the great responsibility because he misses his family and he wants to go home. Again, shit that Peter Parker never could do. Yeah. So as a result, he is teleported to just outside of his parents' home, and that's

it for Richard Ryder. He bounces from shit job to shit job, he doesn't go back to school, he ends up kind of aimless and Frodo-like, and in this time, he starts to wish that he hadn't lost his powers, because with great powers came great identity for him as well. He ends up barely making enough to get by, alienated from his parents because they don't understand what he's going through and he can't articulate it. He's also disappointed in himself and he feels like he's a disappointment to others Okay, now you said earlier that spider-man is very working class there's a hard scrabble nature to it right? Yeah He's poor spider-man is poor. Yeah, but he's never languishing

Rich Rider is languishing and At the same time that Rich Rider has lost his powers and he walks this road alone kind of thing, Spider-Man has asked Mary Jane to marry him. She actually refuses the first time. We're about two months from Black Cat making her debut, same author and creator as Novus. So what's really going on here is that Spider-Man is a much more sustainable property period. He's got 13 years of having gotten the good luck of starting when he did. Okay yeah. Actually by the

time Nova ends this is 16 years of Spider-Man, because it's 79. Secondly, Nova just never really sold well. Howard the Duck was more popular. And I think the reason why is because teens aren't interested in teen stories with new villains. They're interested in new stories. Sure. Howard the Duck. Established heroes with their own rogues gallery.

Yes, Spider-Man. The rebooted X-Men the Avengers Silver Surfer shit like that But or they're down for more targeted audience heroes for hire jungle action Shang-Chi, etc But they're not interested in new teenage stories Because teenagers aren't reading those kinds of things anymore. Yeah. There's a, there's a certain genericness. Yes. Going on. It's, you know, you have like from, from his powers, okay, you can fly your bulletproof super strength. Like that's, that's kind of of DC. Yeah, that's that's kind of the a platter of yes

Yeah, we were here a play. You know you can pick the a platter the B platter like that's that's right. Okay, you know and I mean there isn't any Particularly potent gimmick I mean there isn't any particularly potent gimmick Going on right like there's nothing too identifiable Yeah, like I mean he could be He could be Green Lantern only his powers aren't aren't psychic and they don't have the

Imagination portion of the of the power set involved right you know it know, it's, you got your, you're a space cop. You got your powers from technology, from space magic technology. You know, so it's- I dare say if Green Lantern had started in the 70s, it would not have been successful. Oh no, no, certainly not. Like that's the other thing,

is it is hard to start something that people will actually Hold on to in the 70s. Yeah because the the The prevailing attitude was cynical mm-hmm Notably more negative. Yep. And, and pessimistic because, you know, malaise as we've, as we've talked about previously,

the seventies for just kind of a shit show, you know, it was, it was, yeah, it was it was Yeah, it was just a weird it was a weird decade full of shitty stuff and so Yeah, it would not it just wasn't a good time to try to Create a three-color comic book hero that was going to have a lasting career Right. Yeah, and he's not even well. Yeah, he is barely a three-color comic book hero that was going to have a lasting Career right yeah, and he's not even well. Yeah, he is barely a three color But he does have all the primary colors you're right. He couldn't get much more generic

Yeah, and yeah space superhero, right? Even though he comprises so many things that make other characters successful, teen hero who doesn't know what his powers are, right? Real life struggles that are actually as deep of stakes as his heroic life. Base, wisecracking, flying, none of it seems to work as a suite with him long term. The result ends up being a purposeless, powerless former hero who's barely making it by and finishing his story in someone else's comic book. Yeah.

