We Will Set Right the Imbalance In the World

SPOILER ALERT
This review is for those who have read or are familiar with the previous books in the Avatar: The Last Airbender series, or don't mind knowing spoilers for them.
SPOILER ALERT

Avatar: The Last Airbender
Imbalance
By Faith Erin Hicks & Peter Wartman
in collaboration with Bryan Konietzko & Michael Dante DiMartino
Amazon ~ Powell's

When Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph return to Earthen Fire Industries--the factory owned by Toph's father--Aang is surprised when their arrival is met with a cold shoulder. As soon as the team is asked for help at a business council meeting, the reason for the slight becomes clear: a massive bender-versus-non-bender conflict has gripped the town and is threatening to turn violent. In order to heal the divide and save the town, Aang and the team will all face tough decisions about power and identity that could tear them apart.


This is it. The final chapter (so far) in Avatar Aang's journeys following the end of the war. I'll admit, I was both excited and cautiously apprehensive going into this. For all intents and purposes, this is the finale of the series, so a lot rides on this to get things right and give us a satisfying conclusion to everything that's come so far. But it should also work as its own story, and set up for the future we see in Legend of Korra. With so much riding on just one story, could it ever match my expectations?

To address the first elephant in the room, the art style is...different. It's not bad, really, it's just not the same style we've known from the show, or the previous comics up to now. The main characters all retain their general styles, but the shading and color-work is more reminiscent of watercolors or painting in general, instead of the typical cartoony cell shading. As such, the comedic poses or expressions that characters sometimes make come off as...bizarre might be the best word for it. I mean, look at this panel from the first page of the comic: While Aang and Momo look clean and familiar and Katara is recognizably frustrated, Sokka looks like someone paused a video in the wrong place. His face just doesn't show the squash and stretch style we've come to expect, and in trying to capture his cartoony expressions in this new style, it can come off a bit unsettling. (It was also weird how much Toph's father changed between the art styles, but I suppose it wasn't the worst thing since he's mostly a minor character.)

Contrast that, however, with the backgrounds and landscapes, and it's perhaps a bit more clear why this art style was approved: This panel is easily something I'd hang on my wall. And much of the comic is just that gorgeous, turning the city into a character in its own right. To be fair, there's plenty of good art of the characters as well, but it just seems more geared toward tonal art instead of the cartoons we're used to. It's a choice, to be sure, and I'm sure part of it was to work toward bridging the gap between The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra, in both tone and art. Ultimately, I wish the style had either been introduced earlier in the series, or hadn't been changed for only the last story. Obviously I don't know the behind-the-scenes happenings that might have led to this, so I can only speculate on and evaluate the final product. Suffice it to say I think the art works, for the most part, but I can't deny that there is a noticeable disconnect from the rest of the series.

But now on to the story proper. When Aang and the team decide to take a quick detour back to the Earthen Fire Refinery that Toph's dad runs (introduced in The Rift), they have no idea what awaits them. The small mining community has exploded into a bustling metropolis full of benders and non-benders alike looking to join the industrial revolution underway. But with the changing technology and rapidly expanding population also comes new tensions, as former enemies find themselves as neighbors and machines allow a new independence from bender-dominated hierarchies. As a new rift threatens to tear apart the city, Aang once again looks to mediate and bridge the divide.

I guess I'll start with the avatar. Aang had some nice characterization and conflict going here. He's still a bit shell-shocked from there being people on sacred Airbender land in the first place, and now it's not just one factory and its employees, it's dozens of factories and a city to support them. Add in the fact that much of the conflict in the city is perpetrated by benders, essentially his people, against non-benders, and you can see why he'd have a hard time making decisions.

On the one hand, he's sympathetic to non-benders being the victims of violence, and obviously wants to protect them. But on the other hand, he can see why benders would be upset that their livelihoods are being stolen by technology. He knows firsthand how sudden changes can be upsetting, so he wants to empathize with the benders who are lashing out in anger over their way of life changing. But he can also see how non-benders would want this change after being powerless for the majority of history, with this new industry providing some semblance of equality to them for the first time.

Of course, he had a little help with that bit of insight from the non-bender member of his team, Sokka. It was really nice having the two share a heartfelt and insightful conversation, showing that Sokka is much more than just the designated comic relief. Granted, he did have many more comedic lines than not, but at least he was acknowledged as an important member of the team, valued for more than just his out-of-the-box strategies.

Unfortunately the same can't be said for his sister. Katara had a couple good fight scenes here and there, but had very little to say. She talked Aang down from the avatar state, and offered a tiny bit of feedback when he tried to express his feelings, but on the whole she wasn't very influential in this story.

Toph, on the other hand, was a pleasure to follow. While previous comics tended to focus more on her personality as being rather boorish, this one harkened her back to her more intelligent and conniving roots. When the team was investigating who could be behind a factory attack, Toph put together a scheme to make friends with a suspect and gain intel. Granted, once she got the information she needed, she preferred the more direct line of action, but did acquiesce to the team's plan of further subterfuge. There were also a couple parts that hinted strongly of her crushing on Sokka, but it's unclear how serious those blushes were supposed to be taken since he was actively involved with Suki for most of the story.

