Review: Worlds’ Finest Vol. 5- Homeward Bound

Quick Summary

Pros: The central storyline is exciting and fun, allowing the heroes to show off their best attributes. The tone of the volume is satisfyingly optimistic, which works well with the story. The entire volume works well as a farewell to Huntress and Power Girl.

Cons: The included tie-in chapters are ok but aren’t anything special. The artwork is lackluster in a number of different ways.

Overall: As the final Huntress/Power Girl team-up volume, this book does exactly what it needs to. It allows both heroes to have their moment in the spotlight facing off against enemies and working toward victory. It also switches the tone of the series in a way that feels very worthwhile, especially after the troubles the heroes have faced recently. There are some problems but, for the most part, this collection reads very well. All in all, readers who enjoy these characters or have been reading along up to this point should be satisfied with the story told here.

Story

Despite being the penultimate volume in this series, in many ways this collection is the true conclusion to this series, as it is the last one to continue the comic’s central storyline based around Huntress and Power Girl. In this way and others, Worlds’ Finest Vol. 5: Homeward Bound, by Paul Levitz, is a success. It gives the series closure by focusing on a few loose ends before the heroes’ make their final attempt to return home. This streamlines the narrative and ensures that each of the events contained here flow into the next one. A streamlined narrative helps resolve problems from previous collections while ensuring the positives are still present. Overall, this is an entertaining comic and one of the better volumes in this collection.

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Most of the narrative in Homeward Bound is focused on Huntress and Power Girl’s last-ditch effort to return home. However, this time, their return journey looks like it may actually be possible. This allows the duo to enter their endgame on Earth Prime, ditching previously held identities and tying up loose ends. By doing so, the heroes fill the book with a wholesome sense of optimism and excitement, which is a long-awaited changeup from the relatively hopeless state they have been in for the past four volumes. This changeup is satisfying and is appreciated in the final volume of their solo story.

It also helps that their final adventures on Earth Prime are exciting. Huntress ends up tracking down a group of terrorists and Power Girl shows off her unique abilities as a scientist/CEO. Both situations put them and the people around them in dangerous predicaments, generating excitement and tension. It also allows both characters to do what they do best, which is also appreciated in their final solo story.

Once the main narrative concludes, this collection shifts over to a Futures End tie-in that shows a possible dystopian future for Huntress and Power Girl. This chapter mostly focuses on Power Girl, in a way that highlights her physical power and her dedication to her friend. It isn’t the best single chapter out there but it is unique in a way that makes it interesting.

Finally, Homeward Bound closes with two chapters detailing the Secret Origins of both Huntress and Power Girl. These chapters essentially just summarize both heroes’ origin stories and explains how they made it to the present. Neither chapter is that entertaining but the information contained within could be helpful for those looking to refresh their knowledge before transitioning to reading Earth 2: World’s End Vol. 1 (Review).

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Art

Homeward Bound contains a number of artistically positive chapters. Yildiray Cinar and Tyler Kirkham do well in depicting some beautiful landscapes and cool characters. Both artists also depict the heroes in a way that properly conveys their strength and ability.

Unfortunately, there are also a number of artistically challenging moments throughout the collection as well. There are moments where body proportions are off, where the style fails to reflect the mood, and where facial expressions simply look downright strange. However, the biggest problem is the general inconsistency of the artwork. This single volume contains a variety of vastly different art styles, each of which reflect a different tone upon the same narrative. There are also direct problems that arise from the different art styles, such as a character’s entire hairstyle changing from one chapter to the next, despite this character being trapped under debris in between these chapters. The visual low points and inconsistent styles are noticeable enough to distract from most of this collection’s visual positives, making for a collection with overall lackluster artwork.

Continuity

Worlds’ Finest Vol. 5: Homeward Bound continues the story from Worlds’ Finest Vol. 4: First Contact (Review).

The story here continues in Earth 2: World’s End Vol. 1. (Review). The Worlds’ Finest series continues in Worlds’ Finest Vol. 6: The Secret History of Superman and Batman.

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• The deaths of the Trinity of Earth 2 are mentioned again. This event is shown in Earth 2 Vol. 1: The Gathering (Review).
• The events taking place on Earth 2 are explained by the conclusion of Earth 2 Vol. 5: The Kryptonian (Review).
• The end of this collection contains a tie-in to the Futures End event.