The Last Airbender Prequel: Zuko's Story
Creative
Story by Dave Roman Alison Wilqus
Art by Nina Matsumoto
Publication
Publisher Del Rey
Date of publication May 18, 2010

Zuko's Story is a manga/graphic novel written by Dave Roman and Alison Wilgus and drawn by Nina Mastumoto. It is set before the events of The Last Airbender and centers around the character of Zuko immediately following his banishment. In interviews, the authors have described it as having been written as a prequel to the series, with only the superficial trappings of film canon.^[source?]

Plot Edit

An hour after the Agni Kai with Ozai, Prince Zuko wakes up in an infirmary. The manga starts with him running to his room, chased by Iroh. He dreams about the Agni Kai, crying violently, when he hears a knock on the door, who he thinks is Ozai, but is actually his eleven year old sister, Azula, who has come to taunt him about his banishment. Through later events, she gets Zuko a ship, a crew, and convinces Iroh to come along. He scours the Western Air Temple, and visits Fire Sage Shyu, looking for information on the Avatar. In the colonies, a man in a red mask (the Red Spirit) steals from him, later teaching him to rely on swords rather than firebending to become the Blue Spirit. Then, Zuko goes to the Eastern Air Temple, and mistakes Pathik for the Avatar, due to his age. After a fight, Zuko demands Pathik to airbend, but winds up finding him not to be the Avatar. That night, Avatar Yangchen gives Pathik a vision of Zuko and the Avatar together, facing the world. Three years have passed since his journey began, he has been becoming a good guy. However, as he sees a light come from a distant iceberg in the South Pole, the evil presence returns to him. He smiles and says, "Finally...".

Series continuity Edit

• Iroh is shown to stop to pick every Jasmine tea leaf he sees. This involves his love for it.
• Mai and Ty Lee are seen behind Azula and Zhao when Zuko is banished.
• Zuko becomes the Blue Spirit for the first time, inspired by the Red Spirit.
• Pathik's vision is the scene from "Sozin's Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang". In the vision, Aang and Zuko are seen as Avatar and Fire Lord at Zuko's coronation.
• The end is a scene from "The Boy in the Iceberg".
• The book foreshadows many other scenes from Books 1, 2 and 3.
• Agni Kai is spelled as "Agni Ki" in this manga. Though in the original sketches by Nina Matsumoto she spelt it "Agni Kai." This change matches the pronunciation in the movie.
• The Blue Spirit mask is suggested to be an off-the-shelf mask, explaining how easily Zuko found a replacement in "The Swamp".

Triva Edit

Dave Roman and Alison Wilgus also wrote The Last Airbender (manga), but the artist was Joon Choi.