Nubia & The Amazons #1

Nubia & The Amazons #1

DC Comics 2021

Written by Stephanie Williams & Vita Ayala

Pencilled by Alitha Martinez

Inked by Mark Morales

Coloured by Emilio Lopez

Lettered by Becca Carey

After the thrilling events of Infinite Frontier, Nubia becomes queen of Themyscira, but the new title also brings challenges. With the unexpected arrival of new Amazons, our hero is forced to reckon with her past and forge a new path forward for her sisters. Little does she know, a great evil grows beneath the island and it’s up to this former guardian of Doom’s Doorway to unite her tribe before paradise is lost forever!

Now If you are like me and don’t know the events of Infinite Frontier well all you need to know is that Hippyolyta is in the Justice League and Nubia has been made Queen of the Amazons. Now personally I’m all about first issues because I want to see if the book is new reader friendly, if it is worth the time or clears up any confusion that might surround the idea of Paradise Island. Now this issue does all that and it does it definitively. I am intrigued by this and by Nubia, her origin and how she’s risen to be Queen of the Amazons since Hippolyta has left the Island to be a champion in Man’s World.

I am enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter as it helps define who they are. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages it expands what we think we know of Themyscira.

I very much like the way we see this being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge, grow and evolve. That they do so much in such a short time is impressive in itself. The avenues that open up to be explored are set here and they add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. I also think that what we see happen here does a nice job in bringing more diversity to the Island. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is extremely well done.

The interiors here are absolutely lovely. The linework we see is strong, clean and crisp and the inks are so expertly rendered on top of them that you’d be hard pressed to know two people did this work. I love the backgrounds and how we see them enhance and expand the moments as well as how they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a sensational eye for how colour works.

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I’m not that big of a Wonder Woman, well right now as I go through stages where I am depending on who is writing the book, and I’m not as familiar with Themyscira as I could be so this book is changing my opinion. I think the more we see the more I want to know but just be careful that in an attempt to diversify the ethnicities of women on the Island that European women are fewer and far between makes that seem more improbable. Regardless these ladies have gotten me engaged in this already and that’s nice to see happen. The writing is strong and interesting, the characterisation is wonderfully portrayed and the interiors really bring a sense of individuality to the book.