The Imperial Finale Wipes out a Long-Standing Marvel Friendship And Sets Up A New Cosmic Era

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The following contains major spoilers for Imperial #4, on sale now from Marvel Comics.

One of the most important alliances in the Marvel Universe has come to a violent end, and it is already setting up years of new stories to come.

Imperial #4 (by Jonathan Hickman, Iban Coello, Federico Vicentini, Federico Blee, and VC's Cory Petit) marks the final chapter in Marvel Comics' latest interstellar saga, and it closes out with more than one bang. After uncovering the truth behind nearly every attack leading up to now, the vast majority of which were orchestrated by none other than the Inhumans, Richard Rider is ready to do whatever it takes to attain justice for those who lost their lives in the conflict. Unfortunately, Nova's old friend and the current commander of the newly formed Galactic Union simply is not willing to let that happen, not when exposing the truth would pose a threat to everything his father lived and died to build.

Imperial #4

Written by JONATHAN HICKMAN
Art by IBAN COELLO & FEDERICO VICENTINI
Colors by FEDERICO BLEE
Letters by VC's CORY PETIT
Design by CARLOS LAO
Main cover art by MARCO CHECCHETTO & MARTE GRACIA
Variant covers by JAVIER GARRÓN & JESUS ABURTOV; JEEHYUNG LEE; LOGAN LUBERA & ISRAEL SILVA; NetEASE GAMES; SIMONE DI MEO; and SKOTTIE YOUNG

Richard Rider, aka Nova, has been a part of the Marvel Universe for nearly fifty years now, with his first appearance taking place all the way back in 1976's Nova #1 by Marv Wolfman and John Buscema. As an otherwise ordinary young man, Richard was chosen seemingly at random by the last surviving member of the planet Xandar's Nova Corps to carry on with their mission and fight back against all manner of interstellar threats. In the years since, Richard has helped to reignite and lead the Nova Corps in numerous major storylines.

Peter Quill, better known as Star-Lord, is arguably a far more prominent part of the Marvel Universe than Nova despite having spent less than half as much time within it. Introduced in 2004's Thanos #8 by Keith Giffen and Ron Lim, Peter Quill has gone from being a starving freedom fighter to an unlikely superhero to one of the greatest cosmic powerhouses the Marvel Universe has ever seen. Over the course of Imperial, Star-Lord stepped up to investigate the assassination of his father, J'Son of the Spartax Empire, and help establish the Galactic Union that his father had spent so much of his life trying to build, no matter the cost.

Ahead of the events of Imperial, writer Jonathan Hickman explained how the series was built to set up years' worth of stories to come, as well as to help redefine Marvel Comics' cosmic landscape. "I'm very excited about this project as I’m obviously a huge fan of all things Marvel Cosmic," Hickman said. "The goal here is to kind of do what we did with the recent Ultimate line for all of our space titles, except having the setup book, Imperial, be more of an event than a world-building exercise (like Ultimate Invasion). The art team is killing it, and we’re all just very excited for what’s happening in this special corner of the Marvel Universe."

Imperial #4 is on sale now from Marvel Comics.