Aang's skills as the Avatar are put to the test when he attempts to rescue a village from a monster that's come from the spirit world. When he fails miserably, Sokka is kidnapped and accidentally pulled into the spirit world himself! Once there, will he gain the knowledge and experience it will take to bring peace back to the village?
Michael Dante DiMartino is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. His directing credits include the animated series King of the Hill, Family Guy, and Mission Hill. He is a co-creator of the award-winning animated Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel, The Legend of Korra. DiMartino lives in Los Angeles with his wife. The Rebel Geniuses series is his debut prose work.
This issue covers The Spirit World: Winter Solstice Part 1. I must have gotten a new copy because the colors are rich and seem to jump off the pages of this issue. They look better than screen captures from the Nickelodeon cartoon. Sadly that is as far as it goes. The rest of it is really juvenile. Much worse than the cartoon even. I don't remember it being this dumb, or geared towards what feels like 3rd grade reading level with statements like the below:- Aang is oblivious as the spirit monster whisks Sokka away in its large claws.
As they are flying across the land, the Gaang notices acres and acres of burnt forest. They land, and discover a nearby village is in need of the Avatar’s help. An angry spirit is on the rampage, and the Winter Solstice—a time when the natural world and the Spirit World draw closer enough to merge—is close. Aang’s first attempt ends in failure, and ends with him crossing over into the Spirit World, from which he has no idea how to return.
Again, the creators of this book are extremely lazy, with the artwork and script coming almost solely from the show. I didn’t notice any errors this time around, but I also don’t know this episode as well as some of the others.
The night screenshots seemed a little dark, and a there was a moment or two the exposition seemed like a little much. Aside from that, this book was about the same crappy quality as the rest of this series.