I don't usually read comic books, but I recently discovered the ATLA series (the TV show) which I watched (for the first time, unfortunately, at my 28 years since I'd missed it when I was a kid) and rewatched immediately and completely fell in love with it! I have to admit I was quite reluctant with it at first. Starting a kid's show at my age without having watched it ever before as a kid (which meant I had no nostalgic feelings about it) and especially one that is animated felt a bit weird. I thought it was something I'd grown out of. Turns out that couldn't be further from the truth! The thing that finally convinced me to give this series a try was the numerous positive comments I'd heard about it. Having now watched it I can absolutely understand what the hype is all about and it is justified! I loved it more than I thought, but I probably shouldn't go on about the show, the post after all is about this comic book which was also the first comic book I ever read.
I used to avoid comic books and they were not my first choice, but after falling in love with the ATLA universe, I wanted to stay in it a bit longer. I couldn't leave this world I had to know more about it and about the story and the characters, so I couldn't help but immediately start reading the comic books! "The Lost Adventures" takes place at the same time as the show and it's kind of like "deleted scenes" from in between the actual episodes.
Some of the stories are shorter, some are longer, some are cute and funny additions, some others are interesting and feel like they really belong in the story, they complete and complement the plot and explore the characters more. The book is divided into three parts, each part containing scenes that belong to each one of the Three Books (or three seasons) respectively. The art varies from story to story and while it is quite different (and sometimes I didn't love it as much), it pretty much consistently maintains a good quality throughout the book.
Some of the shorter stories feel like they could be scenes within the already existing episodes while some of the longer ones feel like they could be separate episodes themselves. The stories from Book 1 were my least favorite, even though they were cute and fun. I enjoyed half of the stories from Book 2 and most of the stories from Book 3. Just like in the show were Seasons 2 and even more Season 3 were my favorites! Especially the stories that belonged in Book 3 felt like they should have been in the show and they would have been great additions. Some of my favorites being:
- "Sleepbending" (Book 2)
- "Sokka the Avatar" (Book 2)
- "Going home again" (Book 2)
- "Private Fire" (Book 3)
- "Swordbending" (Book 3)
- "No benders allowed" (Book 3)
- "Dragon Days" (Book 3)
This comic book is a nice continuation of the story after finishing the show. You get to stay in this amazing world and learn more about it, you may not get further in the overall storyline, but I feel you should really read it before going on with the rest of the books. It feels like a great start for the comic books of the series. I really liked it, but gave it 3* only because I feel that the rest of the comic books will be even better and I'll have to give them a higher rating.
I really enjoyed it very much and I'm definitely going to read the rest of the comic books soon!!! I'm really curious to find out what happens next and I really can't believe what I've been missing all this time!!!
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