Issue(s): Nova #4
Cover Date: Nov 76
Title: "Nova against the mighty Thor / Fury of the Corruptor!! / Beware the thunder god gone mad! / Fury of the Corruptor!"
Credits:
Marv Wolfman - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
Tom Palmer - Inker

Review/plot:
I'll tell you, Sal Buscema is considered the lesser of the Buscema brothers but you give him an inker like Tom Palmer and he is just as good. This Nova/Thor battle is excellent.

The instigator of the fight is the Corruptor, who becomes a Drow-elf looking evil monster in a chemical fire.

This issue also continues to develop the high school cast. The school bully, Mike, has a lot of depth in the sense that he's not just a dumb jock, and he also talks about how he's driven to continue to succeed. He's pretty condescending to his girlfriend Donna, though.

What's also interesting is that he's the smart one. It's not your typical Peter Parker/Flash Thompson relationship.

This was one of my "grab bag" comics, and when i was a kid, i thought Bernie Dillon's complaints about his sundae were hilarious:

Bernie: "This is a banana split? You must be kidding! Where'd the banana split to? Cleveland? All right, Mister 'Uncle Fudge', I dare you to find a banana here. Any banana will do." Look at this, Rich. He's trying to sell me an incomplete dessert!

Rich: Don't let him get away with it, Bernie!

Bernie: You better believe I won't. I'll take this all the way up to Judge Baskin Robbins himself if I have to!

Looking at it now, it's a little contrived (why would they sell him a banana split without a banana?), but that just goes to show you what a bitter old man i've become.

Also kinda contrived is inserting a scene where Nova has to rescue his girlfriend Ginger.

The Marvel Chronology Project gives Iron Man a 'behind the scenes' appearance for this issue because Thor says at the end that he will bring the Corruptor back to Anthony Stark at the Avengers Mansion to look for a cure.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Corruptor

Chronological Placement Considerations: Thor had just finished consulting with the Avengers and was about to "undertake to traverse the trackless universe in search of the long-lost All Father". The footnote just says "In Thor's own mag", but Thor's quest begins in Thor #255.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Holy hell, the Corruptor looks BAD. ASS. In one of the mid-80's OHOTMU's he just looks like some lame-o with a blue face and white hair.

That panel where he's leaping at Thor, with his head all kinds of too big, and his claws breaking the panel boundaries, and his mouth all Sal-Buscema-weird? That is the point where I would retire from being a super hero. Spider-Man, this guy is all yours.

I had this book as a kid, and also loved the banana split bit. It's not totally made up though. I remember seeing a Howard Johnson menu around that time of a banana split that had no banana.