User blog comment:Hawkeye2701/Review4U: Sam Alexander the Newest Nova/@comment-4652104-20131201093112/@comment-1458758-20131201184718

Yeah, but the comics themselves were in production before that too. I mean Avengers Academy was running a year or more before Ava's appearance in the cartoon and it's not unheard of for last minute changes, so the cartoon might have actually intended to have Rider before switching out for Sam. I'm not saying marketing didn't play its part in trying to promote the new characters, but they were both in the 616 first.