It’s a damned shame how awful that live-action version of Avatar the Last Airbender was. Personally, I never saw the point in making it when the entire animated series is readily available on Netflix. Somara and I have watched AtLA from start-to-finish twice, it was impressive; I’m using an acronym because most people think of Cameron’s movie when the word avatar is used.
I’m also curious how the creators got such an intelligent, more sophisticated program to happen with Nickelodeon. Don’t get me wrong, I love their humorous cartoons (Spongebob Squarepants, Fairly Odd Parents and Hey Arnold) yet the network’s other attempts at action or drama are weak: Zoey 101, Big Time Rush (it’s The Monkees for an even dumber crowd), etc. Maybe these are lighter comedies. Regardless, Nickelodeon struck gold with AtLA. My only regret was not catching the show during its initial run but the advantages of having something in its entirety are hard to beat.
Here’s a quick pair of useless trivial asides on why I think you should check out the series if you’ve never seen it:
- George Lucas must have recognized AtLA‘s talented director Dave Filoni (one of many). You can see much of AtLA‘s martial arts DNA all over Clone Wars when the Jedi Knights and Sith Lord duke it out.
- Aaron Ehasz was the head writer through AtLA‘s entire run. Before he joined Nickelodeon, he used to be Futurama‘s story editor in the Aughts and a staff writer for Mission Hill and Ed. Ehasz chipped in two episodes for Futurama during its most recent season too.
Meanwhile, the long awaited sequel The Legend of Korra hasn’t debuted. The last time I checked, I thought it was supposed to appear last Fall. I guess I was wrong. It won’t matter to me since I refuse to pay for cable which is $75/month to watch advertising 30 percent of the time. Yes, I know this helps pay the bills when creating content, it’s just gotten out of hand over the last 30 years.
Enter the fine people at Dark Horse Comics. They must’ve recognized the need to fill the gap with this first installment called The Promise which is set days after the series concluded.
SPOILER ALERT!
As everyone knows, The War ended with Aang’s victory over Fire Lord Ozai and when Korra starts (eventually), it will be a 70 years later. In Korra, the people of the four nations are more heterogenous than they used to be in Avatar, benders are less common and the everybody has adopted more of the Fire Nation’s steampunk (or Victorian era) technology. The Promise explains what happened in between.
The story opens shortly after the victory ceremonies. With the Fire Nation’s surrender and Prince Zuko becoming the new ruler, Aang must proceed on bringing balance back to the world. First order of business, Earth King Kuei requests the removal of all the Fire Nation colonies on the Earth Kingdom’s west coast. Aang and Zuko agree. A year later, Zuko begins to renege on this due to an older colony named Yu Dao. Unrest between the Fire and Earth citizens quickly reaches a breaking point requiring Aang’s attention with Sokka, Toph and Katara in tow. Seems peace is more complicated when two warring people have intermarried over several generations.
Little does Aang know, Zuko has been privately speaking to his imprisoned father Ozai over the fate of his mother. Knowing Ozai’s scheming mind and Zuko’s emotional vulnerability, Ozai is manipulating the contentious peace settlements.
So far I like where this is heading. The artwork follows the animation’s style guide unlike the inconsistent Lost Tales collection (a mixed bag) which will appease fans, children and others wanting such consistency. Writer Gene Luen Yang is spot on with the personalities (namely Toph), I guess he was a fan. Now I just need to hold out until May for part two.
I highly recommend The Promise part one for all AtLA fans. The $11 price tag may be the only objection. If you live near me, you can ask to borrow my copy.