PREVIEW!! The Last Airbender: The The Legend of Korra

 The Last Airbender? Not Anymore!! 

Welcome, welcome, welcome back my fellow wayfarers - today is a special previews post that I think will give some of you reasons for gladness and much joy, well it did for me at least and I'm running on the assumption that there are people who share the same tastes as me!

But I won't keep it hanging anymore and will now get right to the meat of the matter at hand:

Some of you are fans, both casual and dedicated, of a ground-breaking and fantastic little TV series called Avatar: The Last Airbender which was produced by Nickelodeon studios and aired its 61 spell-binding episodes from 2005 to 2008. All of us fans were both overjoyed and broken-hearted when the final episodes aired and brought the saga of our hero Aang's journey to a close. Well feel low no more!

Poster from Comic-Con 2011.

Many of you will have heard over the years of Avatar comics and follow-up cartoons coming up from time to time, with no real confirmation and solid proof. Then we were given some relief through a few Avatar comics that were released that were a bundle of fun of you could get your hands on them, showing us quiet (and some not so quiet) moments and interludes that are set between various points in the TV series itself.
And then there was the dark time... that horrible time when they made a movie based on the series, a movie so lame and derivative and disheartening that many felt this could even kill the franchise!

But now light shines once again in the form of a new series called The Last Airbender: The Legend of Korra (click for its homepage),  I know, it's one hell of a mouthful and I wish they could have just called it what it should have been, i.e, "Avatar: The Legend of Korra" - but thanks to the very talented jackass that is James Cameron who is making it a legal issue so that his entertaining but otherwise not-so-deep movie series can keep the "Avatar" name. Damn you Cameron, why did you have to be such a douche, you know this series is more deserving and you can just call yours "The Pandora Trilogy" or some such. Ah well...

Anyhow, so even though a long time has passed and there are less invested and serious fans who have fallen by the way-side, hope remains! This news series is set approximately 70 years after the great war between the nations and the defeat of the Fire-lord by Avatar Aang, following the journey of the new Avatar - a young Southern Water-tribe girl called, what else, Korra!

Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the creators of the series have stayed with it from inception and have in fact written every episode themselves, which is great I think because it will maintain a flow and will be tight and cohesive from a narrative point of view. Something that will be a big factor in how good it is overall, especially given the massive time-leap from where the first series ended.

(Here is the trailer for your viewing pleasure - I would highly recommend watching it in its full high-res glory if you can!)

View of Republic City from a park. (click to enlarge)

But the world you will be immersed in is one that will be so much like home, yet a very different one. Aang and Zuko together brought the four nations together and formed a brave new world and a founded a new capital - Republic City - for this new age. In fact my understanding is that Republic City is the base for most of the new series, but before you get all tense and worried that it will be weird compared to the free-roaming adventure world of the original, here it all out.

Tenzin - son of Aang!

This new world is what our heroes built and is a better world for the most part - tribes live together and great advances have been made. In fact there will be (much to me ever-lasting delight!) a certain amount of steam-punk added on to the technology of the world of Avatar as progress has been made, but there's more: for starters there are Bending tournaments and Toph had a daughter who is as much of a bad-a** as her mom - who was the inventor of metal-bending and taught it to the world!
On top of that, the Air-benders have returned under Aang and he is no longer the last of them, his own son Tenzin in fact is one and according to my understanding, he will become Korra's Air-bending teacher. Tenzin is supposed to have three kids of his own who are all Air-benders and a wife named Pema who is not a bender at all.

Statue of Aang in Republic City's harbor during twilight.

PLUS - unlike Aang who started a young Air-bender and learned the other elements over the course of the series, apparently Korra will be living the way an Avatar was meant to prior to the Fire-nations attempted dominion. She is recognised as what she is and at the start (more or less) of the series she will already be an Earth, Fire and Water bender and will only have Air yet to learn.
According to the filtered rumours and jargon and blather I've sifted through, it appears that as a character Korra can be described as a bit of an "anti-Aang" in that she is more hot-headed and independant, sounds a lot like Katara so I guess it could be a trait of southern water-tribe women trait!

Korra and Naga (click to enlarge)

In addition to all this there are lots of little tid-bits and treats that we will be able to enjoy with this new series and details that will slowly come to light the closer we get to the launch of Legend of Korra sometime next year. One choice that I think looks pretty cool is the choice of spirit guide/animal companion for her - Aang had Appa the sky-Bison, before him Roku had Fang the Dragon and now Korra has her very own Polar-Bear-Dog named Naga that looks pretty impressive. Though I do wonder how the warmth of the city will feel to him after the snow and cold of the South!

Amon in HD - click to enlarge!

In keeping with a strong story and fitting in with this new world, the basic adventures of Korra will follow largely her time in Republic City as she faces all kinds of challenges of life in this metropolis while also fighting against the "Equalists", a shady bunch of anti-bending revolutionaries who are led by a shadowy figure named Amon. No information has been given as to why they are against bending and what their plans are beyond this and who and what Amon is really, so that we'll have to wait and see! The Equalists use a technique called "Chi-blocking" invented by Ty Lee (remember the bubbly killing machine from the old series?) which she used against Katara and others to paralyse and disable their bending abilities.
Together with Bei Fong, the chief of the Metal-bending police force of Republic city and daughter of the legendary Toph Bei Fong and a brother duo of Mako (Fire-bender) and Bolin (Earth-bender), Korra fights the good fight and try to preserve the world that the last Avatar and his friends built.

There is so much detail, so many stories, so much of this world and all that can be explored here - so many threads and possibilities from the end of the first series that we will get to see brought to life here that I don't know about you, but has me excited as hell!

Any big news on this in-the-works series will be brought straight to you, right here at Comic Addicts - so, stick around and of course, we'd love to hear your thoughts on this bold new direction.

Oh and as a bonus parting gift dear readers, here is a great quality desktop wallpaper for the new series!

Click to enlarge and enjoy!!

Till next week folks, cheers!