The Legend of Korra: Patterns in Time by Michael Dante DiMartino et al.

The Legend of Korra: Patterns in Time

Collection published: 2022
Contents originally published: 2016-22
Read: January 2026

Written by Michael Dante DiMartino, Rachel Silverstein, Blue Delliquanti, Jen Xu & K. Rhodes, Victoria Ying, Kiki Hughes, Delilah Dawson
Illustrated by Heather Campbell, Sam Beck, Blue Delliquanti, Jayd Aït-Kaci, Jen Xu & K. Rhodes, Victoria Ying, Alexandria Monik*
Colored by Killian Ng, Sam Beck, Lynette Wong, Alexandria Monik
Lettered by Michael Heisler, Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt, Blue Delliquanti, Nate Piekos, Jen Xu & K. Rhodes

When my family watched The Last Airbender, my continuity-oriented seven-year-old interspersed the episodes of the show with the relevant comics. When the family moved onto The Legend of Korra, I realized we had never actually picked up the collection of during-the-show comics! So I bought it for my kid, and then eventually got around to reading it myself.

I was surprised that there are so many fewer Korra comics than Last Airbender ones. I mean, I know ultimately Last Airbender was the more popular show, but surely going into the series, no one would have known that and they would have wanted to maximize the number of tie-ins produced? (Note that, by way of comparison, Korra got an artbook for each season while Last Airbender just got one for the whole show.) But there are only eight stories collected here, and some are very short—one is only two pages!

Anyway, nothing here is a work of genius, but it's fun enough. The similar Last Airbender collections very much benefit from the fact that Last Airbender has a better ensemble, and the comics capture their interactions very well. On the other hand, not only does Korra have a weaker ensemble, but some of its members are totally unrepresented here: there are no stories including Mako or Bolin! A number of the stories are prequels: we get two featuring young Korra, one with young Asami, one about an ancient airbender mentioned in the show, and a story where Tenzin tells his kids about his youth. Of these, my favorite was definitely the Tenzin prequel ("Clearing the Air" by Kiki Hughes and Sam Beck)... but then, Tenzin is probably my favorite Korra character! The two-page one, "Wisdom" by Blue Delliquanti, is actually very well done, good mystical vibe. The ones where they are kids are fine; my favorite of these was the Asami one ("Skyscrapers" by Rachel Silverstein and Sam Beck), since I don't remember learning much about her parents on the show.

Of the others, set during the timeframe of the show, my favorite was the one where Korra sends Meelo on a mission to find some lost pets, called, well, "Lost Pets" (by show co-creator Michael Dante DiMartino, with Jayd Aït-Kaci). Meelo can easily be a mere comic relief character, so it's nice to see him get some genuine character stuff.

Overall, this isn't as strong as the similar Last Airbender collections (nothing here approaches the comic heights of Sokka pretending to be a Fire Nation recruit) but it's a decent and quick read. 

* The collection's title page also lists Michelle Wong, who illustrated the Korra comic Ruins of the Empire, but I can't figure out why, because she's not credited on any of the individual stories. 

Avatar: The Last Airbender: Team Avatar Treasury by Faith Erin Hicks and Peter Wartman

Avatar: The Last Airbender: Team Avatar Treasury: Katara and the Pirate's Silver / Toph Beifong's Metalbending Academy / Suki, Alone

Collection published: 2024
Contents originally published: 2020-21
Read: January 2026

Script: Faith Erin Hicks
Art: Peter Wartman
Colors: Adele Matera
Lettering: Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt

Since Imbalance, Dark Horse's Avatar: The Last Airbender comics have moved away from continuing the ongoing story of the tv show (as begun by Gene Yang and Gurihiru) into shorter standalones, some set after the show, some not. I don't know why this is. The first three of these are collected in Team Avatar Treasury, which contains two stories set during the show and one afterwards.

The two set during the show are "Katara and the Pirate's Silver" and "Suki, Alone." The former is about Katara getting separated from the other members of Team Avatar and falling in with a band of pirates. The story is fine, but fairly inconsequential; I feel like a good during-the-show tie-in manages to reveal a new aspect of a familiar character, but this didn't really succeed in that. Some sloppy work here, as at one point, the dialogue contradicts the art. My favorite part was actually Aang arguing with an Air Nomad genocide conspiracy theorist.

