The Bounty Hunter and the Tea Brewer
(Avatar: The Last Airbender Comics #9)
by
Faith Erin Hicks (Author), Peter Wartman (Illustrator), Adele Matera (Illustrator) with Brian Konietzko & Michael Dante DiMartino (creators and consultants),
A standalone entry in the ongoing comics released in the Avatar:TLA franchise, this book stars one of my favourite characters and one of the more fun villains in a very unexpected team-up (of sorts).
Iroh, a.k.a., Uncle Iroh, a.k.a, The Dragon of the West, is one of the most powerful and formidable fire-benders in the world and after the end of the 100 year war, he fulfilled his dream of opening a Tea Shop and he did it in the city of Ba Sing Se – a city that years before he had laid siege to as the General leading the armies of the Fire Nation. He seems to have made a nice life for himself and been (mostly) accepted by the community until one fateful day when the bounty hunter June reappears. During the events of the animated series, she had been hired by Irohs’ nephew Zuko to hunt down The Avatar; now however her latest job brings her in opposition to Iroh as he is her target.
The artwork is exactly what you want and expect it to be as the visuals are – like most all the comics in this line – very strongly in keeping with the animation of the shows, but credit to the art team for getting the little moments right, certain expressions and the like. They even make time for panels of just a visual moment to convey things like Iroh making a face or a solemn thoughtful moment and manage to convey it well.
The story is the real winner for me though. It is simple and yet strong in execution: Iroh is in a position to face his past and what he has done and consider what that means for the person he is now and what atonement means to him; on the other side we have June who has been a Bounty Hunter her whole life but with the war ending, as she says, peace is not good for her line of work – meaning she now has to consider what her future is going to be as options are limited and she needs to face the perhaps harsh and limited choices before her. The choice to use her here feels very justified and a nice exploration of her backstory as well, instead of just pulling a Boba-Fett and pandering to fans by using a familiar/popular character. She has history with Iroh and was intriguing and the space she is given here and narrative written for her makes sense.
There is a healthy amount of action interspersed over the course of the story but they do a really good job keeping the heart of things focussed on the two main characters. Their interactions over the journey to the delivery location and some of the internal reflections make this a deeper and more intimate story and perhaps a nice change from the spirit-world, politics and bigger stakes stories that are often told in the comics – in fact it is a nice reflection of the balance the shows tried to maintain by bouncing between the bigger and smaller pictures.
Excellent entry in the series and a quick and accessible read, even if you’re not deeply versed in the franchise and if you are a fan, I think you’ll love it.
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