Avatar Comic Release: May 7th, 2011The Avatar Comic, Avatar: The Last Airbender; Free Comic Book Day, was releaased today. I am writing this blog to communicate the bulk of the stories to the Avatar Wikia community. The reason for this blog is to allow those who were unable to obtain the limited copy release to experience what Dark Horse has to offer to Avatar: The Last Airbender's fanbase.
The Avatar: The Last Airbender; Free Comic Book Day is a comic published by the famous, and one of my personal favorite publishers, Dark Horse. Dark Horse's credibility includes works from household entertainment developers such as SQUARE ENIX, and their well-known titles such as Final Fantasy. Knowing this, I expected quality and good imagery for the stories to be shared with this free publication, and that criterion was met through this comic.
The comic is 15 pages, with 10 pages dedicated to the unreleased story, Relics, and includes the ever popular already released comic, Dirty Is Only Skin Deep. Be warned, reading from here on out will contain spoilers of the contents of the story Relics, as the synopsis for Dirty Is Only Skin Deep is available at a variety of sites, including this Wikia.
Relics take place in what seems to be in the time between "The Deserter" and "The Northern Air Temple" in Book 1: Water. The bulk of the story consists of Aang, along with Sokka and Katara, replenishing supplies for their trip to the Northern Water Tribe. The story begins at a small trade village located at the summit of the mountains that appear to be in the vicinity of the Northern Air Temple. At this village, Aang comes across a pendant that is of the Air Nomads culture. Aang inquires from the merchant that the pendant was retrieved from homes carved in the mountains. Later, while Katara and Sokka are asleep, Aang sneaks off to the mountains alone to see whether or not the Air Nomads may be hiding away in these mountains, which they are familiar to.
The most interesting and informative end of the comic is the background of the territory Aang is in, provided by Zhao. Zhao enlightens Aang that Sozin used these mountains to lure survivors of the Air Nomads genocide, spreading rumors across the land that survivors had created these caves as a haven to protect them from Sozin. However, there Sozin would have them ambushed so that he succeeded in eliminating all Air Nomads. In conclusion to Zhao's story, he shatters the pendant that Aang had in his possession ( which brings forth that the pendant Aang wore during the finale is not the same one seen in this comic ). Aang, floored by this information, takes a cultural response to Zhao's degrading backstory, using the Air Nomads' relics to win his freedom and incapacitate Zhao's ambush.
Relics come to a conclusion with Aang returning to the camp Katara and Sokka reside at, where both Southern Water Tribe cadets are frantically looking for Aang. The comic ends with an emotional scene, where Katara finds Aang emotionally distraught. The specific lines stated are:
Katara: This place reminds you of home, right? All these mountains... Airbenders would have loved to stay here. They would have been attracted to this place.
Aang: Yeah. A few of them probably were.
As Relics acts as a pre-cursor to the stories to come in 2012, I can only imagine the beautiful imagery coupled with the strategic emotional appeal these comics will provide to Avatar: The Last Airbender fan base. Thus, my patience is tested and my love for Avatar: The Last Airbender has been reignited. avatar.wikia
