Review by Karl Verhoven

Over the course of Volume One Iyanu was separated from the woman who raised her from infancy, and began to believe she may be the person others in the vicinity refer to as The Chosen, a being prophecies foretell will end corrupt rule. She certainly has inexplicable abilities and the newly appointed Chancellor in the nearby city is a venal and power-hungry man who wants her dead.

There’s quite the surprise at the start, as Iyanu isn’t the focus, replaced by a pair of superheroes instead, but the prelude is labelled as occurring 500 years in the past. However, we’re soon back to Iyanu who’s found new friends as Roye Okupe explains more drawbacks of the supposedly civilised city of Elu, prone to exiling children for misdemeanours.

Over Volume One Elu was extensively explained, possibly too extensively, and the manner in which they control other settlements is aired here, but Okupe’s main focus is Iyanu as she’s taught to use her gifts more efficiently, and the evil Chancellor Nuro. Other characters are seen, but never for more than a few pages at a time as they figure in the larger story, and these lack priority, being inserted between large chunks of other material.

Godwin Akpan seems to have drawn this volume at greater speed than Volume One. He concentrates far more on the figures, and people are more likely to be seen close-up in big panels. Iyanu’s eyes are bigger than ever, and while that works when she’s in her powered state, it now looks wrong when she’s meant to be a normal teenage girl.

There are many nice touches, with some of the maxims Okupe has his characters quote having a resonance. Late on we’re told “Destiny and prophecy are like a map. At the end of the day getting from one point to the other still boils down to one thing… choice”. Are these old sayings Okupe’s incorporating, or his creation? Either way, stop to think about them and they’re common sense. Child of Wonder is being plotted as a novel, and the pacing over Volume One wasn’t all it might have been as Okupe’s set-up dropped in massive amounts of information, but now that’s no longer an issue, and this is more evenly paced. The final pages shift the ground considerably, and set up an enthusiasm for the continuation not present last time.