Nearly four months have passed since Starz’s sprawling “Power” universe was last on the air, following the April season finale of the Tommy Egan-focused “Force.” That’s not much time, and certainly not the longest span of time between installments in “Power” creator Courtney Kemp’s ever-widening tableau of cocaine entrepreneurs. But it feels like a long time, evidence that Kemp has succeeded into turning “Power” into a Marvel-style narrative ecosystem, for better and for worse.

The “for worse” part comes when any extended amount of time passes, when the richness and depth of a long-running, hyperconnected story triggers the audience’s anxiety about their ability to keep track of all its machinations. For example, “Force” reintroduced O.G. character Liliana (Audrey Esparza), who hadn’t been seen in over seven years since her initial three-episode arc in “Power.” The move ultimately paid off, but it also signaled to the fanbase that, much like the Marvel cinematic universe, to love this show is to accept periodic homework and pop quizzes about its gnarled mythology.

That’s not the case with “Power Book III: Raising Kanan,” which is returning for its second season on Aug. 14, and wielding the same double-edged sword in its non-dominant hand. “Kanan” is the “Power”-verse’s only prequel, an origin story charting the titular character’s path from a sensitive high schooler (played by newcomer Mekai Curtis) to the monstrous adult version (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson) who still reigns supreme as the franchise’s most detestable Big Bad. Kanan Stark is long dead, and the prequel takes place too far in the past to ripple through the present-day storyline.

The standalone nature of “Kanan” was once the show’s biggest weakness. But in its second season, with room to breathe and space to add more layers, the advantage of starting from scratch becomes clearer. “Kanan” almost feels like a “Power” reboot at times, an early-‘90s period piece far enough afield from the original that creator Sascha Penn can tell familiar stories as if they’re brand new. Perhaps that’s why it manages to feel more like watching the original “Power” than either of its overstuffed continuations, “Ghost” and “Force.”

The action picks up roughly three months after the events of the season finale as Kanan and his queenpin mother Raquel (Patina Miller, scary and stunning) are wrapping up a summer vacation in Virginia Beach. The pair fled in a hurry from their South Jamaica, Queens stomping ground after Kanan shot Detective Howard (Omar Epps) at his mother’s instruction. The hit was Raquel’s elegant solution to two vexing problems: the competition from rival street pharmacist Unique (Joey Bada$$), who was made the fall guy, and encroachment from Howard, who insists he’s Kanan’s biological father and wants a place in his son’s life.

Naturally Howard survives the attack, so while Unique is still on the hook for the murder attempt, Howard is back on the street with more reason than ever to insinuate himself into Raq and Kanan’s affairs. Meanwhile, Raq’s underbosses, her brothers Marvin (London Brown) and Lou-Lou (Malcolm Mays), are creating as many problems as they fix. That’s especially the case with Lou-Lou, whose hip hop label, reminiscent of a nascent Bad Boy Records, demands attention Raq wants squarely on her quickly expanded crack enterprise.

Raq remains ambitious to a fault, and the costs of her move-fast-and-break-stuff business ethos will be front and center this season judging from the four episodes screened for critics. In the season premiere, she announces she’s moved away from the corner-boy model and set up shop in a city housing project, where the residents have been paid to keep quiet about the entire floor that’s been converted into an all-in-one production facility and point of sale. If that innovation sounds familiar, perhaps it’s because it’s the same scheme at the enter of “New Jack City,” the classic hip hop gangster movie starring Wesley Snipes at the peak of his strengths.

“Kanan” is the closest thing to a “New Jack City” remake, with a deep devotion to the environment that bore the brunt of the crack epidemic and inspired some of the best hip hop and R&B music ever recorded. (“City” star and director Mario Van Peebles also directs the season premiere, adding an extra layer of authenticity.) Such fun period details abound in the series, whether its a character’s fondness for the defunct soft drink Tahitian Treat or having Quincy Brown, who plays Lou-Lou’s music-biz partner, walk into a house party where his father’s hit song (Al B. Sure’s “Nite and Day”) is playing.

But the show works as well as an adrenalized family drama as it does an exercise in ‘90s nostalgia. Poisonous parental bonds have long been the “Power”-verse’s biggest staple, but the mother-son dynamic between Raq and Kanan is especially twisted. Season 2 finds their relationship growing ever more perverse as Kanan grapples with the emotional aftermath of his attack on Howard. He’s actually shaken by it, which will come as a surprise to those who met Kanan as a mustache-twirling antagonist who delights in torture and gunplay. All the more reason to see how he evolves into a monster only an equally monstrous mother could love.