The other during-the-show story has more of a clear purpose, filling in Suki's time in the Boiling Rock prison between when she gets captured by Azula and when Sokka and Zuko arrive to rescue her. This I thought was pretty good; I always like Suki a lot, and the flashbacks especially give her some nice material. It does manage to reveal a new aspect of a familiar character.

Lastly, we get a post-show story about Toph, building on what previous stories have shown us about her founding a metalbending academy. This was decent: Toph has always defined herself as a bit of a rogue, so how does she cope with being "the man"? This one has some good jokes and nice cameos; I particularly enjoyed the return appearances by Toph's three students from Yang and Gurihiru's run.

I did think both the Suki and Toph stories were brought down a bit by being heavy-handed thematically; the scripts seem to re-restate the purpose of everything for people who aren't paying attention. More subtlety would have been better.

We've been buying our Avatar comics in the oversized "library editions." I like getting the art at this scale, but since Gene Yang left the title, the marginal creator commentary hasn't been very insightful, and at its worse, re-re-restates points made clear in the story. And at least one marginal note is clearly in the wrong spot!

Avatar: The Last Airbender Comics Chronology

My wife and kids are working their way through Avatar: The Last Airbender, and they've just got to the end of Book Two. When the Earth King and his bear turned up, my six-year-old remembered them... from the Avatar comics they had read on one of their reading sprees several months ago! I pointed out that the collected The Lost Adventures actually has three comics in it that bridge the gap between Books Two and Three, and suggested they read it before moving on. They did this, and then upon watching the first episode of Book Three, asked what comic went between that episode and the next.

Well! Never was this dad happier to be asked a question. With some help from the Avatar wiki, I worked out the timeline of Book Three's episodes, incorporating the comics from The Lost Adventures. When I told my wife I hadn't been able to find a good timeline online, she said... why don't you make one? So here we go. 

Thanks to the continuity notes on the Avatar wiki, and several threads on Reddit. Note that I don't care about things I have not and will not read, like the novels. I've used the episode numbers given on the Avatar wiki, which are different than the ones given on Netflix. Some of the after the show books overlap with each other (like technically Smoke and Shadow and North and South do), but I've listed them as single unit for readability.

KEY:

• #x##: episode
• TLA: The Lost Adventures comic
• TAT: Team Avatar Tales comic 
• Title: standalone graphic novel 

Book One: Water

• 1x01: "The Boy in the Iceberg"
• 1x02: "The Avatar Returns"
• 1x03: "The Southern Air Temple"
• 1x04: "The Warriors of Kyoshi"
• 1x05: "The King of Omashu"
• 1x06: "Imprisoned"
• 1x07/08: "Winter Solstice"
• 1x09: "The Waterbending Scroll"
• TLA: "Bee Calm" 
• 1x10: "Jet"
• 1x11: "The Great Divide"
• 1x12: "The Storm"
• 1x13: "The Blue Spirit"
• 1x14: "The Fortuneteller"
• 1x15: "Bato of the Water Tribe"
• TLA: "Water War" 
• 1x16: "The Deserter"
• 1x17: "The Northern Air Temple"
• TLA: "Don't Blow It!" 
• TLA: "Relics" 
• TLA: "Fruit-Stand Freestyle" 
• 1x18: "The Waterbending Master"
• 1x19/20: "The Siege of the North" 

