In 1973, the Vietnam War was winding down, the Watergate Scandal was heating up, and the Civil Rights Movement had culminated in a series of victories for racial equality in the United States. This movement had a profound influence on the way many Americans viewed representation in popular media at the time, and this evolution was equally apparent in DC Comics’ Wonder Woman. January of 1973 saw the first appearance of Nubia, a black character in Wonder Woman #204 who is eventually revealed to be Diana’s long lost sister. If the name doesn’t ring any bells, it’s most likely because the character made only a handful of appearances and then largely disappeared. In a time of so much political upheaval and social change, whatever happened to this revolutionary new hero?
Wonder Woman #204 finds Diana Prince on Paradise Island with no memory of who she is or where she came from. Her mother, Queen Hippolyta, uses a memory restoration device to reveal Wonder Woman’s past and bring her back to her senses. Just as the device has finished its work, an armor-clad warrior steps forward and challenges Diana’s right to represent Themyscira as Wonder Woman. An evenly-matched battle ensues, and Hippolyta eventually declares the contest a draw. The mysterious heroin removes her helmet and introduces herself as “Nubia! Wonder Woman of the Floating Island.”
Subsequent issues reveal that when Hippolyta made Diana out of white clay, she also made a second daughter out of dark clay. Aphrodite blessed the Themysciran Queen by bringing these children to life. Not long after her creation, Nubia was kidnapped by Mars and grew up living amongst men on the Floating Island. Nubia later appears in Super Friends #25 in 1979 and once more in 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths before disappearing into the multiverse for the next fourteen years.
Nubia was created by Robert Kanigher and Don Heck in 1973. Kanigher had written Wonder Woman for nine years, from ‘58 to ‘67, before leaving to work on other projects, including creating the war character, Sgt. Rock. Kanigher and then-partner Heck returned to Wonder Woman on a short one-year stint and created Nubia in their first issue back. Her powers are similar to Diana’s, including super-strength and flight, but she is differentiated by her magical equipment. Nubia possesses a sword and ring, both given to her by Mars. The former is the only earthly weapon that can resist Wonder Woman’s magic lasso, while the latter keeps Nubia under Mars’ control, and is later removed, freeing her. While Nubia began making sporadic post-crisis appearances starting with 1999’s Wonder Woman Annual #8, the question remains why a character with so much potential should be so rarely used?
Fans of Nubia recently received good news when DC Comics announced the character’s first solo title, Nubia: Real One, set for publication in 2021. Perhaps it has taken so long for Nubia to find her rightful place in the comic book spotlight because of the tumultuous times in which she was created. Or just as likely, the character may have suffered from the subsequent emergence of more unique characters like Vixen or Bumblebee. Whatever the reason back then, our country’s current climate is the perfect environment for the evolution of this Wonder Woman into a representative for the next generation of comic book readers.
Source: Fandom: Wonder Woman Wiki: Nubia