Nubia finds herself face to face with her long lost friend Zillah, a young girl from her past life in Nubia: Queen of the Amazons #3, written by Stephanie Williams, penciled by Alitha Martinez, inked by Mark Morales and John Livesay, colored by Alex Guimaraes and lettered by Becca Carey.
Last issue, we learned the identity of the mysterious masked figure who had been hunting down Nubia and her amulet. The issue opens with Zillah being confused as Nubia calls her name. Zillah doesn’t know that Nubia knows her from her past life as Princess Zahavah until Nubia explains herself. I love Zillah’s character design because she reminds me of the singer Grace Jones.
The comic then enters a brief flashback that shows a younger Zillah grieving hard over Zahavah’s death. It is stated that Zahavah was the closest thing that Zillah had to a sister. This refutes my theory that Zillah is Nubia’s daughter, but it does give her motivation for becoming the warrior she is now.
This is elaborated on as Zillah states that she killed General Azariah, Zahavah’s childhood friend, for betraying and killing Zahavah. She also states that the person Nubia knew died long ago and only Nubia’s half of the amulet of Sekhmet can make Zillah whole again. Zillah has the other half of the amulet, so it can be assumed that Zillah wants the blessing of Sekhmet for herself.
Zillah also said that Zahavah’s death made Zillah and everyone’s life hell. Given that Zahavah was the princess and she had no children prior to her death, her passing must’ve left a devastating hole in the royal family and her kingdom. Azariah probably killed Zahavah as an excuse to try to take her half of Sekhmet’s amulet and seize the throne for himself by either gaining the sympathy of Zahavah’s parents or killing them outright.
Right now, Zillah comes off as a sympathetic antagonist who is trying to use power to make up for the loss of the things that were important to her. Nonetheless, Zillah’s current actions have caused destruction to innocent people, and Nubia and the others cannot abide by this. Nubia and Zillah battle it out while trading blows and words.
Nubia uses her staff-lasso and Zillah fights with what resembles a double axe, a weapon with a sharp head on both ends. The deadliness of the weapon is demonstrated as Zillah smashes the ground and cuts a whole car, and nearly Nubia, in two with a WHAM and CRAAACK! I like to think that Nubia and Zillah’s weapons are a reflection of their owner’s personalities: Nubia’s representing her warrior and civil peacekeeper sides and Zillah’s representing ruthlessness.
Zillah taunts Nubia about how Nubia couldn’t run from being queen even after her death. Nubia retorts that she wanted to protect her people without being on a throne, to which Zillah snaps that she failed then and she’ll fail now. The art, lettering and colors here enhance the dialogue by showing Nubia asserting herself with her body, words, and weapon while Zillah gets defensive by rejecting those words and weapon. Amazon Yara Flor, Wonder Girl. also tries to join the fray, but is swatted aside by Zillah.
Soon, Zillah goes on the offensive by splitting her double axe weapon in two and holding one axe in each hand as she sneers about Nubia not using Sekhmet’s power properly. Zillah also confirms my theories about wanting to take Sekhmet’s power and that Azariah killed Zahavah’s parents.
Even more interesting is what Zillah reveals about Sekhmet: she is a goddess of vengeance. This puts Zillah killing Azariah and gaining half the amulet in a new light, because she thinks Sekhmet is rewarding her actions. At the same time, this also gives a new perspective to Nubia’s half of the amulet.
Although Nubia herself didn’t seek vengeance, her lineage contains it because Zahavah’s father King Zanil angered Sekhmet by marrying an outsider that became Zahavah’s mother. Sekhmet blessing Zahavah was Sekhmet’s vengeance against King Zanil.
Vengeful gods and goddesses aren’t anything new for Nubia and the other Amazons because Greek gods like Athena have doled out their fair share of punishments too. For Nubia and Zillah, vengeance has placed the burden of high expectations and intergenerational trauma. In the previous issue, King Zanil stated that the consequences of past choices can emerge in the future. For better or worse, Nubia has a personal history fraught with choices that have affected her and those around her and now Nubia has to own up to them.
Just as Zillah prepares to kill Nubia, Yara Flor manages to land a few good punches on Zillah. However, Zillah manages to gain Nubia’s half of the amulet and retreats. Nubia and the other Amazons regroup on the floating island in order to try and figure out Zillah’s next move. Nubia has already guessed that Zillah is headed to Madagascar, the home of Zillah and Zahavah in the past. Maybe Sekhmet will have some sort of temple there where Zillah will conduct the ritual.
As dire as the situation is, Nubia insists on going after Zillah alone to avoid any further casualties. Although this is totally understandable, I personally don’t think Nubia can handle Zillah by herself. Zillah almost killed Nubia earlier despite the latter putting up a very good fight. In fact, the only way I see Nubia being able to deal with Zillah alone is if she reasons with her somehow and they find a way to destroy both halves of Sekhmet’s amulet to free themselves from her influence.
The issue ends as Nubia affirms her desire to make peace with her past, but I personally hope that Zillah can find some peace too. Intergenerational trauma is a mean bitch to deal with, but Nubia Queen of The Amazons has tackled this issue beautifully.
Latonya Pennington
Latonya Pennington is a freelance contributor whose comics criticism can be found at Women Write About Comics, Comic Book Herald, Newsarama and Shelfdust, among others.
