Dark Horse recently released a new graphic novel for fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender titled Toph Beifong’s Metalbending Academy. The story is written by Faith Erin Hicks, illustrated by Peter Wartman, and colored by Adele Matera. The story takes place after The Rift Part Three for those familiar with the other graphic novels or after the original show at an undisclosed time frame for those not. This is a standalone story, so you don’t need to read anything else to know what’s going on. Dark Horse were kind enough to provide me with a copy of the graphic novel to review, and I’ve got some thoughts. You can purchase your copy now through your local comic shops, book shops, Amazon, Dark Horse, or even comiXology (affiliate link).
Things are looking bright at the Beifong Metalbending Academy! But after all the adventures Toph’s had with Aang, Sokka, Zuko, and Katara, the whole thing feels a bit dull. Luckily, Sokka and Suki come to visit and reintroduce some familiar faces from their wandering days. And while out and about to celebrate, Toph discovers something that just might put the sparkle back in her eye…
I’m not going to sugarcoat this. I did not like Toph Beifong’s Metalbending Academy very much. There were some things that I did like such as the appearances of Toph, Sokka, Suki, and Trustfully In Love (the musicians who sing “Secret Tunnel”). The color work by Matera is also very well done.
Unfortunately, the story just feels like a bad filler episode. I don’t want to spoil anything and will try my best not to, but I’m pretty sure that there are about 10 or so pages that lend absolutely nothing to the story. Sokka and Suki are in the graphic novel, but there’s not really any point to them being in it to begin with. There’s a secondary story as well revolving around Toph’s top three students, but it just feels tacked on. Don’t get me wrong, the start of this part of the story does feel fairly natural, but it doesn’t really lead anywhere.
Now let’s talk about something that bothers me the most about this graphic novel that gets a tiny bit spoilery. Toph becomes interested in finding a young person with a unique ability. That ability is lavabending. This is a cool technique that most fans didn’t really pay attention to until the third season of The Legend of Korra. When it happened, it seemed like such an unknown part of bending. Now, this didn’t go over well with me, not necessarily because of a canonical reason (and if someone can prove one way or the other that’d be great), but because I feel like lavabending would’ve been more commonly known about by the time of Korra if one of Toph Beifong’s students was a lavabender. I don’t think this is an incredible leap in logic, but maybe I’m just being too nitpicky here.
As I mentioned before, the story for the graphic novel just isn’t great. If it were an episode of the show it would be a bad filler. I do want to applaud the fact that the motivations and some of the actual dialogue do feel like the characters we’ve come to love, the story itself just feels pointless. The artwork is pretty good and the colors are great though.
