Avatar: The Last Airbender Comic Books in Order to Read
We already covered Avatar: The Last Airbender books to read, and now we will cover graphic novels and comics available for reading in order as well. We learned from the previous article that Avatar: The Last Airbender has a lot to offer – world-building, stories, legacies, and just interesting facts that are making fans of the show come back to these stories.
This article will provide you with a list of comics to read in order with all details on what are they about, are they canon, and if they affect the main animated show much. We at Fiction Horizon, present you Avatar: The Last Airbender comic books in order to read. There are a lot of comic books related to the Avatar: The Last Airbender show, so buckle up!
Avatar: The Last Airbender Comic Book List In Order
- The Lost Adventures
- Katara and the Pirate’s Silver
- Suki, Alone
- Team Avatar Tales
- The Promise
- The Search
- The Rift
- Toph Beifong’s Metalbending Academy
- Smoke and Shadow
- North and South
- Imbalance
There are a lot of graphic novels, comic books, and other collections created as a part of the Avatar: The Last Airbender series, including some that are not canon. We will try to go through every single one of them and guide you on which you need to read in chronological order for a better Avatar experience – what happens to the Four Nations after the end of the Hundred Year War, how Avatar can fully come back after being absent so long, and how Team Avatar is handling being saviors of the world.
Avatar: The Last Airbender comic books and graphic novels are critically acclaimed pieces of media, and fans love them as well. Since the ending of the show, comics did an amazing job of portraying the characters after the War and showed us a lot of details about them that we did not get in the original show.
It also introduces us to new characters, that appear in The Legend of Korra show, and clears up some uncertain facts about some things the show never had time to explain. Their relevancy is quite important to future projects of the Avatar franchise, which is already a good reason to start reading them.
We will not include comic books that are not canon and do not affect storylines of the Avatar world, which include separate stories like Zuko’s Story, which was made as a prequel to The Last Airbender live-action movie. Non-canon comic books are also New Recruits and Gym Time, comic books that feature chibi-style Avatar characters.
Also, we will be listing graphic novels and comic books, which differ in terms of format – graphic novels are essentially books presented in comic-strip format, and comic books are simply comic books.
Avatar: The Last Airbender Comic Book List In Order (Fully Explained)
1. The Lost Adventures
This series is essentially an anthology that includes unpublished comics, and minicomics that were included as part of Book Two: Earth and Book Three: Fire DVD volumes, and many other works.
These stories act as the fillers to the Avatar series and fill up the gaps in the show’s lore like electing a new king in the Earth Kingdom and the state of the capital city Ba Sing Se.
Book One: Water has these stories included:
- Bee Calm
- Water War
- Don’t Blow It
- Relics
- Fruit-Stand Freestyle
Book Two: Earth includes these next comic books:
- Sleepbending
- Lessons
- Sokka the Avatar
- Dirty is Only Skin Deep
- Divided We Fall
- Reach for the Toph
- It’s Only Natural
- Going Home Again
- The Bridge
Book Three: Fire has these comics in its collection:
- Private Fire
- Night Animals
- Boys’ Day Out
- Ember Island Arcade
- Monster Slayer
- Combustion Man on a Train
- Swordbending
- No Benders Allowed
- Love is a Battlefield
- Dragon Days
- Game Time
- Bumi vs. Toph, Round One
As we already mentioned, these are all stories set in the middle of the Avatar series, so if you are interested in more details from the show, definitely check out these comic books. Also, it is good to read them after each season ends.
2. Katara and the Pirate’s Silver
This standalone graphic novel is also set during Avatar: The Last Bender series that follows Katara as she gets separated from her friends during the events of Book Two: Earth. While flying over the Earth Kingdom, Katara falls off Appa into the river that takes her to a town that is filled with Fire Nation soldiers. There she meets Captain Jiang of the ship called Flying Wolfbat and goes on the journey with her and her crew. Being aboard the ship, Katara experiences great adventures that she later tells her friends.
Cool comic book story that enhances the experiences Team Avatar went through during their adventure in the Earth Kingdom.
3. Suki, Alone
Similar name to one of the best episodes in the Avatar series called Zuko, Alone, this time follows Suki during her imprisonment in the Boiling Rock. which occurred in Book Three: Fire. This standalone comic shows Suki trying to stay sane in the prison and even recruiting other prisoners to escape or just start the riot. This is propelled by the fact that she is separated from Team Avatar and her Kyoshi Warrior sister, and Suki tries her best.
This comic book, like its colleague, the episode Zuko, Alone, truly presents people trying their best to be separated from their loved ones and testing their psyche against tyrants like the Fire Nation. We won’t spoil anything, just encourage you to read it, we warmly recommend it.
4. Team Avatar Tales
One-shot anthology of stories that are set during and after TV series.
- Rebound is the first comic in this anthology and follows Mai, who recently broke up with Zuko. She meets Kei Lo, a charming teenager who wants to take her on a date. After a pleasant meal, Kei Lo takes Mai to the room where her father is waiting for her and tells her he refused Zuko’s offer of a job in the newly established government and stayed an Ozai loyalist. Everything escalates from there, so if you are interested in what happened next definitely check out this comic. As you can already gather, this story takes place after the War and Zuko’s start of rebuilding the Fire Nation.
- The Substitute is a comic that follows Sokka, who during Team Avatar’s stay in Fire Nation decides to find some snacks and enjoy his day. However, while disguised and wandering through the city, he mistakenly gets recruited as a teacher for hire at a Fire Nation School. Afterward, chaos ensues and rips off his mustache. Cool and funny story, which is never questioned when Sokka is involved.