Book Two: Earth

• 2x01: "The Avatar State"
• TAT: "Origami" 
• 2x02: "The Cave of Two Lovers"
• 2x03: "Return to Omashu"
• 2x04: "The Swamp"
• 2x05: "Avatar Day"
• 2x06: "The Blind Bandit"
• 2x07: "Zuko Alone"
• "Lost and Found" [uncollected comic] 
• 2x08: "The Chase" 
• 2x09: "Bitter Work"
• Katara and the Pirate's Silver
• TLA: "Sleepbending"
• TLA: "Lessons"
• TLA: "Sokka the Avatar"
• TLA: "Dirty Is Only Skin Deep"
• 2x10: "The Library"
• 2x11: "The Desert"
• TLA: "Divided We Fall"
• TLA: "Reach for the Toph" 
• 2x12: "The Serpent's Pass"
• 2x13: "The Drill"
• 2x14: "City of Walls and Secrets"
• 2x15: "Tales of Ba Sing Se"
• 2x16: "Appa's Lost Days" 
• 2x17: "Laka Laogai"
• 2x18: "The Earth King"
• 2x19: "The Guru"
• 2x20: "The Crossroads of Destiny"
• TLA: "It's Only Natural"
• TLA: "Going Home Again"
• TLA: "The Bridge" 

Book Three: Fire

• 3x01: "The Awakening"
• 3x02: "The Headband"
• TLA: "Private Fire"
• 3x03: "The Painted Lady"
• TLA: "Night Animals"
• TLA: "Boys' Day Out"
• 3x04: "Sokka's Master"
• TAT: "The Substitute" 
• 3x05: "The Beach"
• TLA: "Ember Island Arcade"
• 3x06: "The Avatar and the Fire Lord" 
• 3x07: "The Runaway"
• TLA: "Monster Slayer"
• 3x08: "The Puppetmaster"
• TLA: "Combustion Man on a Train"
• 3x09: "Nightmares and Daydreams"
• 3x10/11: "The Day of Black Sun"
• 3x12: "The Western Air Temple"
• 3x13: "The Firebending Masters"
• TLA: "Swordbending"
• TLA: "No Benders Allowed"
• Suki, Alone 
• 3x14: "The Boiling Rock," Part 1
• TLA: "Love Is a Battlefield"
• 3x15: "The Boiling Rock," Part 2 
• 3x16: "The Southern Raiders"
• TLA: "Dragon Days"
• 3x17: "The Ember Island Players"
• TLA: "Game Time"
• 3x18/19: "Sozin's Comet," Parts 1-2
• TLA: "Bumi vs. Toph, Round One"
• 3x20/21: "Sozin's Comet," Parts 3-4

After the Show

• "Matcha Makers" [uncollected comic] 
• The Promise
• TAT: "Rebound" 
• The Search
• TAT: "Shells" 
• TAT: "Sokka's Poem" 
• The Rift
• TAT: "Toph and the Boulder" 
• TAT: "Sisters" 
• TAT: "The Scarecrow" 
• Toph Beifong's Metalbending Academy 
• Smoke and Shadow
• Azula in the Spirit Temple 
• North and South
• The Bounty Hunter and the Tea Brewer 
• Ashes of the Academy 
• Imbalance 

Every post-show timeline I looked at seems to have different, sometimes wildly different, placements, so your mileage may vary. If you have a compelling argument, I'd like to hear it!

Review: Avatar: The Last Airbender: Imbalance by Faith Erin Hicks and Peter Wartman

Collection published: 2020
Contents originally published: 2018-19
Read: September 2020

Avatar: The Last Airbender: Imbalance

Script: Faith Erin Hicks
Art: Peter Wartman
Colors: Ryan Hill, Adele Matera
Lettering: Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt

With this volume, the Avatar continuation comics switch from being by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru to Faith Erin Hicks and Peter Wartman. It's an effective transition. I liked Yang's writing overall, but though he captured the characters well in dialogue, I didn't always feels that he did a great job with their actions, and a couple of his installments felt sort of aimless. Hicks knocks it out of the park right out of the gate (now there's a mixed metaphor for you). All of Team Avatar have a strong sense of voice, but also their personalities and predilections really shine through. Aang struggles with how to balance disparate communities when there's no villain as obvious as a Fire Lord; Toph discovers a talent for investigating; Sokka provides humor and humanity. Only Katara feels somewhat superfluous, not really fulfilling a narrative role other than Aang's girlfriend. The story does a good job setting up much of what we will see in The Legend of Korra, and Hicks explores timely themes of "reverse discrimination." Plus the jokes are good, which is of course important for Avatar.

