The much-anticipated series featuring Nubia Queen of the Amazons is finally here this week with Nubia and the Amazons #1. The six-issue series features a story by Stephanie Williams and Vita Ayala with art by Alitha Martinez that may be one of the most important stories involving Themyscira ever. It’s too early to say for certain, but given the game-changer that is The Well of Souls, the story offers exciting new developments.
Something you’ll notice early on with this issue is that it’s not about Nubia so much as developments in Themyscira after she was reborn and the Amazons that followed her from the Well of Souls. We learn how the well works fairly early on, where these women came from, and how they must choose a skill and their new name when the time is right. This magical well is a means to create new Amazons from whole cloth, so to speak, and thus offers an intriguing new element to their society.
This issue details that, as well as Nubia’s observations of the Amazons who came from it, and her concerns around a dangerous doorway. Themes abound that suit the Amazons like rebirth, curses, and omens which Nubia intends to manage best she can.
Lightning like that is never a good thing.
Credit: DC Comics
The hook of this issue is seeing the Amazons who came from the Well of Souls find their purpose in Themyscira. They have new agency over their lives and there’s a hopefulness that’s easy to cling to as we follow their journeys.
Art by Martinez, with inks by Mark Morales and colors by Emilio Lopez, paint the world and environments well around these characters. Nubia is incredibly ripped and her look throughout is heroic and inspiring. Martinez kills it on two full-page splashes and a double-page splash near the end of the book that features foreboding nightmare imagery. In general, though, some of the art can look too simplistic, which may be partly due to the characters standing around talking a lot of the time. The angle on them can feel a bit flat and uninteresting.
Nubia and the Amazons #1 introduces new characters via a magical well that could change the way we think about the Amazons forever. The concept is intriguing and not unlike Marvel’s Krakoa era with mutants never dying, but with an added fatal twist that’ll keep readers coming back for more.
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