Saying Stephanie Williams is a writer isn’t enough to describe the intensity of her research. You may have first encountered her writing for SYFY.com where her essays on popular culture and comics reflected ideas we wouldn’t have thought about if she hadn’t written them. Her article “How Everyone Failed Wanda Maximoff” should have been required reading for the television series “WandaVision.” Co-created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in the comics Wanda also known as Scarlet Witch has had a multifaceted history. From Wanda’s first appearance as the Scarlett Witch in 1964 she’s had to make choices that put her desires to the side.
Her and her twin brother Pietro were experimented on, then cast aside to be raised by relatives, only to have to run from the only home they knew because of those who feared their superpowered abilities. Eventually, they joined the Avengers. But that only led to more catastrophic heartache for Wanda. Williams explains how Wanda, who’s craving for normalcy, was either villainized or overlooked by those around her, which affected her mental health. Williams also helped bring back Nubia from DC Comics. First created in 1973, Nubia was the twin sister of Wonder Woman. Nearly 49 years later Williams and Vyta Ayala retconned Nubia’s origin, gave her weapons of her own and had her become queen of the amazons. What could have been a stereotypical trope instead became a narrative world-building, where readers clamored to have an ongoing series. In 2023 Williams has written an encyclopedia called “Strange and Unsung All-Stars of the DC Multiverse.
This is more than a reference book. Williams has taken several characters from across the decades of DC Comics and by giving a brief history of them makes you want to raid the archives of this comic book empire. Parts of the book are segmented into groups where characters are known for such as ‘Hair Vibes.’ While others are characters we may or may not know such as Peacemaker and Jet. They are told where they first appeared, a biography and their most significant escapades. For Jet, first appearing in the late 1980’s we learn of not only her, but of the Guardians of the Universe. We see Jet how she was illustrated in the comics, she’s black, with long flowing green hair, who’s Jamaican living in England. Her story consisted of a real-world health crisis seldom seen in comics. There’s also Red Tornado who in the early 1930’s Ma Hunkle had created a secret identity to protect her neighborhood. She was an unassuming, older white woman who when men tried to take credit for her actions, beat them down. She at some point had to go into witness protection. Williams has taken these obscure treasures where you wonder why were some of these characters abandoned?
If ever there was a perfect fit for a ‘visual encyclopedia’ as it says on the cover, it’s Stephanie Williams. Her conversational and informative writing style will clamor for a demand of an ongoing series of her own. If not, a character she creates, then one from the unsung multiverse.
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