Home #5
Juan and his cousins take the fight to ICE in Home #5, by writer Julio Anta, artist Anna Wieszczyk, colorist Bryan Valenza, and letter Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. Home has been a powerful read from the beginning, and this book ends it in a wonderful manner, opening things up for the future.
The ICE agents go hard after Julio, but he's able to keep away from all of their attacks before they corral him. He freaks out, lashing out with his powers, and one of the ICE agents tries to calm him down. His cousins, Camila and Andres, show up to help. Camila teleports him away while Andres attacks the agents. Camila goes back to help Andres, and just as he's about to cut loose on them, their mother Gladys shows up and tells them to stop. They get Juan, and Camila takes them to their hideout, where they wait things out. A week later, the governor of Texas and mayor of Houston go on TV to talk about what happened. They repudiate the actions of ICE and offer to help Juan and his family, declaring Houston a sanctuary city. A month later, the mayor has a meeting with the head ICE agent, telling him that she's trying to set up a meeting with the family.
Anta has done a fantastic job with Home so far, and this issue is no exception. This comic has dealt with some rather heavy subject matter, and there's no way the comic is going to solve the immigration problem that plagues the United States. Anta isn't going to have Juan and his family solve immigration and destroy ICE because that's not the point. Superheroes can't do that. Destroying families because they pass an arbitrary line in the sand is terrible, and that's kind of the point of this whole thing. Superheroes can't solve that problem. However, this issue does the next best thing- it shows those superheroes taking righteous revenge against the ICE agents. Does it help? Of course not, but it feels nice for readers, after four previous issues of seeing ICE be the absolute worst, to see them get what they deserve.
Gladys has a point, though- fighting them won't help. There's a monolith behind them, and it will keep coming. With the governor and mayor declaring Houston a sanctuary city, the ending feels wonderful, but it's hollow, as the ending reveals- the feds have all the power. Anta leaves everything on a cliffhanger, and while that can be a bit infuriating for readers, it's the feeling that a lot of have to live with- they're in limbo because they don't know what's going to happen next with themselves and their families. Does Anta want to make a sequel? Of course. If it never happens, though, this is a much more realistic ending for the whole thing because this ending feels real- no definitive ending with someone trying to get them. It's actually a very powerful ending, and if there is no sequel- which there better be- this is still a great ending.
Wieszczyk's art is great, as usual. She really captures the action-packed moments of the fight scenes. There's a lot of tension in the book's opening scenes, and the art really gets that across. Her character acting hits all the right notes as well, selling the emotional stakes of the later stages of the issue. Shout out to Valenza's colors as well. His palette really helped Wieszczyk's pencils shine.
Home #5 is a wonderful ending to a great series. Some people may not like the cliffhanger, but it works both to build anticipation for what will (hopefully) be an upcoming sequel and to give readers what it feels like to not know what's going to happen next with someone's family. Anta and company have done a marvelous job with this series, and this ending is the icing on the cake. Go out and buy several copies, so it gets a sequel.
