All the recent controversy over the recent changes to Wonder Woman’s costume got me thinking about the character and her origin. Itbrought up a random thought of a black Wonder Women but I couldn’t think of her name. A few days later it hit me Nubia. The character has two versions a pre and post Crisis on Infinite Earths. If you don’t know what that is don’t worry about it its not that important, basically DC re-booted everything . I’m going to give just a brief over view, but if you really want to take a deep dive you need to go to www.carolastrickland.com. It’s a goldmine of information.
A few things did stand out to me , the character was scheduled for an apperance on the Wonder Woman televisonshow
she was to be played by Teresa Graves of Get Christie Love , they even made a Nubia Doll for the line of dolls based on the show. Guess what happened? CBS canceled the show before the appearance. At least they didn’t kill her in the first 5 minutes.
The pre-Crisis Nubia was created by Robert Kanigher and Don Heck, she debuted in Wonder Woman (vol. 1) #204, (January 1973). Formed from clay as a twin to Diana (Wonder Woman), the dark skinned Nubia was kidnapped by Mars, who raised her, controlling her mind so that she would help him bring down the Amazons.[1] I won’t get into all the details, but Wonder Woman and Nubia met again as adults, get into the standard hero on hero fight before they team-up to fight the real enemy Mars. Nubia only had a handful appearances before she and the rest of the DC universe rebooted.
The modern character named Nu’Bia (slight name change) was created by Doselle Young and Brian Denham, she debuted in Wonder Woman Annual (vol. 2) #8 (1999). This time around they changed the origin of the character. Now she is the original Wonder Woman since she was the first Amazon to win the “Tournament of Grace and Wonder” that Diana won to become Wonder Woman. Her assigned mission was to guard “Doom’s Doorway”, which is an entrance to the river Styx and the Tartarus Gate on Themyscira. Entering Doom’s Doorway she was to guard the entryway from the inside, stopping anyone from entering or any creature from escaping. As Diana was never told of Nu’Bia it is assumed that the Themyscirian Amazons assumed she perished during her mission long before Diana’s birth. Sometime during her time in Hell, Nu’bia explains she met the Zoroastrian god of light, Ahura Mazda, and became his lover.[1] She also explains that on another adventure where she aided Gorgons, she was given the ability called Cold Sight which allows her to transform any living being into stone as a gift of gratitude from the Gorgons. After aiding Wonder Woman with her mission Nu’Bia then returns to the underworld to see Ahura Mazda.
So basically Nu’bia is Wonder Woman’s peer and in the Post Crisis version her predecessor. It’s a shame that DC keeps her on the back burner.
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Posted under Comics
This post was written by Lobo on July 14, 2010
