Analysis of the Design and Themes of

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

Originally written in 2012 as Stevenson’s college dissertation, Nimona was republished in 2015 by

HarperTeen, a subset of HarperCollins Publishing. Nimona follows the story of the villain Lord

Ballister Blackheart and his sidekick, Nimona,

as they fight against the Institution of Law

Enforcement and Heroics and Blackheart’s

friend-turned-enemy, Sir Ambrosius

Goldenloin. They wreak havoc with the goal of

proving the Institution isn’t as heroic as

everyone says.

With Nimona, Stevenson stated she Figure 1, Blackheart chastising Nimona over
causing an explosion (Stevenson, 2015: 21)
wanted to show that “almost anyone is

capable of doing things that are evil, or hurtful or

harmful” (NPR, 2015). While the plot begins as quite a

simple, fairy tale story, albeit with the villains as the

protagonists, it quickly begins to show the shades of

grey that surround all the characters. While Ambrosius

is the champion of the Institute and a “classic hero”

(Nimona by Noelle Stevenson – Graphic Novel Review,

2019) to the people, he did awful things to earn that

title. On the other hand, Blackheart is the villain but Figure 2, explaining to Nimona that they
don’t kill (Stevenson, 2015: 94
his moral code is shown by Nimona’s lack of one

(Figure 1) and his refusal to do harm for the sake of it (Figure 2).

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 The subversion of the characters extends to Nimona as well. Nimona was the first character

designed by Stevenson in an “art-school experiment” (Sneddon, 2015) and Stevenson said of her

design: “I just wanted to see a character that I haven’t necessarily seen before, especially as the

protagonist” (NPR, 2015: 3:04). This partially refers to

Nimona’s physical appearance with a stocky body type

and a costume that wasn’t often seen in comics.

Stevenson herself spoke about how she “never really

wanted to cosplay as a lot of the female characters out

there” as they were more “sensual” (NPR, 2015: 2:38)

Figure 3, Development of Nimona
(Stevenson, 2015: 264)
than she wanted to dress. Compared to the New 52’s

Batwoman from 2012 or the female protagonists of 2015’s Saga: Vol 5, Nimona has a body type

that’s more relatable to the teenage girls likely to read the comic. The character went through a few

iterations before the final design was decided upon (Figure 3) but her alternative fashion sense and

stocky figure stayed the same throughout. This choice also shows us a little of who Nimona is since,

as a shapeshifter, she could look like anything.

Nimona is quite representative of the common themes in Stevenson’s work. Other notable

projects of hers include Lumberjanes, a comic about teen girls at a camp, Thor, specifically an issue

with a goddess of thunder, and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, a reboot of the older show. All

these projects have powerful women or girls at centre stage, giving them complexity and personality

that their male counterparts had been getting for years. Stevenson’s dedication in Nimona, “To all

the monster girls” (Stevenson, 2015), makes it clear that the comic is also part of this trend. This

influence can be seen in Nimona’s character design. While wearing armour and “sensible” (NPR,

2015) clothes, as the NPR interview phrased it, Nimona still wears dresses and pink, showing a more

feminine side.

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 Stylising Nimona was made easier by the art style of the comic. The art of Nimona can be

described as “beautifully simplistic” (Nimona by Noelle Stevenson – Graphic Novel Review, 2019) or

cartoony, especially compared to more mainstream DC and Marvel comics. While this art style no

doubt ties into the way fairy tale style stories like Nimona are viewed, see Adventure Time or old

Mickey Mouse cartoons that operate on similar fantasy logic, Stevenson may have chosen this style

for more reasons. Scott McCloud said in Understanding Comics that “you see yourself” in cartoons

(1993: 36). Using a style that allows readers to see themselves in characters serves two purposes for

Stevenson: it allows readers to see that they are also capable of harmful actions, and it makes a

character that is more appealing to cosplay as.

A large theme of Nimona is the dichotomy between heroes and villains and how it’s blurred.

