Book Review: The Last Airbender: Prequel: Zuko's Story by Dave Roman et al.

The Last Airbender: Prequel: Zuko's Story story by Dave Roman and Alison Wilgus, art by Nina Matsumoto

This prequel to The Last Airbender movie gives the back story of the main villain, Prince Zuko. He is a prince of the Fire Nation and at the beginning of this story he is cast out of the kingdom by his father for an unseen transgression. The only way for him to regain his honor is to find the Avatar, who mysteriously disappeared one hundred years ago. Zuko begins his search by trying to muster any support at all from the citizens of the capital. Finding none, he begs the royal palace for help. He's given a small ship and his presumed useless and embarrassing uncle Iroh. Zuko sets off on a hopeless quest which, in this part, is more about self-discovery than about discovering the whereabouts of the Avatar.

I haven't seen the movie but have seen the television series. If memory serves, there's nothing new in this book that wasn't already told in the series. Presumably the movie left out Zuko's back story. This book fills that in quite well. The art is manga-style, so it does not look like the series, but it gets the job done. The end of the book has a little "making of" section showing the script by Roman and Wilgus on the left page and the rough pencil sketches on the right page.

If you've seen the TV series you can skip this, if not it is a good, interesting story.