‘God of War’ Art Director Designs Marvel Cinematic Universe Nova

Richard Rider is one of the biggest stars from Marvel’s cosmic mythos to yet appear in live-action […]

November 27, 2018, 7:13pm

Richard Rider is one of the biggest stars from Marvel’s cosmic mythos to yet appear in live-action and fans are chomping at the bit to see Nova on the silver screen. Raf Grassetti caught the Nova bug because in his spare time, he’s put together a character design for Rider’s version of Nova that has us wanting the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as soon as possible.

Videos by ComicBook.com

Grassetti —the art director because Sony’s latest God of War game — posted the designs to his Instagram page, and they’re some of the most high-quality pieces of “fan art,” for lack of a better word, we’ve ever seen.

View this post on Instagram
Here is a “Nova” design! Had a lot of fun with this one and really challenging figuring out painting techniques for it. Inspired by the work of @ryan_meinerding_art and the other Marvel folks. Trying to get faster as I do these. I’ll share some closeups and shots of the process later. Hope you like it! #marvel #avengers #annihilation #nova #characterdesign #zbrush #conceptart #comics
A post shared by Raf Grassetti (@rafagrassetti) on Nov 27, 2018 at 9:38am PST

As you can see in the two pictures above, Grassetti’s take on the Human Rocket is very comic-accurate, featuring Nova’s iconic navy and gold color scheme. The chest plate is remiscient of the ones the Nova Corps wore in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), but clearly has enough upgrades for a heavy hitter like Rider. Athough the Nova Corps and several Rider-adjacent characters — such as Nova Prime Irani Rael, Rhomann Dey, and Garthan Saal — were shown in the first Guardians flick, it was a watered down version without the slightest mention of Rider or Sam Alexander.

Rider first appeared in Marvel comics in Nova #1 (1976) as created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist John Romita Sr. Since his debut, Nova has been one of the heavy-hitters of the cosmos, often times finding himself aligned with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Nova’s biggest time to shine came in Keith Giffen’s Annihilation and Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning’s Annihilation: Conquest spin-off. Conveniently enough, Avengers: Annihilation is one of the most popular fan theories for the title of the yet-to-be-named Avengers 4 movie hitting theaters next spring.

According to Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige, Nova is a character they’ve had their eyes set on for quite some time.

“Nova is… if we have a big board with a bunch of characters that have more immediate potential, Nova is on that board,” Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told ComicBook.com. “Because of the connection to the Guardians universe, because there are more than one examples to pull from in the comics that are interesting. And you’re absolutely right, he was in the earliest drafts of the [Guardians of the Galaxy].”

Do you want to see Nova and an updated Nova Corps in the MCU? Would you prefer Richard Rider or Sam Alexander to be introduced first? Let us know in the comments below or send them my way on Twitter by mentioning @AdamBarnhardt to talk all things MCU!

Upcoming Marvel Studios films include Captain Marvel in March 18, 2019, Avengers 4 on May 3, 2019, and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5, 2019.