10 Best Avatar: The Last Airbender Comics, Ranked

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Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender is widely considered one of the best animated series ever created. Its compelling characters, exciting action, funny moments, detailed world, and meaningful themes have attracted a huge global fanbase. The Avatar universe has continued to expand with the sequel series Avatar: The Legend of Korra, a new installment currently in development, and a live-action adaptation coming to Netflix. Like many popular stories, Avatar first grew beyond the original show through comic books. Published by Dark Horse Comics, these Avatar: The Last Airbender comics tell fantastic stories that take place during and after the events of the series, offering fresh and captivating adventures for the characters we love.

Dark Horse Comics offers a fantastic continuation of Aang and Team Avatar’s story, ranging from fun, quick reads to more complex and dramatic tales. These comics truly capture the spirit of what made Avatar: The Last Airbender so special.

10) Toph Beifong’s Metalbending Academy

Toph proved she was the most talented Earthbender ever by discovering metalbending, a technique everyone believed was impossible. Her school for metalbending is thriving, with many students doing well. However, Toph feels restless and constrained by her new, settled life and misses the excitement of her days as a daring underground fighter. The story beautifully explores Toph’s growth and maturity over the years, while also showing her coming to terms with and appreciating the life she’s built. Toph Beifong’s Metalbending Academy is an enjoyable short story that expands on one of the series’ most beloved characters.

9) The Lost Adventures

Throughout their journey across the world battling the Fire Nation, Team Avatar experienced many exciting and often humorous adventures. The Lost Adventures is a collection of short stories that take place during the events of the show, showcasing the team in a variety of situations. While many of these shorts are lighthearted and funny, some, like “Relics” and “The Bridge,” are more emotionally powerful, even heartbreaking. “Relics” explores Aang’s grief over the loss of his people, and “The Bridge” shows Katara struggling to stay hopeful after the Fire Nation’s conquest of the Earth Kingdom. This blend of humor and heartfelt moments was a key part of what made Avatar: The Last Airbender so beloved, and The Lost Adventures successfully captures that same spirit.

8) Katara and the Pirate’s Silver

Taking place during the second season of the show, Katara and the Pirate’s Silver is an enjoyable story that sends Katara on a solo adventure. When she gets separated from Team Avatar, Katara ends up in the middle of Fire Nation territory. To escape and reunite with her friends, she has to team up with a group of pirates. Katara’s Waterbending skills quickly become valuable to the pirates, and she develops friendships with them. The pirate crew is also a memorable bunch, each with their own unique personalities and reasons for being pirates. Katara and the Pirate’s Silver is a lighthearted and funny standalone story where Katara tries to appear strong and fit in with her pirate companions.

7) Suki, Alone

In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Suki, a talented warrior and Sokka’s girlfriend, disappeared after a battle with the villainous Fire Nation Princess Azula. It was revealed twenty episodes later that she had been held captive in a Fire Nation prison, and was eventually rescued by Sokka and Zuko. Suki, Alone tells the story of her time in prison, focusing on her struggle to stay hopeful while battling feelings of loneliness and despair. The story delves into Suki’s past and highlights her unwavering strength and determination, even in the face of extreme hardship. Suki, Alone provides the most detailed look into Suki’s character within the entire Avatar franchise.

6) Imbalance

The first season of Avatar: The Legend of Korra dealt with the tensions between those who could bend elements and those who couldn’t. Imbalance revisits these themes, focusing on the original Team Avatar. As technology improves, the difference in power between benders and non-benders starts to fade, but this leads to the rise of a group believing benders are superior. The story is a great look at this social division and unfairness, and even Team Avatar members disagree on how to handle it. Overall, Imbalance introduces strong new villains, plenty of humor, develops each Team Avatar member in interesting ways, and sets the stage for the world seen in Avatar: The Legend of Korra.

5) Smoke and Shadow

The Avatar comic Smoke and Shadow is a gripping political thriller and a direct continuation of the popular The Search storyline. It centers on Fire Lord Zuko as he faces a crisis within the Fire Nation. A rebel group is causing trouble, demanding the return of Zuko’s tyrannical father, Fire Lord Ozai. Simultaneously, strange spirits begin kidnapping children from the Fire Nation. Smoke and Shadow is a suspenseful and mysterious story that explores Zuko’s fear of repeating his father’s mistakes, while also providing a deeper look into his relationships and the state of the Fire Nation.

4) North and South

The first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender followed Katara, Sokka, and Aang’s journey from their home in the Southern Water Tribe to the Northern Water Tribe. The follow-up story, North and South, takes place after the series ends and shows the Avatar team returning to find their village drastically changed into a large city due to visitors from the North. The story raises thoughtful questions about how much of a person’s culture and identity should be sacrificed for the sake of advancement. It also creates tension around whether the North’s help is a positive step towards rebuilding a relationship with the South, or simply a new form of control and unfair treatment.

3) The Rift

Toph Beifong’s story has always been shaped by her difficult relationship with her parents. She left home to join Team Avatar and fight for a better world. Now, in The Rift, that story comes full circle when Toph reconnects with her father, Lao Beifong, after the events of the original series. The story delves into their strained connection, as Lao struggles with both regret and anger over Toph leaving. The situation becomes even more complicated when a powerful spirit named General Old Iron attacks Lao’s factory in Cranefish Town. The Rift is a deeply emotional story with a strong message about the environment, and it also reveals the origins of an important location from Avatar: The Legend of Korra.

2) The Promise

I watched as the world continued to change right after the end of the Hundred-Year War. The story, The Promise, really dives into what happens next, especially as Fire Lord Zuko tries to undo the Fire Nation’s colonization of the Earth Kingdom. It’s complicated, though, because generations of Fire Nation colonists and Earth Kingdom natives had families together. Many Earthbenders actually considered themselves Fire Nation citizens and didn’t want to be separated from their loved ones. We also see what the main characters are up to – Toph starting her metalbending school, Aang figuring out what it means to be the Avatar, and Zuko worried about repeating his father’s mistakes. The Promise made it clear that even after a big ending, there’s always a new beginning for everyone involved.

1) The Search

After the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender, many fans wondered what happened to Zuko’s mother, Ursa, who disappeared when he was young. Now, The Search finally reveals her story. The graphic novel follows Team Avatar and Azula as they investigate Ursa’s past, uncovering why she left and where she went. It’s a moving story that adds a surprising new layer to Zuko’s complicated family, and its emotional impact will be felt in future comics. Like the best Avatar comics, The Search provides satisfying answers to old questions while also opening up possibilities for new adventures.

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2026-01-18 22:15