Malika: Warrior Queen Volume 1 by Roye Okupe

​Finally, after the underwhelming WindMaker and, especially, E.X.O., Okupe steps up his YouNeek YouNiverse game with Malika.
Malika is, presumably, the comic he intended to write all this time, one that got consistently buried under his desire to produce what are essentially superhero cartoons told in stills.
Same strong Africa-centric narrative, but this time the bulk of the narrative is set in the past and features historically relevant locations and kingdoms to tell a tale of a warrior queen (a mash-up of two real life figures) who kicks ass. Righteously.
Though it features similar motives, like sibling rivalry, etc., this is a genuinely stronger story and a more engaging protagonist.
The art is an improvement too. It actually looks like a graphic novel and not a video game.
The narrative really should have stuck to historical fiction where it shined, but instead it looks like Okupe is determined to drag all his YouNiverse tales into present or near future and tie them all together like Marvel Universe does.
The quality isn’t the same, of course, but he’s really trying. And for representation purposes alone, it’s great. This one was actually fun to read, albeit quite long. If you’re going to visit YouNeek YouNiverse, I’d suggest to begin with this one.