Issue(s): Nova #2
Cover Date: Oct 76
Title: "The first night of... the Condor! / On the wings of a bird... / The power and the fury!!"
Credits:
Marv Wolfman - Writer
John Buscema - Penciler
Joe Sinnott - Inker

Review/plot:
While the first issue of Nova had a lot of promise, this one gets pretty silly with some really cheesy villains. Condor... has wings...

...and his somewhat unwilling teen lacky Powerhouse absorbs energy and/or super-powers.

Condor is scheming to prevent someone else from acquiring Egyptian artifacts (we will later learn it is the Sphinx). Nova has some trouble with Powerhouse but ultimately beats him when he applies some science that he learned from his little brother. His brother is depicted as a way-too-smart Marvel super scientist to-be.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - first Condor

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

This story features one of Wolfman's recurring plot ideas, namely the amnesiac, humanoid alien, usually being manipulated by a villain. Here it's Powerhouse, in his Green Lantern run it's Goldface's sniveling henchman Stanley (actually a superhumanly enhanced Qwardian named Stnlli), and in his Teen Titans run he introduced an alien named Azrael who likewise had no memory of his origins.

The title could be a reference to Robert Redford's 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor"

Not that it's the first or only case of characters sharing a name, but it's kinda funny that DC already has a (white) superhero named Black Condor, and now Marvel introduces a villain named Condor, who's black.