Nubia: Queen of the Amazons #3: One of Those Bond Villains

This action-packed issue focuses on Nubia’s past and her connection with Zillah, a fabulous new villain. Zillah is the young girl from Nubia’s past life as Zahavah. How Zillah remains alive isn’t revealed, but there’s a lot of insight into what happened after Zahavah’s murder at the hands of Azariah.

Zillah has a great design. As I pointed out last issue, she strongly resembles Grace Jones. Yara Flor even jokes that Zillah is like a Bond villain, a nod to Jones’s role as the fashionable assassin Mayday. The action presented here is great, but the dialogue also reveals a lot of exposition about why Zillah despises Nubia and how Azariah rising to power led her community to ruin.

The fight takes up the bulk of the issue, and I worry about there only being one issue left to conclude this story. We just met Zillah, and the next issue will undoubtedly lead to the pair confronting each other once again. It just doesn’t seem like enough time to tell this story. I’m sure whatever happens, we haven’t seen the last of Zillah.

The art has been consistently great by Alitha Martinez. The close-up shots of Nubia are some of my favorite panels of comic art. Hawkgirl and Yara Flor also look great, but it’s Zillah’s design that blows me away. I can see this character going far in future DC projects.