Last time Beta Ray Bill appeared in the pages of Marvel comics with a character named Nova, he was fighting the Cancerverse alongside the previous Nova, Richard Rider, in the pages of 2010's The Thanos Imperative. Now there's a new Nova, and Bill's coming back to find out what the new kid, Sam Alexander, is all about.

The alien hero shows up in Nova #13 (which also has a big #1 on the cover, presumably because of the creative team change), writer Gerry Duggan's first issue on the book with artist Paco Medina.

Here's what Duggan had to say to Newsarama about Beta Ray Bill's appearance:

My first big arc begins in Nova #13 – we use #11 and #12 to build up the seeds of the confrontation, as Sam does a good thing for the wrong people. In doing so, he unwittingly assists the bad guys so Beta Ray Bill comes to Earth and demands some answers.

Duggan added that he thinks Nova is a kids' book, but is also fairly morbid, what with Sam being tasked with finding the helmets of all the former members of the Nova Corps. He compared the tone to The Goonies.

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