June 2017 guys! That's not even that far away! Not like me having to wait a year and a half for the next season of Humans to even get a release date. Now that was torture.
So, yes, Korra comics are happening, I have been freaking out about it nonstop for the past... actually, if Google is to be believed, the news only came out twenty hours ago. Still. Nonstop. For a while.
We even get a kickass promotional image:
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| Courtesy of Dark Horse, of course. |
Let me just talk about this for a moment.
First of all, I'm super excited. I love the Korra world. I mean, I love the Avatar world in general, but Korra in particular, with the steampunk aesthetic? That's kind of my jam. And there are stories happening here that just wouldn't be in the A:tLA world. I mean, the graphic novel is called Turf Wars. Republic City, gang fights and spirit conflict, oh my! I'm more stoked than I should be about the gang fights, honestly.
And why is that? Well, probably because I suspect that that will be the subplot most focused on my favourite pair of bros, Mako and Bolin.
Which... I really need to talk about this.
Bolin is wearing a cop uniform in this image.
Bolin is a cop.
I have mixed feelings about this.
Mixed because, on one hand, it makes a certain amount of sense. Bolin is all about helping people, as I have reiterated time and time again. He certainly has the skills to do it. And he definitely needed something new to do, since the whole being in Kuvira's army thing didn't really work out.
But... that's kind of the root of my problem with it. Being a cop is very different from the kind of helping that Bolin thrives with. Even when he was in the army, you didn't see him fighting, you saw him handing out food.
On the other hand, Bolin is about helping the helpless (a la Angel Investigations. I'm sorry I love too many things way too much) and being a cop certainly allows him to do that, if he gets involved in the right sort of cases.
The other thing is that in a way, I almost feel as though this undoes his character development. If we interpret Bolin's arc as having him grow and mature into an independent person following his own destiny (which I do), then having him have the same job as Mako - especially one wherein Mako has seniority - kind of puts him back at square one. The point was having him grow apart from Mako, right? And now, according to one half of Bryke (I think it was Michael DiMartino) they're partners on the force. Doesn't that seem like a little bit of a regression?
It's hard to judge without seeing how it's written. It could actually be really nice to see how the brothers interact when they're having to work together and actually regard each other as equals. There's real potential there. But I feel like it can be really easy to fall back into the big brother/little brother dynamic, and by extension, pull Bolin back a little bit, and I don't think it would have wonderful effects on Mako's character development either (I haven't entirely articulated Mako's arc in my head, so it's more difficult for me to discuss that).
Put another way, there's this wonderful meta on Mako and Bolin's character designs, their costumes, and how their character development informs their costume changes through the series. It kind of contextualizes my feelings about how they're literally wearing the same uniform now.
(There's also the fact that I and a friend share a beloved headcanon that Bolin ends up owning an orphanage with Opal, because that seems in line with their way of helping, and I'm extremely protective of this headcanon, but I do recognize that this is not exactly a valid reason to critique this choice, so...)
It all depends on the execution, honestly. I really do see potential here, but I fear for my son, and the possibility of his development being sacrificed in favour of buddy cop gimmicks.
That all being said, Avatar comics have a good track record thus far. Both The Promise and The Search (being the only ones I've read as of yet) are mind-blowingly good, especially as a Buffy fan who's had to deal with Season 8 comic books. Yeah, it's fair to say I was leery. But so far, they've been really, really good, so I have to trust that the writers will be able to pull this off in a way that doesn't cheapen what happened in the series.
So now let's get to what I really should talk about, if I weren't so hyper-focused on one character. Let's talk about Korra, and Asami. And Korrasami.
I'm excited.
This was another thing I was leery about when it came to the comics, mostly because the Korrasami ending of the show seemed forced to me, and even after having read meta about why it made sense, it just... doesn't click for me as being a relationship that was developed. The statement I like to make is this: I'm not opposed to it as a concept. I can even see how they could potentially work really well together as a couple. But the way it was executed made it seem out of the blue.