Wartman's art apes the style of the cartoon less than Gurihiru's; his linework looks more like comics linework, with variable thickness, than the smooth linework of Gurihiru. Your mileage may very (I am sure someone wants this to closely ape the tv show), but I liked it more as a result. He has a strong sense of character. Like the Yang/Gurihiru "Library Editions," this one includes marginal notes from the creators. Yang was always a smart commentator, but I found Gurihiru's insights a bit bland; thankfully, Wartman has much more to say about his own creative process than Gurihiru did.

Another worthwhile installment of this series, which is why it surprises me to learn that Dark Horse is abandoning the post-tv trilogy format in favor of a series of standalones set during the tv run for future Hicks/Wartman volumes. Not sure what what's about, but I will be there regardless.

Review: The Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire by Michael Dante DiMartino and Michelle Wong

Collection published: 2020
Contents originally published: 2019-20
Read: September 2020

The Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire

Written by Michael Dante DiMartino
Art by Michelle Wong
Colors by Killian Ng with Adele Matera
Lettering by Rachel Deering and Ariana Maher

This continues the post-show storyline of Legend of Korra from Turf Wars, focusing on Kuvira. Now, I'm not gonna lie, despite watching Legend of Korra second, I have a much hazier memory of it than Avatar, and that negatively impacted my enjoyment of this volume. I didn't dislike it-- in fact, I liked it a lot-- but I think someone who actually remembered who Kuvira was would get more out of it than I did! I was too often remembering things after they became relevant (Toph lives in a swamp? Kuvira grew up with Toph's family?), not before.

If there's any fault to this book, it's that it's not really Korra's story, or any of Team Avatar's; it's Kuvira's. It's her decisions and choices that provide the emotional crux of the story. And it's a good story, too, about where your identity comes from and what choices you make and what new choices you can make. Kuvira is a sad character, and Ruins of the Empire does a good job of exploring that, as well as exploring the difficulties of transforming a society (something the Avatar comics have long been interested in). Michelle Wong's artwork is strong stuff, with a good sense of character and design. I liked this; if you were more into Legend of Korra than I was, you will probably love it.

Review: Avatar: The Last Airbender: Team Avatar Tales by Gene Luen Yang et al.

Collection published: 2019
Contents originally published: 2013-19
Read: August 2020

Avatar: The Last Airbender: Team Avatar Tales

Written by Gene Luen Yang, Dave Scheidt, Ron Koertge, Sara Goetter, Kiki Hughes
Illustrated by Ryan Hill, Little Corvus, Faith Erin Hicks, Gene Luen Yang, Sara Goetter, Kiki Hughes, Carla Speed McNeill, Coni Yovaniniz
Colored by Cris Peter, Lark Pien, Natalie Riess, Jenn Manley Lee
Lettered by Michael Heisler, Little Corvus, Gene Luen Yang, Sara Goetter, Kiki Hughes, Cona Yovaniniz

This thin volume (just 70 pages!) collects a pretty random bunch of short Avatar stories, similar to The Lost Adventures; these are a mix of republished Free Comic Book Day stories and new short shorts. As always, they're fun stuff. The three post-tv show stories written by Gene Luen Yang are good, of course; my favorite is "Shells" (illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks, now the writer of the ongoing Avatar comic), where Sokka watches as Suki lays the smackdown on a gatekeeping misogynist shell store proprietor. The fun of the book, though, is in the short pieces, mostly set during the tv show, just wacky little adventures that remind you why you like these characters and this premise. Of course I enjoyed "The Substitute" (written by Dave Scheidt, illustrated by Little Corvus) where Sokka accidentally becomes a schoolteacher while in pursuit of snacks, but the tale of Toph's arena days in "Toph and The Boulder" (written and illustrated by Sara Goettner) was also great, as Toph helps one of her rivals figure out what's wrong with his vet-fearing cat. "Origami" (written and illustrated by Kiki Hughes) is less humorous, but more heartfelt, as Team Avatar are reminded what they're fighting for.

All that plus a poem by Sokka! (written by Ron Koertge, illustrated by Yang) It probably took me thirty minutes to read it. I had a blast.

Review: The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars by Michael Dante DiMartino, Irene Koh, et al.

