Sam Alexander, especially around the time of his inception (and for his linger Hate Dumb beyond). While some fans have been willing to give him a chance and many have been won over to Sam's character throughout his various runs, others don't want anything to do with him.
Anwen Bakian's appearance was one too, especially the fact that Richard Rider didn't return for the second Secret Wars. With this, though, Richard Rider has been back alive for some time now, and Anwen, who had a small but surprising breakout character status for a while, hasn't been seen since.
Sam Alexander vs. Richard Rider. It's pretty much the Hal Jordan vs. Kyle Rayner of Marvel and more modern times. Though with the both of them teaming up and bonding in Volume 7, this rivalry has subsided quite a bit. Still, the Volume's cancellation and Sam's fervent Hate Dumb, however, show that it hasn't subsided completely for everyone.
Anwen Bakian; a fresh take on Nova through being a minority or Marvel's refusal to bring back Richard Rider and an attempt to look as PC as possible. An interesting case, as Anwen became a small breakout character for some readers, including a few who openly despised Sam (where it because of Anwen's own merits and story or simply out of spite for Sam from those few isn't clear). There have been a handful of calls to see her and her mother/family again post-Secret Wars, though she and her family haven't really been referenced since.
Epileptic Trees: Many theories had be created on the fate of Richard Rider, how Sam Alexander was able to use the Nova Force despite it being gone in the 616 universe (implied to be due to the unique properties of Sam's Black Nova Helmet, explaining why it's often sought after by villains), and possibility of Jesse Alexander (Sam's dad) being a Humanoid Alien, thanks to the High Evolutionary's musings.
Cosmo, who debuted in two issues of Nova's fourth series and was so popular he became a regular character in Guardians of the Galaxy.
Richard Rider himself for the Marvel Universe in general. He was originally a C-list version of Green Lantern before Keith Giffen and the duo Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning turned him into a major character in the cosmic side of the Marvel Universe and gained a cult following among Marvel fans.
Anwen Bakian managed to impress a number of readers with her story and her family's struggles during the second Secret Wars event. There have even been a few calls to see her and her family again post-Secret Wars.
Kaldera, one of Sam's enemies, ended up being very popular. She's pretty and has a unique design, but her violent and hostile nature are what made her a hit. That, and the shipping potential.
Some fans think Sam's series started to get good once Gerry Duggan started writing.
Volume 7 has generally been seen as a huge step up for Sam, particularly for those who didn't care for his character but who weren't among Sam's Hate Dumb. Those fans feel Volume 7 gave Sam a good dynamic with Rich and helped make him more of an engaging, fun character, for them, due to playing him up as being a hard-headed but goodhearted dumbass to complement Rich's more mellow, experienced hero. The series going meta a few times likely also helped win this crowd over (Rich's rather bamboozled-turneddry reaction to the current Marvel Universe, along with more than one character explicitly talking Rich and his feats up compared to Sam... while Sam was standing right next to Rich, even if the latter does try to console the former when this happened).
In the first issue of Sam Alexander's series, despite Sam not being on the best of term's with their dad at that point, he did not express his distaste for their father in front of Kaelynn, who was concerned whether their father would be recalled to the Novas.
In the fifth issue, we learn that Jesse Alexander returned to Earth in Nova form just in time to see Sam Alexander's birth. It also cleared Eva's doubts on Jesse's career as Nova when he decided to retire to raise his family with her.
Volume 5, issue 30: Sam's reunion with his father after many months of his father's disappearance. This becomes Harsher in Hindsight, later, however.
Similar happened in the next issue, where Jesse Alexander finally reunited with his family. Also similar, this too becomes Harsher in Hindsight later on.
Volume 6, issue 11: Worldmind confirms Sam's real father is still alive. Then Richard Rider's mind temporarily takes over and the two have a serious talk that inspires Sam to patch things up with his mother and tell his friends he is Nova.
Volume 7, issue 2: After seeing that Earth is just as screwed up now as it was the last time he visited (shortly after the original Civil War event), and disgusted that the heroes had another pointless conflict with each other in the wake of a universe ending event, Rich heads to Knowwhere with Sam to clear their minds. While in a bar there, seeing everyone on Knowwhere remember the Annihilation Wave and the Cancerverse almost literally brings a tear to Rich's eye as they all raise a glass in his honor.
