[DH Comics #20] Imbalance, Part 2

[Icy_Ashford]

Thread will be unlocked as soon as the comic is released.



Penguin Random House announced that Imbalance, Part 2 will be from online sources from Mar 26th 2019. You can pre-order this on Amazon.

Imbalance is written by Faith Erin Hicks and illustrated by Peter Wartman with feedback from Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, co-creators of the series. This is a summary of the series "There’s something fishy going on in Cranefish Town, and it’s up to Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph to find out what, before the simmering conflict between benders and non-benders boils over into all-out war. But danger lurks where they least expect it, and uncovering the truth will reveal a threat unlike any they’ve ever faced–and a fateful choice for Aang he can never unmake!"

This thread is for opinions & discussion about the story. A thread for professional reviews will be created in due time. For questions on release dates and buying the books, see A:TLA & TLOK Graphic Novels in the Marketplace. For speculation of other future comics, please see Official Avatar Comics News thread respectively.


Remember, only post if you've read the comic. As usual, illegal links/scans are NOT allowed to be posted and all forum rules apply.

[Aerial]

You leave that lemur alone for a second and he goes around destroying other people's belongings or kidnapping babies.

Now that part 2 is out, I'd like to formally apologize to Momo for accusing him of property damage (even though he indirectly caused it and he's still a lil' s**t)

[Loopy]

I've made some quasi-humorous observations on my tumblr, but I really want to talk about the ending. It's so refreshing to get one of these comics that isn't a question of, "Will the heroes defeat the bad guys?" or "Will the heroes be able to beat the bad guys up?" The answer to both of those is, "Of course!" and to my great relief, this comic doesn't even pause to pretend it's in doubt. The bad guys pretty much have their scheme scuttled at the end of part 2 (although the larger issues they exploited still loom large, and as we know will continue to do so into LoK). While this could still fall back into a North & South-esque mess for Part 3 (although I doubt it), the question posed by this cliffhanger is an elevation of the storytelling in AtLA comics that has me overjoyed.

That question is: "What will victory do to Aang?"

It doesn't try to make a mystery out of something we know will happen thanks to LoK. It instead makes us wonder if this is where a bad habit of Aang's starts, and how he will change by confronting the dilemma in front of him. Because he will, whatever choice he makes, change as a result of this. That's good storytelling.

And I've been banging that drum for four years now.

It's just so nice.

[Colonel_Brian]

My thoughts exactly. The cliffhanger was really well done. And Toph is just the best in this comic. She has some great lines.

Though I just can’t get over how premature the conflict feels. The war just ended two years ago in the timeline. It seems weird that people are already throwing all benders — Fire, earth, and water —  under the bus, when it would make more sense for the divisions in Cranefish Town to be along racial/national lines. Sokka, I think, says that some  nonbenders look at the war as being caused and propagated by a family of evil benders against them. You’d think that these nonbenders would  just hate the Fire Nation and maybe appreciate the brave earthbenders who defended them from invasion. Though this issue might be lessened if stories like how Gao and his soldiers took advantage of Lee’s village were more widespread. And maybe they are.

[Aerial]

Oh, damn. Now that's a great dilemma to throw at Aang. And I love how it was Toph who threw it at him, since their way of dealing with problems has always been so opposite. The conflict came about naturally, as a result of the characters just being themselves *cough*unlikewhathappenedinThePromise*cough*

Toph really stole the spotlight the entire time, didn't she. Something tells me she's Faith's favourite, and she's doing her justice Also, these two panels were gold:



It really captures Toph's essence. That smirk made me smile like an idiot.

I'm loving Imbalance so far. Looking forward to the last chapter.

[Loopy]

Though I just can’t get over how premature the conflict feels. The war just ended two years ago in the timeline. It seems weird that people are already throwing all benders — Fire, earth, and water —  under the bus, when it would make more sense for the divisions in Cranefish Town to be along racial/national lines. Sokka, I think, says that some  nonbenders look at the war as being caused and propagated by a family of evil benders against them. You’d think that these nonbenders would  just hate the Fire Nation and maybe appreciate the brave earthbenders who defended them from invasion. Though this issue might be lessened if stories like how Gao and his soldiers took advantage of Lee’s village were more widespread. And maybe they are.

Part of the problem is that we don't know what kind of people we're talking about in the former colonies. I would assume most are actual colonists, who are either Fire Nation settlers, Earth Kingdom people who lived under Fire Nation conquest for at least a generation, or the mixed offspring of the first two. But we probably also have immigrants.

(One of my big complaints about Gene Yang's depiction of the Water Tribes is that he's introduced a sprawling Southern Tribe without any kind of buildup, completely didn't address the former isolationist nature of the Northern Tribe, and doesn't seem to have noticed the respective smaller populations of both compared to the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom. So I guess there are just Waterbenders who can pop up anywhere in the colonies now, and it's not considered a huge coincidence when Katara runs into some old friends?)

I would think that the colonists are more likely to see a Bender/nonBender divide than an Earth/Fire divide, especially if they're in one of the colonies that were given independence because they don't want to go back to the Earth Kingdom. Judging by what 'The Promise' showed us, even the oppressed Earth-ethnicity underclass loved Fire Nation culture and saw themselves as better off for having been conquered. If they had a problem with the war, I can see them easily buying into the idea that it's those Benders who made the fighting worse and longer, and give a pass to the Fire Nation culture for its imperialist ambitions.

But then we also have the immigrants, who are going to have the more traditional Earth/Fire divide. But, as you note, we saw an instance of EK people who were oppressed by their own Bender soldier.

But I do think it's notable that, thus far in the franchise, the only place we've seen a Bender/nonBender divide is literally in this one city. Maybe it's just a weird Crane/Republic City thing. Like Americans with their guns.