Comic hardcover, 239 pages
Published 2019 (contents: 2017-18)
Borrowed from my wife
Read May 2019

The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars

Written by Michael Dante DiMartino
Layouts by Irene Koh and Paul Reinwald

Art by Irene Koh
Colors by Vivian Ng
Color Assistance by Cassie Anderson and Marissa Louise
Lettering by Nate Piekos

Legend of Korra never quite clicked for me the way its parent series did, and to be honest, that seems to have carried over here; I'm just much less invested in where these characters end up than the original Team Avatar. That said, this is a solid graphic novel adventure. I'm kind of over the melding of the physical and spirit worlds-- by the end of the show it was pretty clear no one involved had an interesting take on what this might mean-- but Irene Koh's artwork is great, evoking the show's without slavishly reproducing it, and the best part of the writing is the characters, whose voices come through strongly and humorously. There are some good jokes, and good explorations of the place of non-heterosexual orientations in the Avatar world (I hope these can be expanded on someday), and the Korra/Asami relationship gets some much-needed development. It's pretty cute!

Review: Avatar: The Last Airbender: North and South by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru

Comic hardcover, 236 pages
Published 2017 (contents: 2016-17)
Borrowed from my wife
Read November 2017

Avatar: The Last Airbender: North and South

Script: Gene Luen Yang

Art: Gurihiru
Lettering: Michael Heisler

This is the last of the Avatar: The Last Airbender comics by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru; up until this point, I've found the Zuko-focused ones more successful than the other ones, leaving one wondering if Yang and Gurihiru can really do "typical" Avatar adventures, or if they really only soar when given they have the angst and epicness of Zuko to work with. This would be shame if so, because Avatar's success as a tv show included Zuko, but went so much beyond him.

Well, North and South has Yang and Gurihiru exiting the series on a strong note, with a highly entertaining adventure about Sokka and Katara returning to the South Pole to find that you never can go home again because it changes and so do you. Like a lot of Yang's Avatar comics (and also Legend of Korra), this deals with issues of modernization and industrialization and globalization, exploring the tensions that arise in a society under such circumstances, in a surprisingly nuanced way. Lots of good jokes, nice moments for all the characters but especially my favorite, Sokka, and tying up of some loose ends from the television show. I really enjoyed this, and I hope the new creative team's first volume is able to pick up the baton. (I also hope that first Korra comic comes out in a collected edition soon!)

Review: Avatar: The Last Airbender: Smoke and Shadow by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru

Comic hardcover, 236 pages
Published 2016 (contents: 2015-16)
Borrowed from my wife
Read December 2016

Avatar: The Last Airbender: Smoke and Shadow

Script: Gene Luen Yang

Art: Gurihiru
Lettering: Michael Heisler

The Avatar television series always had the most emotional heft when dealing with Prince Zuko and his family, and thus far, the same seem to be true of the comic books, as the two Zuko-focused ones, The Search and Smoke and Shadow, have felt more substantive than the two Aang-focused ones, The Promise and The Rift. Smoke and Shadow shows what Zuko was doing during The Rift, as Zuko contends with factions in the Fire Nation dissatisfied with his leadership, factions led by Zuko's girlfriend's Mai's father. Yang and Gurihiru invent a new faction of the Fire Nation, the mysterious Kemurikage, who may or may not be spirits. There's also some surprisingly touching stuff about Zuko's long-lost mom trying to reintegrate into the life she lost and the nation she left behind even as her own daughter pulls away from her.

It's fun at the same time that it's serious: Mai has a new boyfriend, and that causes a lot of friction and a lot of jokes; it's great to see Mai uncharacteristically call him "babe," and even better to see Aang irritated by it. (I do hope that what happens with the new boyfriend at the end is just misdirection, because it seems like a misstep if not.) Plus, Uncle Iroh gets all the best jokes, including one about how Zuko has an angsty wave. There's also a good part-two cliffhanger. Overall, this is just a really solid, well-done Avatar adventure, recapturing what made the television series so enjoyable, the best of the comics so far other than The Search. I'm definitely looking forward to North and South.

Review: Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Rift by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru

My reviews of Series Four of the Fourth Doctor Adventures come to an end over at Unreality SF with Jonathan Morris's The Cloisters of Terror, and I go off on a bit of a tangent about the writers lineup.

