Created by Bryan Koneitzko and Michael Dante Dimartino
Script: Faith Erin Hicks
Art: Peter Wartman
Dark Horse Books
2018 Graphic Novel: 76 pages
Bryan Koneitzko and Michael Dante Dimartino have an extensive career together, creating and producing Avatar: the Last Airbender and then Avatar: the Legend of Korra. Faith Erin Hicks has written multiple graphic novels and is responsible for works like Zombies Calling! and Friends with Boys. Peter Wartman is an accomplished illustrator and is known for his work in Over the Wall and Stonebreaker.
“What’s happening here doesn’t feel like progress, it feels like chaos.”
Aang is the Avatar, which means he can bend all four elements: water, earth, fire and air. That also means he’s charged with being a bridge between the spirit world and the physical world. He must protect the balance of the physical world and offer guidance where he can. When he returns to the town of Cranefish, he returns to a town that has been torn apart by industrialization, benders and politics.
Avatar: the Last Airbender originally aired as a cartoon on Nickelodeon and became an instant success. The showed continued for two more seasons, which followed Aang and his friends as they tried to defeat the Firelord. Bryan and Michael have continued the story online and through graphic novels like “Imbalance: Part 1” and I’m so glad they have!
The comic is fun and filled with element-bending action. And while it’s filled with exciting powers, Faith Erin Hicks has given the comic a story that speaks beyond Aang’s world and into our own. More so, the comic was faithful to the spirit of the show, which only made me love it that much more.
PRR Writer: Christopher Lee