Nubia--Coronation Special #1 // Review
The immediate threat to the Amazons has been defeated. In the process, Themyiscira has lost a ruler. For the first time in a very, very long time, the Amazons crown a new queen in Nubia -Coronation Special #1. The writing team of Stephanie Williams and Vita Ayala are joined by a massive group of artists, including Marguerite Sauvage, Colleen Doran, Darryl Banks, Jill Thompson, and Alitha Martinez. The special looks at Nubia's past, present, and future in a series of short narratives that lead to the big event, which serves as the introduction to the new four-issue Queen Nubia series due out in early June.
On coronation day, Nubia is ceremonially submerged in the hot springs of Gaea. While under the water, she has a vision of an earlier life in ancient Madagascar. Memories of that linger as she continues toward her crowning ceremony. There is memory of a run-in with a certain police detective in the United States and a vision of life in the far future. There's a lot to think about before the big event. People from all over the world are invited to the tiny island of Themyscira to see Nubia crowned queen.
Williams and Ayala give a full background on Nubia without the kind of repetition that might otherwise accompany a big celebratory issue like this. All of the stories in the special have a very distinct resonance about them that both advances a deeper understanding of the character and takes a look back at who she had been in the past. Things might feel a bit rushed towards the end of the issue with the actual ceremony, but the overall look at Nubia feels relatively well-paced and well-executed.
There's a great diversity in the range of different artists who have been brought into the covers of this special. There's a rather harsh contrast between artists that can feel pretty intense in transition from one story to the next, but each story has its own mood, tone, and rhythm. The lush, atmospheric drama of Marguerite Sauvage delicately holds the starkly dark intensity of Colleen Doran's painted art of Nubia's past. Darryl Banks gives a simple conversation between Nubia and Detective John Jones a weightiness in heavy ink. The diversity in art styles lends the coronation special a surprisingly big feel for a single issue that's only 40 pages or so.
Editor Brittany Holzherr has cleverly directed traffic flow for an exciting special. Not all of it feels perfectly in tune with everything else. (The scene set in the future feels like it comes out of a completely different comic book.) Weird fluctuations aside, the issue feels cohesive enough to hold everything together for the new queen's coronation. Themyscira has been through a lot over the past few months: a murder, a funeral, a reconstruction, and now a coronation. With any luck, the new Nubia mini-series will continue the exploration of Themyscira's future.
