Review by Frank Plowright

It’s very much a fresh start for Malika in this second volume, both with regard to a new artist in Sunkanmi Akinboye, and the shock of having been transported hundreds of years from the past in which she ruled a land to 2025. It’s not a 2025 reflecting our world, being more technologically advanced, but it’s soon apparent that even if she doesn’t realise it, Malika’s problems aren’t greatly changed. Preventing acquisition of the dragon stones in the past was a concern, and in 2025 it’s also the case. Should the stones choose, handling them means you acquire super powers, but there’s a battle for the control of humanity going on, and without guidance not everyone will make the right decision about how to use those powers.

Malika’s character and the premise of the timeless power struggle over Volume One was well conceived and introduced an idea of value. A warrior queen in olden times was a theme to run with. However, that’s not Roye Okupe’s purpose, which is to build a 21st century superhero universe based on African legends, some real, some convincingly welded on. Except in Malika’s case much of what made her unique and a character worth reading about evaporates by bumping her to the 21st century. She’s African, which is interesting in a modern superhero world, but too little else Okupe introduces stands out. The events of the past inform what happens here, but as ambitious as the storyline is overall, for much of this volume it doesn’t gel because originality is lacking.

Frequently clumsy dialogue doesn’t help, and neither does the art of Akinboye, which is functional without ever transcending basic storytelling to offer something more. That’s partly because he only draws the very simplest of backgrounds, although to give him some credit, he enjoys drawing vehicles. On the other hand, he doesn’t even keep three flags on a wall in the correct order from chapter to chapter.

Very early on, and for half the book Malika is removed from the central figure to become advisor to a new hero, Firefrost, and Okupe applies a major convenience of one super power accompanied by another. Equally convenient is spirits helping out sometimes, but not others. One might have thought if they desired a specific outcome and are able to manifest to Malika they might do more to help her out. Malika confronting her regrets builds her personality, but Okupe belabours the messages, and while having Malika as part of a superhero universe is the purpose, she was more interesting last time.