Comic hardcover, 238 pages
Published 2015 (contents: 2014)
Borrowed from my wife
Read May 2015

Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Rift

Script: Gene Luen Yang

Art: Gurihiru
Lettering: Michael Heisler

Like the first Avatar graphic novel, The Promise, The Rift deals with weighty stuff but still somehow feels light. Yang does a good job of capturing the characters' voices, but doesn't always peg their essences, I think. Part of the problem is that these stories meander a little bit too much (aside from The Search), diluting their potential emotional heft. I feel like the television story could have done this in 25 minutes, and yet The Rift is 238 pages long. It's not terrible by any means, but it's hard to shake the feeling that it ought to be better than it is. Still, time spent with these characters is always well spent, and I look forward to spending more of it with them in future volumes.

Review: Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Lost Adventures edited by Samantha Robertson

Nothing lasts forever, and neither did the run of quality Fourth Doctor Adventures. Still, watch as I try to explain why despite doing something new, Suburban Hell was still disappointing at Unreality SF...

Comic trade paperback, 256 pages
Published 2011 (originally: 2006-09)

Borrowed from my wife

Read May 2015

Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Lost Adventures
edited by Samantha Robertson

Before the pretty enjoyable continuation comics, during its television run, Avatar: The Last Airbender spawned a set of short comics in various venues, Nickelodeon Magazine and the like. They're short stories, ranging from two to fifteen pages in length, set between episodes of the show (five during Season One, nine during Season Two, twelve during Season Three, and two out of continuity), and as lends itself to their length, they're mostly humorous.

In Avatar, comedy tends to mean Sokka, and in my mind, this is nothing but excellent, because Sokka-- as the goofy-but-loveable-non-magical-one-with-a-real-sense-of-duty-- is definitely my favorite Avatar character. We get to see him pretend to be the Avatar to impress a girl in "Sokka the Avatar" by Joshua Hamilton and Justin Ridge, try to teach the Earth King how to live in the wild in "It's Only Natural" by Johane Matte and Joshua Hamilton, frustrate Prince Zuko with his insistence that "swordbending" is a real thing in "Swordbending" by Alison Wilgus and Justin Ridge, and form his own club in "No Benders Allowed" by Alison Wilgus and Elsa Garagarza.

Best of all, he enlists in the Fire Nation army in "Private Fire" by Hamilton and Matte again. "Private Fire" is my favorite story in the book, and I smile every time I think about it (which is more often than you might think); of all of these, it's the one I dearly wish had been made into a television episode. In it, Sokka is put through his paces in the same disguise he adopted a few times in the show, Wang Fire, complete with comically large mustache. The ending is just hilarious, so I won't spoil it for you: but if you love Sokka, you'll love this.

Other highlights include the occasional universe-expanding serious story or actioner, like a flashback to Aang's pre-iceberg days in the Fire Nation in "Dragon Days" by Alison Wilgus, Johane Matte, and Tom McWeeney, or "Combustion Man on a Train" by Alison Wilgus, Rawles Lumumba, and Tom McWeeney, a great little action tale where Sokka and Aang must fight their most brutal enemy while minimizing civilian casualties on a fast-moving train.

There are also a number of stories that bridge the gap between the second and third seasons. In addition to the aforementioned "It's Only Natural," Zuko and Mai begin their romance (as poor, cute Jin gets pushed to the side) and Zuko decides to for sure throw in his lot with his own people in "Going Home Again" by Aaron Ehasz, May Chan, Katie Mattila, Alison Wilgus, and Amy Kim Ganter, and Team Avatar secures a Fire Nation ship in "The Bridge" by Joshua Hamilton, Tim Hedrick, Aaron Ehasz, Frank Pittarese, and Reagan Lodge. None of this are particularly essential (obviously the show did just find without them), but they are nice to have.

Overall, if you're a fan of Avatar and want more adventures with its well-balanced cast of characters, this book is a quick, fun, enjoyable read.

Review: Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Art of the Animated Series by Bryan Koneitzko and Michael Dante DiMartino

New Monday, new review at Unreality SF: Leela's in love and the Master's the protagonist in my review of Doctor Who: Requiem for the Rocket Men and Death Match!

