Review: Avatar- The Last Airbender: Imbalance
Quick Summary
Pros: Once the storyline gets going, it is entertaining and interesting. The book has a fantastic moral message that presents a nuanced take on real-world social issues. The artwork looks nice and pairs well with the story.
Cons: The story starts out a little slow.
Overall: This is another positive entry in the Avatar comic lineup. The main storyline starts a little slow but becomes more and more compelling as it progresses. It also tackles some intense social issues with a level of thought that makes everything even more interesting. Fans of the Avatar comics can feel confident that this volume continues the successes that have been present since the comic started.
Story
Avatar: The Last Airbender- Imbalance, by Faith Erin Hicks with Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, starts a bit slow but develops into a wholly worthwhile story as it progresses. The volume centers around a conflict between benders and non-benders that, at first, comes off as a bit generic. Then, this conflict evolves as layers are added to it and the issues around it need to be addressed. The conflict also does a great job of addressing real-world issues like racism and class inequality. All in all, the comic is fun to read and feels like a solid contribution to the Avatar universe.
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The opening of Imbalance isn’t the most interesting or compelling comic opening. The story starts with a pretty generic dispute between members of a city and also brings back the argument about modernization that has dominated this comic series. The overuse of these ideas in the Avatar universe makes them feel a bit uninteresting as this story beings.
Luckily, things get a lot better as the story progresses and layers are added. A criminal conspiracy unfolds within the city’s elite, discrimination erupts into violence in the streets, and the modernization issue specifically undermines all of these causes. These issues even directly impact a single family, where an elitist mother ostracizes her own non-bender daughter. This all plays out in the story’s conclusion, which sees the daughter rebel against her own family, leading team Avatar to victory.
Where Imbalance truly shines though is in its moral messaging. The entire dispute between benders and non-benders is clearly allegorically representative of racism. This take on this issue has a wonderful level of nuance that specifically works to address how industrialization and class issues can cause racism through scapegoating and manipulation by a powerful upper class. It shows that racism can manifest as simple hatred but that it can also manifest as a response to social issues, which need to be addressed in a way that helps the underprivileged.
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Art
Coming from the previous collections in the Avatar comic series, at first, I was unsure how to feel about the change in art styles made by this collection. I enjoyed the way previous comics faithfully brought back the visuals of the original television series. I wasn’t sure if changing things from the source would work out quite as well. After reading this volume, I’m happy to say that I was wrong.
The artwork in Imbalance is different, to be sure, but still looks good and provides a pleasing take on the world of Avatar. The visuals here, from Peter Wartman, are uniquely stylized in that they are clearly derived from what was seen in the original television show but are still slightly different. The characters and locations are presented well and the pages are laid out in a way that makes sense. The colors, from Ryan Hill, are also a bit more subdued and less flashy than they normally are, which works out well for a story that is more directly related to social issues than before. All in all, the book contains some nice visuals that pair well with the storytelling.
Continuity
Avatar: The Last Airbender- Imbalance takes place soon after the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender- North and South (Review).
As of now, the story here does not yet continue in any specific comic.