Nubia & the Amazons #2 // Review
A phantom walks the isle of Themyscira. It inhabits the bodies of the Amazons who live there. It will prove to be the first test for the new queen in Nubia & the Amazons #2. The writing team of Stephanie Williams and Vita Ayala continue to explore the mysteries of the island of the Amazons in an issue brought to the page by penciller Alitha Martinez and co-inker Mark Morales. Color comes to the page courtest of Allen Passalaqua. Ayala and Williams take a tactfully-crafted look into the world of Themyscira in a respectable second issue. They're packing a hell of a lot of story between two covers, but they have a solid understanding of the pacing necessary to keep it all balanced.
Nubia hasn't been queen for long. She needs some sort of guidance, so she looks to a few divine advisors, including Athen, Aphrodite, and Hestia. They're surprisingly receptive to a mortal queen who admits she has no idea what to ask them. Later on, she competes with other Amazons at a combat arena known as The Victors Circle. Somewhere in the edges of Themyscira, a spirit walks in the bodies of others, asking questions about Medusa. Could it have something to do with the precognitive dreams of the Penelope's recently suffered disaster? Time will tell.
Williams and Ayala are working with a vast ensemble. They place the title character right in the center of the story, but their script lingers with SO many exciting characters. Not a single one of them is on the page for a satisfying amount of time. Themyscira has never gotten the amount of time on the page that it's deserved. It's nice to see so much of it being presented in the new series, but with so many characters, the writing team is going to have to spend quite a bit of time establishing a satisfying rhythm between all of them.
Martinez and Morales are given a script that almost exclusively focuses on drama and intrigue. Shadows inhabit the page in heavy blocks of ink. Characters glance around sternly. Things are said. Martinez and Morales conjure the drama to the page with more than enough visual appeal to keep the action moving from one panel to the next. Passalaqua does a beautiful job of giving the atmosphere of Themyscira a richly vibrant depth. The grasses seem soft and comforting. The skies feel spacious and peaceful. The sun casts a gorgeous glow over everything.
If there is a serious flaw in the first couple of chapters of the series, it may be overall pacing. The individual installment is really well-calibrated, but there's a definite deadline for everything. There are only four more issues left to go in the series. There may be a few too many characters in the ensemble for a six-issue miniseries. The balance that the writing team is managing would work quite well for an ongoing series. However, it's difficult to imagine the overall story reaching a satisfying ending by the sixth issue.
