It’s not something that changes my love for the show, nor am I asking anyone reading to do so, especially as there are still so many reasons to love it, from its ability to talk about genocide in a child-friendly way to its treatment of women of all ages, and its whole story just being great in general. Nothing can fully repair that problem that’s at the core of Avatar: The Last Airbender. They did some due-diligence with the hiring of Sifu Kisu for developing the bending styles, and (the elusive to Google) Edwin Zane as a cultural consultant, but the reality is that the Avatar creators had nothing real to say about “Asia,” they just used the aesthetics to create a world that stood out. This is further compounded by the majority of the creative force behind the franchise being white, from the creators, to actors. I recently read a piece by Ronald Wimberly about this, the colonization involved in this cultural flattening, and the way that American creators have used/stolen “Asian” aesthetics with little to no care. There is simply no reasonable way to represent everyone there.

There are over 4.5 billion people who live there, across 48 (or so) countries. The idea that there is some collective “Asia” that exists is silly on every possible level. Both “Asian” and “inspired” are loaded terms to some degree, but the former is a much bigger issue than the latter, for various reasons. You ask most fans of Avatar-and the creators even-how to describe it, they’ll likely use the term “Asian-inspired’. North and South is their last time collaborating on the series as of now, but their presence on the title addresses one of the greatest flaws that exists in the franchise in general. Yang and Gurihiru working on Avatar: The Last Airbender comics is basically pulled from one of my dreams. They made Superman Smashes the Klan with Yang, to great acclaim, and I would argue it as being one of the best all-ages comics in existence. Even outside of all-ages work they stand out, with a style that is easy to understand while being gorgeous. Gurihiru is one of the best all ages artists, full stop. Listen to the latest episode of our weekly comics podcast!

Avatar the last airbender north and south omnibus