‘Team Avatar Tales‘ Hoedown
This isn’t a review. I’m not sophisticated to do Reviews with a number score at the end and some kind of pronouncement about whether or not every single person, regardless of their personal tastes/circumstances/finances, should buy this book. So, instead, I’ll be dancing through the each of the short stories in this book.
(It was on sale at NYCC at the Dark Horse booth. So I guess this is super-exclusive NYCC coverage! Woo! I am sophisticate and journalism!)
1. “Rebound” (Script: Gene Luen Yang / Art: Ryan Hill) Yes, this is the same comic that came out for Free Comic Book Day six years ago, still serving as an epilogue for The Promise and a prologue for Smoke & Shadow even though it isn’t collected with any version of either of those stories. Mai is still awesome, we still don’t have that ‘Lone Wolf & Cub’-inspired anime about her and Tom-Tom, and this story is one of TWO in this collection using a main Fire Nation character and the other one is ALSO a FCBD-reprint and also doesn’t feature Zuko despite him being on the cover. Sorry, Zuko fans!
2. “The Substitute” (Script: Dave Scheidt / Art: Little Corvus) Hey, remember the comic ‘Private Fire’ about Sokka going out while wearing fake facial-hair and getting hauled into a comedic misadventure due to mistaken identity? Apparently, Dave Scheidt does, and he loved it so much he used the exact same idea -- substituting a preschool for a military camp -- and compressed it down to 8 pages filled with standard “kids are monsters” jokes. It also has a framing that makes no sense because the gAang is already in their Fire Nation outfits but they still need to stay out of sight or wear disguises and also Toph is missing for some reason. Maybe the artist didn’t get the note and this is supposed to take place in Book Water in the colonies.
3. “Shells” (Script: Gene Luen Yang / Art: Faith Erin Hicks) Another FCBD reprint, this is the story of how Suki hates stock misogynists who promote the Fake Geek Girls thing and also reveals that Kyoshi started the Kyoshi Warriors in order to give women the means to defend themselves. This comic is still heavy-handed and still perfectly adequate and still the second-best thing Gene Yang has ever written after Rebound.
4. “Sokka’s Poem” (Script: Ron Koertge / Art: Gene Luen Yang) This is a two-page little love-letter to Sokka’s character that is exactly like all those “We need to talk about Sokka...” tumblr posts that I like and reblog except this one is illustrated by Gene Yang for some reason. Also, both pages were in the official previews, so you can just read it there. This story features Zuko’s only appearance (outside of Mai’s memories) in the collection, showing him sleeping in a sleeping bag with the rest of the gAang. (I mean they’re all sleeping in sleeping bags, not all in his sleeping bag. Missed opportunities.)
5.Toph & The Boulder (Sara Goetter) One of two pieces in this collection to be written and drawn by the same person, and so it turns out to be the only comedy thing in here that completely nails it. This story was previewed last year at NYCC, and is about Toph helping the Boulder with his cat. It’s silly and funny and ridiculous and impossible to take seriously and full of energy. Like I said: nails it. I think Sara Goetter should take over the main Avatar comic line and turn the post-cartoon series into a sitcom. I’m being completely serious.
6. Origami (Kiku Hughes) The other of two pieces in this collection to be written and drawn by the same person, and also the other of two pieces in this collection about a member of Team Avatar giving a confidence boost to a girl with self-esteem issues. Instead of being about Fake Geek Girls, this is about a girl who can’t fight and feels like she’s not special compared to warriors. It’s a cute little tale that shows some insight into the fact that being the Hope Girl of the group can’t be easy for Katara, but unfortunately it just leaves this revelation as a pep-talk in some dialogue rather than actually doing anything with it. Still, it’s a nice little tale and gets Katara’s character and almost manages to be pleasant enough to numb the pain coming with the next story in the collection.
7. Sisters (Script: Gene Luen Yang / Art: Carla Speed McNeil) Yes, another FCBD reprint. And I figured it out! Ty Lee’s sisters are all gaslighting her, and none of what they say about her or their childhood is true. One of the reasons Ty Lee ran away is because she couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t anymore back at home, and Mai told her to get the flameo out of Dodge. This is still the absolute worst thing to ever come from the Avatar franchise, and Ty Lee still needs help to beat a random thug working for a random guy running a random extortion racket against random circuses. I still think Sara Goetter should take over the entire Avatar comic line and do it all as a sitcom.
8. Scarecrow (Script: Dave Scheidt / Art: Coni Yovaniniz) For some reason, Dave Scheidt got to do two stories in this collection about abusing Sokka. This one is the more ridiculous of the two, and doesn’t bother trying to be nice with its treatment of Sokka, and so this one is actually funny. It’s probably because the art is much more cartoony, so it makes physical abuse look fun and amusing. It’s like the Chibi Shorts in that respect, but this one actually has a sense of style that wasn’t stolen from anime and so is inherently superior.