[Colonel_Brian]

I’m actually really interested in knowing more about the racial politics of the colonies. The Fire Nation during the time of the war viewed them as lesser than people from the homeland. Presumably because they were of mixed heritage? And those of Earth Kingdom heritage probably thought of themselves as Fire Nation subjects if the Promise is anything to go by. So the divide might not be along Fire/Earth lines, though it seems to me that it still sort of is. There was a clear hierarchy in the Promise. The Earth Kingdom occupied a lower tier in colonial society.

And that last bit made me laugh. Maybe Republic City is just unique in it’s social divide.

[Fire Rose]

That question is: "What will victory do to Aang?"

 If Aang's takes what's-her-name's bending away then he's instilling fear into the benders to either hide their abilities or revolt against him. If he doesn't take away her bending then non-benders are going to think he's "siding" with the benders who bully them or get caught in the middle of their turf war.

Energybending has always been seen as a deus-ex-machina/instant win for Aang but now he's going to see that whatever he chooses there is no victory when using energybending. Just look at what happened in LOK when he dealt with Yakone.

[ahintoflime]

Energybending has always been seen as a deus-ex-machina/instant win for Aang but now he's going to see that whatever he chooses there is no victory when using energybending. Just look at what happened in LOK when he dealt with Yakone.

That was more the prison system failing in security though.

[Icy_Ashford]

I enjoyed Part 2 so far, the action is pretty fluid too and I liked the small side scene of Momo vs Cat, that was funny. *prepares tea for Part 3*

[Loopy]

You mean "owl-cat?"

[Colonel_Brian]

I’m pretty sure it was just a cat?

[Loopy]

Certainly, you mean a "catgator."

[Fire Rose]

A "squirrel cat"?

[Loopy]

Or maybe a "cat deer?"

[Colonel_Brian]

No, just cat.

Cranefish Town be weird, y’all. Just weird..alright? Moving on.

I’m wondering how the situation with Liling’s no bending daughter will unfold. If Liling were still at large at the comic’s end, I’d say that they’re obviously building her up to turn on her mom at the end and aid the heroes, but since Liling is already in Aang’s custody and is essentially done for, even if her ideology isn’t, what will become of her?

[Loopy]

She's the first Amon.

I bet Hicks's run end just like 'V for Vendetta.'

[Colonel_Brian]

I’d dig that actually. And it be even more cool if she were the real Amon and that makeup wearing imposter was just a fake created by Lin or one of the higher ups to discredit the Equalist movement. That’s right, folks, the real Amon is still out there plotting her next move.  

[Aerial]

Anybody got a link to the official preview for part 3? I've seen a couple of images floating around Tumblr, but they're very low-quality and hard to read.

[Aerial]

Sorry for the double post, but I found some higher quality images. Colours are a little over-saturated and it's still kinda hard to read, but it's something. Spoilers ahead:

https://66.media.tumblr.com/8175041b3846f60d14bedc04e38d3ce6/tumblr_pupmp6Zjr91rq7s0ao1_1280.jpg
https://66.media.tumblr.com/d4fadf1e021a9c38cfc5a48302303599/tumblr_pupmp6Zjr91rq7s0ao3_1280.jpg
https://66.media.tumblr.com/7b59e70dcf6361767656d55e7b632197/tumblr_pupmp6Zjr91rq7s0ao4_1280.jpg
https://66.media.tumblr.com/2a22be874539f94d24c83499981ef042/tumblr_pupmp6Zjr91rq7s0ao2_1280.jpg
https://66.media.tumblr.com/606859cf433a335988816221b06cb0f7/tumblr_pupmp6Zjr91rq7s0ao5_1280.jpg

Loving Aang and Sokka's conversation. Council woman seems to have a serious case of cognitive dissonance as regards her daughter, as expected. Also, this shot is cool:



It's nice to see these two butting heads again. Been a while

[ViridianIV]

I'd just like to take this moment to welcome Sokka back to the Avatar universe!  The previous books have captured his sense of humor on a surface level... but frankly about the closest any of the other books before Imbalance here come to capturing who sokka really is... was that one time Suki pointed out to a frustrated Aang that at one juncture 'what Sokka would do is sneak off and investigate on his own!'... he wasn't even IN the book so we had to see him through his impact on another character.

Sokka was one of the main sources the comic relief throughout AtLA, but the reason he succeeded here someone like Bolin failed was because Sokka wasn't JUST the comic relief, he was also the grand strategist, the clever one whom everyone could look to when the chips were down to finagle a win from a seemingly impossible scenario and his companions knew this, respected this, and respected this MORE than they respected his ability to make them laugh... not that laughter isn't important or anything.

He's back here, he's being funny but also pulling his weight, he's Sokka.  Welcome back buddy!

[Loopy]

[AtoMaki]

So, after reading Part 1 and Part 2 (they arrived together), I'm having major Sokka's Master feelings, but it is complicated because the real source of the problem is not a bender / non-bender difference but capitalist profiteering. But then the comic is addressing the bender / non-bender difference and I can't see how this can produce a satisfying resolution. And if there will be no satisfying resolution (there won't be because the aforementioned source is generating conflict in TLOk too), then how will the story end?

HOWEVER, there is Suki, and she actually does something very important, so I can't complain. Also, Aang was killing it with the Spike (from Cowboy Bebop) disguise.

[Loopy]

It will end with the gAang staring at a sunset together, having just committed to living in Crane Republic City in order to help deal with the ongoing problems, and then Toph will say, "We're going to be dealing with this mud for the rest of our lives, aren't we?"

[AtoMaki]

I mean, how will the bender/non-bender conflict end?