The main villains of the comic are the Institute of Law

Enforcement and Heroics and the woman who runs it

while the protagonists have been assigned the role of

Villain by the world around them. Stevenson uses

design to make this dichotomy even more obvious,

giving Ambrosius Goldenloin, the Institute’s champion,

golden armour and hair to represent how he fights for

the light. In contrast, Blackheart has a black and red

colour scheme, a facial scar, and a missing limb, all

design characteristics seen in classic villains like Darth

Figure 4, Goldenloin admitting he’s never Vader. However, it’s not as simple as it first seems. Not
done anything good (Stevenson, 2015:
208) only does the “villain” have a moral code, as shown

above, but others acknowledge that the “hero” doesn’t actually do the right thing (Figure 4). This is

made clear quite early in the story when Blackheart is compared to “Robin Hood” during a bank

robbery (Stevenson, 2015: 77). Though he refuses to agree, the lines between hero and villain

continue to blur. It culminates with the Institute of Heroics murdering innocent people and torturing

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a prisoner, while the “traitorous” Sir Goldenloin and Blackheart risk their lives to fight a beast the

Institute unleashed.

At the end of the comic, the public hail Goldenloin and Blackheart as heroes. In one of his

essays, Stan Lee describes a superhero as “a person who does heroic deeds and has the ability to do

them in a way that a normal person couldn’t” (2013). By this definition, with the advanced

technology Blackheart has and Nimona’s magic powers and their goal of exposing a corrupt

institution, Nimona would be a superhero story. However, Stevenson adds depth to Nimona by

keeping it from being so cut and

dry. While he has rules against

killing, Blackheart poisons

innocents and incites riots against

law enforcement as a distraction.

Innocent people get hurt Figure 5, a casualty of Blackheart’s riot (Stevenson, 2015: 135)

because of his actions (Figure 5). Typically, Blackheart would fall into the category of antihero,

defined as “the central character in a play, book, or film who does not have traditionally heroic

qualities” (Dictionary, 2021), due his lack of morality and backed

up by his comparison to Robin Hood, who is also seen as an

antihero sometimes due to his sneaky nature. Blackheart rejects

this, though, saying “No. I’m a supervillain.” (Stevenson, 2015:

77). Blackheart calls himself a villain on other occasions (Figure

6) despite believing in what he’s doing. By the end of the comic,

the Institute is disbanded for their crimes and Blackheart is

referred to as a “champion of the people” (Stevenson, 2015:

249) but Blackheart still refuses the title of hero as he feels he

Figure 6, Blackheart calls
himself a villain with more
morality than the “hero”
(Stevenson, 2015: 99)
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 failed Nimona (Figure 7). Using Blackheart’s

journey from villainised to praised despite

his goals and tactics not changing massively

over the story, Stevenson suggests that a

hero is not decided by their actions, but how

Figure 7, Blackheart lamenting not saving Nimona (Stevenson, the world around them sees their
2015: 251)
actions. The divide between hero and

villain is only as wide as the people affected by them make it

and one person’s hero could be another’s villain. Stevenson

represents the break down of this divide in the epilogue with

Blackheart and Goldenloin having taken on aspects of each

other’s colour scheme (Figure 8).

Figure 8, Blackheart and
Goldenloin in the epilogue Another strong theme of Nimona is identity and honesty.
(Stevenson, 2015: 256)
While this ties into Blackheart calling himself a villain and

refusing to accept the title of hero, it’s most prominent in Nimona herself. Throughout the entire

comic, there’s no concrete answer on who

Nimona really is. There are multiple

backstories for her revealed in the comic as

well as explanations for her powers but at

least some of these are revealed to be lies.