Pretty much any time Richard tries to act as a surrogate big brother/father-figure towards Sam in this run is a Heartwarming Moment.
Volume 7 ends with a heartfelt send off to both characters in the wake of the series' premature cancellation, showing Sam hanging out with his friends from school, Richard finally catching up with his old New Warriors buddies, and finally the both of them flying off into space together.
Memetic Loser: Leaving aside the drama surrounding his initial "replacing" of Richard Rider, Sam Alexander has unforunately garnered this reputation overtime due to his getting overshadowed by his contemporaries; Miles Morales and Kamala Khan. While Marvel initially tried to promote the three characters as a Power Trio during the All-New, All-Different Marvel relaunch, over time it became apparent that both Miles and Kamala were becoming breakout characters into multimedia. Not helping matters that during the same timeframe, Sam's own book got cancelled and his creator Jeph Loeb's ousting from the company seemed to coincide with Sam getting used less and less in the cartoons and games. It's now not uncommon to see Sam's detractors to use all of this to further mock him.
Memetic Mutation: "I pulled him inside out and saved the universe. What have you done lately, X?"
Richard's "I hate everything about that sentence." response to Teen Cyclops explaining the state Earth is in and all of the changes that occurred since Richard's apparent death, specifically the details of Scott's own reasons for being in present-day Marvel.
Being Sam is suffering, A general fan response to Sam Alexander's insanely bad luck, lack of respect, and the seemingly endless Trauma Conga Line he goes through between series.
Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning — their take on the character forced everybody else to stop treating him as an inexperienced rookie.
Gerry Duggan for Sam Alexander.
Narm: Volume 5, Issue 29◊; the splash page on Sam's announcing Richard Rider's demise falls flat for some due to Baldeon's drawing of Sam Alexander's Nova form, which potentially makes him look off-model and in turn distracting.
Nightmare Fuel: The Knowhere story in vol 4 is all kinds of disturbing.
Knowhere itself is pretty disturbing. A decapitated Celestial's head floating at the literal edge of the universe.
The most recent version of Richard's heroic sacrifice in the Cancerverse shows that the Revengers version of Captain America cut off Richard's arm with his shield. Previous sightings of dismemberment in the Cancerverse have almost always resulted in the victim regenerating into a Body Horror.
Richard's "resurrection" in volume 7. He's still linked to the Cancerverse in some form, frequently has nightmarish visions of death at random, and sometimes accidentally leaks monstrosities from the Cancerverse into his reality whenever he exerts his powers too much. Whenever Tidus threatens him stating he should have stayed dead, Richard's response implies that his condition doesn't make him truly "alive".
When Sam follows Richard into the Cancerverse, he arrives too late and witnesses Richard merging with the Cancerverse's corrupted Worldmind, transforming him into a massive Body Horror.
Cancerverse-Worldmind in general. It had grown so dangerous that he managed to take control over the Cancerverse version of THANOS and use him as a host while further mutating his body into a twisted abomination.
Replacement Scrappy: Some more ardent Richard Rider fans consider Sam Alexander to be one, even to this very day, post-Richard's resurrection.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Though it's still a Broken Base, Sam's appearance in New Warriors and Gerry Duggan's writings were somewhat an improvement over Jeph Loeb's writings, particularly amongst some of Sam's dissenters, though even the first issues of Sam's comic were often considered an improvement from Sam's pre-Character Developmentportrayal in early Ultimate Spider-Man (2012).
Volume 7 seems to have pulled him out of the hole even more from the perspective of Sam's dissenters, as fans of Richard Rider (who weren't part of the Hate Dumb) stopped complaining about him being a Replacement Scrappy. Many even noted the two Nova's bonding created a great dynamic.
Tearjerker: The death of Ko-Rel, along with all her friends, co-workers and associates, which all happens in the space of a few days.
In Volume 5, Issue 29 of Nova, Sam Alexander announcing Richard Rider's demise to his parents. Richard's father just broke down after hearing both the news and seeing his helmet. Sam didn't take well on his delivery either.
Almost immediately after his resurrection, Richard learns that his father died shortly before his return.
