FORMAT: TRADE PAPERBACK (REVIEWED), DIGITAL | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Over the years, Wonder Woman has acquired a great deal of spin-off and adjacent characters who have not gotten the same amount of attention or love as say the Batman and Superman families. Case in point, Nubia, Wonder Woman’s twin sister, a character full of potential.
In Nubia: Real One we see the titular character cast as a young black woman living in a generic Amercian suburb. She has a small circle of friends, two moms and absolutely no idea as to her origins. All she knows is that she is super-strong and every time she uses this power, she gets in trouble. Turns out that people seem to see a super-strong black woman as a threat rather than a hero, even in the DC universe. This still doesn’t stop her from doing the right thing, even though it is a hard path.
This book is a splendid mix of teen drama and super-hero hi-jinks. It’s also very grounded in modern America; this is a world of BLM protest marches, school-shootings and wrongful arrests. At the same time, it’s the sort of story we expect from a Wonder Woman character; thoughtful and socially aware but also action-filled and heart-felt.
Robyn Smith’s art is a perfect choice for this sort of book. It’s a messy but not busy cartoonish style which makes the story’s real world approach all the more believable. Rather than the hyper-real approach we get in larger more cinematic books, this type of art feels more down-to-Earth and honest. The colour palette is gentler than the highly glossy sort of affair we get in similar books so the result is something pleasing yet easy to read. Coupled with L. L. McKinney’s narrative style, this is a very refreshing and very interesting work.
Nubia: Real One is a refreshing and modern book and the sort of thing we need more of in this modern age.
