You may remember this title from a similar post I did about The Promise Part 3 where I previewed the book and talked about why it is an exciting release. People seemed to enjoy that post so I thought I would do it again for The Search Part 1 which is released in just 1 week on March 20th in comic stores (April 2nd from Book stores and Amazon). I will of course have a review out on Wednesday assuming I can get the book, otherwise I will have it up as soon as I can read it. The aim of this post is to explain why I believe The Search is a major and important Avatar release, but mainly to increase excitement about it. I will go through the various reasons why I feel this should be a great book.

1/ This Book is the biggest thing in the Avatar Fandom since The Promise Part 3 came out.

I think it says a lot about the state of the fandom right now that my initial attempt to type out this headline read "This release is the biggest thing in the Avatar Fandom since Korra Book 1 finished". Then I remembered that The Promise Part 3 actually came out post Korra book 1, we all thought it would be the book that keeps us going in our wait for more Korra. I never expected we would reach The Search Part 1's release with no extra knowledge about when Korra Book 2 is coming. This all means that The Search Part 1 is something for us as fans to focus on and distract ourselves from the wait for Korra. There is not much going on in terms of news right now, so why not check out the newest Avatar comic next Wednesday, it beats just sitting there waiting for Korra.

2/ The Search is for Ursa

I think if you asked the whole fandom what the biggest ATLA mystery is you would get 1 response: What happened to Ursa, Zuko's Mother ? Since 321 aired in mid 2008 it has been the biggest open plot point in all of Avatar, Toph's relationship with her parents and Iroh's past the only things coming even close. With this series the question is at last being addressed. Zuko at the end of The Promise is putting all of his effort into the search for his mother, he needs to have a resolution about it before he can get on with his life. We know from the preview and other panels from Part 1 we have seen that the book will delve into Ursa's history, how she came to be married to Ozai and so on. How much of her history we will get in Part 1 is unknown, but we will for sure get a start on it here. For me that is fascinating, even more than just possibly getting an answer about where she is now, we are going to really get to know who Ursa is outside of being Zuko's mom. Given how much every Avatar fan out there has talked about this topic, how can you not get this book ? This is what we have all been waiting for.

3/ How are you Azula?

Ursa by herself would be enough to interest most fans, but The Search is also going to reintroduce us to Azula post mental breakdown in 321. How is she now after a year in a mental institution ? Does she, like Zuko, also want to see her mother again and resolve the issues they had when Azula was younger ? Will she hinder or aid the search ? These are the sorts of questions that will undoubtedly be explored with Azula in a main role for this series. She has always been a fan favourite character, so how she is done in these comics is going to be huge. I am very interested in seeing what she is like, as you always wonder with her - How much of who she was was naturally who she was and how much was it her being raised almost alone by Ozai ? Can Azula be redeemed or is she still working for Ozai. So many questions that make her such a fascinating factor in these books. Lets now look at Azula in a different light, moving away from her own feelings, how do the other main character feel about her? All of them have very good reasons to hate her and not want her joining the search. She killed Aang once which affects Aang and Katara, Katara herself was nearly killed by her, she captured and imprisoned Sokka's girlfriend and also tried to kill him, she insulted Toph (Never a good thing to do) and of course has done everything in her power to bring Zuko down from trying to capture Aang to beat him and just plain kill him. So she is in a bad position with almost everyone she will meet, she is not going to get far if she reverts back to her usual ways. Meaning she will either have to prove she sincerely wants to find her mother or act well enough to make everyone believe her. All in all just as interesting as Ursa in my opinion.

4/ Getting to see some new places

From the preview we know that Zuko has been searching himself for Ursa by sending his men all over the place with no sign of her. Until Azula's meeting with Ozai reveals the place where Ursa was born, Hira'a. This means that we will more than likely get to visit some very new places in the Avatar world on the search for Ursa. How did Zuko not know that his mother was from Hira'a ? Adding to the Avatar World map is always great universe building and with Team Gurihiru doing the art once again the new areas are sure to impress.

Final Thoughts

The Search appears to be a more focused series than The Promise, in that we know the focus will remain on the group searching for Ursa with some flashbacks along the way. This should lead to some great character moments with a group together for long periods of time. The highlights that I am sure everyone is waiting for this book for are of course Ursa and Azula. This in itself is something The Promise never had, huge things we as fans were waiting for, The Search has 2 of the biggest things fans have waited for in Ursa and Azula. As I said earlier in the post, what is not to be excited for ? Expect my review of The Search Part 1 to be up on the site this day next week (Assuming I can get a copy on Wednesday) and a podcast discussion of the book next Sunday. I will end with this. With no Korra news expected soon, lets all get excited about The Search Part 1. Head out to your local comic store and pick up a copy if you can, show Dark Horse that you love Avatar comics and show Nick how well Avatar merchandise sells. This is the perfect thing to keep you occupied for a while as the wait for Book 2 approaches 9 months. You can find where your local comic store is here:  http://www.comicshoplocator.com/ The 7 Page preview of The Search Part 1 can be found here:  http://avatarthelastairbenderonline.com/the-search-part-1-preview/ Also on March 21st I will be interviewing Gene Luen Yang, writer of The Promise and The Search series for the podcast. You can suggest questions for me to ask, by commenting below.