Black Superheroes: Nubia

Ororo who?

Name: Nubia 

First Appearance: Wonder Woman #204 (1973) 

History: Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons and ruler of Themyscira, famously made a child out of clay that was brought to life by the gods whom would grow up to be known as Diana and throughout the world as Wonder Woman. However, that is only half the story. In reality, Hippolyta sculpted two baby girls, one made from lighter clay and one from darker clay (…excuse me?). Both girls were brought to life and blessed, but the older baby girl was immediately kidnapped by Ares, the Greek god of War. Ultimately, Hippolyta kept all of this a secret from her younger daughter Diana. Ares would name his captive Amazon “Nubia” (…EXCUSE ME?!?) and trained her in every art of combat from infancy, with the intent of her eventually leading his armies. She fights his influence, her spirit still be loyal to the Amazons, but the god of war used mind control to force compliance. Armed with a sword powerful enough to counter the Lasso of Truth, and possessing the same powers as Diana, Nubia is placed as the ruler of an all-male floating island and is dubbed “The Wonder Woman of Slaughter Island.” Her forces invaded Themyscira and she faced off against her younger twin sister. Thankfully Diana was able to break Nubia free of Ares’ mind control and two worked together to defeat the evil god. 

The truth of her existence now revealed, Nubia left her birthplace and vowed to use her position as a ruler of Slaughter Island to spread the Amazon message of love and peace. The question of who was the one and true Wonder Woman was left unanswered…for now.

Beta Says: I was heavily influenced to do a profile on Nubia in the past few years because there was a recurring theme of pictures of the character circulating social media and racist shitbags getting all upset about “DC turning Wonder Woman black”, having no idea she was separate character. Actually, she’s three separate characters (we’ll get into that ). But if there’s one thing I’d like you to take away from this essay it’s that Nubia was actually DC Comics’ first female black superhero, even predating Marvel Comic’s Storm by two years. 

 Well, actually the main takeaway I want you to have is that Slaughter Island is an amazing name for a base of operation. 

 More on Nubia, but less about Slaughter Island, after thee jump.

Paradise Island vs. SLAUGHTER ISLAND!!

Let’s tackle the elephant in the room right away; how the hell is Nubia Diana’s twin sister? The answer is obviously darker clay, silly. Look, when you boil this character down to their basics it's obvious that there was nothing but good intentions here. A new female character who is competent and more than a match for Wonder Woman; someone at DC Comics clearly was trying to be progressive. Unfortunately, they were hampered by the tools of their time and Nubia is actually pretty racist anyway (a lot less racist than some of DC’s other early attempts at making black heroes in the 60s and 70s, but I digress).

End of the day, the Pre-Crisis Wonder Woman had a fraternal twin sister who is the Queen of Slaughter Island and also black, but not really because it’s just the color of the sand their mother used. Okay. Fine. The weirder issue is just how little Nubia was utilized. After the initial stories, the character only makes a handfull of appearances the rest for the decade and by the 1980s she’s gone completely.

Recall that on the intro I mentioned there were actually three Nubias. Since the debut of the original there have been two separate characters that have shared the name, both related to Amazons but neither being Diana’s twin sister (though one is kind of an oath sister, maybe?), who were created for different rebooted continuities.

You don't need to remember Nu'Bia after today

The first one, actually called “Nu’Bia”, is, like her earlier version, a potential inheritor of the Wonder Woman title. In Wondy’s lore, Diana won a competition to be allowed to venture into Man’s World. In this story, Nu’Bia won a similar competition a millennium earlier, though he “reward” was to become the guardian of the River Styx to prevent anyone, or anything, from getting in or out. Honestly, Nu’Bia isn’t that interesting. After she first appears in Wonder Woman Annual Vol 2 #8 in 1999 (marking twenty years since Nubia’s last appearance) she shows up as a reoccurring guest star in Diana’s adventures for a bit. 

But honestly, we’re really here to talk about the modern Nubia (first appearance Wonder Woman Vol 5 #75 in 2019), the character who’s high, if brief, profile drove tons of racist f**k boys over the edge. But before we can talk about Modern Nubia, we have to talk about the Well of Souls.

Some dudes will see this and say "#notallmen"

Also known as the “Cavern of Souls,” this place is essentially the birthplace of Amazon life, as the souls that end up here are those of women who have been unjustly died as a result of male violence, who then are allowed to be reincarnated to live on Themyscira eternally and with standard Amazon powers. How this all works depends on the version of the main continuity of DC Comics we’re talking about. For example, in one version Diana is a reincarnated spirit just like the other Amazons, but currently that does not seem to be the case.

Anyway, the Well went silent for several hundred years until all of a sudden Nubia emerged from it, coincidently on the exact same day of Diana’s birth, hench the two being raised as sister (in her former life, Nubia was a princess and general of ancient African nation and she was named “Zahavah”, meaning she’s the only Nubia of the three who is of African decent). She would eventually be made the guardian of Doom's Doorway, a gateway to Tartarus located under Themyscira, which mirrors Nu’Bia’s role.

Eventually she replaced Hippolyta as Queen of the Amazon after winning yet another Amazonian contest she thought was to determine a new Wonder Woman after Diana disappeared (in reality, Hippolyta was always planning to taking the title herself and just wanted a worthy successor to rule the island). She has had numerous adventures with the other Amazons characters and various Paradise Island related storylines.

Added bonus: "Nubia" is easier to pronounce than "Hippolyta" 

And she’s still around today, with a couple of limited series to her name. DC clearly made a push for her when they brought her back at the end of the last decade, and it’s obvious why. Nubia is a very important, but also very forgotten, part of comic book history. As big a nerd as I am, I didn’t realize she was DC’s FIRST black superheroine, let alone how she would essentially disappear from comics twice without notice or fanfare. So, I’m glad she’s back and doing well. I’d like to see her stock rise a bit, maybe something akin to Miles Morales in terms of mainstream notoriety, if for no other reason that people won’t stop thinking they made Diana black. Unfortunately I’m not foreseeing an “Into the Wonderverse” movie anytime soon.

Scratch that; what I really want is for them to somehow work the Island of Slaughter back into her background. Because god-DAMN, that name rules! 

For more on Nubia check out her profile of World of Black Heroes. Next time we check back in with the New Warriors with a minor character who is tentatively connected to the biggest in-universe blunders ever depicted in Marvel Comics.