Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Search, Part 1
by
Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru (Illustrator)
The Search picks up almost exactly after the thrilling conclusion of the previous installment in the Avatar: TLA comic arc, i.e., The Promise.
This time we see our heroes facing a whole other kind of challenge as the still struggling Fire Lord Zuko is trying to come to terms with his new role and reconcile both his past and his present and try and find a real future ahead for him, not just personally but how he reflects on the role of Fire Lord for his people.
To this end, he enlists the usual gang to finally seek out his long lost mother, a mystery that has carried over from the end of the animated series. This time however, he is compelled to bring in another member on the journey – his devious and deeply unhinged sister Azula.
This first chapter puts the whole journey together and also indicates that we will be doing some dual-time narrative work here. First we have the main story of the present day when our heroes are undertaking the titular Search for former Fire Nation Princess Ursa, and second, a flashback story that tells of her past which ostensibly will at least lead us upto her disappearance.
We are presented with many questions: What happened to Ursa that made her disappear overnight? What was her role in the events that played out in the Fire Nation royal family? Most importantly: Why is there no Toph in this story?!? Everything is better with more Toph Bae Fong!
The only slight annoyance? Why did you have to leave me with such a cliffhanger at the end there Gene?!?
Anyway, it’s a good, solid opening chapter and definitely shows Yang getting more comfortable with the role of writer for Avatar comics. The art by Gurihiru, well it’s solid as it was in the last series and there’s not much I can add aside from praising their feel for the characters and a deft skill in doing such simplistic and clean comic artwork but managing to infuse so much emotion into panels where needed.
Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Search, Part 2
The Search picks up almost exactly after the thrilling conclusion of the previous installment in the Avatar: TLA comic arc, i.e., The Promise.
This time we see our heroes facing a whole other kind of challenge as the still struggling Fire Lord Zuko is trying to come to terms with his new role and reconcile both his past and his present and try and find a real future ahead for him, not just personally but how he reflects on the role of Fire Lord for his people – for which he has not only got the support of the whole gAang (minus Toph!) but they also have to contend with his insane sister Azula who holds certain answers to help their journey, thanks to knowledge shared with her by her also insane father.
This chapter definitely amps up the proceedings as it picks up from a truly MASSIVE reveal and cliffhanger at the end of the last one. It doesn’t provide the answers I’m afraid, but it definitely builds on that premise and shows the struggles for Zuko and Azula in the face of the revelation and potentially upends not just their lives but potentially changes the face of the world at large if it proves true!
We see more Avatar team fun as well as they are out and about on a bit more of an old-school adventure. They are roaming and seeking Ursa, mother of the two Fire Bending royals, and we get some good old-fashioned humour again in this chapter – which shows me again how much more comfortable the author is getting writing the characters – but the emotional gravity underlying the proceedings never gets lost along the way. We also have a secondary story that continues the flashback tale of Ursa from small-town/village girl to suddenly being married to a Prince of the Fire Nation against her will and mother to two VERY differently tempered children – all the while we also get glimpses into the man Ozai was before we met him on the animated series and while it fits, the dude is a real piece of work and you want to almost punch him every time his face pops up. Don’t get me wrong, I love that there is a villain that is at one level, just a clear cut villain and not some sorrowful empathetic character who became a villain, but he’s almost too good at it.
The journey takes the heroes to the small village from which Ursa had originally hailed and they find little to no success in their attempts to locate her – but they do find themselves pointed toward a mystical forest and within that, they encounter some interesting spirit-world magics which I really enjoyed PLUS we learn of a spirit called the Mother Of Faces and I have to tell you, my brain connected back to the face-stealing evil spirit from the show and my curiosity was really piqued!
Great story, great art. I can’t speak for other fans but the first arc was a solid entry back to this world and characters and this one has been one better. Different but felt like it belonged and I enjoyed it a lot.
Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Search, Part 3
The first real on-the-road adventure for the Avatar gang comes to a deeply emotional and intense ending as Gene Yang and Gurihiru answer one of the biggest mysteries of the franchise: What happened to Zuko and Azulas’ mother? We’ve been following them as the group (minus Toph but plus one crazed Azula) have journeyed to the home-village of the missing woman and found no real answers. They’ve followed the trail of Ursa’s ex-love to a mystical forest and encountered a pair of Water-benders from the Northern Water Tribe who have been living there for years, seeking the mysterious spirit known as the Mother Of All Faces and with every step our searchers find more new questions rather than answers.
Zuko has already had his world shaken to the core by the revelation that he might not be the son of Ozai and Azula is both relishing in this knowledge and at the same time her descent into madness and paranoia regarding her mother, all of which had begun before the close of the animated series, is spiraling further and further now that she is both looking for and possibly close to finding this mother who has taken on facets and dimensions in her mind that are increasingly surreal and she has become the cause of everything wrong that happens to Azula, right down to the formation of Team Avatar – at least in her mind.
As much as the series as a whole is about Aang as the Avatar and the team as a whole, Zuko as a character became more and more prominent in unexpected ways and til now I think his overall character arc is one of the best I’ve ever seen in any medium – this only continued in The Promise but frankly this story arc is very much a Zuko-facing story. It is also about his mother and Azula but it’s him at the centre despite it all given his standing in the series from the perspective of me as the reader.
Sadly there is an abruptness to the way Azula is handled toward the end. I won’t spoil it but I did feel like after 2 and a half books of build, it felt too sudden. Perhaps we will get to see fallout from all this for Azula in a future comic, who knows.
The story has emotional beats and themes that are quite intense and interesting and speak to some of the better aspects of the franchise. Unlike The Promise however, this one is by far more intimate in these and in the overall vibe and that makes this finale to a lingering story thread all the more fascinating to follow.
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