Frankie’s mother died soon after her marriage to Horton, leaving him to raise Frankie by himself. Horton whose spirit had been broken, continued to work as a repairman, and sometimes drank to excess in sorrow.

When Horton read the first public accounts of Johnny Storm, the new Human Torch (who was not an android but a human being), he became incensed that someone was using the name of his then-inactive android creation. (The original Torch would eventually be revived and later reconstructed by Horton as the Vision.) Seized with the desire to recreate the android Torch, Horton took his fourteen-year-old step daughter to the warehouse where the government had stored equipment. A rotting floorboard gave way beneath Frankie’s foot, and the agitated chemicals in the drum she was carrying exploded into flame, engulfing her body. The chemicals caused a mutagenic reaction upon contact with her body, conferring upon her the android Torch’s ability to burst into flame without harm to herself.

Overwhelmed with guilt, Horton hypnotized her in order to make her forget not only this traumatic accident, but also her life with him. He also gave her a post-hypnotic suggestion. The guilt-ridden Horton left her, but sent her money every week for almost six years. Almost one year after the accident, Horton sent her a package containing a costume he had designed for her which would help her control her power, and would not itself be harmed by her flame, and an audio tape. On hearing a specific word on the tape, Frankie fell back into a hypnotic trance. The taped message commanded Frankie to put the costume on under her normal clothing, to destroy the tape, and then to awaken with no memory of what she had just done.

So it was that Frankie Raye had no knowledge of her superhuman powers, nor of the fact that she wore a specially designed costume, for the costume appeared to be invisible except when she had nothing else on, and even then she was unable to see it due to Horton’s hypnotic command.

Frankie Raye worked as an interpreter. Eventually she saw Johnny Storm, the new Human Torch, and was immediately attracted to him. But she was filled with fear when she first saw him burst into flame, for Horton, to insure that she never used her flaming ability, had also hypnotically commanded her to fear flame.

But Storm and Raye dated each other many times, and the strength of Horton’s hypnotic commands upon her mind began to weaken. Eventually, Raye saw herself in a mirror wearing the costume Horton had given her. She regained her full memory and could activate her flaming power. Frankie gloried in her newly discovered superhuman powers, and was very pleased that the Fantastic Four wanted to train her to become a member of their team.

For a few weeks Raye worked with the Human Torch and the Fantastic four, but their lives did not involve the kind of “cosmic grandeur,” as she put it, that she sought now that she had become a superhuman being. Then the planet-devouring alien Galactus returned to Earth. Raye had learned from the Fantastic Four’s records that the alien Norrin Radd had once become Galactus’s herald in exchange for Galactus’s agreement to spare his home planet. Seeking adventure and a chance to see the wonders of the universe, Raye volunteered to become Galactus’s new herald in exchange for the Earth’s safety. Richards pointed out to her that inevitably she would become an accomplice to Galactus’s destruction of worlds inhabited by sentient beings, but Raye said she cared only about Earth. Galactus accepted Raye’s offer and augmented her existing powers with his vast cosmic power. Frankie Raye eventually took the name of “Nova” since she now shone like an exploding star.

Nova recently aided Galactus and the Silver Surfer in stopping the Elders of the Universe’s plot to destroy Galactus and the Universe. As a reward and as a way of being alone from her for a while, Galactus sent her off with the Silver Surfer in search of the Contemplator.