Nubia & The Amazon's #2 Review - Rough Start But A Solid Foundation is Established.

Words: Stephanie Williams & Vita Ayala | Art: Alitha Martinez | Cover Maika Sozo

Nubia & The Amazon’s #1 was a slog to get through. There wasn’t much happening in the issue and aside from some beautiful cover art, there wasn’t much of note worth mentioning.

I decided to see where the story was going and kept the title on my pull list. Sadly this issue starts worst than the last one. It falls into the 2021 trap of presenting “Diverse” characters as flawless wise sages which sounds good in theory but ends up being boring and overly pretentious while reading.

At one point Nubia seeks council from the Amazonian Gods. Its mentioned that Diana has “ The Gift of Knowing”, while Nubia has “The Gift of Distinguishing”. Neither of these descriptions made any sense to me so I asked my 16 year old daughter to take a look at the exchange. She thought that the writer was trying to be deep and poetic and it just didn’t work. I felt the same way but needed a second set of eyes to confirm that I wasn’t crazy. To be fair, even Nubia looks confused about it.

I was ready to give up on the issue until about midway through. While Nubia is considering a new champion to protect “The Well of Souls” she sneaks into “Victory Circle” (Fight Club for Amazons). Nubia observes the new Amazon, Andromeda in action and sees qualities of champion within her inspiring an impromptu fight in the circle between the two.

This exchange leads to a flashback to Andromeda’s life prior to becoming Amazons. It’s strongly hinted that Nubia has a connection to Andromeda that extends well beyond Themyscira. This raises several questions including the possibility that Nubia may be unwittingly pulling these women from Earth to become Amazons due to prior relationships with them.

Other concerns are the concepts of personal choice, free will, as well as the idea of consent. None of these Women asked to be Amazons regardless of circumstances. These are complex ideas but I doubt they will be touched on in this series since they have been glossed over at several points already.

There is also a sub-plot involving an entity jumping from body to body in order to get close to Nubia and the head of Medusa. My guess is that Medusa’s soul is trying to reclaim her body but that plot point hasn’t come into focus yet.

There are several interesting plot points here. I think the primary issue the series is facing is a lack of focus on editing and the creative team mistaking pretentiousness for complexity.

The art from Alita Martinez is a bit stronger in this issue as we see the new Amazons developing distinct looks and personalities. The lack of variety in color palate still hurts the series but with more dynamic action sequences and concepts it all balances out in the end.

Issues #1-2 could have probably been edited down to a single issue but now that the setup is out of way we may be in for a decent story.

In Short: I still have reservations based on the train-wreck getting too this point but Stephanie and Vita have laid a foundation that is solid enough to build upon.