As the architects of the Marvel cosmic line, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning have taken Nova to a level of popularity and success the character hasn't achieved for a number of years. The British dynamic duo known as DnA continue to produce one of the best comics published today with their Nova series and the future looks bright for the human rocket!

Dan and Andy were very generous and took the time to answer some questions about the ongoing Riddle of the Sphinx storyline and the upcoming Thanos Imperative event. I'd like to thank them for their time and answers!

The Riddle of the Sphinx has been a fantastic story that takes place in a mystically constructed area created by the Sphinx. When Darkhawk generated an image of their location, it appears in a shape reminiscent of the Forever Crystal last seen in the Avengers Forever series. Is there any connection to the Forever Crystal and is its angular shape somehow tied to the Fault's Many-Angled Ones?

I love it when readers like you have much better ideas than we did! :)

That is a great deduction, but we weren't going that way: we were simply linking the mystical and magical vibrations of many crystals in the Marvel Universe (though there's no reason the Forever Crystal shouldn't be one of them). As for the Many-Angled Ones, they have a much darker resonance.

The Riddle of the Sphinx storyline featured a battle between Black Bolt and Basilisk. During that fight, there was an intriguing message on the broken Black Bolt statue which mentions Medusa's death during the Shadow War. Any hints about this war and when it might be appearing?

Well, the Inhumans are going to feature in the Thanos Imperative, and during that vast and epic storyline, a great shadow will fall across the Marvel Universe, so...

The solicitation for Nova #36 mentions that Nova, Darkhawk and Quasar return to Earth. Will they be on Earth for an extended number of issues or simply for this particular story arc and then return to space? What impact will all of this have on the Nova Corps?

Things are moving pretty fast - our heroes will be back on Earth for one (helluva) issue before rocketing back out into space for the start of the Thanos Story, which is a mega one shot called Ignition.

Elsewhere, you've mentioned that Nova and Starlord will be featured prominently in The Thanos Imperative. What can you tell us about the event and what can readers look forward to in upcoming stories of Nova and the cosmic titles in general in 2010?

The Thanos Imperative is our biggest story yet, and is the climax of most of the 'meta-story' we've been running through the back ground of all the cosmic books since we came on board. We're not tying up every loose end, but there's an awful lot of pay off about to happen, especially for all the storylines on Nova and Guardians. I hope cosmic fans will really get a kick out of the way some of the stories we've been brewing for three years finally detonate!

Will we be seeing SuperNova and Malik Tarcel again in the near future?

That's one of the loose ends we're NOT trying to play out in the Thanos Story. That's part of the future for Nova.