‘Nimona’ started streaming on Netflix last June 30, and in an interview, ND Stevenson opened up about his body representation feelings on his comics-turned-movie creation.
Based on Stevenson’s comics he first created during his teenage years, ‘Nimona’ follows the story of a shape-shifting girl who becomes the sidekick for a reluctant supervillain named Ballister Blackheart, a knight framed for a crime he didn’t commit.
In an interview with PRIDE, Stevenson revealed his thoughts about body image and representation through ‘Nimona.’
“I really didn’t know the gender journey that I was going to go on. I had no idea when I was first making the comic,” he tells PRIDE. “But I’ve always had this sense of being more than my body, or just that my body is almost a part of the conversation, but not even the main part of that conversation. And so being able to be all these different things was also something. I just really wanted that. And then to be sure of myself, and then also just to be able to change as often as I feel like I’m changing within myself.”
This is why drawing Nimona’s body type was “very empowering,” according to him. Nimona’s image is not your typical, hypersexualized female heroine. Instead, she’s powerful, agile, and even shape-shifting.