That's right, Suki gets an active role in the story again. After all, chi-blocking is an effective way to neutralize violent benders. She wasn't a huge character in the story, mostly working in the background to train security personnel off-page, but she did get a couple moments to shine, which was nice to see. I'm interested in seeing more of her in her spin-off book, Suki Alone, since she doesn't get much time dedicated to her character in these stories, being too sidelined by the main Team Avatar, but I liked having her influencing at least some of the police force we'll see in the future.

And that's where the cracks in the story begin to show.

Honestly, this story had a lot of things going against it. Firstly, this whole bender-versus-non-bender conflict is the main issue at the heart of Korra, which takes place some 70 years in the future. So while it's an interesting idea to introduce this conflict having history all the way back to this point, it means that Aang's story can't have a resolution. Sure, you can have these specific antagonists brought down, but the conflict as a whole still has to persist in order for Korra to make sense. Which makes this finale to the Aang series of comics rather anticlimactic.

Another issue I had was how secondary the main characters were to the story. When you boil it down, this is a story about this city coming to terms with its new technology and where benders and non-benders find themselves when the dust settles. Team Avatar happens upon this struggle right as it hits a boiling point, but none of them actually become involved in the story. The story's villains have a more compelling character arc than Team Avatar does. No one grows through this experience, no one changes their mind because of this story's events. The most you could say changes for the group is that Aang decides to settle down in the city to help it into the future.

And really, that's a problem that has persisted throughout this comic series. Katara is probably the worst offender, with her only moment to shine in North and South being undercut by her never committing to any opinion. Sokka wasn't much better, but at least he was entertaining throughout and had plot relevance in this last story. Toph had a good story in The Rift about her reconciling with her father, but her conflict with Aang and traditions in general never amounted to anything. Zuko experienced the most growth throughout, having arguably the most change introduced at the end of the show, and I loved seeing him allowed to struggle and expand his character in most stories he was in.

Aang's character was introduced to the prospect of growth, but never actually committed to it. We saw him in The Promise struggle with a new status quo in the new blended community born of the Fire Colonies, but his stance turned into strictly non-violence and having Zuko, the Earth King, and the colonists talk things out. The Search had him trying to act as liaison between a spirit and humans, but ended up with him siding strictly with humans and not suffering any repercussions. The Rift was a slightly nuanced take on that spirits-versus-humans debate, but again, he defended humanity and was told he was right by another spirit. His involvement in Smoke and Shadows and North and South was largely wasted, with him voicing the opinion that tyrannical behavior is wrong and giving support to Katara. And finally, Imbalance has him struggling to find a quick solution to its conflict, but ends up deciding that this conflict is more than just one villain, so needs more time and effort dedicated to it. Oh, and violence is bad.

I get that Aang sees himself as a bridge in conflicts, and that he abhors violence in all contexts—that was the whole point of the show's finale—but it would have been nice to have gotten a bit more to him than that. Honestly, we get more characterization from his kids reflecting on him in Korra than we do here. He's never forced to confront any indecision he faces, nor does he ever face any consequences for his actions, receiving nothing but praise at the end of every story, and no repercussions in subsequent tales. I'm not saying I wanted him to turn into a racist or classist and be talked back down, but having him experience an arc and grow through the stories would have been greatly appreciated, especially for us older fans.

I think the series as a whole was perhaps too ambitious for what allowance they were given. I mean, it seemed kinda like they wanted to make a season 4 of the show, wherein they tackled more nuanced and complex issues like colonization (both among humans, and with regards to spirits), political unrest, classism, industry vs nature, and such, but were only given the resources for cute, simple one-offs. Some stories adapted okay, but it always felt like there was far too much material for the allotted space. And I think that goes for the series as a whole as well.

In terms of a finale for The Last Airbender comics, there was just no way Imbalance could sufficiently wrap up all that came before while introducing its own characters and story, and trying to bridge the gap to Korra. It functions about as well as the other stories on an individual level, but as a conclusion there are just too many unanswered plot threads and no character or story arcs to tie anything together. Add in the sudden art change, and it feels even worse as a conclusion to what came before. And yet, I don't think there's any way to fix it.

Overall, Imbalance had a ton of baggage weighing it down to begin with, and I'm sorry to say it just couldn't overcome it. It had its bright spots in its story, its antagonists, improved characterization of some of Team Avatar, and a distinctly beautiful art style, but I was nevertheless underwhelmed when all was said and done. Perhaps I'm being too hard on a kids series, and younger fans of the show have and will continue to love all that comes out for this property, or perhaps I simply expect a story that introduces a complex issue to follow it through to a satisfying ending. Regardless, I'm not sorry to have read and finally completed this series as a whole, and I fully recommend these those who want to continue experiencing this world and these characters for as long as possible. I'll probably come back to the world of Avatar with Korra's series and some of the other spin-offs in the future, but for now my journey is complete.