Elf teen Niobe Ayutami finds herself between past and future, seeking answers as she tries to understand herself.
Written by Sebastian Jones and Amandla StenbergCover by Ashley A. Woods
and Hyoung Taek Nam
Illustrated by Darrell May and Ashley A. Woods
Lettered by Joshua CozineNiobe Ayutami is an orphaned wild elf teenager and also the would-be savior of the vast and volatile fantasy world of Asunda. She is running from a past where the Devil himself would see her damned… toward an epic future that patiently waits for her to bind nations against the hordes of hell.
Co-written by Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games, Sleepy Hollow) with art by rising star Ashley A. Woods, Niobe continues the epic journey that began in The Untamed.
Heavy is the mind with prophecy upon it, and that mind is young Niobe. She knows she has a role to fulfill that is larger than herself, and that she’ll save her world. But right now, her priority is saving her life, which finds her on the run and out for the blood of her father for past transgressions. But we’re not sure what happened to put her on the run, or why she wants this revenge. What we know as she starts her journey is that she has miles and miles to go before she reaches whatever this prophesied destiny is, with many that will stand in her way.
From the first page of this issue, you’re right in the thick of the story, and the layers upon layers of conflict, riddles, and questions pull back slowly and delicately like the It’s clear Niobe’s on the run, but from what, and why? And why do those that she meets, such as the men in the monastery, seem scared and even disgusted by her presence? Jumping in to the action like this is a great way to hit the ground running and build the tension and stakes, but you do need to do a little bit of worldbuilding. It took a fair bit of research on the publisher website (Stranger Comics) to figure out that this is actually the second series in the larger Niobe story arc. (Her story starts in “The Untamed,” continues in this series, and further continues in “Niobe: She is Death.”) While it makes the most sense to begin at the beginning, it couldn’t hurt to have a bit of worldbuilding here to bring new folks up to speed, or even recap from those that read “The Untamed.” There’s the start to a fascinating world here, rich in its own history and mythos. But readers need a building block of context to truly appreciate what Jones and Stenberg created, and that is missing in this debut.
If the name Amandla Stenberg sounds familiar to you, it should – – she skyrocketed to fame as Rue in film adaptation of The Hunger Games in 2012. Jones specifically sought her out as he wanted a young voice writing this character. That’s a smart decision. Niobe is a teenager, albeit a one carrying a destiny heavier than her young years, but still a teenager. Stenberg doesn’t make her too plucky or too precocious. She stands up for her morals, her values, but still stumbles and questions herself, as any teenager does. She knows what she needs to do to make it through her current situation and get to the next step, but it’s not without doubt. It’s an extremely realistic portrayal that you almost forget she’s also half elf, and that you’re in this lush fantasy realm.
Should you remember “Niobe: She Is Life” for anything, it should be Ashley A. Woods’s artwork. Stunning doesn’t even begin to cover it. From full page splashes to the smalles of panels, Woods provides a master class in composition and perspective, particularly in the use of bird’s eye perspective. I particularly love one full page spread in the first act with Niobe plummeting down a waterfall. The bird’s eye perspective doesn’t focus on Niobe, but on the large falls around her, a metaphor for just how small she is at this point in time relative to her current (and forthcoming) situation. Woods also draws the falls rough, with minimal detail and very soft lines, as if it was done in pastel. But Niobe, as tiny as she is in this moment, is rendered in careful detail. Your eye naturally draws to her, a reminder that she is always, even when her presence feels the most trivial and trifling, she is nevertheless the anchor to the story.
It’s not just in panel composition where Woods shows skill. Each character is a unique work of art, from Niobe’s goddess mentor Essessa bathed in white to monastery leader Bragnar Steelnose (who bears a bit of resemblance to a certain ginger beard from Game of Thrones we all know and love). In fact, there’s a great bit of work that goes into close up moments that do focus on the eyes, whether it’s Niobe’s heterochromia, the skeptical looks of Temshen and his tribe, or Essessa’s red eyes. Remember that old saying about eyes being the window to the soul? It must have been on Woods’s mind, and makes me think eyes hold a certain level of mystical, emotional, and/or philosophical currency in this universe. While the script stumbles in setting up the world, the artwork picks up the slack. This is a world whose look has craftsmanship in all kinds of moments, and it’s already proving a joy to my eyes. I just hope that scripting and storytelling moves past oblique riddles and platitudes into action as this series progresses.
In 2016, when this series debuted, it was the first nationally distributed comic to feature a woman of color as its lead and women of color as both writers and artists. Since then, representation in comics has made considerable strides (though we can all agree there are miles and miles to go). The more stories like Niobe’s that we have in our longboxes and pull lists, the better. She’ll also be coming to TV fairly soon, with the world of Asunda optioned by HBO as a series to fill that Westeros-shaped hole in our hearts. If it looks anything like this, it will certainly be a smash hit.
