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Nubia aka the Black Wonder Woman: A Brief History

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Nubia of Themiscyra, is the twin sister of Diana, and a literal Black queen. Alternately referred to as the Black Wonder Woman the character is 48 years old, not as some “fans” on social media insist a recently created, new “woke” version of  everyone’s favorite Amazon princess.

Mic says: “Nubia is not the foil to Diana, Wonder Woman’s true identity, but a true equal. According to the DC lore, she was created in 1973 out of the same clay used to make Diana, only her clay was black.”

She was formed by the goddess Aphrodite, and from there her backstory gets a bit wild. She is stolen at birth by Mars, the god of war, and was trained by him to become a master at hand-to-hand combat. In fact, when she was introduced in Wonder Woman Vol. 1 #204, (created by Robert Kanigher and Don Heck), she beat Diana in battle, and only stopped when she met her sister at sword point.”

Kung Fu Grip Zine: “Nubia was one of the very first black super-powered characters when introduced into Wonder Woman, Issue 204 in 1973. This was two years after the first appearance of the Green Lantern John Stewart, and two years before Storm of the X-Men. Today, those latter two characters are among fandom’s most popular superheroes.”

McPaco continues: “With so early an introduction into the pantheon of the super-powered, Nubia was perfectly positioned to someday ascend to a place of prominence in comics history. But sadly, in a country where the two big “isms” still rear their puss-filled heads almost as much today as when the character was created, that was never to be. Nubia wasn’t given much of a chance at all, really. And Yet She Persisted. Wonder Woman’s fraternal twin, formed of dark of clay by her mother Queen Hippolyta — in contrast to the light clay from which Diana was formed — essentially vanished after the three-issue story arc in which she was introduced. In 1974, the year after her creation, she had a small role in Supergirl Issue 9, but was then quietly ushered into the blank pages of obscurity.”
In 2017 he wrote: “Today, I am just as pleased to introduce you to the gorgeous, Nubia-centric illustrations of artist Mel Milton, who has been producing a variety of Wonder Woman drawings that every fan just needs to gawk at.”
Milton, by the way, is a former artist/animator for Disney — and it shows. His vivacious cartoon women echo many of the distinctive style elements that one might associate with the protagonists of modern-day animated Disney classics, like MulanAtlantisLilo & Stitch, and The Princess and the Frog.

In the latest edition of the DC multiverse (which, as it sounds, refers to a version of the comics in which multiple universes exist at once), Nubia rules as the Wonder Woman of Earth-23. But her résumé is a bit more extensive. Aside from having superhuman everything, she once was the sole guardian of the River Styx, aka actual hell, and also ruled Floating Island, a community of all men. But no biggie because apparently Nubia is suggested to be in a position akin to Queen Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons and Wonder Woman. The non-comic book translation? Nubia is literally an otherworldly black queen.

After DC Rebirth and Infinite Frontier, Nubia has once more returned to prominence and into the Main DC Universe and seems to restore parts of her prior origin as a daughter of Hippolyta and sister Diana. This version of the character was featured in a back up story in the series Future State: Immortal Wonder Woman. This depicts A possible future for Nubia in Man’s World. After Future State and a new version of the Multiverse is created, this version of Nubia once more exists and becomes Queen of Amazons when Hippolyta returns to Man’s World to represent Diana in the newest iteration of the Justice League.

DC has also released a young adult graphic novel featuring the character on sale now.

With all of this #BlackGirlMagic, Black Twitter is already demanding Nubia appear on the big screen. Some users have already planned some of the casting and directing roles. One suggested Ava DuVernay direct while Serena Williams plays the lead.

Others suggested that Angela Bassett might just be a real-life version of Nubia.

 

 

 

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