Wow. I dare say you can't get more 1970s than that. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's actually where I'm going to stop Yeah, because then we're gonna get into his appearances in 1989 And there's a couple little dips in 1984 But when you see him actually coming back as a regular character, it's 1990 1991

But when you see him actually coming back as a regular character, it's 1990, 1991. So we'll get into that next time. So what have you gleaned so far from easily my second or third favorite superhero? That well, already what you said that the 1970s just weren't a good time to be a newborn comic book superhero. Yeah. Because the zit ghost was not was not pointed in a favorable direction. You know, it wasn't predisposed to be excited about anything as Naive I don't know what that sounds pejorative. I think we should amend we should amend your statement It was not a good time to be a teenage newborn superhero. Okay, that's because again Howard the Duck did

Okay, Heroes for Hire famously did pretty well. Okay, so did the Shang-Chi. That lasted for quite some time. But you're right with the rest of it. I think the fact that he's teenage is really the issue there. Yeah. Well, I think it's partly they're not Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties. Right. You know, Shang-Chi has some kind of, you know, there is maybe not moral ambiguity. It's got other cultural anchors that it's pulling. Yeah. There's other stuff going on. But if you're going to have a character who yeah, you know there's other stuff going on But if you're if you're gonna have a character who is you know?

Dudley do right mm-hmm the 70s is not is not a great time for that Unless you're Superman because he's an established property Yep, and we all spider-man or spider-man You know we all know those guys, but but trying to start a new one up the Cynicism of the of the era is is gonna be against you You know The nostalgia that you can get with an established hero Is like well you know I know that that guy's genuine, you know, spidey, you know, Peter Parker is genuinely that guy. Clark

Kent is genuinely that guy. That's rich writer. I don't know who this guy is. Right. You know, so yeah, I think, I think that's, that's the biggest biggest the biggest takeaway is just another example of the 70s being just a weird decade Cool Yeah, I don't disagree. Yeah. Um, well, what would you like people to read or imbibe? I would very very much like to recommend how the world made the West by Josephine Quinn. It's a 4,000 year history that gets into the idea that we have of the West being built on the ideas and values of Greece and Rome. Um, but, uh, Quinn argues that, that this is, it's rooted in the things that are much bigger than that.

Um, and we are, uh, we, we have been, there has been a disservice committed by the Victorian era, um, with their idea of separate civilizations. And she makes an argument for global encounters and exchanges, trade, and a bunch of different societies being involved in the ideas and values that we attribute to the Greeks and the Romans. And yeah, um, it's a, it's a fascinating, fascinating study. Um, it, it makes historiography, um, interesting, which can be kind of hard. And so, yeah, highly recommended. How about you?

I'm gonna recommend actually, so funny thing. Richard Ryder is not the only Nova character. He's just the first Nova character. I'm not actually going to cover the Sam Alexander years because I'm focused on Richard Ryder the character. However, Sam Alexander is a fascinating Nova. He is a really cool character. There's some kind of tie-ins to the old Darkhawk character with him, but there's some stuff that happens, and I'll get to toward the end of the next couple episodes, with the Nova character so that Sam Alexander kind of takes on the mantle but one of the the the series that I liked was

Nova the Human Rocket volume one burnout because you actually have Richard Ryder and Sam like Alexander occupying the same space and Working together and there's a bit of a torch passing It's very similar to when Peter Parker and Miles Morales actually hang out Mm-hmm and do spider-man stuff. So I'm gonna recommend volumes one and two of Nova the human rocket burnout Okay, cool. Yeah, so do you want to be found anywhere? I do not at present. I do not We together however can be found on our website

history time calm We can also be found on the Amazon podcast app on the Apple podcast app and on Spotify Wherever you have found us, please take the time to hit the subscribe button, go back through the archives, take a look at what we have. There's a whole lot in there, lots of different topics to choose from. Pick one and run with it. And also of course please give us the five-star review that you know we have earned and That's where we both can be found. What about you individually sir?

Well, I could be found every first Friday of the month at the Comedy Spot slinging puns With capital punishment 9 p.m. $12 tickets if you want to see us online you can certainly do it that way at which point you you would Be able to stream it so you can buy tickets either way at the Comedy Spots website But yes, July 5th You probably we're missing that so August 2nd September 6th and October 4th You should go and see that we've been at it for eight years and we continue to just get better

It's like the I've heard that that's what happens with wine Nice. Yes. So well for a geek history of time. I am Damien Harmony the Human Rocket and I'm Ed Blalock. And keep rolling 20s.