The creators, judging by Michael DiMartino's few comments, seem to have acknowledged this, so it looks as though they're making an effort to really fully explore the relationship further in the comic books. Which I'm super stoked about. I want Korrasami to make sense to me! I want it to click in my head! Show me how they develop! This is all I needed!
Also, conflict between people and the spirit world. I've seen people act like this is a hokey plot - something about a developer wanting to profit off of the new spirit portal by turning it into an amusement park? But this is something I'm actually really open to. Mostly because, for all that the spirits were an important symbol of Korra following her own heart instead of the Avatars before her, it isn't really developed what that means for the world at large. Surely there's going to be a bit of a culture shock, to say the least?
Look, I understand the skeptical reaction to this plotline, but it also seems like the best possible way to represent a way in which spirits and humans seem to be forever at odds: people's need for advancement and profit, versus the spirits' (from what little we know of them) contentment to just exist, and highly territorial attitude. I see a ton of story potential here, and I'm very curious to see where they go with it.
Anyway, all this to say that I am going to buy this damn graphic novel so fast, and I will probably have a lot to say about it but I will also probably adore it because I adore Korra. It's been a long time since I've been this excited about something like this. I'm used to waiting for good things. I will happily squirm for seven months because I believe in these writers.
I'm so freaking excited, guys.
(There's also the fact that I and a friend share a beloved headcanon that Bolin ends up owning an orphanage with Opal, because that seems in line with their way of helping, and I'm extremely protective of this headcanon, but I do recognize that this is not exactly a valid reason to critique this choice, so...)
It all depends on the execution, honestly. I really do see potential here, but I fear for my son, and the possibility of his development being sacrificed in favour of buddy cop gimmicks.
That all being said, Avatar comics have a good track record thus far. Both The Promise and The Search (being the only ones I've read as of yet) are mind-blowingly good, especially as a Buffy fan who's had to deal with Season 8 comic books. Yeah, it's fair to say I was leery. But so far, they've been really, really good, so I have to trust that the writers will be able to pull this off in a way that doesn't cheapen what happened in the series.
So now let's get to what I really should talk about, if I weren't so hyper-focused on one character. Let's talk about Korra, and Asami. And Korrasami.
I'm excited.
This was another thing I was leery about when it came to the comics, mostly because the Korrasami ending of the show seemed forced to me, and even after having read meta about why it made sense, it just... doesn't click for me as being a relationship that was developed. The statement I like to make is this: I'm not opposed to it as a concept. I can even see how they could potentially work really well together as a couple. But the way it was executed made it seem out of the blue.
The creators, judging by Michael DiMartino's few comments, seem to have acknowledged this, so it looks as though they're making an effort to really fully explore the relationship further in the comic books. Which I'm super stoked about. I want Korrasami to make sense to me! I want it to click in my head! Show me how they develop! This is all I needed!
Also, conflict between people and the spirit world. I've seen people act like this is a hokey plot - something about a developer wanting to profit off of the new spirit portal by turning it into an amusement park? But this is something I'm actually really open to. Mostly because, for all that the spirits were an important symbol of Korra following her own heart instead of the Avatars before her, it isn't really developed what that means for the world at large. Surely there's going to be a bit of a culture shock, to say the least?
Look, I understand the skeptical reaction to this plotline, but it also seems like the best possible way to represent a way in which spirits and humans seem to be forever at odds: people's need for advancement and profit, versus the spirits' (from what little we know of them) contentment to just exist, and highly territorial attitude. I see a ton of story potential here, and I'm very curious to see where they go with it.
Anyway, all this to say that I am going to buy this damn graphic novel so fast, and I will probably have a lot to say about it but I will also probably adore it because I adore Korra. It's been a long time since I've been this excited about something like this. I'm used to waiting for good things. I will happily squirm for seven months because I believe in these writers.
I'm so freaking excited, guys.
