People who are casually acquainted with Wonder Woman lore probably believe that Diana’s mother Hippolyta is the leader and Queen of Themyscira, AKA Paradise Island because, after all, that’s what happened in that live action movie. Heck, that’s even true for most of the history of the character in the comics.
However, current readers will know that Hippolyta stepped down at some point, leaving the throne to a character who was once considered her other daughter, a second, Black Wonder Woman named Nubia. So, I figure I should probably say something about her.
I mean, right now, I am wondering if I carry this series past #500.
First appearing in January of 1973’s Wonder Woman #204, Nubia was a creation from writer Robert Kanigher and artist Don Heck. After having her own memories restored for some reason, Diana is attacked by an armored stranger, a woman with dark skin that can hold her own with Diana. The woman eventually reveals herself to be Nubia, and after fighting Diana to a standstill, claims to be the one, true Wonder Woman before leaving to go back to her own Floating Island where she rules over an otherwise all-male colony and keeps them all in line when they challenge her for leadership.
As it is, Hippolyta finds Nubia vaguely familiar, and because Nubia’s Silver/Bronze Age adventures seem to all revolve around people’s memories being wiped and whatnot, there’s probably a good reason for that. That reason is Hippolyta, in a revised origin, had originally made two clay sculptures, one from light-colored clay and one from dark-colored clay, and when both were brought to life, the God of War Mars stole the dark-skinned baby girl, AKA Nubia, making Diana and Nubia twins apparently. Nubia was then raised on “Slaughter Island” so she could lead an army to one day conquer Themyscira for Mars.
Wikipedia is calling him Mars even though normally he’d be Ares as far as I know. Make of that what you will.
Fortunately, when Mars and Nubia attack Paradise Island, Diana manages to break the mind control ring Mars had put on Nubia, and once freed from Mars’s control, Nubia and Diana teamed up to drive the God of War away. Not a bad deal. Nubia would then make a couple appearances here and there, most notably in a Supergirl story and later a Super Friends story where she would once again be under mind control.
And then she disappeared for 20 years. There maybe could have been a chance to bring her back during George Perez’s reboot, but instead, he created a different Black Amazon in the form of General Philipus. Nubia’s next appearance was in 1999, and her name was changed to Nu’bia. This version said she was the niece of Amazon Queen Antiope, and she also won a Tournament of Grace and Wonder and became Wonder Woman long before Diana was even born. Antiope, being Diana’s aunt, is a name that means something, and it turns out that Nu’Bia’s task was to guard a gate in Hades from the inside, and the other Amazons incorrectly assumed she was dead. While there, she even took the Zoroastrian god of light, Ahura Mazda as a lover until a demon killed the guy.
Fast forward to more modern times, and Nubia has her original name back and started making appearances in the Future State books. She also was guarding the underworld gate for a while there, but after Diana ascended to a higher plane (temporarily) following Dark Nights: Death Metal, Hippolyta took over as Wonder Woman in Man’s World, Nubia took her place as the Queen of the Amazons. Diana’s return solidified that as Diana decided she was fine with Nubia both as a queen and as a Wonder Woman, and that’s pretty much where we are right now.
Huh. There are two Wonder Women now. Well, DC currently also has two Supermen, two Batmen, and a pair of Swamp Things acting at the same time, to say nothing of how many Flashes and Green Lanterns there are. I’m sure that’s no big deal.
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