This is the conclusion to the first in what will probably be several graphic novels that bridge the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender to Avatar: The Legend of Korra. While I enjoyed "Korra" for the most part I had some problems with the series in pacing and also some of the sloppy writing of new characters. I was immensely pleased to see Aang and company captured so very well in Gene Leung's adaptation.
In the last two books (which I had not reviewed here) we found team Avatar in the midst of a few dilemmas. First off, after the end of the war, Aang, the Earth King Kuei and now Fire Lord Zuko agreed to the Harmony Restoration project which would require the Fire Nation Colonies to evacuate "occupied territory". The problem with this is that over a period of a century, the lines between the FIre Nation and Earth Nation have blurred in places where citizens have begun to intermarry. For instance, Kori, a young earth bender identifies herself as Fire Nation. Her father, a Fire Nation politician married a woman from the colony.
People like Kori and her family feel that it is unfair to move them since this is their ancestral home for over a century. After Kori makes an assassination attempt on Zuko's life (during the first issue), Zuko realizes as Fire Lord he needs to consider the well being of his own citizens. This puts him at odds with the treaty he has agreed to when the war ended. He begins to make poor choices, the worst being consulting his father, the deposed Fire Lord Ozai, for advice. For those who recall the animated series, Ozai was a tyrant who had taken his rage out on Zuko physically and emotionally in the past and conceals the fate of Ursa, the mother of Zuko and his sister Azula. To complicate matters, Zuko had made Avatar Aang swear to kill him if Zuko himself began to exhibit Ozai like behavior. Also, Mai, Zuko's consort leaves him when she discovers he has been keeping secrets from her. This leaves the new Fire Lord very lonely and vulnerable at the start of this issue.
Further fleshed out in this issue are the very ideas behind what will ultimately found the Republic City, seen in the Legend of Korra series. Katara, now comfortable in the role as Aang's girlfriend sees the mixed race culture emerging from the colonies (particularly Yu Dao, Kori's home) and foresees her own future as the wife of the last Air Nomad. Aang is introduced and initially infuriated by a group of "fans" who wish to emulate the culture of his lost people. These will eventually become the Air Acolytes. This is really fascinating stuff as several of the characters refer to the world as "changing" from what existed prior to the great Fire Nation invasion which took place under Zuko's Great Grandfather Sozin. This is very timely stuff in our own world where staunch ideals are flipping and bending to recognize the rights and needs of groups long ignored.
This is not to say that the series is without the signature humor that delighted audiences of the television series. There is some real gold here. The best being when characters recognize that Sneers, the portly and awkward former member of Jet's Freedom Fighter gang is dating the athletic and confident, Kori. Everyone has the same reaction and while Sneers and Kori are confused by them, the audience should be delighted. Aang and Katara's relationship feels least genuine when they refer to one another as "sweetie", a problem I have had in the past two issues. In spite of this, you really see the emergence of a more mature romance between the two of them. Aang appears to have grown taller and is a bit less childlike. He and Katara discuss important issues and make mature choices in how to deal with them. This is, of course all within a PG setting since this is based on a Nickelodeon series. In fact, the only other problem I had with this series as a whole was the choice to swap out the word "kill" with "end" when referring to Aang's promise to Zuko. I get that there were probably guidelines that Nickelodeon imposed in order keep this series within its original target audience, but it just felt inauthentic being that the book dealt with some really adult moral quandaries.
As a whole, this was fantastic. As a series and more so as an issue. Fans will be happy to see Sokka and Suki reunited and even Toph gets some lip service, even though she is not used to her fullest. Furthermore we finally get to check in on Iroh at his tea shop, where he pays lip service to a current trend in sweet drinks, with a hilarious outcome. I am very excited to see where this series takes us in the next arc, "The Search" which will deal with the long awaited answer on most fan's minds: Where is Ursa?
No comments:
Post a Comment