It’s been almost 20 years since Avatar: The Last Airbender premiered, and the franchise is bigger than ever. Live action and animated projects are in development, and nd fortunately, TV isn’t the only way to experience it.

While the original series ended in 2008, starting in 2012, Avatar: The Last Airbender has continued its story through comic books on a near-yearly basis; many of them are just one-off stories, but in most cases, ’s comics are the most direct continuation of the adventures of everyone from the original series. Any fan of Airbender would be remiss to them up, and there’s a perfect order to read those books, as well.

Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Main Comics In Order

The Promise

2012’s Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise is the first of five trilogies written by Gene Luen Yang. The Promise picks up after the end of the Hundred-Year War with everyone trying to find the best way to right the wrongs of the Fire Nation. Tensions rise over how to best handle the Fire Nation colonies, however, and as things begin to escalate into another war, Aang has to grapple with his promise to kill Zuko if he ever showed signs of becoming like Ozai.

The Search

The Search is the second of Gene Luen Yang’s Avatar: The Last Airbender trilogies, released in 2013. After the events of The Promise, Zuko finally decided to search for his mother, Ursa, forcing him and the rest of Team Avatar to team up with a deranged Azula, the only one who knows where to find her. The quest for Ursa is inter-spliced with flashbacks to Ursa’s life to show how she got involved with Ozai and what she was doing during Zuko’s childhood, and sure enough, The Search does ultimately reveal what happened to Zuko’s mother by its finale.

The Rift

In 2014’s The Rift, Aang tries to celebrate an Air Nomad holiday with his friends, but meets resistance from Toph, as the traditional values of the celebration remind Toph of how strict her parents were. Coincidentally, Team Avatar discovers that Toph’s father is leading a mining operation destroying the ecosystem of the island they’re celebrating the Air Nomad holiday on, and as Toph tries to get closure with her father, Aang tries to stop the mining operation from unearthing one of Yangchen’s biggest mistakes.

Smoke And Shadow

2015’s Smoke and Shadow is the fourth Avatar: The Last Airbender trilogy, the first part taking place concurrently with The Rift. Zuko’s plans to spend time with his mother and his new sister are cut short by the New Ozai Society, a political movement led by Mai’s father seeking to put Ozai back on the throne by any means necessary. At the center of everything, however, are the Kemurikage, a mysterious group of spirits kidnapping Fire Nation children, and while they’re tied to Zuko’s position as Fire Lord, it’s not in the way anyone would have guessed.

North And South

2016’s North and South is the last Avatar: The Last Airbender comic to be written by Gene Luen Yang. Sokka and Katara finally return to the Southern Water Tribe to find it completely changed thanks to the aid of both the Northern Water Tribe, and while Sokka is ecstatic about everything, Katara is more decidedly mixed, especially as it leads to unexpected changes with their father. The rest of the tribe is also divided on the changes, and sure enough, Team Avatar has to stop a potential civil war between the Northern and Southern Water Tribes.

Imbalance

2018’s Imbalance is the first series of comics written by Faith Erin Hicks, who has since taken over writing duties for all major Avatar: The Last Airbender comics. As the factory from The Rift has grown to the point of a town being built around it, tensions have gotten high as benders protest out of fear of losing their jobs to nonbenders, and when the ringleader behind it all proves to not be someone whom Aang can just beat up to end the conflict, Aang is forced to grapple with one of his biggest moral quandaries since the original show.

Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Standalone Comics

Katara And The Pirate’s Silver

2020’s Katara and the Pirate’s Silver is the first standalone Avatar: The Last Airbender comic and the first installment in what would later be known as the Team Avatar Treasury. Taking place sometime during Book 2, Katara is taken in by a group of pirates after a battle with the Fire Nation separates her from Team Avatar, and as Katara is thrown out of her comfort zone, she has to find her tough side to survive her new group as she finds her way back to her friends.

Toph Beifong’s Metalbending Academy

2021’s Toph Beifong’s Metalbending Academy is the second installment in the Team Avatar Treasury. While Toph’s metalbending academy is bigger than ever, that success has forced Toph into a life of repetitive mundanity that forces her to question what she should be doing with her life. A secret underground bending tournament ends up helping give Toph the answers she needed, but it’s in a way no one would have expected, both in-universe and out.

Suki, Alone

Suki, Alone is the final installment in the Team Avatar Treasury, released shortly after Toph Beifong’s Metalbending Academy. The story parallels the iconic Book 2 episode “Zuko Alone” as a solo story starring Suki that explores her past to further develop her character amid her current troubles, specifically in how Suki, Alone shows what Suki was doing at the Boiling Rock before Sokka and Zuko went there and rescued her and Hakoda.

Azula In The Spirit Temple

2023’s Azula in the Spirit Temple takes place sometime after Smoke and Shadow and sees Azula once again alone after a failed insurrection against the Fire Nation. Now at a crossroads, Azula ends up at a spirit temple that forces her to confront her past and her various shortcomings to force her to change her ways, but as one would expect, that’s not an easy thing for someone like Azula.

The Bounty Hunter And The Tea Brewer

2024’s The Bounty Hunter and the Tea Brewer is the most recent standalone comic and is focused on Iroh and June, the bounty hunter from Book 1. As Iroh investigates a shortage of deliveries to the Jasmine Dragon, he finds himself captured by June for a bounty from a mysterious benefactor, and as Iroh is dragged across the Earth Kingdom, Iroh tries to convince June to change her ways while simultaneously confronting his past as the Dragon of the West.

Other Avatar Comics Fans Should Read

Beyond the major comics, fans can also read The Lost Adventures and Team Avatar Tales, anthology stories that are mostly canon, and The Legend of Korra has its own collection of comics for people to read, whether it’s Turf Wars and Ruins of the Empire or the anthology collection Patterns in Time. Both Airbender and Korra will also release new comics in 2025, Ashes of the Academy for Airbendender and Mystery of Penquan Island for Korra, so it’s safe to say there will be plenty of Avatar: The Last Airbender comics for years to come.