10 Best Avatar: The Last Airbender Comics, Ranked

Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender is inarguably one of the greatest animated shows of all time. The show’s relatable characters, heart-pounding action, hysterical humor, immersive worldbuilding, and deep messages have earned it millions of fans worldwide. And over the years, the Avatar franchise has only grown with the sequel series Avatar: The Legend of Korra, a third installment in production, and a Netflix live-action adaptation show. Yet, as with many popular franchises, the series initially expanded through comic books. Published by Dark Horse Comics, the Avatar: The Last Airbender comics feature incredible tales set during and after the show and take the characters of this beloved series in engaging new directions.

From short and lighthearted stories to gripping epics that tackle heavy themes, Aang and the rest of Team Avatar evolve even further within the pages of Dark Horse Comics. These are the best comics that understood what made Avatar: The Last Airbender such a masterpiece.

10) Toph Beifong’s Metalbending Academy

Toph cemented herself as the greatest Earthbender of all time when she invented metalbending, a form once thought to be impossible. Her Metalbending Academy flourishes, with numerous students excelling in their classes. Unfortunately for Toph, she finds herself bored and stifled by the new routine and longs for the days when she was a rebellious underground fighter. The story offers a great look into Toph’s character and how she’s matured over the years while also learning to appreciate the life that she’s made for herself. Toph Beifong’s Metalbending Academy is a fun short story that develops one of the series’ best characters even further.

9) The Lost Adventures

Over the course of three seasons, Team Avatar had countless misadventures as it travelled the world and fought the Fire Nation. The Lost Adventures is an anthology of short stories set during the show, featuring Team Avatar having various antics. While most of the shorts are fun and comedic, others like “Relics” and “The Bridge” also offer emotional and even tragic moments. “Relics” has Aang grieving the loss of his people, while “The Bridge” has Katara trying to maintain her sense of hope after the Fire Nation conquered the Earth Kingdom. It’s this mixture of lighthearted and serious tones that made Avatar: The Last Airbender so special, and The Lost Adventures continues that tradition.

8) Katara and the Pirate’s Silver

Set during season 2 of the show, Katara and the Pirate’s Silver is a fun story in which Katara goes on her own epic adventure. After being separated from the rest of Team Avatar, Katara finds herself deep in Fire Nation territory. She’s forced to work with a pirate crew so that she can escape and find her friends. Katara’s master Waterbending quickly proves to be helpful to the pirates, and she befriends them. The pirates themselves are also fun characters with interesting personalities and motivations. Katara and the Pirate’s Silver is a light and hysterical one-shot where Katara tries to act tough to fit in with her crew of swash-buckling pirates.

7) Suki, Alone

In Avatar: The Last Airbender, there was a period when Suki, the skilled Kyoshi warrior and love interest of Sokka, went missing after a confrontation with the evil Fire Nation Princess Azula. Twenty episodes later, we discover that she was in a Fire Nation prison, from which Sokka and Zuko subsequently rescued her. Suki, Alone chronicles her months spent in prison. Suki tries to maintain hope while also struggling with her feelings of isolation and despair. The story explores aspects of Suki’s upbringing and her indomitable will to persevere and fight, even in the darkest places. Suki, Alone offers one of the most in-depth character studies of Suki in the entire franchise.

6) Imbalance

The first season of Avatar: The Legend of Korra explores the inequality and separation between benders and non-benders. Imbalance takes the ideas presented in that season back to their roots with Team Avatar. As technology advances, the gap between benders and non-benders becomes smaller. With this change in society, a Bender Supremacist group emerges to reassert its dominance over the lowly non-benders. The story is a superb examination of this societal divide and inequality. Even the Team Avatar members have sharply different ideas on how best to approach this delicate and complex situation. Overall, Imbalance brings new compelling villains, hilarious comedy, interesting character arcs for each member of Team Avatar, and lays the groundwork for the change in the world that is presented in Avatar: The Legend of Korra.

5) Smoke and Shadow

One of the darkest Avatar comics, Smoke and Shadow is a political thriller. In many ways, it is a direct sequel to the critically acclaimed comic storyline The Search. The main narrative focuses on Zuko struggling with his role as Fire Lord during a time of crisis for the Fire Nation. A group of insurrectionists causes chaos as it demands the return of Zuko’s evil father, Fire Lord Ozai to the throne. At the same time, a mysterious group of “spirits” begins abducting Fire Nation children. Smoke and Shadow is a suspenseful tale filled with mystery as it delves into Zuko’s fear of becoming like his father while also exploring in greater detail his family, friends, and country at large.

4) North and South

The first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender centered around Katara and Sokka traveling with Aang from their home of the Southern Water Tribe to the Northern Water Tribe on the other side of the planet. In North and South, set after the events of the series, the Avatar Gang returns to the South Pole to see that their small village had been transformed into a massive city thanks to visitors from the North Pole. The story explores complex questions about how much identity and culture people should give up in the name of progress. Furthermore, there’s the added tension of whether the North’s aid to the South marks the start of a beneficial reconnection between the two nations, or just another form of colonization and exploitation.

3) The Rift

Ever since her introductory episode, a significant part of Toph Beifong’s character has been formed in reaction to her overbearing parents. She ran away from her oppressive home to help Team Avatar save the world. The Rift sees that story arc reach its natural conclusion when, after the events of the series, Toph is reunited with her estranged father, Lao Beifong. The story explores the father and daughter’s fractured relationship, as Lao is both regretful and resentful of Toph’s leaving home. Things get worse when Lao’s factory in Cranefish Town is attacked by a gigantic and wrathful spirit named General Old Iron. The Rift offers incredibly moving character interactions, a strong environmental message, and the origin of one of the most essential locations in Avatar: The Legend of Korra.

2) The Promise

Set immediately after the events of the series finale, The Promise explores how different characters and the world evolve after the end of the Hundred-Year War. The story tackles decolonization, as Fire Lord Zuko plans to remove his Fire Nation colonies from the Earth Kingdom. In the story, tensions rise when it’s revealed that the Fire Nation colonialists had been intermarrying with Earth Kingdom natives for generations. Many Earthbenders even identify themselves as Fire Nation citizens and refuse to have their families torn apart. As for the characters themselves, Toph establishes her Metalbending Academy, Aang struggles with his role as the Avatar, and Zuko fears becoming like his father. The Promise showed us that one ending only leads to a new beginning, for both its characters and the world.

1) The Search

If there was one question that fans were left wondering after the Avatar: The Last Airbender finale, it’s what happened to Zuko’s mom, Ursa. In the show, Ursa had vanished into the night when Zuko was just a child. After years of no answers, The Search finally explains what happened to her. Team Avatar and Azula work together to unravel the mystery surrounding Ursa’s backstory, why she left, and where she had gone. It’s an incredibly heartfelt story that takes Zuko’s already messy familial relationship in a bold new direction, with emotional storytelling that would have a lasting impact on future comics. Like the best Avatar: the Last Airbender comics, it both wraps up unanswered story threads while also leaving room for brand new stories to be told.

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