Influential: The Nova Posse
Welcome to Influential, a recurring column where I look at some of the books, comics, games, movies and other media that have influenced aspects of my work.
In previous Influential columns, I regularly focused on books or characters that have a prominent role in comics history. But sometimes, there are characters with far less history that can prove just as important to the development of my characters, universe, or storytelling. One such unit is a little-known team of characters known as the Nova Posse.
The Nova Posse were a group of intergalactic adventures in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures' Dimension X (which is another galaxy in that continuity.) The team didn't exactly have a lot of appearances. They arrived on the scene in issue 48 and teamed with the Turtles for the next two issues of galactic adventure.
The characters were built with broad strokes and limited personalities, but the visuals and the Starjammers-esque personalities always stuck with me. I've long been a fan of the star-spanning super-team concept and the Nova Posse connected that concept with a small military unit surprisingly well.
It's an impressive feat that the creative team of the book managed to establish the characters so quickly.
Here's their simple introduction from the pages of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures 48. Chris Allan did an amazing job presenting characters with limited line work in an era where ultra-detail was the norm. He made the team look fascinating even if he kept their personalities fairly simple.
In the final chapter of KITH, "Sea of Stars", we meet a new crew of space mercenaries in Vreexel, Quay, Big, and Mort, the crew of the Dwarf Star. The unit owes much to the simple designs of the Nova Posse, built with broad strokes but with bits and pieces of history and characterization to make them real figures. And while they may not make it through their tale as well as the Nova Posse did in their debut, I hope to bring more of their adventures to the world in time.
Because, unlike the Nova Posse, the crew of the Dwarf Star wasn’t built for a single appearance. They will return. When? Where? You’ll just have to wait and see.
If you would like to check out the Nova Posse, their appearance has been reprinted in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures Volume 11. The print edition is out of print, but the ebook is still easy to acquire.
