Nubia and the Amazons #1-6

Nubia and the Amazons #1-6

Originally released in 2021

Written by Stephanie Williams and Vita Ayala

Art by Alitha Martinez

Warner Bros. has a crossover fighting game (similar to Nintendo's Super Smash Bros.) called Multiversus, and they just announced a third season of content yesterday which is implied to contain the Powerpuff Girls (from the cartoon of the same name), Nubia (a Wonder Woman supporting character), and possibly Raven from the Teen Titans.  DC characters are no strangers to this game (there's six of them not counting these announcements), though Nubia seems much more obscure than any of the DC characters that have been announced or hinted at, so I thought I'd read a series that features her to get an idea of what she's about.

To my surprise, I learned that Nubia had been around since the 1970s, making her one of DC's first black superheroes.  After a poorly thought-out storyline where Wonder Woman's powers were removed, DC listened to criticism of this and other problems with Wonder Woman's series.  This led to non-white women being added to Themyscira, with the most prominent being Nubia.  Raised as Wonder Woman's sister, she disappeared from publication for several decades between the late 1970s and the late 1990s.

The series starts out by focusing on Themyscira.  Hippolyta has left the island for reasons that were explained in another book, meaning that Nubia is the queen of Paradise Island, and the well of souls has opened, allowing new Amazons to appear for the first time since Diana's birth.  Now that I've read some of George Perez's Wonder Woman, I definitely prefer this explanation for how Paradise Island grows its population over the explanation from the New 52, where the Amazons rape sailors and (it's implied) kill their male children or abandon them at birth.

The Amazons are formed from the souls of women who were killed through acts of violence.  In a nice touch, this is also implied to include individuals who are transgender and/or identify as women, or at least that's how I interpreted one scene.  These women are reborn with no memory of their past lives and encouraged to find whatever trade best suits their talents.

However, with these new souls arriving on Themyscira, this also causes Doom's Doorway to crack open on the island, leading to the strong risk of monsters breaking free and causing oracles to have visions of impending doom.  The end of the first issue implies that, at the very least, Medusa has escaped, going by the state of one of the guards.

Medusa seems to exist as a spirit, hopping from body to body and leaving the previous host petrified as she tries to find her head somewhere on Themyscira.  Meanwhile, one of the new arrivals, Andromeda, seems to know Nubia from a previous life; at first, I wasn't sure how that worked, as Nubia was shown dressed in fairly modern clothing despite being born thousands of years ago, but later flashbacks show that they met when she was wearing Amazon armour, having left the island to catch a creature that had escaped Doom's Doorway.

Every so often, the pages turn to a parchment style of paper as it explains something important to the plot, such as the nature of Doom's Doorway or Medusa's backstory.  It serves as a good quick way to catch newcomers to Wonder Woman, or people who are unfamiliar with Greek mythology, up on important events.

As Nubia struggles with her new title of queen, and gets into a relationship with the island's blacksmith Io, Medusa hops from body to body, eventually settling on Andromeda.  Bia, who develops powers of foresight, emphasizes with Medusa, feeling that if Themyscira is a place for women to get second chances in life, then maybe that could apply to the gorgon as well.

Medusa, in Andromeda's body, effectively takes Andromeda hostage by going through Doom's Doorway, forcing Nubia to chase after her and give her Medusa's head in exchange for Andromeda's freedom.

The fight between Nubia and Medusa is a visually impressive one, as Nubia is forced to wear a helmet that covers her eyes in order to keep from being petrified.  Ultimately, though, the conflict comes down to Nubia (with the help of a mystical spear made by Io, forged from an amulet that was granted by the goddesses who watch over Themyscira) giving Medusa a second chance at life.

However, all of this is resolved by the end of issue 5, leaving me curious about what issue 6 would involve.  Weirdly enough, the last issue of this six-issue mini-series is a tie-in to an event called "Trial of the Amazons". (it's marked as part two of seven)  I figured that a six issue series with a focused storyline would be free from being tied into larger events, but it's clear that I was mistaken.

Hippolyta returns to the island at the end of issue 5, but she's dead by issue 6, with the opening of the issue being a funeral for her.  This is also the only issue in the series that Wonder Woman herself appears.  Apparently, Hippolyta was poisoned by someone on the island, making most of the Amazons into suspects.

Still, the series doesn't really end here so much as it continues into the main Wonder Woman book, so it really could have just been a five issue mini-series without much being lost.  We get a good idea of why Nubia was chosen to be the queen, along with a deeper look into the lives of Amazons.  I do feel like I missed out on some details by not being familiar with modern Wonder Woman, but I thought this was all right, and I have a better understanding of who Nubia is now.