Book Review: Avatar The Last Airbender: North and South Part 1 by G. L. Yang et al.

Avatar The Last Airbender North and South Part One written by Gene Luen Yang, lettering by Michael Heisler, art and cover by Gurihiru

Sokka and Katara return home to the Southern Water Tribe only to find a lot of progress has happened in their absence. Instead of a bunch of igloos and huts, their home village has been transformed into a city. After the war with the Fire Nation ended, some Northern Water Tribe people came to improve and modernize things for the locals. Sokka is all for it but Katara worries about their own culture and attitudes being lost. Their father is on board with the developments and is now chief of all the whole Southern Water Tribe. An underground resistance element has sprung up with which Katara sympathizes. They try to recruit the brother and sister, but are their methods too questionable?

The issue of preserving cultural identity while being part of the larger world is an interesting one, though I feel like it has been covered in this series before. I am looking forward to some new angles or ideas that will come out of this series, though I'll have to wait till January for the next installment of the story.