NubiaIn this week’s Where Are They Now?, there seemed an obvious character to dig up – especially if you listened to our last podcast (The Man of Steel Spoilercast).

When discussing the issue of where Warner Bros could take certain DC characters post Man of Steel, there was talk of whether they should cast someone of Grecian decent in the inevitable Wonder Woman role. It was then suggested that the lead character could possibly even be black. When I mentioned Wonder Woman had a black twin in the Silver Age it was met with a confounded response. Not everyone had heard of this, which is how it stuck in my mind as this week’s character for Where Are They Now?


Nubia 2

Week 2: Nubia, Wonder Woman’s black twin sister

Who were they?: Created during the silver age which speaks volumes about A: Why such a crazy concept would happen and B: Why barely anyone has heard of her recently. The background of Nubia is that, as the title above suggests, she she is indeed Wonder Woman’s black twin who was made from the same piece of clay. Yet as Wonder Woman was raised by the Amazons, Nubia was raised by Mars and later challenged Diana for the title of Wonder Woman.

What have they done recently?: Post Crisis on Infinite Earths she was re-envisioned as just another Amazonian character with little relation to Diana. Gone was the twin angle. She was also given the name of Nu’Bia because … um … hey it’s comics. But Grant Morrison called back to the character in Final Crisis when he showed us the Superman of Earth 23 who was an African (Kryptonian) American President of the US. On Earth 23 the race roles of characters are reversed and we see a Black Wonder Woman also named Nubia alongside the Superman of that world.

What can we expect next?: In canon as Wonder Woman’s sister this hasn’t happened yet in the New 52. Yet with Wonder Woman’s origin being changed so that now she is a demigod who was fathered by Zeus, this could be easily re-imagined as Zeus having a child with another woman so they would still be sisters. What we do know is that Grant Morrison’s Earth 23 version still very much exists, as Earth 23 was featured as the backup story of Action Comics last year,  and included was an appearance of that Earth’s Wonder Woman.

Whether or not DC decide to feature the character further remains to be seen, but it could definitely open up some interesting possibilities if they did.

That’s it for this week, but feel free to drop your suggestions for next weeks character – the more obscure the better.


The writer of this piece was: GARYavGary Kane aka (GK)
Article: Where are They Now (Prev: Under The Influence)
GK tweets from @Kanoclassic

7 responses to “GK’s Where Are They Now?: Nubia, Wonder Woman’s Black Twin Sister”

  1. As a little white girl of 12 or 13, I bought the original comic book with Wonder Woman meeting and battling her. Great cover! I loved the idea of Wonder Woman having a gorgeous powerful black sister. More Wonder Womanry! I bought every issue with WW and Nubia and then the idea seemed to disappear. I was very disappointed and once again stopped buying Wonder Woman comics. (I stopped in 1969 when she lost her powers and gained the I-Ching gimmick and became a boutique owner. Ugh.) DC never knew what to do with her in the Silver Age. An innately sexy and powerful idea of a woman when the very conservative DC was still bound by the Comics Code Authority not to go very far with any of it! (Back to 1969: So make her into Emma Peel, and dress her up in Steranko-esque costumes. When I saw she surrendered her powers to stay with Steve Trevor, the sickening disappointment ran through me like a bout of diarrhea.) I was WAITING for the return of the real WW, and reinforcement of woman-power in the person of Nubia was joy itself. I had hopes… I picture her having her own book…

  2. I have a small doubt… Is Nubia out of copyright, public domain or trademarked???????

  3. I hope the black Wonder Woman get a chance to make a motion picture with her twin sister Wonder Woman

    1. I was born from clay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  4. […] delivered by a curse, supernatural forces, or by some ritual process of ordeal or initiation (Nubia, Dominique Laveau). In my next post, I will examine the representations of Voodoo and Vodou in the […]

  5. […] GK’s Where are they now?: Nubia, Wonder Woman’s black twin sister […]

  6. […] GK’s Where are they now?: Nubia, Wonder Woman’s black twin sister […]

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