- Shells are set around Sokka and Suki while they are browsing through the seashell store. The store owner acts rudely toward the young girl and Suki intervenes by yelling at the rude man. Sokka then tells her or rather, suggests to her that Suki should teach the girl and her friends self-defense like Avatar Kyoshi taught the original Kyoshi Warriors.
- Sokka’s Poem follows Sokka thinking about his achievements despite his inability to bend. Katara and Sokka then stumble across a pirate captain who they fight, and Sokka talks about his successes and adventures, like saving Suki from Boiling Rock and others. A cool little story with Sokka as the main character.
- Toph and The Boulder follow the story of Toph reuniting with The Boulder, an earthbender she had to fight in Earth Rumble Tournaments. She discovers Boulder’s pet called The Pebble which he hides to protect his tough-guy image. Toph later wants to take him to the veterinary.
- Origami takes place in the Earth Kingdom where Katara comes across a small village under attack by the Fire Nation. After fending off the enemies and protecting a small girl and her father, Katara saves the day.
- Sisters follow Ty Lee’s admiration for Kyoshi Warriors but feel down. Toph notices this and takes her to her old sister where Ty Lee is reunited with her six identical sisters. A cool story about bonding and respecting teamwork.
- The Scarecrow is a comic book story set after the graphic novel trilogy Imbalance where Team Avatar goes out one night when Momo wanders off into a pumpkin patch. Team Avatar discovers suspicious activity there and goes on to help with the problem.
5. The Promise
The Promise is a graphic novel trilogy that continues the Avatar: The Last Airbender story after the ending of the show. More specifically, after the end of the Hundred Year War and serves as a link to The Legend of Korra sequel. The story follows Team Avatar who join once again to restore the piece between Fire Lord Zuko and Earth King Kuei. During that time Toph travels the world to teach metalbending and founds a school for metalbenders, while others are trying to settle the issue of Fire Nation colonies in the Earth Kingdom.
This is all happening one year after Aang defeated Ozai and the plot of this trilogy is happening in a span of one week. We won’t spoil anything else since this graphic novel lays the foundation for The Legend of Korra series.
- The Promise Part One
- The Promise Part Two
- The Promise Part Three
6. The Search
This graphic novel takes place after the events of The Promise events. The story focuses on Zuko and Azula as they search for their mother Ursa, who disappeared during Hundred Year War. Team Avatar comes to help to keep Azula in check – at the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Azula had a mental breakdown.
- The Search Part One
- The Search Part Two
- The Search Part Three
They go through a lot of obstacles, and Azula being Azula, makes things harder but Zuko and the rest of the Team Avatar help immensely. Definitely worth reading.
7. The Rift
The Rift continues after The Search and it explores Aang, his friends, and Air Nomads. We even get Avatar Yangchen’s cameo in this comic book, which propellers Aang to revive an old Air Nomad holiday. The Rift, as the word suggests, causes a rift between Toph and Aang’s opinions about progress – this storyline is also important for The Legend of Korra.
Meanwhile, Avatar Aang also needs to decide if spirits and people can co-exist together in the same world (another huge storyline in The Legends of Korra).
- The Rift Part One
- The Rift Part Two
- The Rift Part Three
8. Toph Beifong’s Metalbending Academy
We already mentioned that Toph wandered the world and taught benders all over the world metalbending. This time, Toph decides to found Metalbending Academy and teach her students about this rare ability. At first, Toph is bored out of her mind but when Sokka and Suki visit her, things get really interesting. We also get cameos of lavabending, another rare ability that occurred only a few times in Avatar world.
Another important comic story for The Legend of Korra.
9. Smoke and Shadow
Another graphic novel trilogy comes after The Rift and it follows Aang and Zuko as they are trying to resolve conflicts that are physical and spiritual. While doing that, they also need to do something about the New Ozai Society, which supports the old regime. Aang and Zuko get help from Mai, whose father is part of the New Ozai Society.
- Smoke and Shadow Part One
- Smoke and Shadow Part Two
- Smoke and Shadow Part Three
10. North and South
North and South graphic novel trilogy come next and it follows this time Katara and Sokka, who return to their Southern Water Tribe and find it quite different. Southern Water Tribe is not a small tribe anymore but a bustling city led by Sokka’s and Katara’s father, Hakoda. He could not do it by himself – he had help from a woman from Water Tribe called Malina.
This comic book deals with problems Sokka and Katara encounter and skeptics about the unification of two Water Tribes.
- North and South Part One
- North and South Part Two
- North and South Part Three
11. Imbalance
Team Avatar returns to the Earthen Fire Refinery in Cranefish Town. However, their arrival was not welcomed with open hands. Bender and non-benders are in huge conflict and Team Avatar once again needs to join their forces to bring the piece to Cranefish Town. Aang finds himself in a difficult spot – he needs to choose the ideals of Toph or Katara who do not agree on the matter of this comic book story.
This novel also shows how hard is to be an Avatar and decide on people’s destinies.
- Imbalance Part One
- Imbalance Part Two
- Imbalance Part Three
How Many Avatar The Last Airbender Comics Are There?
As you can already gather, canonical standalone comics, graphic novels, and anthologies have in total of 11 releases, with five more releases that were later paired up with other collections and do not have any particularly important story that will impact the future of the Avatar world. What we listed here, are the most important ones to read, that would later be important for The Legend of Korra series.
If we include three comic books that are not canon to the Avatar story, then we will have 19 available comic books to read. It is safe to say, the content regarding Avatar: The Last Airbender does not lack at all, and if you are interested, you will have a lot of reading to do.
In the end, we can conclude that it is worth it, as a lore filler, finding out about the fates of our characters and a great starter before The Legend of Korra series.
Thank you for reading, and until the next time!
