As a child, the only representations in the comic world for people that looked like myself, of African descent, were very few and far between. For people my age, which will remain a closely guarded mystery to the reader, the options were Luke Cage, Black Lightning, Black Panther, Falcon, Storm, Jon Stewarts Green Lantern, Vixen and a few others.
However, since The Shadow League began covering comic books back in 2013, weve had the pleasure of discovering an entire world of diverse characters of all ethnic and racial subgroups being published at both the major comic book houses and independent companies. Recently, a gentleman by the name of Roye Okupe popped up as a follower on my Twitter feed and, as luck might have it, the brother has an incredible new title that we think our readers would love to get to know.
Its titled EXO: The Legend of Wale Williams and it takes place in the country of Nigeria in 2025. Thats right ladies and gentlemen- a futuristic, high-quality offering that takes place in Africa. Once he said future and Africa we were hooked, seeing as though the comic book genre has largely ignored the continent of Africa as far as the future is concerned.
Written by Roye Okupe, the story completely comes alive with the talents of editor Ayodele Elegba, artist Sunkanmi Akinboye, colorist Raphael Kazeem and cover art from Godwin Akpan. The Shadow League spoke with Okupe regarding his character, what inspired him to create it, his Kickstarter campaign and much more. If you would like to contribute to this Kickstarter program log on www.kickstarter.com/projects/44069577/exo-the-legend-of-wale-williams-part-one.
