The series is a sci-fi military thriller with a grounded "war in the stars" tone (think Battlestar Galactica or Top Gun in space). The story begins years after Thanos decimated Xandar. The Nova Corps has been annihilated. The only survivor of the "Centurion Force" is the Corps' artificial intelligence, the Worldmind, which fled to Earth seeking the last DNA compatible with the Nova Force power.
It finds Richard Rider, a high school student in New York dealing with depression and a lack of direction in life. When he inherits the helmet, he doesn't just gain powers; he gains the weight of a dead civilization. Rider is forced to leave Earth and become a lone beat cop in a lawless galaxy, hunted by space pirates and religious zealots of the Universal Church of Truth. The series focuses on the physical and mental cost of carrying the power of a star and Richard's quest to recruit a successor, young Sam Alexander, before the power burns him alive.
