Legend of Korra: Turf Wars, part three

by Michael Dante DiMartino, Irene Koh, Vivian Ng, Marissa Louise & Nate Piekos
Avatar: The Last Airbender reviews: one | two
The Legend of Korra reviews: one | two | three

The conclusion of Turf Wars pulls itself together and delivers an exciting ending, but it can’t fully make up for the story’s weaknesses.

Listen, if you’re here for Korrasami (Korra and Asami’s relationship) and only Korrasami, you’re going to love this – and there is nothing wrong with that. It’s wonderful and gratifying to see them actually have a relationship even if it’s outside the official series. The downsides of the story certainly don’t cancel that out…

…but because so much of the story doesn’t have room to breathe, Korra and Asami’s relationship feels similarly cramped. So much in Turf Wars deserved more – Tokuga’s half-baked development (along with all the other new characters), the rushed ending, the implications of a new spirit portal; not to mention the huge cast, most of whom spends a majority of time in the background. And yes, Korrasami deserved more too: while we get a lovely scene with them at the end, they spend most of this volume apart. The ending scene is convincing because of the three seasons of the show, not this last arc – so in a sense, it falls flat.

There’s still a whole lot of good here – Zhu Li takes center stage as candidate for president, and she demonstrates an innate political ability to do the right thing, but also ham it up for the cameras. (I hope she doesn’t retreat into the background next time.) Also, Bolin shows some promise as he leaves the force; Mako finally overcomes the weirdness of his exes dating each other; and there’s some great banter between Tenzin and Korra.

Koh, Ng and Louise’s art remains hit or miss. Some panels look like they’ve been taken straight from the series – and the colors also really help with that. But others look disproportionate or rushed. I complained about Varrick last time, and here his design is completely different. (Also, the cover is so busy and at the same time uninspired.)

So far, Korra’s comic book adaptation is like a raindrop in a desert. It’s doing so much good and trying to do so much in very few pages. Whether or not I keep reading really depends on how much I’m willing to put up with that.