Hardcover, 183 pages
Published 2010
Borrowed from my wife
Read May 2015

Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Art of the Animated Series
by Bryan Koneitzko and Michael Dante DiMartino

Avatar: The Last Airbender had a unique visual ethos, and that was definitely one of its appealing qualities; the design work was like nothing else I could really remember from Western animation. This book reproduces concept sketches and background paintings and all sorts of stuff from literally every episode of the series, and it's worth poring over just for that.

This is more than just an artbook, though, as the creator commentary throughout the book also serves as a sort of making-of for the series, taking us from its earliest days as doodles for a science-fiction premise all the way to the planning of the finale, with co-creators Bryan and Michael filling in the reasoning behind many of their decisions. My only regret is that it's not longer! Sequel series The Legend of Korra got one art book per season, though I suppose that was made possible by this book proving that a market existed.

Review: Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Search by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru

Comic hardcover, 238 pages
Published 2014 (contents: 2013)
Borrowed from my wife
Read July 2014

Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Search

Script: Gene Luen Yang

Art: Gurihiru
Lettering: Michael Heisler

Now this is more like it! The Search takes the potential that Yang and Gurihiru demonstrated in The Promise and really capitalizes on it-- this book really captures the characters and gives us a compelling, emotional story. Zuko was always one of the best parts of Avatar, and The Promise explores his mother's history with some heart-wrenching twists; some stuff that was in plain sight in the television series but I never put together is combined with new information to great effect. I also liked his reaction to some of the key revelations in the series. Azula is well-used, too, and the trip into the world of the spirits is really well done, too. The Mother of Faces is creepy and awesome, one of Avatar's best renditions of a spirit. This is great stuff, and I am really looking forward both to the next volume (The Rift) and finally starting Legend of Korra.

Review: Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru

Comic hardcover, 238 pages
Published 2013 (contents: 2012)
Borrowed from my wife
Read July 2014

Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise

Script: Gene Luen Yang

Art: Gurihiru
Lettering: Michael Heisler

My wife has spent the past seven months or so forcing me to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender with her (she had just watched the series through with a friend). Well, I say "forcing," but what began as skepticism soon transformed into enthusiasm. Avatar is a great television series, of exactly the kind I like: a scrappy group of outcasts having adventures. I loved the story, I loved the worldbuilding, I loved the characters, especially Sokka and Iroh. So I was excited to read the sequel comics as preparation for proceeding on to The Legend of Korra.

What struck me pretty quickly is the more complicated political backdrop of this series: though the show has some nuanced Fire Nation characters, most of them are out-and-out villains. Here, though, we see that decolonization is not a simple thing, no matter how laudable its goals are, and even though the Fire Nation may have invaded the Earth Kingdom, that was a century ago, and time has changed things more than most people realize. I appreciate these additional complexities to the world of Avatar.

The story, though, is a little haphazard. I like the central idea of Aang's promise to Zuko, but it doesn't quite come off in the execution, and it feels like things fizzle out. For Aang to thing of actually fulfilling his promise would require a desperate situation, but I don't think the comic quite succeeds in making the situation seem that desperate. The characters feel too reactive, as well, especially Katara, who mostly is there as Aang's girlfriend, not the outspoken idealist she was from the beginning of the show, and Sokka is not quite the leader he became by the end.

That said, Yang and Gurihiru capture the characters' voices perfectly: it's easy to imagine the voice cast delivering the lines given here to Aang, Sokka, Zuko, Toph, et al., and Gurihuri's art is a dead match for the art used on the show. Perhaps the funnest part (and the book at its most Avatarish) is Sokka's attempts to upskill Toph's metalbenders in their showdown with the firebenders. It's fun stuff, and it bodes well for the next Avatar comic if it can get itself more focused.

(The "library edition" we own contains marginal commentary from writer Yang and artist Gurihiru. It's often interesting, moreso Yang's than Gurihiru's. I like knowing Yang's thoughts on colonialism; it's less interesting to hear Gurihiru observe that it's easier to draw scenes without backgrounds.)