Home #2 Advance Review

Writer: Julio Anata / Artist: Anna Wieszczyk / Image One of the things that Home does extraordinarily well is capturing the fundamental fear of familial separation from both perspectives. Julio Anata and Anna Wieszcyzk manage to very poignantly show a painful reality of a mother and son going through an unimaginably difficult scenario, and as we watch Juan successfully evade capture from the authorities and Mercedes unsuccessfully get taken away into parts unknown, Home #2 continues forward with the same energy from the prior issue.

We get to spend time with Juan this issue, and Anata extenuates the kid’s personality and does a lot of showing in how he responds to certain scenarios. There are moments where he lets his anger get the better of him, and there are moments where he calmly assesses the situation and makes deliberate decisions to try and get the best outcome. He’s endearing and easy to empathize, and I feel for him as he navigates an unfamiliar territory. Juan’s at this critical age where his self-awareness is just kicking in, and the dialog and Wieszcyzk’s artwork really capture the tone of this particular era in US history/present. There’s some good grounded backstory and some rushed exposition of the supernatural component of the story, but all in all the story remains tight knit and the moments hit in just the right ways. The panel work is stellar and controls the reader’s gaze perfectly and the story ends with a tantalizing cliffhanger.

Home is shaping up…