Review by Karl Verhoven

Bo Abiola underwent one hell of a wake-up process on learning the person he’s looked up to his entire life isn’t a kindly President after all, but someone to whom power is all, and with little concern for the masses he claims to protect. Over Volume One Bo went from head of the President’s security to heading the most wanted list, but readers are aware of something he isn’t: he has a destiny.

The previous volume ended with one hell of a surprise concerning a character’s loyalties, and Roye Okupe devotes the opening pages to explaining why they follow the dark gods of the Olon Jin. It’s an interesting extrapolation of how an idea can’t be killed, tying into something fundamental about the way events have played out, and sets up the conflict for the remainder of Volume Two.

Sunkanmi Akinboye’s art improves on the first volume, supplying a greater dynamism. There are now more likely to be backgrounds and detail on clothing, and the cast have lost some of their previous stiffness. A few rough spots still occur, but when the Windmaker of the title finally manifests Akinboye brings him gloriously to life.

Okupe has developed a wide cast with divergent views, and he spins the spotlight around them from the rebels in hiding to the presidential palace, but it’s the conflicted Bo who remains central. His regrets are heavy. “Out of blind loyalty I supported and protected a man… a regime that did horrible things to our people”, he confesses in a crucial transformative moment of self-pity. However, redemption is on the agenda as we learn of connections presumably explained in more detail in Malika: Warrior Queen.

Although super powers play a part, Okupe ensures it’s the thriller aspects of a nation gradually being ground down under assorted forces that remains central. There is a bit of the Harry Potter or even Star Wars to the background of an ancient schism among powerful forces jockeying for total control ever since, but the popularity of a battle between darkness and light is perennial and well played out at great pace here. Several pieces of foreshadowing in the opening volume come to bear, and there’s a fantastic darkness before the dawn sequence at the end.

This is stirring stuff, and if you want to read it, it’s available for free (as of writing) with all other YouNeek titles on their website. That’s some fantastic deal.