Too Good to Last: Volume 7 was seen as a fantastic series by fans of Richard and Sam alikenote With a handful of very vocal exceptions, most notably the editor of Cosmic Book News, who has been known to ban people from CBN's forums for not hating Sam enough, amongst others; it isn't unheard of for this Hate Dumb segment to be blamed for Volume 7's premature end, in whatever degree....but sold so badly that it's been cancelled after only seven issues.
The Woobie: Jesse Alexander. Sure, he used to be a Centurion and a member of Supernovas, but his sudden retirement from Nova Corps meant that he failed to adjust his life on Earth due to his experiences from his work and later led him to becoming The Alcoholic. Due to these failures and alcoholism, his son Sam began to question his father's stories until he became the new Nova. Later, the former members of Adomax's Supernovas caught him and sold him as a slave to Chitauri.
Sam Alexander. While he occasionally swings towards being an Iron Woobie, Sam has had it rough, especially since donning his father's helmet and becoming Nova. Despite Sam's comparatively short tenure, he manages to give Peter Parker a run for his money in the bad luck department. He starts out as a kid disillusioned by his alcoholic, dead-end janitor of a father, before his dad disappears sans trace altogether. He suffers at school and gets bullied for it, too. Then he happens upon what he soon learns to be his father's Nova Helmet, and after trying it on and briefly basking in the powers it bestows him, his euphoria is short-lived once he attracts the attention of Gamora and Rocket, who give him a crash course on who he is while also belittling him at the same time. This belittlement becomes a recurring thing Sam has to suffer through. Along with the standard Teen Hero problems, Sam gets thrown into loads of Earth and Cosmic related things head-first, a lot of which force him to grow and many of which he barely comes out of alive. Before long, Sam burdens his mother with the same worries his father did before retiring. Some of the other sucky stuff Sam has to go through include:
He makes loads of enemies and only a handful of friends in his hero career, with only a few of the latter treating him like a loyal friend consistently and all of the former out for his guts, sometimes actively. He had to go up against an inverted Hulk, twice, getting beat-up by said Hulk, twice, before barely scrapping a win, a win that left him concussed and scarred emotionally. He had to suffer the wrath of the recently reverted Carnage who went after Sam's family due to the honest but amateurish mistake of telling his name to Cletus Kassidy while Kassidy was inverted good. He finds his father after a long search, spends months with him as a reunited family, only to discover that his "father" was a Chitauri clone and spy, at which point the trail of the real Jesse Alexander had long since gone cold. Contrasting Sam's growing list of feats and moments where he saved the world and the universe, he becomes The Unfavorite, beginning to suffer doubts about his worth, and later beginning to feel anxiety over others' lack of respect or even acknowledgement of all he's done and does as a hero. He gets a big break and joins the Avengers, but suffers from being The Unfavorite not long after, along with the bad luck of Civil War II causing him to decide to quit the straying Avengers; also during this time, the fact that he's the only one between himself, Miles, and Kamala who doesn't have an explicit mentor-figure weighs heavily on him. Sam finally gets his explicit mentor-figure when he reunites with a long-thought-dead Richard Rider — the two hit it off, but it is short-lived, as Loveness and Perez's Volume detailing this is Cut Short after only 7 issues; meta-wise and extending from that Volume's cancellation, Sam almost completely drops from contemporary Marvel Universe post-Secret Empire, with only his role in the Champions saving him from Comic-Book Limbo outright. Speaking of Champions, under Jim Zub's pen, Sam's Woobie-feats continue, as he ends up having his Nova Helmet confiscated from him (with seemingly no way of getting it back) and has to go powerless from them on; afterwards, all of his anger, frustration, and anxiety over being The Unfavorite resurface in full-force, and he gets stuck in a form of Lotus-Eater Machine were an Arc Villain leads Sam to think he has an encouraging father, superpowers once more, and purpose, validation, and acknowledgement, only for that little bubble to burst back to reality. Most recently, he's trying to make himself useful to the team's expanded roster as the pilot of their home base, only to suffer The Unfavorite treatment again amongst his team veterans, become the Butt-Monkey during an exercise with the more newer members, and become the target of a revenge-obsessed villain from his past, where he has no way of defending himself. His fan's didn't give Sam the epithet "Being Sam Alexander [and a fan, by extension] is suffering" for nothing...
◊; the splash page on Sam's announcing Richard Rider's demise falls flat for some due to Baldeon's drawing of Sam Alexander's Nova form, which potentially makes him look off-model and in turn distracting.
