The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars

The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars
The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars, Part One cover
Date	July 26, 2017 (Part One) January 17, 2018 (Part Two) June 13, 2018 (Part Three)
Publisher	Dark Horse Comics
Creative team
Writers	Michael Dante DiMartino
Artists	Irene Koh
Letterers	Nate Piekos
Colourists	Vivian Ng
Creators	Michael Dante DiMartino Bryan Konietzko
Chronology
Preceded by	The Legend of Korra (TV series)

The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars is the first graphic novel trilogy created as a continuation of The Legend of Korra television series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.

Written by Michael Dante DiMartino with art by Irene Koh, Turf Wars follows the events of "The Last Stand", the final episode of the television series, beginning with Korra and Asami on holiday in the spirit world.

Publication history

The series was originally announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2015. Later that same year, Brittney Williams was announced as the artist for the series, showing some of her concept art along with the announcement. When Williams dropped out of the project, a new artist was brought on board, Irene Koh, a bisexual Asian martial artist just like Korra herself.

Plot

Part One

Korra and Asami, now a couple, are forced to cut their spirit world holiday short after their supplies are lost in an altercation with a giant rock spirit, who resents Korra for her accidental creation of a new portal between the physical and spirit worlds following her final battle with Kuvira. The pair travel to the Southern Water Tribe to come out to Korra's parents, Tonraq and Senna, both of whom are happy and supportive upon hearing the news, though they warn Korra to be wary of sharing it with others, as the rest of the world may not be as accepting of a same-sex relationship. Upset upon hearing this, Korra angrily storms out, though she later comes to an understanding on the subject after a talk with Asami.

The couple return to Republic City to discover that Wonyong Keum, a property developer who owns the land around the new spirit portal, is planning to turn it into an amusement park and offer tours of the spirit world, despite opposition from the Air Nomads and the spirits. A dragon eel spirit urges Korra to close the portal to prevent its exploitation, but Korra refuses, believing that the spiritual energy flowing in from the portal will ultimately benefit the people of Republic City. The dragon eel spirit reluctantly accepts her decision, but holds her responsible for keeping the portal safe. Korra then intimidates Keum into leaving by going into the Avatar State. Meanwhile, Lin Beifong, Mako and Bolin - who now works in the Republic City Police alongside his brother - learn that a man called Tokuga has taken over the Triple Threat Triad, one of Republic City's major crime syndicates, and started forcibly recruiting other criminals into it.

The next day, Korra and Asami attempt to help out the many people left homeless by Kuvira's attack, but have trouble working with President Raiko, who is more concerned with winning the upcoming presidential election. That evening, the couple talk with Tenzin’s older sister Kya, who is also attracted to women, about attitudes towards same-sex relationships across the world. After learning that Avatar Kyoshi, another bisexual Avatar, was unable to find acceptance in her native Earth Kingdom, Korra expresses reluctance about revealing her relationship further, though Asami assures her that attitudes have changed since then, and Kya tells her that she will know when to share the news.

Tokuga later leads an attack on the spirit portal on Keum's orders, aiming to drive away the Air Nomads and prevent them interfering with Keum's plans. Korra, Asami, Mako and Bolin show up to reinforce the Air Nomads, and a group of spirits also come through the portal to drive off the Triple Threats, with the dragon eel spirit accusing Korra of failing to protect the portal. Korra tries to convince the spirits to stay out of the battle, fearful that their participation will only increase tensions between humans and spirits, but is distracted when Asami is nearly killed in the fighting, allowing the dragon-eel spirit to wound Tokuga, mutating him into a spirit-human hybrid and forcing him to call a retreat. He mistakenly assumes that Korra deliberately summoned the spirits and ordered one to attack him.

In the aftermath of the battle, Korra kisses Asami out of relief at finding her alive and unhurt, leading to Mako, Bolin, Jinora and Opal discovering their relationship. All four of them accept it (though Mako feels slightly uncomfortable) and Korra correctly guesses Keum's role as mastermind in the attack. Elsewhere, a furious Tokuga confronts Keum over not being warned about the Avatar's arrival before overpowering Keum (revealing his face to be physically disfigured by the dragon-eel spirit) and stating that he will be taking control of all the property developer's assets from now on.

Homosexual relationships in the Avatar Universe

The two animated series never overtly described how same-sex (LGBT) relationships are viewed in their fictional world setting. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, co-creator DiMartino and artist Koh explained that when the Korra/Asami relationship was introduced at the very end of the second animated series, the status of such relationships was left somewhat ambiguous - with some assuming that it was viewed no differently than a heterosexual relationship. In the first volume of the comic, however, instead of showing an idealized world in which this isn't an issue, they decided to explain that there is actually bias against same-sex relationships in the world of Avatar. A major reason behind the choice is that the creative team wanted to have Korra dealing with the same kind of issues and biases that readers of the comic might face. As Koh said, "There’s a lot of potency to seeing loved, powerful characters like Korra and Asami dealing with the same struggles I (and other queer people) face." DiMartino also explained how he approached the previously never addressed issue of how homosexual relationships are viewed in this fictional world: DiMartino said: "This was a tough one, to be honest. I didn’t want to bog down the story with a lengthy history lesson, but it was important to address how LGBTQ individuals were treated in the general context of the Avatar universe. Bryan and I thought the best approach was to view LGBTQ representation through the lens of the different cultures. Admittedly, the background I wrote in Turf Wars volume 1 is brief, but I think it provides a context to LGBTQ history in the Avatar world, which could be expanded upon in the future."

Reception

Book one holds an average rating of 9.6 by two professional critic on the review aggregation website Comic Book Roundup. The series was ranked number 15 on io9's top 15 comics of 2017. It was also named the "Best All-Ages Comic" of 2017 by Entertainment Weekly.