Review: ATLA North and South Part Two

North and South: Part One was released to an enthusiastic audience last September, the sixth highest selling title in trade paperbacks that month. This week, North and South: Part Two continues the latest Avatar: The Last Airbender graphic novel trilogy, and will not disappoint.

In Part Two, Katara is still reeling from all of the changes that members of the Northern Water Tribe have encouraged in her home village. This continues conflict from Part One of taking on a larger role in international trade and politics versus preserving cultural values and traditions. New additions to the plot also introduce issues of protecting the environment versus utilizing natural resources to advance a society, the colonial nature of “advanced” cultures interfering with “developing” cultures, and slightly less applicable to real-world situations, hints of the bender/non-bender controversy that becomes a focal point of the first season of Legend of Korra. This last has the potential to be the most interesting going into Part Three as it is the issue most likely to divide Sokka from the other members of Team Avatar.

One subplot that isn’t addressed extensively but may become more central in the next volume is that there are water-benders still in the South aside from Katara in more isolated villages that have been recruited to train under Master Pakku (who has married Gran Gran and come to live in the South), but they refuse to admit that they have any bending abilities. This could simply be a cautious behavior leftover from when the Fire Nation kidnapped and imprisoned all Southern Water Tribe members with bending abilities. Or, could it have something to do with the “inequality” between benders and non-benders? Could the reason somehow bring to light a cause that unifies Gilak’s rebellion and Hakoda’s loyalists?

Writer Gene Luen Yang and Japanese illustration team Gurihiru continue to bring their A-game in extending the Avatar universe. Favorites like Aang and Toph return and fit their character canons perfectly, while new characters like Northerners Malina and Maliq give Yang and Guruhiru the chance to explore new perspectives and attitudes about the world of the Avatar after the One Hundred Year War.

North and South: Part Two is now available at comic book shops and will be released in mass market retailers February 7. If you missed Part One, this is a great time to catch up as we eagerly anticipate the trilogy’s conclusion this April.