Tag: Bryan Koneitzko

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“Avatar, the Last Airbender”: Various Comics

Gene Luen Yang, Gurihiru, Michael Heisler Faith Erin Hicks, Bryan Koneitzko, Michael Dante DiMartino, Peter Wartman, Adele Matera

This started off as a series of reviews, one-by-one, and then I realized that I was doing each one in very short form, and it felt better as an omnibus post instead. I’ll go ahead and drop my disclaimer here: these are Bookshop affiliate links, so if you buy the book after clicking on them, I’ll get a wee little commission. Less of a commission than your local bookstore gets from each Bookshop purchase, though, because they’ve got their priorities in the right order. Seriously, buy your books with Bookshop, not Amazon.

“Smoke and Shadow”

Skipping around a bit, apparently—it seems that I read the first couple of Avatar comics, but missed the conclusion of Zuko’s search for his mother, so there’s a lot going on here that I wasn’t aware of.

I’m continuing to enjoy the way that these comics expand the series into topics that don’t fit quite as well in the show. In this case, it’s… the invention of domestic terrorism? Yowza.

This one was a weird vibe compared to the Korra comics. An interesting read, sure, but… weird.

“North and South”

Yes, I am in a completionist mood for these comics, why do you ask?

Seems like we’re doing a “the Gaang learns about realpolitik” arc, here? Another round of domestic unrest, in the Southern Water Tribe this time, featuring xenophobia, a Saudi Arabia-level oil find, and a little bit of “what do you mean Hakoda went on a date?” from Katara.

Again, interesting to read, but, boy, this sure is a lot of events going on in not a lot of book.

“Imbalance”

It’s the origin story of Republic City! I really enjoyed this—it’s setting up some of the seeds of what’ll come up in the first season of Legend of Korra, and showing a bit more of how the city developed into what it is by her time. Really enjoyable bit of world-building; check it out.

“The Rift”

Further back into the origin story of Republic City! I’m reading these all sorts of out of order. I like the thought that there’s geological features that came from spirit intervention—in this case, a big ore deposit because a metal-themed spirit made their home in this place. A fun concept.

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Review

“The Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire”

Bryan Koneitzko, Michael Dante DiMartino, Michelle Wong, Killian Ng

What was I gonna do, not read the next one? Don’t be silly.

This wasn’t quite as queer as Turf Wars, but I did still really enjoy it. Kuvira is a really interesting character, and seeing some of her backstory was super interesting. The redemption arc she was going through felt rushed, honestly, but it is, after all, a graphic novel, so the pacing is different than a prose novel.

I also really enjoyed touching on some of the broader-scale changes taking place in this world. Two geopolitical things going on at once, in overlapping territory: the collapse of what I viewed as a USSR-analogue,12 and the voluntary dissolution of the monarchy in a China-analogue, to be replaced with democratic elections. Both of which are messy, messy things; the fact that they’re happening in the same place makes it even more of a mess. Good luck, everyone!

For bonus points, they also pulled in some dangling threads from the previous series. Yeah, I get that the Gaang was horrified by Long Feng’s mind-control program and tossed it, but… a whole lot of Dai Lee knew how to do that mind-control trick. It was probably written down somewhere, too. That’s an awful lot of temptation for a ruler…

Another great expansion of the Avatar universe; also, absolutely worth the read. Check it out.3

  1. Mostly by dint of “Republic City is clearly a USA-analogue” and “season 4 was about the invention of nuclear weapons.” ↩
  2. Footnote on that footnote: if you think plutonium is unbalanced in our world, spirit weapons are bonkers in this universe. So, you take a certain vine, electrocute it, and then it’s a nuke? That’s all it takes? Oh, don’t worry, the vines can only be found in one giant mystical swamp in the middle of nowhere- oh, wait, they also grow everywhere in Central Park. This is probably fine.
    (The best take I’ve ever seen on this was in Repairs, Retrofits, and Upgrades, which I also recommend as a read.) ↩
  3. This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores. ↩
Categories
Review

“The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars”

Bryan Koneitzko, Michael Dante DiMartino, Killian Ng, Irene Koh

As this is the comic tie-in to a show I liked, my expectations weren’t exactly sky-high going in. I think the Avatar universe works reasonably well as a comic, but it still feels like it’s losing something of the kinetic energy of the action scenes by not being fully animated.

That said, this story was delightful. I suspect because it’s the comic tie-in, and not The Show itself, it was able to do the sorts of things that corporate overlords tend not to like. In this case, that meant giving more than a meaningful holding of hands and Word Of God to show us that Korra and Asami are lesbians, Harold. And, beyond a cute little first date vacation montage, we got… a genuinely nice coming out arc for Korra with her parents, Kya casually dropping in her own queer history, and then extending on to tell us about the queer history of the Avatar world as a whole.1

Beyond that, there’s just some expansion of the world going on that I greatly enjoyed; a whole campaign cycle, some of the politics of running a city that suddenly has an interdimensional portal in the middle of it, and some gang violence to keep the fight scenes running. This was a lot of fun to read; I highly recommend it. Check it out.2

  1. Short summary: the air nomads are chill as hell, the water tribe is culturally Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the fire nation was fine with it up until—you guessed it—Fire Lord Sozin attacked, and the earth kingdom is… conservative. ↩
  2. This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores. ↩