Home #4
Juan discovers the dangers of his powers in Home #4, by writer Julio Anta, artist Anna Wieszczyk, colorist Bryan Valenza, and letterer Hassan Otsame-Elhaou. Home continues to be a triumph, with Anta and company hitting hard with this issue in more ways than one.
There's a lot to take in from this issue. With ICE going all in to hunt Juan, his aunt relates the story of his father's death to dissuade him from using his powers too much and living a quiet life. She leaves for work, and he goes outside to play soccer with some other kids and ends up using his powers to save one of their lives from an errant motorist. This causes someone to call the cops, which leads to ICE to his doorstep. Desperate, he calls his aunt at work, and she tell him to escape, but before making another call, one that promises to bring help to him.
Anta hasn't been too discreet about using this book as a metaphor for the US government's treatment of migrants, and this issue is no exception. Sure, on the surface, there's a lot of cliche superhero tropes, but under it, all is a rather scathing rebuke of the United States and many of its citizens. It starts with how the head ICE officers refer to Juan but calls him the migrant the whole time. It very much feels like something that Trump would have said, referring to migrants as dangerous threats and whatnot. It's not even subtext, but that makes it no less powerful because people out there think this way about immigrants, documented or not. This is a real attitude, and it's just as odious in real life as it is when comic villains use it.
There's a sequence where Juan asks his aunt why they shouldn't use his power to help the others, and she basically says that it's not worth the trouble, and that's an unfortunate attitude for too many Americans. A terrible miscarriage of justice goes on, and instead of using the superpowers we all have- the power of our voices and our votes- too many work to oppress those who have already suffered enough. Juan's father used his powers to do the right thing no matter what, and it killed him, but that makes it no less admirable. He did the right thing, and the consequences were unimportant. The lady who calls ICE on Juan feels like the Central Park Karen who called the cops on a black man for telling her dog had to be on a leash- someone taking things too far for no reason. Home is the kind of comic that should be required reading for everyone. Also, lest it's forgotten that this is still basically a superhero comic, all of those parts work brilliantly as well. Anta is a formidable talent.
Wieszczyk's art continues to impress. Whether it be the action of the flashback scenes, capturing the venom and vitriol of the ICE agents, the quiet moments of Juan's boredom, or the simple joy of a bunch of kids playing soccer, she presents it all wonderfully. Her style is expressive and has its own quirks, but it's better for all of that.
Home #4 continues this title's run of excellence. Anta is telling both a compelling superhero story and calling the way the US treats human beings who weren't born here. Wieszczyk's art does a fantastic job capturing the script in all its power. There are not enough good things to say about Home.