Avatar: The Last Airbender — The Promise, Part 1

The first thing I thought when I started reading this was, “Ahhhhhh.” It was nice to slip back into the Avatar universe, and it feels like it’s been a long time since the show came out. The graphic novel is supposed to be released in 2012. I don’t really know why it will take so long to get this out there… Anyway, The Promise, Part 1 starts off right where the show ended. I’m sorry for those of you who haven’t seen it, because this review will be filled with show spoilers. Consider yourself duly warned.

We start off with the intro to the first episode of the show, where Katara finds Aang in the ice, and they begin their adventures. …Skipping ahead the time passed in the show plus one year… Zuko is now Fire Lord, and he and Aang come up with the Harmony Restoration Movement to rid the other three nations of Fire Nation occupation. Aang makes a promise to Zuko that if he ever becomes like Fire Lord Ozai, Aang will “end him.”

Aang and Katara have finally moved past the awkward friend stage, right into the awkward calling-each-other-sweetie phase. I’m not sure I liked how that happens, since this is the first I’ve known about them after the show. However, I really like how Zuko comes across. I think they did a great job building his character.

This is a pretty short comic, but was still quite enjoyable. It was fun to get back into the Avatar verse. The ending also made me excited for The Promise, Part 2, which I believe comes out in either May (so says the book) or June (so says Goodreads) 2012, which is too long to wait comfortably, but I guess I’ll have to.

If you liked the show, or you’ve read any of the other comics Dark Horse has put out about it, you will definitely enjoy this. If you haven’t seen the show, I would recommend watching some of it, as this will make pretty much no sense without it.

Rage: After the Impact

After receiving quite a few graphic novels from one of my favorite publishers, Dark Horse Books, I chose to read and review Rage: After the Impact.

This is the first time I've read a graphic novel as an ebook. It was interesting, to say the least.

Rage: After the Impact is an introduction story to id Software’s game, RAGE. The story follows the brief beginnings of Dr. Elizabeth Cadence’s life after awakening from sleep in a cryogenic ark. A deadly meteor, Apophis, was headed for Earth, so the government took preemptive measures and saved the lives of many who would be necessary to rebuild humanity. Approximately 5,000,000 people were killed by the meteor. As Rage indicates, “They were the lucky ones.”

Once awakened from her cryo ark, Dr. Cadence is attacked by ‘Wastelanders’ and saved by The Authority, or the new form of government in this post-apocalyptic world. Once inside the scientific facility, she senses something amiss with the research that is being done on the mutants, the humans who have supposedly come into contact with feltrite, a substance from Apophis.

Arvid Nelson does a great job of building an interesting relationship between Drs Antonin Kvasir and Cadence. I am truly interested to see where Kvasir ends up. With his new outlook… he could go anywhere. Cadence, on the other hand, I see getting into a lot of trouble due to her gung-ho attitude.

Near the end of Rage: AtI, I was reminded of Serenity, a movie based on one of my favorite (one-season) shows, Firefly. I personally love being reminded that humans are often to blame for some of the bad things in this world, and that we have many faults, greed being a large one.

This was a fantastic snippet of what I imagine to be a great story line for a video game. I enjoyed this story, and can’t wait for the full novel, Rage, and the video game from id Software to experience more of this world.