MCU Nova Looks Perfect In This Image From God of War's Art Director

Screen Rant

By Thomas Bacon

Published Nov 28, 2018

God of War's Raf Grassetti creates stunning concept art showing what the MCU's version of Nova could look like - is it time to bring him into the MCU?

Raf Grasseti, the Art director of of Sony's God of War, has shared his design for the MCU version of Nova. Drawing inspiration both from the comics and the MCU's other cosmic heroes, he's created a piece of concept art that's left fans of the Human Rocket even more eager to see Richard Rider enter the MCU.

According to Kevin Feige, Nova is one of the characters with "immediate potential" to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the comics, Richard Rider was recruited to the Xandarian Nova Corps after their numbers were drastically diminished. Although it wasn't shown in Avengers: Infinity War, there's no doubt Thanos did just that when he retrieved the Power Stone from Xandar. That's led Marvel fans to eagerly speculate that the Nova Corps will currently be on a recruitment drive, meaning Richard Rider could very easily make his big screen debut in the near future.

Step forward concept artist Raf Graseti. Drawing inspiration from the MCU's cosmic designs to date, he's created a stunning Nova design that would fit perfectly with the rest of Marvel's cosmic slate.

It's a fascinating design, heavily influenced by the "Annihilation" event. That saw Richard Rider get a significant power-up, becoming the sole bearer of the cosmic Nova Force. His traditional bodysuit became rather more formidable, looking more like armor plating than ever before. It led to one of the most popular Nova runs of all time, as the Human Rocket struggled to keep the peace in the universe when he was literally the last remaining Corpsman. Notice the distinctive Nova star upon the helmet, which gives the character an iconic vibe.

Meanwhile, as Grassetti notes, he's blended that concept with the grounded style of Ryan Meinerding and his Marvel team. The helmet's shape and form is reminiscent of the popular one worn by Thor in Thor: Ragnarok, while the stylized form of the armor will remind viewers of Star-Lord's. Interestingly, the pattern of the arms calls back to the comic book version of Peter Quill, who's traditionally looked very different indeed to Chris Pratt's more famous, big screen version.

Grassetti's art is a reminder of just how excited fans are to see Nova enter the MCU. Created by Marv Wolfman and John Romita, Sr. back in 1976, Richard Rider was a hero in the vein of Spider-Man - an "everyman" figure who wrestled with the responsibility of wielding tremendous power while still trying to have a life of his own. More recent incarnations have viewed Rider as the most prominent member of the Nova Corps, rebuilding them from the ground up after the "Annihilation" event and becoming one of Marvel's most powerful cosmic heroes.