Nubia & the Amazons #4 // Review
The queen of Themyscira remembers the past as she faces the new threat of an old enemy in Nubia & the Amazons #4. The writing team of Stephanie Williams and Vita Ayala balances drama, intrigue, action, and aggression in a story rendered for the page by the art team of Alitha Martines, Darryl Banks, Mark Morales, and colorist Romulo Fajardo Jr. Intrigue amongst the Amazons alternates with a tale of Nubia in the 20th century with the schemes of Medusa. It's kind of a lot to cover in a single issue, but Williams, Ayala, and company do an excellent job of keeping it all together in a largely satisfying chapter.
The sudden presence of Medusa is enough to get the Amazons of Themyscira a little edgy. There is some concern of an uneasiness with Nubia in charge of things after Hippolyta had been in charge for so long. Meanwhile, Nubia remembers a romance sparked with a woman she had med while fighting a manticore at Chicago's Field Museum back in the 1970s. A decision is made in the present. Nubia is to go beyond Doom's Doorway to confront Medusa face-to-face. She has an offering to make...and a bone to pick with the gorgon.
The writing team has carefully packed the script with a sharp balance. Williams and Ayala keep each scene perfectly framed, from political intrigue to battle with a monster to romance in Chicago in 1974 to a descent into monsters. It's a tight path to walk in only 20+ pages, but no one scene ever seems rushed. No one seen ever seems to crowd out the rest of them. Nubia is given a profoundly well-articulated personality that arrives on the page with poise and subtlety in and amidst larger concerns of manticores and hydras, street crime, and political intrigue.
The art team struggles a bit with the many facets of Williams and Ayala's script. The complex intricacies of romance can be really, really difficult to bring to the page in just a couple of pages. Still, Martines, Banks, and Morales manage a few charming moments between Nubia and her Chicago love. The action glides across the page with an occasionally impressive impact. Not every panel in the big manticore battle feels as vivid as it could be, and there's a real missed opportunity to show off the Field Museum's specific architecture. Still, the descent into the realm beyond Doom's Doorway has a refreshing momentum about it.
The series really feels like it's beginning to find its rhythm with only a couple of issues left to go in the series. The creative team feels like it's finally coming together. It's too bad it all comes to a close at the end of the winter. Given the right space to explore matters further, Williams, Ayala, and team could build Nubia into something remarkable. As it is in the fourth of six issues, the series juggles many disparate elements and moods quite well.
