Monday, February 6, 2017

Podcast: The Mystery of Nubia

Episode #10


Look for us on iTunes, ShoutEngine or the Internet Archive, where you can also directly download an art-tagged MP3.

By all indications, 2017 needs a podcast dedicated to Queen Hippolyta's "second," "other," "dark" daughter who debuted on November 7, 1972 in Wonder Woman #204, so we're "Introducing Nubia!" The soul sister of the Amazing Amazon went on to appearances in Wonder Woman #205-206, including a solo back-up story, plus cameos in Supergirl #9 and The Super Friends #25 before vanishing from comics entirely for twenty years (and actually closer to a quarter century if you discount a single page of one of those comics.) Despite barely escaping 1973 in comics, Nubia managed to make appearances on television and in toy form when that was an extremely rare accomplishment, and her origin has a massive impact on Wonder Woman's own. Nubia was a contender, and we argue that she still matters 45 years later on this episode!

Nubia is one of the least heralded but most valuable creations of Robert Kanigher, and possibly his single most important contribution across twenty years as a writer/editor of the Amazing Amazon (depending on how much credit you extend him on Wonder Girl.) The world is still waiting for Nubia to be fully embraced as a key component of Amazonian lore! For more on Nubia, check out my 2012 article on her, newly revised with fresh scans to replace the busted embeds Comicvine left me with.

We don't have a Magic Sphere, so if you want to communicate with us about the podcast...

1 comment:

Anj said...

My only interaction with Nubia is in that Supergirl comic book so this was a great episode for me. Didn't realize all this about her history (although I am sure I must have read about her in Who's Who).

Thanks for covering. I wonder if she could have simply been folded into the Bana-Mighdall Amazons in the post-Crisis reboot.