For his final Battle of the Week, we placed John Stewart, a.k.a. Green Lantern, against Richard Rider, a.k.a. Nova. Since Green Lantern became our latest Character of the Month, we've received dozens of requests to have these two cosmic heroes go at it. Seeing as Nova Prime is incredibly powerful, we played around with the rules to balance things out. (We limited how much the Worldmind can help.) Unfortunately, it looks like John Stewart is losing his final match in the segment and, despite the one restriction to balance things out, Nova was still formidable enough to take a fair lead. However, the ring-slinger put up one hell of a fight in the poll and he's walking away from the segment with an even record!
John has a crazy amount of versatility with his Green Power Ring and his willpower is seriously commendable. No matter what cosmic threat he comes up against, the combination of his sharp mind and plethora of constructs means he has what it takes to offer a challenge. But in this case, it looks like a majority of the voters think his damage output and defense wasn't able to overcome his latest challenger. Despite being heavily demanded since the beginning of the month, most of the posts were in favor of Nova and, compared to John Stewart's other battles, the debate wasn't all that elaborate. Still, the Viners who took some time to share their thoughts deserve some love, so below are a few of the arguments that were made throughout the week.
HumanRocket
Nova not having the World Mind hinders a lot of the Richard can do. The World Mind aids Nova in regulating the Nova force, while it doesn't affect a lot of the abilities that he can use, it does stop him from using the full power of the Nova force. With out the World Mind, Nova will not be able to use any spacegates (wormholes that the Nova corps use to travel from one point of the universe to another, think hyperdrive from Star Wars).
But there have been occasions in which Nova has been without the World Mind and shown that he can control most of the full power abilities of the Nova Force. During the entire Real Of Kings story line, Nova has lost connection to the world mind, and is still able to use close to the full power of the Nova force to destroy Dijins and create a shield to block the blast from hurting himself and Darkhawk.
During the same story arc, Nova is able to use the full power of the Nova power of the Nova force to hold of a blast from the Sphinx who is using two Ka Stones in the battle. Nova was only able to use the full power of the Nova force for a seconds, he was able to keep control of the power without hurting himself or losing control.
During the Original Sing GoTG tie in, Nova is disconnected from the World Mind yet again when he was in the Cancerverse. But in this story arc, Nova is show to use his regular abilities when fighting Thanos. But unlike other stories, Nova does not use the full Nova force in his battle, but is still capable of fighting Thanos and holding his ground in the battle.
During the War of Kings story line, Nova is once again with out the aid of the World Mind when trying to retake the Nova force. The World Mind had been corrupted but Ego and was not function probably for Nova to be able to use. When Nova entered he head of Ego the Living Planet, Nova was able to regain the Nova force, and with just a fraction of the Nova force, was able to lobotomize Ego. World Mind even stated afterwards that that small fraction of the Nova force that Richard was able to use was so powerful that it was off the scales of anything he had ever seen before.
Even without the World Mind Nova has been shown to be a tactician in battle. During the Annihilation War Nova was commander of the united front that fought against the Annihilation wave. Nova has shown his strategics abilities when leading the new members of the Nova corps into battle before War of Kings. And has also shown his tactician skills during the Thanos Imperative story arc when team up with the Annihilators .
With the WorldMind I would call it in favor of Nova, but without the WM, Nova has been shown more than capable of holding his ground and winning in several battles.
Final verdict...tie too close to call. It could go either way between the two.
DigitalShooter9
Gonna keep this concise...
I say Nova takes this in a good fight.
Even without the assistance of Worldmind, I believe his speed and damage output should give him the edge he needs. Durability wise Richard shouldn't have any problems competing with John's shields thanks to his suit granting him durability high enough to allow him to take a strike from the Phoenix force, crash into the earth and still survive. John may have the versatility edge but honestly, his constructs will not help as much as it would against the other opponents he has faced. The reason for this being the fact that this battle is very likely to be carried to the space. Instinctively, Richard should dash into outer space where he can use his speed advantage to pummel John.
As BFR'ing via constructs isn't an option anymore, John should pretty much take Rider head on in outer space. But as I said before, Nova flies at insane speeds and has firepower enough to do serious damage to Stewart. His durability should allow him to last long enough to deliver deadly high speed crashes that not only would break Stewarts constructs, but will also deliver serious damage at him.
Sure, John can grab a few wins if Nova couldn't calculate the trajectory of his high speed attacks correctly and end up tiring himself which would leave John enough breathing room to trap him in his constructs. But I think the most likely 6-7/10 scenario is Nova ramming Stewart into a deserted planet with full on speed.
Nova wins 6-7/10
Scistorm4
This would definitely be an interesting fight to see. Both characters share the basic powers of flight, energy blasts, life support, and FTL travel, but the difference is that John can do hard light constructs, while Rich can manipulate gravity to a certain degree. Even excluding the Worldmind, both combatants also have an AI with their powers, but the ring's is far superior to the limited "user support" of Rich's suit.
However, the Lantern ring by definition requires a lot of imagination to use to the fullest, and John has proven that his architect's mind can make very reliable constructs. Rich has been shown to not be very creative in the usage of his gravity powers as other Novas, especially when the Worldmind was knocked offline. The Worldmind also usually acts as a tactical sense for Rich, and he's hobbled without it, but John has a keen tactical mind on his own. I can see John using a variety of constructs to wear down Rich's defenses, before striking the knockout blow. Once both fighters get a general sense of what the other is capable of, they'll likely head away from populated areas, and then John's constructs will have far more room to work.
On the other hand, what Nova lacks in finesse, he more than makes up more in sheer power, and Rich easily has the edge there. The Nova Force has individually powered up thousands of Nova corpsmen at the same time, and Rich has access to the entirety of it. The Green Lantern Ring is very powerful in its own right, but there have been many occasions where other forces have broken through its constructs. It's a good bet that the Nova Force is capable of doing this. As well, the "Human Rocket" is likely faster than what the Lantern ring can do, so Rich could just dodge John's attacks while hitting him with his own. Plus, the Nova Force is essentially unlimited energy, which can't be said for the ring. I can imagine this fight going on for quite some time, and if it's long enough, John might run low on his ring's charge, making him less able to use the wide array of attacks he needs to win. If the combatants stay near a planet, Rich's gravity powers will have much more to work with,
Overall, I think Nova takes this 7/10. John's superior tactical mind and variety of attacks will probably lead to him taking a few wins, but Rich's overwhelming power takes the cake most of the time.
TheCyBR0g
Green Lantern's got the win IMO. The ring's just too versatile. Combine John's willpower with that (said to be reaching the upper limit possible, IIRC), and John gets the win.
Batman's villains are heading to the Battle of the Week! Feel free share ideas below or via Twitter.