Created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino
Script by Gene Luen Yang
Illustrated by Gurihiru
Lettered by Michael HeislerWith the disappearances of children in the Fire Nation capital, Avatar Aang and his friends are doing everything they can to find out who—or what—is responsible.
Aang and Zuko must work together to keep the peace, but the emergence of the New Ozai Society, and the appearance of the mysterious Kemurikage of legend, may prove to be too much even for the Avatar when the true culprit of the kidnappings is revealed!
I write about a lot of Mike Mignola’s stuff on this site, so you probably don’t know this about me, but I’m a huge Avatar fan. For one of my birthdays I invited friends over to marathon all sixty-one episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender over two days, and I have to say it was the best marathon ever. Usually at the end of a marathon, everyone’s a bit burnt out. Not this marathon. Everyone was tired, but grinning from ear to ear and jabbering about how awesome it had been.
I’ve got to schedule a Legend of Korra marathon. Yes, that needs to happen.
That’s another thing about me that you should know. I like to experience stuff in big chunks. I review Mignola’s books issue by issue, but that’s not how I like to read them. I miss trade waiting. I miss it so much. But I can’t do that and Hell Notes at the same. The two aren’t compatible.
This is why I don’t often review the Avatar comics. I wait for all three parts of each story to come out and read them all at once. (Even though each part is eighty pages, I need two hundred and forty pages to be truly satisfied.) However, last weekend I snapped. It’s been a long time since I’ve read Avatar, so I read Smoke and Shadow parts one and two, and because I was still hungry for more, I went back and reread The Search.
When I initially finished Smoke and Shadow, I was convinced it was the best Avatar comic to date. However, upon rereading The Search, I changed my mind. And oddly, this wasn’t because of any failing of Smoke and Shadow, but rather because of the strength of Smoke and Shadow. It deepens the reading experience of The Search.
This is something I love about the Avatar universe in general. Rewatching and rereading is extremely rewarding. There were episodes of the show I loved, but after they were framed in the larger context of the series as a whole, the episodes became even better. This is what Smoke and Shadow does so well; it builds on and enhances the stories that came before it.
The thing is, I’ve always experienced Ursa’s story as an extension of Zuko’s story. The Search changed that. Instead of looking at her as an observer, the comic pulled me into her interior life. But I hadn’t gone all the way. At the end of The Search, when Ursa’s face and memories were restored, I experienced that moment mostly through Zuko’s eyes. I saw it perhaps as a cathartic moment Ursa. A weight was lifted off her shoulders.
But I hadn’t thought about what she sacrificed in that moment.
Smoke and Shadow brought that to my attention, and I can’t unsee it, and it added this whole other layer to The Search that I simply adore (in a heartbreaking way).
Smoke and Shadow does more than enhance The Search though. Ursa’s story in this chapter of the Avatar saga is painful to read and handled so thoughtfully. I mean, Ursa’s a victim of abuse returning to the place where all her worst wounds were inflicted.
This is something I loved about Avatar: The Last Airbender when it was on TV. It was created as a children’s show, but it didn’t shy away from stories about domestic abuse. There’s a line from Zuko that really brought home the reality of what Fire Lord Ozai was: “My father decided to teach me a permanent lesson on my face.” Book Three of the show shattered the idea of Ozai as this distant, faceless villain. He became something real, and much scarier for it.
Continued belowAnd that’s what we see in Ursa in Smoke and Shadow. We see her on a very real personal level. We see the wounds that were torn open all over again when Ursa reclaimed her face and memories.
And we also see how this has affected her new family. Kiyi sees her own mother as a stranger now that she wears a different face. Every time she pulls away from Ursa, it’s like a barb to her mother’s heart.
Oh god, that all sounds a bit grim, doesn’t it? The thing is, I actually laughed a lot during this issue. In one particular case, tears of laughter. (Second panel, page 33… Oh man, I just looked at it and started laughing all over again.) I spent most of the book grinning. In particular, Zuko and Kiyi’s interactions really get me. My god, I love that relationship.
Another relationship I’m really enjoying is the one between Mai and Kei Lo. I totally ’ship those two. Zuko and Mai don’t work. They don’t bring out the best in each. Mai and Kei work. She makes him care about issues beyond himself and makes him braver, while Kei brings out a more passionate side of Mai without undermining who she is. I just hope she can let go of her baggage with Zuko.
Speaking of character evolution, something I’ve been enjoying is seeing each of the characters settle into new lives since the end of the war. Obviously Zuko has to be the Fire Lord, and Toph has her metalbending school… but for now, Sokka, Katara, and Aang have been doing the usual, travelling from place to place, helping however they can. But that can’t go on indefinitely. I mean, yeah, Aang’s got to travel around the world and do his Avatar thing, but Sokka and Katara won’t always be able to tag along. I don’t think Aang understands that yet, but I think Katara knows it. The expressions these two wore when saying goodbye show so much more going on beneath the surface. It was a small part of this story, but it was handled so well, I had to mention it.
Another aspect I enjoyed about this story, and this seems to be common in many of the Avatar stories I like, was the mythology aspect and how the past affects the present. In particular, I liked the way the art style was slightly different for this segment. It reminded me a little of Wan’s story in The Legend of Korra. This was classic Avatar, using the past as a way to talk about the present, while building the world. I enjoyed getting this insight into the first Fire Lord and what the history of the Fire Nation must have been like before Sozin rewrote it.
Gene Luen Yang frequently uses his world building to reveal character and vice versa. He deftly makes exposition dramatic, while his character work propels the main narrative without wrenching it too many directions. Given the cast in this comic, that’s quite a feat.
I hope this creative team sticks together for many more Avatar stories, because this stuff is great. I mean, they started off strong, with The Promise, but they’re getting better as they go along.
I want to talk about the cliffhanger, but I won’t. I’ll save that for April’s review of Part 3. Needless to say, it’s a good one.
Final verdict: 9. Smoke and Shadow captures the spirit of the show, and builds on its rich history and characters. This is a must-buy for any self-respecting Avatar fan.
