Nubia and the Amazons #5 – Stephanie Williams/Vita Ayala, Writers; Alitha Martinez, Penciller; Mark Morales, Inker; Romulo Fajardo Jr, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: The last issue to arrive before Trial of the Amazons begins, this story does a great job of spotlighting what sets Nubia—and all the Amazon heroes—apart from their counterparts. While many heroes mostly face villains who just need to be vanquished, the Amazons have always had a deep undercurrent of trauma in both their backstory and that of their foes. So it’s much more common to see them make an effort to try to help their villains and turn an enemy into an ally. The story of Medusa, of course, has always been fraught with some dark implications, and there has always been an undercurrent of sympathy for the character when she was a villain in Wonder Woman’s title. The opening half of the issue has a spectacular battle between Nubia and Medusa in a dark realm, but the way Nubia resolves the fight and eliminates Medusa’s threat permanently—hopefully—is something I didn’t see coming at all.
But that doesn’t make her job as Queen of the Amazons any easier—in fact, it’s about to become much harder. Things are tense to put it lightly where the formerly possessed Andromeda is concerned, tensions are rising with the new Amazons who emerged from the well of souls, and no one is sure what’s coming next. A rare bright spot is Nubia’s relationship with Io, but it’s pretty clear not all the Amazons are happy with the new leadership—and the return of Hippolyta at the end of the issue will only raise tensions. Trial of the Amazons begins next, and this should be an intriguing event—because I don’t know the last time we’ve known this little about the concept of an event. We know several rival clans of Amazons are descending on the island, and that a mysterious ancient race who occupied the island long ago may be out for revenge. But one thing’s for sure—this issue has done a good job of setting us up for drama.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
