Review by Ian Keogh

Roye Okupe is building a connected superhero universe in a 2025 where African cities are technological wonderlands. E.X.O. is his armoured powerhouse. There’s a big problem with originality from the start as armoured heroes have been prominent at any company that runs a superhero line, and Okupe doesn’t do enough to differentiate E.X.O.. Having a name that sounds so similar to Valiant’s armoured hero X-O is surely something someone should have pointed out before launch.

As the subtitle notes, within the armour is Wale Williams, all-round smart young guy who’s also a talented martial artist. He’s wearing a suit devised by his father while employed by the Prytek corporation from whom he withdrew the process believing it wouldn’t be used for the good of the people. As the first chapter lays out, though, a tragic accident causes a rift between Wale and his father, and has him leave Nigeria for five years until returning in the present day where he becomes E.X.O. taking the fight to those who’d oppress others.

E.X.O. is further hindered by ordinary art. There’s no problem with Sukanmi Akinboye’s storytelling, which lays everything out clearly, but there’s little dynamism, and little inclination to provide anything other than the most basic backgrounds. That’s coupled with his being far more comfortable drawing technology and action scenes than the necessary groundwork leading up to them, which features a stiffly posed cast.

Williams has returned to a country where Prytek do as they please, and the methods used by those who’d overthrow the government are unsavoury and manipulative while endangering ordinary people. The Creed, as they’re known, are led by Oniku, an earthquake generating thug with no compunctions about killing people who don’t agree with his methods. Okupe also introduces a super speedster armed with blades, who takes the spotlight away from E.X.O. She’s one of what are intended as two surprises regarding people’s other identities, but many readers are going to be well ahead of Okupe’s eventual revelations.

Wale is in a bad way by the end of this volume, but poor art and a derivative premise mean it’s going to be a hard sell persuading readers to pick up Part Two. In 2021 both parts were combined into a new Volume One when Dark Horse reissued the series and expanded on Okupe’s worlds.