Review: Avatar - The Last Airbender: The Promise - Part One

Let me come out right now and let you know that I am not acloset Avatar fan. In fact everythingI know about this franchise was learned watching the movie and wonderinghow something so bad could get financing. At any rate, when I heard these bookswere coming out from Dark Horse at NYCC, I had to admit that I was curious. Havingnever watched the cartoon I probably won’t go into character names and such andreally focus on the stories accomplishments.

The story begins just after the wars end. This is the warthat over-threw the Fire Lord’s rule over the lands and returned the differentkingdom’s back to their rightful rulers. Now Zuko and Aang have teamed togetherto restore the balance to the different nations by withdrawing his Fire people thatinhabit the different lands. They decide to hold a celebration to announce theresettlement which really marks the end of the honeymoon as far as the peacegoes. Also Anng and Katara start dating and getting smoochy! On the last nightof joyful events, Zuko makes Anng promise him that he’ll end his life if hewere to end up like his father. Reluctantly, Anng promises.

The story begins following Zuko as he’s plagued with littleto no sleep each night. His life has already been threatened seven times andnow he’s constantly paranoid of assassins. On this particular night he’s rightto be paranoid as a young girl tries to end his life. He takes the girl back toher family to show them what she is and there he makes a startling discovery.It seems that the girl is an earth bender like her mother, but 100% loyal tothe Fire kingdom because that’s where her father came from. This inter-benderfamily shows Zuko that there are other options other than removing everyoneback to the Fire kingdom. He decides to call off the resettlement, but without communicating it to the other kingdoms first.

The writing is very accessible for people unfamiliar with the world and characters. For the most part when you're confused about someone or their relationship the dialog will chime in and answer your questions. The pacing is very fitting for a comic book, which is good since the alternative would be TV pacing and that just wouldn't work here. I can imagine fans loving and hating this story. On one side its the return of beloved series, but on the other side they're basically undoing all the hard work the show did. But I really doubt anyone could not enjoy this issue. It has that classic Saturday morning cartoon ambiance that makes you feel like a kid again.

This is a pretty good All-Ages title. Like I said I’ve neverwatched a full episode of Avatar tocompare the book to the cartoon, but I can say that the artwork looks spot on.I’m not sure if the artist formally worked on the show, but they did a greatjob of capturing the look and making the comic flow like an animated show. Evenif you’re not a fan of the show and only read comics, this one is actuallyworth checking out. Once I started reading it I couldn’t put it down andeveryone loves a book like that.

Score – 3/5

Writer: Gene Luen Yang

Art: Gurihiru

Publisher: Dark Horse

Price: $10.99

Release Date: 1/25/2012