The reader never finds out who Nimona

really is. This was purposeful on Stevenson’s

part. The original ending for Nimona (Figure

9) had Nimona explaining her powers to

Blackheart. Stevenson said the scene

Figure 9, Stevenson’s original script for the ending.
was the “the first one [she] came up (Stevenson, 2021)

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with” when first exploring the idea of Nimona (Stevenson, 2021). Compared to the published version

of the comic, where Nimona’s powers, history, and true form are left a mystery, the original ending

told the reader a lot about Nimona.

Viewpoint is used to maintain the mystery around Nimona. While she is the title character,

Blackheart is the viewpoint character. As Nimona is the title

character and a very important part of the story, the only

reason to not give her a perspective is to keep her origins,

desires, and other details about her a secret. Everything the

reader learns about Nimona, they learn through Blackheart,

with the exception of one short flashback sequence on

pages 224 to 226. While not explicitly stated like other

flashbacks, it’s implied to be Nimona’s dream (Figure 10). It’s

also the vaguest information the reader gets about Nimona,

Figure 10, Nimona being woken by
Blackheart (Stevenson, 2015: 226) only showing them that she didn’t know how her powers

worked and that she was experimented on. The layout of the last page, with no panels within the

actual dream and very little detail added to the people performing the experiments, makes it even

more confusing for the reader. Earlier explanations of Nimona’s past are explicitly stated to be lies as

Nimona “forgot [her] own backstory” (Stevenson, 2015: 168). The reader can’t even be sure what

Nimona’s real form even is.

Nimona’s lack of solid identity is reflected in her

shapeshifting powers. She moves easily from fox to octopus

to dragon. She’s also shown being able to take various

human forms (Figure 11). There’s no common thread

between forms, such as gender or age, to pinpoint as

Figure 11, Nimona’s various human
something that Nimona is. In comics at large, shapeshifting forms (Stevenson, 2015: 16, 61,
103, 9)

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characters such as X–Men’s Mystique or Batman’s Clayface include motifs of deception and identity.

They’re themes highly linked to shapeshifting abilities and to Nimona herself.

All the mystery surrounding Nimona serves to heighten the tension when she, an otherwise

humorous character, turns on Blackheart. As the reader is unsure of true history, feelings, or

allegiances, they can’t be sure how she’ll react to Blackheart’s attempts to help her or his betrayal,

sharing the uncertainty Blackheart feels.

Queerness is another layer to Nimona’s theme of identity. Stevenson herself is a non-binary

lesbian. While she only came out as transgender recently, announcing it on Instagram during the

pandemic in 2020, it’s easy to see both trans and overall queer experiences reflected in the story

and characters of Nimona. Nimona, her theme of identity, and her shapeshifting powers lend

themselves very readily to a transgender interpretation. She’s a gender non-conforming heroine

who has the ability to change her physical gender and gender presentation at will. While left vague

in the comic, possibly due to Stevenson worrying she

wouldn’t be allowed to put a same-sex couple in a

kid’s book in 2012, animators on the now-cancelled

film adaptation confirmed that Blackheart and

Goldenloin were to be explicitly gay in the film

(Strapagiel, 2021). Nimona and Blackheart’s designs

Figure 12, Blackheart saying pizza
are also queer coded with gender non-conforming delivery costs too much (Stevenson,
2015: 31)
details like Blackheart’s earrings and Nimona’s shaved

head. They’re both outcasts from “proper” society, Blackheart having no friends and living too far

from anywhere to get pizza delivered (Figure 12), and stand against an existing institution and their

“perfect” example of a person. They’re also both villains, either by choice or a role forced by society,

joining a long list of queer coded villains, such as Disney’s Ursula or Skyfall’s Silva.

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 Overall, Stevenson achieved her goal of showing how anyone can cause harm. The

characters are all deep and morally grey with the difference made clear between their heroic

intentions and villainous actions. Stevenson uses character design expertly to convey information

about both character and deep themes. It leads to a very engaging read with enticing visuals and a

complex story, leaving no room to wonder why it won so many awards. It’s led me to think about the

designs and themes in my own work and how their portrayal could be improved.

Words: 2098

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