Dark Nova
- Dark Nova is a weird alien thingy from the Return of Convoy portion of the Generation 1 continuity family who later becomes Star Giant.
Dark Nova (ダークノヴァ Dāku Nova) is a mysterious supernatural entity from outer space who sides with the Decepticons against the Autobots. Known as the "Ultimate Emperor", he revived Galvatron, upgrading him into Super Megatron, and later merged with him to become the Star Giant (星の巨人 Hoshi no Kyojin). He commands armies of Novaroid drones and Galaman troopers, which make up the bulk of his forces.
Fiction
The Battlestars story pages
Almost immediately following the defeat of Violen Jiger, Dark Nova rose to take his place as Decepticon Emperor and began unleashing his hordes of Galaman warriors upon the universe. Autobot Supreme Commander Dai Atlas realized that the only one capable of defeating Dark Nova was Optimus Prime and ordered the Battlestars to use the Zodiac to revive the legendary commander. Zone Part 10 The Battlestars Part 1
To thwart the Battlestars, Dark Nova abducted the body of Optimus Prime and cloned it as the sinister False Convoy. With the help of Grandus, the Battlestars defeated False Convoy. The Battlestars Part 3 The Battlestars then invaded the Decepticon planet Lucifer, rescued Prime's body and used the Zodiac to resurrect him as Star Convoy. The Battlestars Part 4
To counter the threat of Star Convoy, Dark Nova did one better: He beamed a blast of weird energy down to the frozen corpse of Galvatron in the North Pole, resurrecting and upgrading him into Super Megatron. The Battlestars Part 6 From the Dark Nebula, Dark Nova snickered with glee as Super Megatron led the Galaman forces in raiding the Earth of all its energy. Super Megatron was subsequently driven from the planet by Star Convoy. The Battlestars special
Eventually, Star Convoy defeated Super Megatron, resulting in Dark Nova providing another upgrade, this time into Ultra Megatron. Dark Nova then revealed himself to aid Ultra Megatron in battle. The Battlestars Part 8 Ultra Megatron was ultimately defeated as well. Irritated, Dark Nova merged with Ultra Megatron, resulting in the Star Giant. The Battlestars Part 9 He proved nearly indestructible from the outside, so Star Convoy, Grandus and Sky Garry allowed themselves to be eaten. Inside the Star Giant's tummy, they began tearing him apart. After doing a fatal amount of damage, the trio escaped just as Star Giant detonated. The only piece of Star Giant which survived the explosion was a portion of his head, which happened to be housing the remains of Ultra Megatron, allowing the Emperor of Destruction to survive. The Battlestars Part 10
Notes
- The first Return of Convoy toy catalogue story page depicted Dark Nova as an ominous, spectral figure looking very much like Unicron. However, none of the text boxes in the story so much as mentioned the name "Unicron", and the actual The Battlestars magazine story pages and manga made no connection to Unicron whatsoever. This leads many to wonder whether Dark Nova is actually connected to Unicron or if it was just an early concept dropped from the actual fiction. The Japanese timeline included with the Kiss Players manga made note of this by saying "The Great Emperor Dark Nova, who looks very similar to Unicron, appears", though offered no further connection. Interestingly, the Star Giant suffers a fate almost identical to Unicron's. Coincidence or creative bankruptcy?
- In the second catalogue story page, Dark Nova's robot mode made its one and only appearance (and in an itty-bitty picture, at that). This mode was never used in the story pages published in TV Magazine. Additionally, this story page shows Dark Nova being defeated in an altogether different way, being ripped in two by Star Convoy as the latter drives over him in truck mode.
- "Hoshi no Kyojin" (星の巨人), the Japanese characters from which the "Star Giant" name derive, appear to be an intentional reversal of "Kyojin no Sai" (巨人の星), which is...the title of a classic Japanese baseball manga and anime, otherwise known as Star of the Giants. Why this was done is anyone's guess, and Dark Nova's like or dislike of baseball never really came up in the extant The Battlestars fiction.
