Review by Frank Plowright
If there’s one DC character whose backstory didn’t require any further complications or additions it’s Wonder Girl. Several people have been allocated the name, most prominently Donna Troy of the Teen Titans, and every piece of tinkering fails to clarify matters. Perhaps best, then, to make a new start with a new character. Welcome to Yara Flor, born in Brazil, but raised in Idaho. Her past has been kept from her by her Aunt, so as soon as she’s old enough Yara decides to return to Brazil to discover the truth.
As both writer and primary artist of the opening chapters Joëlle Jones establishes Yara as headstrong and determined, but also inexplicably capable and powerful. We also see assorted immortal types very keen on following her progress, along with Cassie Sandmark, currently possessor of the Wonder Girl name, and it’s not too long into Homecoming before Yara finds herself being trained in Olympus.
It’s some journey, and the gorgeous art supplied by Jones and Adriana Melo goes some way to disguising the jumpy sequence of events and Yara seeming all too happy to accept anything thrown her way. A fair amount of it doesn’t make a great deal of sense. Events move at one hell of a pace, but that’s because it feels as if pages are missing. Furthermore, certain events don’t ring true, as if all a dream. At one point Yara asks a question of someone who considers her important. Before she’s finished he’s fallen asleep. That’s just a small non-spoiler example, but others include so many logical lapses such as Yara supposedly imprisoned by the gods then free again after one inexplicably attacks her jail. That also serves an example of no-one’s motivations being greatly clear.
The art is excellent throughout, whether by Jones, Mela or Leila del Duca on the main story or Mela, Sweeney Boo, Ben Dewey and Emi Lennox on a confusing sequel jumping from place to place. That, though, suffers for the clashes of different styles.
As a story the best here is two chapters by Jones alone at the end. There’s a coherence absent from the remainder, it looks good, and it explains someone frequently seen earlier without ever being mentioned. For all the confusion, there are some interesting ideas, one of which broadens the DC universe via the introduction of a previously unknown Amazonian tribe in Brazil.
If chaos surrounds her, Yara herself remains engrossing, but how much of Homecoming will be worth revisiting for anything other than the art will depend on how she progresses.
